I just thought ...

Who do you say I am? A question with consequences

2011-08-22T10:48:00.007+01:00

Romans 12 1-8 Matthew 16 13-20

When I can, I rather like to watch the BBC TV programme “Who Do You Think You Are?” You probably know that it’s a programme where well-known people are helped to look into their family history. It often has surprises in it, not least that people you don’t know, or aren’t specially interested in, can turn out to have the most fascinating stories. How often do we find that in life? – There’s more to someone than meets the eye?

I knew I would be interested in this week’s subject, J K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. But last series, I found a quite unexpected interest in the gardener, Monty Don. Well, you probably know that I have no interest at all in gardening!

It turned out that Monty Don was related to someone who had been Vicar of our home church – someone whose portrait we had seen countless times in the church. And there was our friend, the current Vicar, on TV talking about it all! Who would have thought it?! (Actually, it came as quite a surprise to Monty Don too!)

Of course, when Jesus questions his disciples in our passage from Matthew’s gospel, he turns the question around: not “Who do you think you are?”, but

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16 13b GNB)

The disciples come back with a variety of answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or some other prophet. People differ on exactly who Jesus is, but the general opinion is clear – he is in the tradition of the prophets of old; those who have interpreted God to his people, and, on occasion, pleaded with God on their behalf.

But Jesus is interested in more than just the consensus view. Away from the public gaze, he probes his followers still further:

“What about you? … Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16 15)

And Peter, never backwards in coming forwards, has the answer:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16 16)

We have reached a turning point.

It may not yet be for general consumption, but the disciples now know beyond doubt who Jesus is. They are soon to begin to discover what it means that Jesus is the Messiah. And things are different – radically different – from what they expected when the Messiah came.

That question: “What about you? … Who do you say I am?” is the point around which everything turns: the key question.

• It was so for the disciples;
• it has been for every generation since –
• and it is for us today.

Jesus asks us

“What about you? … Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16 15)

Are we admirers of Jesus or are we followers?”

It’s possible to respect and admire Jesus, and that’s a perfectly appropriate reaction – but it doesn’t quite fit in with who Jesus is.

Once we begin to understand just who Jesus is – the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the one who is both God and human, come to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father – then mere admiration is not enough. Our lives are changed.

Saint Paul saw this plainly. He realised Jesus is exactly who Peter said he is.

And the implications of this amazing fact were quite clear.

Paul was not just an admirer, he was a follower of Jesus.

The answer to Jesus’ question – the realisation of who Jesus is – changed Paul’s life utterly. He dedicated his life to helping others to understand who Jesus is, and helping them to take on board the implications of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection.

As we heard, he wrote to the Romans

“So then, my brothers and sisters, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him.” (Romans 12 v1)

Those words are very familiar to us. We often use them towards the end of a Communion service, appropriately enough as a response to our sharing in the Eucharist. It’s good to be reminded of them regularly, because recognising Jesus, dedicating ourselves to serve God in this way, is not just a sudden realisation, not just a one-off decision – it is the work of a lifetime.

Moments after Peter made his wonderful declaration about Jesus, he was “in the doghouse” – showing by his reaction to Jesus’ words about his suffering and death that he still had a lot to learn about the Messiah and his mission. And so it is for each one of us.

We respond with joy to the realisation of who Jesus is, but our understanding and our faithful response develop over time – over a lifetime.

It’s telling that the original Greek verbs in the next verse of Romans 12 reflect this. The instructions are in the continuous imperative – go on being transformed . Paul says

“Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.” (Romans 12 v2)

This transformation is a process of growth – continuous growth brought about by God. We are none of us the finished article. In the jargon I used to hear in Further Education, we are all “Lifelong Learners”!

So, if we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, then we have to make a response. Recognising our Lord, our lives are changed,

• as day by day we offer ourselves in service to God,
• and as we allow God to transform us into the people he calls us to be.

We serve God in humility – how could it be otherwise? – but we serve him, too, trusting in his grace and love for us.

We serve as part of the body of Christ, using our God-given gifts, in the church and in the wider world.

And as we serve together, then God’s will and purpose is revealed, is fulfilled – that which “is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.”

Maybe that sounds like a tall order? I’m sure it did to those who first heard Paul’s words, living at the very heart of the Roman Empire which cruelly oppressed the fledgling Church.

• But the miracle is that, in us, just as much as he was in them, God is at work.

• God has promised to transform us, and to transform his world.

• And all this flows from the answer to one question:

“What about you?” [Jesus] asked … “Who do you say I am?”

Lent and Living in the moment with God

2011-03-27T16:48:00.007+01:00

Sunday 20 March 2011
Lent and Living in the moment with God
John 3 1-17; Psalm 121

Lent can be a difficult time – I know that I have said that before, because I feel the same way every year.

I remember reading something recently about the importance of living in the moment – of not being so caught up with our worries and concerns that we miss out on the life we are living right now.

I can’t remember precisely where I read that, but it obviously made an impression on me. I remembered it the other day as I was walking into town and saw some children playing on the slide in the playground.

Even before I saw them, I could hear them! One little boy was enjoying himself so much that he let out a long, loud, uncontrollable belly-laugh – it was lovely to hear!

That little boy was living in the moment. He was relishing the joy of playing with his friends, experiencing the physical pleasure of speeding down the slide. He wasn’t worrying about what he was going to have for lunch – or even about how rough his landing might be!

Well, of course, that’s how it is when you’re little.

• Mum or Dad will provide lunch, and you probably haven’t realised yet that life has its share of rough landings.

• You certainly don’t watch the news and take in the horrors of what’s happening in Japan, or Libya, or so many other places.

• You haven’t yet formed the difficult questions in your mind, let alone got round to asking God about them.

Our readings tell us that following God, understanding him and his world, is not easy or straightforward.

Nicodemus was no fool, but he couldn’t grasp what Jesus was talking about. All of us hear the words of Psalm 121, and we wonder.

“The LORD will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.” (Ps 121 7,8)

The evidence for that promise around the world isn’t very strong at the moment.

The liturgy we used on Ash Wednesday gave us some suggestions as to how and why we might keep Lent.

• It spoke of repentance and the assurance of God’s forgiveness;
• of growing in faith and devotion to our Lord.

And it included this reminder of our absolute reliance on God:

“God our Father,
you create us from the dust of the earth:
grant that these ashes may be for us
a sign of our penitence
and a symbol of our mortality;
for it is by your grace alone
that we receive eternal life.”

Lent is a reminder of our sins and shortcomings, a reminder of our mortality – and also a reminder of the promise of immortality which we receive by God’s grace.

Sometimes we need to be able to lift up our eyes to the hills. (Not difficult to do as you walk into town, even before you hear the children playing!)

We need the perspective that Lent brings – both the challenge and the reassurance of being God’s people.

• Yes, we often fail and fall short – but there is glory in the midst of it all.

• Yes, living in relationship with God can be difficult – but God loves us. He created us and blesses us in so many ways.

Dr Maggi Dawn is an Anglican priest who is about to move to a new post. She doesn’t know yet where it will be, but knows that this year holds much uncertainty, both for her and her son. And she is looking at this uncertainty through the prism of this season of Lent.

She writes this:

“I give thanks for health and strength, for my beautiful son, and for my fine friends. I stare down the threat of uncertainty and insist, instead, that it is an adventure. But at the end of every day there is an acute sense that we are but dust; that life is short and is running through our fingers.

It matters to do more than survive. Life needs to be lived, not just endured.

So this Lent I shall not be giving up chocolate, but instead I shall be actively, daily,

• giving up the dark tunnels of worry and fear,
• giving up an over-burdening sense of responsibility,
• giving up working overtime,
• giving up the bruising anger and resentment that I am entitled to.

Instead I shall be living … deliberately one day at a time, finding every day

• something to enjoy,
• someone to celebrate,
• and something to laugh about.

It feels like Friday already. But Sunday is coming. I know it is.”

[My emphases].

When I read those words, I knew that for me, this year, Lent could be different! I had found some positive disciplines to offset the negativity I so often feel in this season.

We may not be facing the sort of change that Maggi is this year,

but we all face life’s challenges, and we all live in an uncertain and disturbing world.

In the midst of it all, it’s good to remember that we live in this world with God, and that we can lift up our eyes – take time to recall God’s presence with us, God’s love for us.

We can take time to find everyday

• something to enjoy
• someone to celebrate
• something to laugh about.

We can take time to live in the moment with God.

See Maggi Dawn: Ashes to Ashes

Jesus breaks down barriers

2011-03-27T16:25:00.007+01:00

27 March 2011

Jesus breaks down barriers
John 4 5-42

It occurs to me that reading the Bible is like watching American Football.

[OK, I’m not sure how this analogy is going to work – but stick with me!]

I’ve been watching American Football for quite a while now, and I think that I understand a lot about the game and what’s going on.

• I know the difference between a touch-down and a touch-back;
• I can tell a Nose Tackle from an Offensive Tackle,
• a Full Back from a Tight End.

• I even know that a “Hail Mary” in football is different from a “Hail Mary” in church – although not that different: they both involve praying!

But sometimes during a game, something happens that I really don’t understand. (I am English, after all!)

Fortunately, because of the wonders of the Internet, I’m in touch with quite a few fans of my team – the Green Bay Packers [by the way, did I mention that we won the Superbowl this year?!]

These are fans who know all there is to know about the team, and who have grown up watching and playing the game. If there’s anything I need to know, they can explain it to me!

• You see, sometimes, however much you think you know, the only way to fully understand something is to be part of the culture.

• And that’s where our gospel reading this morning comes in: the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.

It’s a remarkable story, but it needed footnotes even at the time it was first written down. The writer explains in v 9 that “Jews do not associate with Samaritans”.

That, as they say, is an understatement!

By Jesus’ time, and for hundreds of years before, there was an intense, historic hatred between Jews and Samaritans. We can’t really understand what Jesus was doing – unless we realise that.

In fact, you have to have grown up in the culture to appreciate the power of what was happening. We like to joke a bit about the rivalry between Yorkshire and Lancashire (at least, I think it’s a joke!) but think how things were just after the Wars of the Roses.

And more than that, Jesus was taking on another social taboo. The woman was … well … a woman!

She, herself, is astounded. She says to Jesus:

“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (Jn 4:9)

There is so much in this passage from John’s gospel, but perhaps nothing is more remarkable than the very fact that the encounter takes place at all!

The disciples certainly get the point – notice what happens when they come back.

“Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no-one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’” (Jn 4:27)

They were obviously used to Jesus doing this sort of thing – defying social convention. They may have muttered to each other “There he goes again”, but they certainly didn’t challenge him.

But there’s one more thing about this encounter which makes it even more remarkable: Jesus knows that the woman is an outcast, even among Samaritans.

She has come to the well in the heat of the day. It would have been normal for the women to gather together early in the morning, or in the cool of the evening, when the work wouldn’t have been quite so hard. But she comes to the well at noon, when she can be sure to be alone.

She was accustomed to the whispering wherever she went, having been used and discarded by so many men of the village – and this in a culture in which there was little if any privacy, and gossip spread quickly. And yet, see how Jesus treats her.

As Sarah Dylan Breuer notes:

“Jesus addresses her in the same terms as he addressed his mother [earlier in John’s gospel]. He meets a woman who couldn't be more of an outsider, and he receives her as an insider, an intimate, who has no cause for shame. He brings up her past, and her present, not to shame her, but to take away their power, … showing how little they affect how Jesus and the God he proclaims receive her.”

The living water that Jesus offers the woman, and all those who follow him, is powerful stuff! It makes possible fullness of life – a new quality of life and relationships. Where Jesus is present, barriers are broken down.

Which is all well and good in the culture of 1st century Palestine – but what about us? Jesus is present with us, today. We are his followers – what is our experience?

Well, we are no different to people anywhere at any time. We know who our friends are; we tend to relate most easily to “people like us” – I know I do!

That’s quite natural, of course: there’s a level of comfort and security in that. But we all tend to define ourselves in comparison to others who are “not like us”. And the church behaves very much like the rest of society in that respect.

I think it’s immensely sad that the church, the followers of that same Jesus who met the woman at the well, is actually known far better for keeping barriers up than for breaking them down.

• We are known for our difficulty in accepting certain people.

• We are seen as those who claim exemption from equality laws,
• who put people into different categories,
• rather than doing as Jesus did – accepting everyone as human, created and loved by God.

That’s an exaggeration, of course. I suspect that no-one is quite as they are presented in the media.

But we do need to be careful that, however good our motives might be, we don’t manage to frustrate God’s persistent, transforming love for all people – the sort of love Jesus showed that Samaritan woman, who, by rights, he shouldn’t even have been talking to.

Inclusiveness is at the heart of the new way that Jesus calls us to.

That living water, that practical, accepting love shown by Jesus transformed the woman at the well. From being an outcast, she went back into her village and started telling all and sundry about her amazing man she’d met. “Could this be the Christ?” (v29). And she brought crowds of people back with her to meet him.

That same love can transform all our relationships – transform our churches, our communities, our world.

• Jesus sees each one of us, as he saw that woman – not judging us, but understanding and accepting us;

• and he makes it possible for us to share his love with others

• whatever the barriers might be.

See Sarah Dylan Breuer's Lectionary Blog for this reading: http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/2005/02/third_sunday_in.html

and also Walter Brueggemann, Charles B Cousar, Beverly R Gaventa, James D Newsome Texts for Preaching – Year A Westminster/John Knox Press 1995 p208

A Golden Age in Sport!

2011-02-27T17:23:00.007Z

I was thinking only the other day that this is a remarkable time for those teams and individuals I follow in sport.

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club are the County Champions!

Europe has retained the Ryder Cup!

England has retained the Ashes - winning them in Australia for the first time in years!

Lee Westwood is the world's number 1 golfer!

The Green Bay Packers have won the Superbowl!

I mention this because Lee is about to lose his number 1 status - temporarily I trust - to his Ryder Cup Colleague Martin Kaymer.

But this is indeed a Golden Age! It's important to remember times like these, because it isn't always so ...

God’s Kingdom: challenge and comfort

2011-02-27T16:39:00.022Z

Sunday 27 Feb 2011
God’s Kingdom: challenge and comfort
Matthew 6 25-34; Romans 8 18-25

As you probably know, this year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. And, even for me, who came to faith largely through the Good News Bible – even for me, our reading from Matthew’s gospel echoes somewhere in my mind in the traditional words:

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Mt 6 28, 29 KJV)

Consider the lilies of the field …

And yet, the trouble is that I’m not a poet!

It’s not just the language that I find a problem – it’s the imagery too.

They are wonderful images: don’t worry about food and clothes – look around you at God’s beautiful provision. “O ye of little faith”.

But I immediately want to rationalise!

My mind says: It’s easy to say “Don’t worry” – I’m pretty well off really, especially if you consider the world’s poorest people. My mind says: It’s easy to say “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” – but the Diocese still wants it’s Parish Share: and it’s going up!

I’m not a poet.

The good news is that the Bible contains all sorts of literature and styles of writing.

• It nurtures and shapes the life of the church and of individuals.

• It presents a God whose character is revealed in Jesus, and who engages with people in many different ways.

The Bible makes clear

• what life under God’s reign looks like,
• how faithful disciples think and act,
• what priorities they set
• and what passions control them.

And much more often than not, it does this

• not by laying down rules,
• but by prodding our imaginations,
• telling stories, describing scenarios.

It does it by asking questions about life without giving direct answers.

God forces us to stop and take stock; and he does this for all of us, whether poets or not.

• He encourages us to think,
• and he makes us sensitive to the things of his Kingdom.

Nowhere is that more clearly the case than in this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

We are confronted with a series of choices:

• serving God, or pursuing wealth
• trusting God, or fretting over life’s necessities
• seeking God’s rule, or worrying about tomorrow.

One commentary on this passage offered rather helpfully

“There is little a preacher needs to say about this passage.”

And I know what it means – even if I find it difficult advice to follow!

As I said a few weeks ago about another part of the Sermon on the Mount, we need to allow the passage to speak for itself. Its images are powerful, and its challenges are clear. They give us all pause for thought – they create an opportunity for God to speak to us; to speak into our situations.

So what more do I have to offer, apart from encouraging you to go and pray and reflect on that gospel passage?

Well, one thing that struck me was a parallel between our gospel and the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Jesus tells his disciples to seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness, whilst Paul says:

“I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18 GNB)

Paul is acknowledging what is plain to all of us – that all is not as God intends it to be. And yet he is saying quite clearly that this will change – that God’s purpose (for us and for all creation) is glorious!

“That creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom 8:21 GNB)

So much that we see in the world today is less than it could be, less than it should be.

We know that a great deal of the suffering we see is caused by us, by human beings – the way we treat each other; the way we treat God’s creation.

We know too that much of the suffering we all face is beyond our control – suffering caused by decay and by death.

But we have the hope, the promise of glory.

Jesus says we are to seek first God’s Kingdom.

Yes, (in the words of Romans), we wait with patience for glory to be revealed – but our waiting is active waiting.

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to seek the Kingdom by challenging everything that is contrary to it – all that stands in the way of the fullness of life that Jesus came to bring.

We stand together with everyone who opposes injustice, who struggles against poverty, who works to bring in the values of God’s Kingdom. As we do this, we begin to glimpse glory; to see just a little of what will be when God’s Kingdom truly comes.

And we seek God’s Kingdom too in the midst of decay and death.

We cannot know or understand why life is as it is, why, as Paul said, all creation is in slavery in this way. But we have the promise that it will not always be so.

By his own death and his resurrection, Jesus has opened up for us all the way to glory. He has promised us that God’s Kingdom will come. In the midst of grief and sorrow, God gives us grace to offer, with his love and compassion, the hope and the assurance of life with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I said, I’m not a poet.

But I do thank God for the challenge and the comfort he offers us, both in the words of the Bible, and in the Living Word, his Son Jesus Christ.

• I long for my trust in God to grow, so that I may learn not to worry, and realise that he knows what I need.

• I long too to see God’s Kingdom come more and more – to glimpse the glory that is going be revealed.

May God make us sensitive to the things of his Kingdom – both now, and for all eternity.

Amen.

For some of the ideas in this sermon, see

Walter Brueggemann, Charles B Cousar, Beverly R Gaventa James D Newsome Texts for Preaching – Year A Westminster John Knox Press 1995 pps 161 ff

Bible Sunday - Scripture, Reason & Tradition

2010-10-24T15:33:00.008+01:00

Sun 24 Oct 2010 Bible Sunday
Luke 4 16-24

[A bit of a thumbnail portrait, but in the hope of encouraging people to think a little more deeply.]

I have to admit that I was really pleased when I saw our reading for today – one of the readings set for Bible Sunday. It has to be one of my very favourite Bible passages! It’s a wonderful story – the sort of story we would recognise: Jesus going to the synagogue. And in his own home town too!

• It's interesting that though the Bible was written at least 2,000 years ago – and most of it much longer ago than that – it’s still important to us; it still speaks to us; we still learn things from it.

• Interesting too that there are so many different sorts of writing in the Bible:

[History; stories (parables); rules and instructions; letters; poetry; anything else?]

All different types of writing which help us to understand God better; which describe people getting to grips with God.

I want to think a little about how we use the Bible – how we hear it “speak”.

Throughout the history of the Church of England, people have recognised three ways of understanding God (sometimes called the 3-legged-stool)

• Scripture
• Reason, and
• Tradition

Scripture – the Bible – is a very important way in which we understand God: not least, of course, because of what it tells us about Jesus, his life and teachings, his death and resurrection.

But as we’ve seen, there is a lot in the Bible. And different parts of it often say different things.

It’s worth noticing that in our story of Jesus in the synagogue,

• although as Luke says, Jesus reads from scroll of the prophet Isaiah,

• he actually reads from 2 different parts (Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 42),

• and then goes on to teach from them.

By putting these 2 passages together, Jesus described more fully what his life and work were all about. He didn’t just pick one single passage or one single quote, but used different parts of the Bible to teach truths about himself, and about God.

We all have our own favourite passages and stories in the Bible, but especially on Bible Sunday, it’s good to remember that we can always learn from reading more and hearing more of the Bible – it’s an amazing book!

The second leg of the 3-legged-stool is Reason: the God-given ability to think and reflect about things – to grow in our own understanding.

Human beings are always learning more and finding out more! Our son [A] is studying Physics and Chemistry for A-level. Now, I’ve always been interested in science – and especially about anything to do with space [I grew up during the Apollo flights to the Moon]. But I’m learning so much more now. Whenever we watch a TV programme by Stephen Hawking or Brian Cox or Jim Al-Khalili, it always finishes up with [A] getting a pen and paper and trying to explain things to me in more detail! The trouble is, I’m sure I keep on asking him the same questions!

God gave us our minds – and he expects us to use them! And just as we can discover things about the world and the universe around us, we can discover more about the Bible:

• when the different books were written,
• what kind of people they were written to,
• and the sorts of things people thought and believed about God at the time.

Sometimes we have to read things in the Bible (say for instance about slavery or women)

• remembering the way the world was at the time,
• and most of all remembering what the whole of the Bible, and what Jesus himself shows us about God and his love for all people.

And we can’t expect the Bible to say anything directly about climate change, for example, but we can notice that in the stories in the Bible about creation – which have been told and re-told for thousands of years – people very clearly understood that God wants us to take care of the earth and of all he had created.

So, we’ve talked about the Bible and about our own intelligence as ways of knowing and understanding God better. The third leg of our stool is Tradition.

By tradition we don’t mean the types of seats we have in church or even the different hymns we sing! We mean the things that the Church and Christian people have come to believe and understand over the years about God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we remember our Christian tradition, we learn from people in the past – and also from those in different Christian churches today, in our own country and throughout the world. And we learn from different traditions within the Church of England.

• We remember that, though we ourselves are part of Christian tradition – we are only a part.

• We recognise that no one person, no one church or tradition can completely understand God

• We realise that we need each other and the insights we each can bring to have the fullest possible picture of God, and of God’s purposes for his creation.

As I said at the beginning, that story of Jesus reading from Isaiah is one of my favourite stories in the whole of the Bible.

It’s so wonderful that Jesus was reading and teaching about words which have been passed down, over thousands of years, to us, today.

It’s so dramatic when they all turn to him and he says, very simply, that Isaiah was speaking about him.

But most of all, it’s truly amazing that everything Jesus teaches us about God – both in his words and in his actions – speaks of love and freedom and fullness of life.

May our Lord Jesus help us to play our part, as the message of the Bible, the message of God’s love is fulfilled.

Amen.

For Jesus’ use of Isaiah, see Sarah Dylan Breuer here.

The Costs of the UK's "wolf pack" media system

2010-10-11T19:14:00.005+01:00

A very intersting and perceptive article from the LSE's British Politics and Policy Blog

As Ed Miliband builds his new Labour front bench team without his talented and experienced older brother, Bart Cammaerts wonders if David Miliband’s purdah is just the latest cost of the UK’s strong, national media system and its personality-driven coverage of political life.

Read the full article here

Norman Wisdom and the European Parliament

2010-10-05T15:22:00.006+01:00

Sir Norman Wisdom has died. He is being described today as a "comic craftsman", and was reportedly (Sir) Charlie Chaplin's favourite clown.

I remembered a story from former MEP Richard Corbett, which tells of an unexpected moment of humour in the European Parliament:

One classic story is about a debate when a member from Normandy came up with just the right compromise at the right time. One of the French MEPs, using an old French expression, said that this was thanks to "la sagesse normande" (the wisdom of people from Normandy). The English interpretation rendered this as being "all thanks to Norman Wisdom". No one of any other nationality could quite understand why the British and Irish members were in stitches!

Faith as big as a mustard seed?

2010-10-02T17:40:00.012+01:00

This sermon is based very heavily on one by Lesley Fellows - see http://bernwodeblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/faith-size-of-mustard-seed.html

But since Lesley herself was kind enough to encourage me to blog it, here goes ...

3 Oct 2010 18th Sunday after Trinity CW Proper 22
Faith – as big as a mustard seed?
Luke 17 5-10 & 2 Timothy 1 1-14

The Frenchman Jean François Gravelet was better known as The Great Blondin. He was a tight-rope walker and acrobat who achieved his greatest fame in 1859, when he became the first person to cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope! Blondin walked the 335 metres across the Falls in just a few minutes.

On other occasions, he did the walk in different ways – I suppose just to show it wasn’t a fluke! He crossed the canyon on stilts, on a bicycle, and blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow!

He was obviously a showman with a sense of humour. When he reached the other side with his wheelbarrow, Blondin asked the crowd: “Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?”

Well, the crowd had seen his wonderful achievement and they knew his reputation – the greatest tight-rope walker ever – so they had no doubt: “Yes, of course! You can do anything!”

“OK”, said Blondin, “Who’s getting in?”

And nobody moved!

“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Make our faith greater.’” (Luke 17 v5 GNB)

Well, faith is an interesting thing, isn’t it? Nothing on earth (or, I suspect, in heaven) would ever have made me get into that wheelbarrow! You’ll remember that when my wife and son went abseiling a few years ago, I stayed with my feet very firmly on the ground! But as the Letter from James reminds us, faith is more than just theoretical – it shows itself in actions.

The disciples spent all their time with Jesus – and yet they knew that their faith could be greater. It’s a common hang-up, isn’t it?

• How often do people say “I wish I had your faith”.
• How often do we ourselves wish for more faith?

A common hang-up, and a common misunderstanding. We imagine that faith is something we call up within ourselves – something we generate by effort of will: “psych-ing ourselves up! And yet the Bible tells us different.

We read in the Letter to the Ephesians

“For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.”
(Eph 2 vv8-9 GNB)

• The truth is that faith is a gift from God.

• And what’s more, according to Jesus, we don’t even need that much of it!

He answers his disciples’ question in a remarkable way:

“If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it would obey you.” (Luke 17 v6 GNB)

Mustard seeds, I understand, are very small – and mulberry trees rather bigger, and not very mobile!

This understanding of faith as a gift from God is borne out in our reading from 2 Timothy. Paul remembers Timothy’s sincere faith; recognises too that it has been nurtured in him by his mother and grandmother. But he urges him above all to hold firm, to remain in that faith in union with Jesus himself.

I suspect we all have our ups and downs – times when we feel our faith is firm, and others where we wonder if we have any faith at all. But it’s very difficult to hold on to faith on our own.

Saint Paul was by any definition a man full of faith. But he constantly asked for the prayers and support of his fellow Christians. And he was honest enough to admit that his “thorn in the flesh” made him feel desperately weak at times.

He was Saint Paul, for goodness sake! And we’ve already heard about the disciples!

We know that we must remain united to Jesus. It’s a good theory, but in actual fact we need help – the help, encouragement and support of one another when (for whatever reason) holding on to him is difficult; when faith seems too much like a tightrope. That’s why God has called us together as his Church – we need each other.

Paul goes on to give Timothy some specific instructions –

• to keep alive the gift that God has given him;
• to witness to, and hold firm to, the truth of the gospel.

Again, faith is expressed in actions.

• But this is done within the context of the Church,
• with the support of other believers.
• Timothy is not left to sustain or to express his faith on his own.

Sadly, it’s all too easy for us to feel guilty when it comes to faith. We would all say, with the disciples “Make our faith greater”. And we would all admit, as someone else who came to Jesus said: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9 v24b NRSV)

But Jesus tells us we only need faith the size of a mustard seed. I think on most days, in most situations, we could all manage that much!

And the truth is that – in faith – we can all make a difference. We can all play our part in fulfilling God’s purposes – in carrying forward the Kingdom of God.

• It’s not fashionable to believe it these days, but ordinary people can do extraordinary things together – and particularly together with God.

• Sometimes faith just involves recognising that truth and acting upon it; refusing to take on board the negativity and cynicism that so often surround us.

Taking up the image Jesus uses in the second part of our gospel reading, Revd Lesley Fellows writes this about Christian service:

“We just need to see it as something ordinary, that we are like servants, put on this earth to do our bit. And whether that bit is at work, or in the home, or in the community, or in the nation; whether it is to do with spiritual things or material things, all of it is part of our calling.”

• Like Timothy, we have all been given gifts by God.

• Like Timothy we are called to keep alive those gifts – including the gift of faith – and to use them in the service of God and of our neighbour.

May your faith and mine – small as it is – make God’s world a better place for everyone, as we

“remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus”.
(2 Tim 1 v13b GNB)

Amen.

God’s Kingdom breaking in – through us?

2010-08-26T20:14:00.005+01:00

22 Aug 2010 12th Sunday after Trinity CW Proper 16
Luke 13 10-17, Hebrews 12 18-29

Both our readings this morning, from the Letter to the Hebrews and the gospel of Luke speak about the difference that faith makes – faith in God through Jesus Christ. But I think it’s fair to say that they are very different in character – I wonder which one of them you respond to best?

It’s not easy to interpret the book we know as Hebrews. We don’t really know with any certainty who wrote it, when it was written or who it was intended for – though it’s clear from the style and content that it was written for a Christian community with a Jewish background. It’s even been suggested that it was originally the text of a sermon – in which case the congregation would need to be able to concentrate very well, and probably for a long time!

I think the biggest problem for us as readers of Hebrews today is that it expects so much of us by way of prior knowledge. So many of the images and ideas draw on aspects of Judaism and Jewish history

• which for the original audience were second nature, part of their identity

• but which for us are obscure – the sort of thing you need to study in depth to achieve any sort of understanding.

Rather like an occasion, many years ago, when I took a French friend to watch a cricket match. I can tell you, it certainly spoils your enjoyment when you have to stop every few minutes to explain what’s going on! And however carefully I had prepared him for the experience, he couldn’t possibly interpret what was happening – much less have read a report of the match – with anything like the understanding of an Englishman, who had grown up watching the game! I think he gathered that my team won though!

So, if Hebrews can seem a bit obscure, how do we respond to the passage from Luke?

Well, again it’s rooted in an aspect of Jewish belief and tradition – but we do have some sort of grasp of the Sabbath and it’s importance to the Jewish community. And it’s not so very long ago that the same sorts of issues about working on Sunday were discussed and debated in our society. (I think it’s still a live issue in the Western Isles of Scotland).

And of course, our reading from Luke is a story – the account of an individual woman whose meeting with Jesus was a life-changing experience. It’s much more interesting to engage with a story (or so [my wife] tells me! Our tastes in reading are very different!) Jesus heals the woman of her physical condition, but he also restores her to her community – transforming her daily life, and truly setting her free.

I think in their own way, each of our readings has something to say about God’s Kingdom. The imagery of Hebrews is tricky because it draws so heavily on the Exodus from Egypt and an experience of God which even terrified Moses. Although there is some comfort for believers, I (at least) am not tremendously reassured by the reminder that “our ‘God is a consuming fire’.” But as our passage says:

“since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.” (Hebrews 12: 28 NIV)

Thankful, too, that we are part of the New Covenant, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the picture of God’s Kingdom in Luke is easier to understand – a Kingdom where God’s people are healed, restored, set free; where we live the “life in all it’s fullness” of which Jesus spoke in John’s gospel. Those are experiences which cross all cultural boundaries – the fulfilment of very human and universal longings: the life for which all have been created.

By this very practical demonstration of his power to heal, his power over evil, Jesus shows that, through him, God has broken in to human history. God has acted decisively in his creation, and has acted for good. In Jesus, God’s Kingdom has come – though future events in his own life and ministry, (and present realities of which we are only too aware), show that that Kingdom has not yet been fully realised – that the promise is not yet fulfilled.

And if we believe in Jesus, if we believe that God has broken in: inaugurated his Kingdom, even if it has not yet fully come …

then we must make a response. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it:

“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.” (Hebrews 12: 25a NIV)

Of course, for each of us our response is individual and personal. But I believe we can properly ask ourselves whether our belief in God and his purposes, our faith in Jesus really sets us free? For this woman, her encounter with Jesus transformed her life – and she is by no means alone in this experience: it seems to have happened a lot to people Jesus met!

Our Christian faith should have something of the assurance and confidence expressed in our Hebrews reading; something of the wonder and compassion of the woman’s story.

• That’s not to make us feel guilty when things are difficult – things were difficult for Jesus and his companions too.

• But perhaps we need God’s help to be more aware of him at work in our lives, more conscious than we sometimes are of the good things, the wonderful blessings he grants us.

What’s more, our faith is not just an individual matter. It’s worth noticing that Luke told this story as an example of Jesus challenging the religious leaders – condemning the narrowness of the organised Religion of the time. (Now, there’s a thought!)

Here we are today, meeting in church, part of the Church of England (in all its diversity!) What about us? What about me? (Because I’m really not trying to let myself off the hook!)

What is our Christian faith like?

• Does our faith set us and others free?

Or are we sometimes indignant when Jesus seems to be doing something unexpected?

• Does our worship in any sense foreshadow

“thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, … the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven”? (Hebrews 12: 22-23 NIV)

Well, don’t write it off too quickly –

when I read that passage again on Friday, I couldn’t help but think of the wonderful funeral for [N] that so many of us were able to share in this week.

• And is our faith expressed in practical action, showing glimpses of God’s Kingdom breaking in?

These are challenging questions, drawn from challenging passages of scripture.

Our society these days is largely sneering and cynical, but I believe that God is at work in his world.

What’s more, I believe God is at work in us, as individuals and as a Church – that in and through people like us may be glimpsed signs of the Kingdom of God.

The real challenge is to continue to work with God,

drawing on his power and his resources,

so that God’s Kingdom may come more and more:

amongst us, in our communities and throughout God’s world.

Why I'm not voting - yet!

2010-05-06T19:25:00.018+01:00

It’s General Election Day here in the UK – and I am not going to vote!

This is not some misguided protest – it’s simply that the election has been postponed in our constituency - sadly because of the death of one of the candidates. Who knows what the situation will be by the time we get to vote on 27 May, in the first by-election of the new parliament?!

Even so, it feels decidedly strange not to be voting today – I almost feel guilty about it! As an adult, I can’t remember an election day (of any sort) when I haven’t voted. But it’s good to know that, unlike many around the world, I will get my opportunity.

I am by temperament and tradition a Labour supporter – sadly a rare breed in this part of the world – so any reflections I have need to be read with that in mind. But here are a few things that have struck me about the Election Campaign just finished.

I suspect that the Prime Ministerial debates on TV (the first in UK history) have had a marked effect on the outcome of the election. They have certainly focussed media coverage even more closely on the party leaders and their styles, rather than on the substance of policy.

However the remarkable fact is that, in spite of all the efforts of parties and their managers, the polls have remained static. The one exception to that is, of course, the striking improvement in Liberal Democrat ratings after the first TV debate – from which point it seems we have genuinely had a 3 party contest.

Most remarkably, in spite of a tame media, the Conservative leader David Cameron’s previously unassailable lead in all opinion surveys not many months ago has now dwindled to the point where he may not even command a majority in the new Parliament.

The spectacle of the Conservative Party campaigning on “Change” has seemed to me to be one of the sick jokes of this campaign!

The clue is in the title, people: they’re Conservative!

Cameron has been outflanked – why did he ever agree to the debates? – by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who actually does propose real change: including a much-needed change to our voting system.

Instead of coherent policies, Mr Cameron and his party are content to trot out a load of hackneyed rubbish about the “evils” of “Big Government” which they contrast with an ill-defined, back-of-the-envelope sketch of a “Big Society”. This is another sick joke to those of us who remember the leader who shaped the modern Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher famously declared “There is no such thing as society” and governed on an “everyone for themselves” basis which laid much of the foundation for the grotesque conduct of today’s bankers.

The fact is that without the actions of “Big Government”, skilfully and courageously led by Gordon Brown, our banks would have failed and our economy gone down into a brutal Depression, taking the lives and life-chances of many, many people with it. The Tories “hands off” approach to the banking crisis would have been truly disastrous – and yet now they tell us that Government is the problem!

But, as Mrs Thatcher’s pal Ronald Reagan would no doubt have said, there I go again! I have become a bore on these topics during the campaign – ask my wife!

In the absence of a Labour Government, which really does seem to be beyond any reasonable expectation, my hope is that as a result of this election a true progressive coalition will emerge: a Government willing to govern for the good of the many and not the few. And, please, a Government determined to change our dreadful electoral system – which it seems will be discredited still further by any of the likely outcomes of today’s election.

I’d certainly vote for that on 27 May, if it were on the ballot paper!

Christmas Letter

2009-12-15T12:24:00.009Z

The Carnall Family Christmas Letter 2009

Our year began with house-hunting in earnest, having sold our house on Spa Common at the end of last year, and with the money burning a hole in our pockets! (Not much money, you’ll note, as this was the very worst time to sell a property!) Happily we managed to buy in March when it was still a good time to buy. We are now the proud owners of a house in Ordsall, near Retford. We thoroughly enjoyed a few Saturdays sitting in its tiny conservatory and wishing we could keep it as a “bolt hole” before common sense prevailed and we rented it out!

Adam has had a hard-working year – the year of the GCSEs. Thankfully his hard work paid off with an incredible set of results. His parents would like to claim credit for his genius but realistically we feel his grandparents must be responsible. Adam has now enthusiastically embraced life in the Sixth Form (especially since he now gets paid to attend!) He has a better social life than both parents put together (ever) and is enjoying learning to drive. His group of friends recently featured on Radio York when they spent a day in York offering free hugs to any who would receive them! Adam was dressed as a gorilla and seems to have got away with more hugs than most!

As a family we only managed one holiday together this year – but it was a cracker! We spent ten days in Majorca in June/July after Adam’s exams. It was very restful and exactly what we all needed. Chris and Nicky also managed a few days in Ely and Cambridge in August.

This has been a difficult year for the wider family, with Nicky’s Mum and Dad both being ill and needing a lot of support. Nicky’s sister, Angela, deserves a medal for being willing to change her holiday plans so that Nicky didn’t have to fly home early from hers.

Church-wise it’s been another busy year for Nicky and Chris. No major changes, but now feeling very much at home in the parishes and in York Diocese. We love living in North Yorkshire, and hope we will have more time this coming year to explore the beautiful local countryside.

All three of us send you our love and good wishes. We hope you have a happy Christmas, and a blessed New Year.

Chris, Nicky & Adam xxx

I know it's not Advent yet, but ...

2009-11-24T10:21:00.004Z

... I've just seen the ideal Christmas present! Go on, admit it: you want one!

I think Abp Rowan is the better likeness!

These are Christmas Tree decorations, available from York Minster Shop. Just as a note to friends who may be thinking what to buy me - these are not first on my Christmas list! But I'm sure you could think of somebody who would like one!

Sermon for Bible Sunday - How we use the Bible

2009-10-24T17:47:00.009+01:00

Isaiah 55 1-11 [12 -13]

Today is Bible Sunday – the day set aside in the Church’s calendar to give thanks for the Bible and for our access to it. If I’m honest, I sometimes wonder how many people outside of the Church know the Bible, or even just a few Bible stories? It’s often said that the Bible is widely owned, but not very widely read; I wonder if it is even widely owned these days?

But – like most things – I suppose it rather depends how you look at it! If I asked those of you still at school if you use the Bible in school, I wonder what sort of answer I’d get?

The school where I am a governor isn’t a Church school and (as far as I know) they don’t use the Bible much, if at all. But I do know that the school teaches the values and principles that I understand the Bible to be about!

· The children are taught to respect other people and to respect themselves.
· They are encouraged to live as part of a caring community where everyone matters,
· and to be the best they can be.

· The Bible isn’t obvious there, but Bible-living is!

And the Bible is familiar to us in other ways too, outside of it’s obvious use in our Church worship. There are all sorts of phrases which are part of our daily language and which originate in the Bible.

A few examples:

· In football every year, the FA Cup features “giant-killers” in “David and Goliath” matches;

· you often hear talk of an “Exodus”;

· people are sometimes said to have had a “Damascus-road experience”, when, like St Paul, they change their outlook completely.

Can you think of any others? …

See if you can notice them in the week ahead.

I thought there were some very familiar phrases in our reading from Isaiah 55 this morning. Did you remember any? …

Perhaps the most striking thing about our reading today is the imagery it uses:

· Thirst and hunger being satisfied by rich food;

· the height of the heavens above the earth;

· God’s word like rain and snow, watering the earth and bringing forth growth;

· and of course, those trees of the field clapping their hands in joy!

There is so much in the Bible – it is tremendously rich in so many ways!

And that set me thinking about how we use the Bible – and I’m thinking here more about those of us in the Church, those who follow Jesus.

It seems to me that some people use the Bible like a rule book – and a strict one at that. In a way, you can understand that. There are plenty of rules in there! And God’s people through the ages have rightly attached great importance to (for example) the Ten Commandments.

But I think there is a danger if we use that approach too readily. We can pick out particular verses from the Bible and apply them quite narrowly and rigidly to our lives and situations today. But we risk becoming narrow and rigid people – people who respect the letter of the law, but who completely miss the spirit behind it!

You see, the Bible is so much more than a narrow rule book.

· It’s a broad, expansive, rich story of God’s dealings with his people, from the very earliest times.
· It’s the story of people trying to get to grips with God;
· it’s part of the way God has chosen to reveal himself to us – to make himself known to us.

· Most wonderfully, of course, it tells the story of Jesus and how he came to begin the transformation of the world, and of the lives of ordinary people like us!

One of the other readings set for Bible Sunday is from the 2nd Letter to Timothy, where there’s another very familiar verse:

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

· We do well to use the Bible to teach us, to guide us and on occasion to correct us.

· But because it is indeed inspired by God, it will never be a simple rule book, a dry text just to be learnt and quoted.

· In a very real sense, the Bible is an inspiration, given to us by God to teach us more of Jesus, to teach us more of God himself.

We are so very blessed to have Bibles so easily available to us in this country, and in our own language. Bible Sunday reminds us of those people who are not as fortunate as we are, who do not have access to the scriptures we sometimes take for granted. It’s an opportunity too to support and to give thanks for the Bible Society and their work:

“translating and publishing the Bible in a language people can understand, in a form they can use and at a price they can afford.”

[Quote from Bible Society website]

The Bible is a blessing and an inspiration – but it’s a blessing and an inspiration most of all because it helps us

· to get to know God better

· to know and appreciate and come to trust his wonderful love for us, and for all people;

· so that we may hear again those wonderful words God spoke through Isaiah:

“Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;

listen, so that you may live.”

Amen.

The BBC, the BNP and politics as entertainment

2009-10-22T10:30:00.015+01:00

This evening, the BBC will allow the leader of Britain's racist, fascist party, the BNP, to appear on its "Question Time" programme. Whilst I appreciate that this is a deeply controversial move, I have tended to agree with those who have argued that the best way to combat this objectionable party is to expose its representatives to public scrutiny. That way - the argument goes - they will be shown in their true light and people will be able to make an informed decision as to whether to vote for them.

I was therefore particularly struck this morning by the comments of Diane Abbott. Ms Abbott is a current Labour MP and the first black woman to be elected to parliament in the UK. Moreover she is an insider in world of BBC political journalism, appearing regularly on the Corporation's "Daily Politics" programme (fronted by arch-Conservative Andrew Neil - hardly a poster-boy for balanced, impartial journalism).

Ms Abbott says that "Question Time" is the wrong platform for the BNP. She goes on (my emphases):

"If you are a black or Asian viewer tonight and you switch on the television and you see Nick Griffin on Question Time - it's not a programme that's going to scrutinise his views, it's not that sort of programme, it's politics as entertainment.

"The first time I went on Question Time was 22 years ago. People were really pleased - they didn't remember what I said but they saw a young black woman on Question Time and they thought 'Now black people are part of the mainstream'. That is the effect the BNP will get tonight, that's what they want from it, that's why they're so thrilled"

Ms Abbott's view deserves serious attention, not least of course because, as a black woman, she understands the issues at stake infinitely better than I ever could.

I suppose one might ask whether the BNP is actually elevated to the British political mainstream by its success in elections, rather than by the appearence of its representatives on the media. But the role of the BBC is more complex than that. By trivialising politics - treating it as entertainment - by directing attention to its own presenters as personalities, and by its relentless cynicism about "mainstream" politicians, the Corporation has done a great deal to create a climate which the loathsome BNP can exploit for its own malicious ends.

Politics as entertainment will not do - especially from a "public service broadcaster", funded by public money. Only mature, informed debate and scrutiny of all parties will serve the public and enhance the life of our diverse community.

Welcome home Brett?!

2009-10-21T11:15:00.007+01:00

Another story to produce a (this time wry) smile is the request by the mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin for appropriate ways to mark the "homecoming" of former Packers' great Brett Favre.

Having said (many times) that he would never play for anyone else but the Pack, having said (many times) that he was retiring, Favre is due to QB the Pack's despised rivals the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field in a fortnight.

Two early suggestions are reported on the NFL's website (full story here):

"One suggestion calls for making the world's largest waffle in the shape of No. 4, Favre's jersey number. It's a playful jab at Favre's indecisive approach to retirement.

"One Packers site, cheeseheadtv.com, already has weighed in with a list of suggestions to mark the occasion. Among them: creating a video montage of Favre's interceptions and showing it before the game."

I want to be able to say the Packer Nation responded to Favre's return with class, but the temptation is certainly there ...

"We miss you, Brent!"

I hope the Packers' Defense is preparing its own special welcome!

You couldn't make up!

2009-10-21T10:37:00.005+01:00

Here is a super story about Usain Bolt - Olympic and World Champion sprinter and the fastest man in the world. It seems he is also an accomplished cricketer.

Bolt distinguished himself in a recent charity game in Jamaica, but his innings came to a very unlikely end - he was run out!! (The story is here).

Then there's the story about the new Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button, who apparently failed his driving test first time - for going too fast!

His driving instructor says: "He failed his test because he got into racing mode and nipped through a small gap on a notoriously narrow road without blinking an eyelid." (Full story here).

Bolt's run out seems very unlikely, but Button's early oversight rather more predictable!

Dormant blog

2009-09-11T12:12:00.006+01:00

I was reminded by a friend that I have this blog! He was gracious enough to comment that I am posting more often than I did - but whilst he is kind, I fear he is not very accurate! It's not that I have stopped "just thinking" - Descartes had a thing or too to say about that! But the fact remains, I am not blogging.

Not quite sure why this is. Perhaps if I don't capture and publish the thought, the moment passes. Perhaps my personality is such that I really want to polish and hone my contributions - and so they never happen. Perhaps I am essentially too private, or feel myself too busy? (I say "feel" because I have many friends (and indeed, a wife!) who are far more busy, and yet far more effective than I am!

I am micro-blogging on Twitter. Clearly 140 characters defy any attempt at polishing! But what to do with this blog?

My usual solution to anything is "must try harder". But maybe one way forward is to post the stuff I am writing - my sermons. I'm rather reticent about this, but hey - if I am actually speaking them out in public, then maybe they ought to go on here? I would hesitate to imagine that the audience for my spoken or written words is all that big!!

So, let's see how that goes?! (Probably wise not to hold your breath just yet!)

By the way, have I mentioned how Chris Read's batting average is 2nd in the country at the moment? Thought not! How unlike me, don't you think?!

When governments are gone

2009-06-03T11:23:00.007+01:00

I came across a quotation this morning from Prof Lawrence Lessig, which I thought had a relevance to our current political climate - where basically all MPs (and especially those of the governing party) are damned and vilified. There is an assumption, spoken or implied, that if only we could get rid of the current crop of politicians, then all would be well. Lessig said:

“When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.”

Clearly there is a need for reform and for change at the heart of our parliamentary system. But we should resist the simplistic and dangerous calls akin to "a plague on all their houses". If the mainstream parties and politicians are swept away, then the vacuum will be filled by others who are far more dangerous - others like the British National Party.

Our media and commentators should exercise a degree of responsibility in their dash to sell papers and grab ratings. There are more serious things at stake.

On MP's expenses

2009-05-11T17:51:00.003+01:00

I have to confess that I haven't really been following the outrage about MP's expenses all that closely. I'm more than a bit jaded by the media agenda, and I tend to suspect the motives of most journalists - print or TV/radio or (of course, dear reader) bloggers!

So here is a handy summary from Bishop Alan, which I found extremely helpful. Amongst his observations:

"What's interesting is that some MP's have obviously interpreted the rules using their own moral instinct about what it was right or wrong to claim, whilst others have had no scruple about doing anything, however bizarre, as long as it didn't actually contravene the rules."

The full post is here: MP's expenses chocolate bunny rage

The answer is in our own hands. But we need to make informed judgements about our politicians - and how we do that, given the standard of media and public debate ...? Well, I just don't know.

True Community

2009-03-17T11:52:00.011Z

We had a marvellous Morning Prayer service at one of our churches last Sunday, devised and led by a fellow Reader. It was inspired for a number of reasons - not least because it was the day of the church AGM!

The focus was on community, as expressed in our church and in Jigsaw Kids Ministries - mission partners we support in the Philippines. So it was particularly good to read this today from Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey:

When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.

We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.

Couldn't resist!

2009-03-10T12:38:00.007Z

Sorry, I just couldn't resist pointing out that England's alleged "wicket-keeper" Matt Prior conceded 35 byes in the West Indies' First Innings of the current test.

Yes, 35 byes.

(Dropped at least one vital catch too).

"Is this a record?" you ask. Well, not quite. But as the BBC's Oliver Brett points out:

"When Frank Woolley gave up 37 byes in a Test innings, not only did he don the gloves at the grand old age of 47, he was deputising for the injured Les Ames!"

Rather puts Prior's ineptitude in its proper context, doesn't it?

Anyone but Read?

C of E tweeting for Lent

2009-02-23T18:31:00.009Z

You may have noticed that I have signed up on Twitter. (See twitterings on right of page). This has a number of "benefits" ...

I can bombard the mildly-interested with a stream of details about my (in)activities!

I can appear to be updating my blog with something approaching regularity (!!)

I can appear to be busy, and even "in touch" with new developments on the Web!

Appearances, as we know, can be defective.

But the point of mentioning Twitter is that it is just one of the means the Church of England is using this year to promote its "Love Life, Live Lent" campaign. If you would like to keep Lent by doing "simple acts of generosity and thoughtfulness", take a look at this from the CofE website.

Church gives out 'tweets' for Lent explains how you can take part using Twitter, Facebook etc - or just go to the "Love Life, Live Lent" website.

Time I looked busy again!

Quote of the day

2009-02-21T19:41:00.008Z

The blog is in danger of gathering cobwebs again - what my son calls "a cobWebsite", so ...

Along the lines of "the person who never made a mistake never made anything", here is a quotation I happened across, which develops the theme:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

J K Rowling, speaking at Harvard University.

Packer People

2009-01-29T15:35:00.013Z

I spent some time this afternoon doing something I could never have imagined not so many years ago. “Back in the day …”, that is when I was a lot younger than I am now, speaking to someone “abroad” on the telephone was difficult and expensive! The lines were often poor and, all in all, there was just too much cost and effort involved. Yet today – through the wonders of Skype – I’ve been chatting to a guy from Dubuque, Iowa, who is actually a very familiar voice – Ross Janes.

Ross and his friend Wes produce an excellent podcast called Packershow – and many of us Packer fans listen every week to their extremely informed, sometimes controversial, always entertaining views about the Green Bay Packers. Ross and Wes are always keen to involve their listeners in the show – one of them, Patrick Castleberg, produces a regular comment piece every week – and so Ross is exploring ways of recording interviews with the Packershow faithful. Hence our conversation today.

Whether my interview comes to anything is by the by. The real joy was talking to Ross about some of the things we share: the Packers, of course, but also our faith and our families and our different, but related lives. In short, Ross is a real class act, and it was a privilege to get to know him a little better! (Ross' blog is here, by the way.)

The Packershow community is growing – you can find out more at http://packershow.com/ The shows are available every week during the season, and on other key occasions in the off-season, like before the NFL draft. You can get them from the site, or subscribe using iTunes.

The guys have promised a discussion soon of the impending defensive changes for the Pack, so if (like me) you really need to learn more about the 3-4 defense and who Dom Capers is – tune in to Packershow! Or if you just want to hear some enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans talking about their favourite (favorite!) team - go to http://packershow.com/

When he was appointed as Head Coach of the Packers, Mike McCarthy talked of his wish to attract to the team not just good players, but “Packer People”. Ross and Wes and Patrick - and so many more new friends – are truly Packer People!

Glass half-full, after all?

2009-01-27T18:11:00.006Z

As you will see, I intended to publish this last December (!). Now, with the season of Advent long-gone (and my positive mood with it!) I needed to re-read my thoughts ...

4 December 2008

Reading a series of entries from Kathryn’s blog (Good In Parts) in which she is chronicling a clearly manically busy but thoroughly blessed Advent, (see here) I realise that her attitude and mine are diametrically opposed!

I should say, “I realise again”, as I know I am prone to falling into a rather negative attitude. Particularly at this time of year, there is so much to do – or at least the impression that there is so much to do seems to loom over me and blight everything. I often think, as Advent proceeds and Christmas approaches, that Scrooge was a much misunderstood man!

And yet … part of Advent must be looking for the Lord’s coming – whether in the Christmas or in the Kingdom sense. And part of it must be anticipation. Jesus came to inaugurate the “now and not yet” Kingdom – so where are the signs that he has been here? Where are the signs that he is active in the world (in my world) by his Holy Spirit?

There are joys and there are positive things even in a world of injustice and need, even in a life which is often busy and demanding. God’s Kingdom has not yet fully and finally come, but it does break in – and it breaks in more often and in more varied and wonderful ways than I am often able to see or prepared to admit!

Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all,

to you be praise and glory for ever.

In your tender compassion

the dawn from on high is breaking upon us

to dispel the lingering shadows of night.

As we look for your coming among us this day,

open our eyes to behold your presence

and strengthen our hands to do your will,

that the world may rejoice and give you praise.

Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Blessed be God for ever.

(From Common Worship Morning Prayer for Advent)

2008-07-01T12:17:00.004+01:00

On the recent GAFCON statement, this is the response from The Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the USA.

"Much of the Anglican world must be lamenting the latest emission from GAFCON. Anglicanism has always been broader than some find comfortable. This statement does not represent the end of Anglicanism, merely another chapter in a centuries-old struggle for dominance by those who consider themselves the only true believers. Anglicans will continue to worship God in their churches, serve the hungry and needy in their communities, and build missional relationships with others across the globe, despite the desire of a few leaders to narrow the influence of the gospel. We look forward to the opportunities of the Lambeth Conference for constructive conversation, inspired prayer, and relational encounters."

Link to statement: here

To dwell together in unity

2008-07-01T11:45:00.004+01:00

One of the Psalms set for Morning Prayer today in the Church of England is this one. I don't imagine it 's being said throughout the Anglican Communion, but we would all do well to meditate on it, supposing of course that we could suspend our collective sense of irony and shame.

Psalm 133

Refrain: Mercy and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Behold how good and pleasant it is •
to dwell together in unity.

It is like the precious oil upon the head, •
running down upon the beard,

Even on Aaron’s beard, •
running down upon the collar of his clothing.

It is like the dew of Hermon •
running down upon the hills of Zion.

For there the Lord has promised his blessing: •
even life for evermore. R

Refrain: Mercy and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Grant to your people, good Lord, the spirit of unity,
that they may dwell together in your love,
and so bear to the world
the ointment of your healing
and the dew of your blessing;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Take it as Read (pun intended!)

2008-03-16T19:21:00.005Z

So in Tim Ambrose England has found yet another "wicket-keeper" who can bat but can't keep wicket! And what do you know? He used to play for Sussex!

Even the BBC's Jonathan Agnew - so quick to discard Chris Read after the Australian debacle - had to admit, after an underwhelming day against New Zealand:

"England squandered the many chances and opportunities that came their way - they should have finished the match.

"Of the eight New Zealand batsmen to appear in this innings, all but three gave a chance of some sort – a couple were very difficult, but three, in particular, were easy.

"One of those was a stumping chance to Tim Ambrose off Monty Panesar.

"Ambrose, in fact, had a poor day behind the stumps, missing a second, more difficult leg side stumping, and a catch standing up to Paul Collingwood.

Clearly, he needs time to settle in, but I fear that many more like this will reopen the great wicket-keeping debate yet again."

You think?!

But you know what? I am so totally bored by now with England's "Anyone but Read" policy, that I will simply refer you to my previous remarks about Matt Prior ...

England supremo Peter Moores coached him at Sussex too.

Rowan Williams starts a debate

2008-02-08T17:43:00.000Z

As it happens, I was watching "The West Wing" last night - the episode late in Season One entitled "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet". In it, the President's staff urge the President to try and shape the public agenda, rather than playing safe and shying away from unpopularity. Chief of Staff Leo McGarry puts it this way:

"We're going to raise the level of public debate in this country, and let that be our legacy."

Couldn't help thinking about that in the context of the hysterical knee-jerking which has followed Archbishop Rowan Williams' interview and lecture about the Law and Faith Communities ...!

The level of public debate in this country is subterranean!

(See "What did the Archbishop actually say?")

Incoming Paperwork

2008-01-29T11:04:00.000Z

Once again Dave Walker proves that he must have a spy camera in my study ...

Here is the original version - much easier to see!

The Cartoon Blog by Dave Walker

The Christian Story - telling the whole story (Sermon)

2008-01-04T17:52:00.000Z

I've not blogged one of my sermons before, but I learned such a lot in preparing this one that I thought I'd post it here. (Thanks to Diana for the encouragement!)

It relies heavily on a number of sources, identified in the footnotes.

30 December 2007 1st Sun of Christmas
Holy Innocents
Matthew 2: 13-end (Hebrews 2 10 – end)

Lots of the things that I have been reading and hearing over the past few months have been about theology[1]. Now there’s a sure-fire way of getting you to switch off right at the beginning of a sermon! But just a minute! I don’t mean the sort of academic theology that is studied in Universities and Theological Colleges. Not many of us are academic theologians – I’m certainly not!

In a “Thought for the Day” on the 300th anniversary of the birth of Charles Wesley, just before Christmas, Canon Alan Billings talked about how Charles’ hymns have shaped our Christian faith[2]. Have you sung “Love Divine All Loves Excelling” at a wedding? Would Christmas be quite the same without “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”? These are just 2 of the 5000 hymns Charles Wesley had published.

Theology is important – someone once said that “Everything the Church does is Theology” But there is a tendency to think that our faith consists of what we believe – of creeds and dogmas. Canon Billings says that to have faith is really to be drawn to the Christian Story, which engages our intellect, but also our imagination and our emotions – often as much through hymns and songs as (believe it or not!) through closely-argued sermons about theology!

The Christian Story gives us our moral and spiritual direction; it encourages us and challenges us. And, on occasion, it disturbs us. Which is, of course, where we come to our gospel reading – the massacre of the Innocents.

The temptation is to gloss over incidents like these – it’s certainly a temptation I felt when I saw this reading! And it’s a temptation that the wider world often gives in to! With a very few exceptions, the Christmas that the world presents leaves out the horrors of King Herod; glosses over the real nature of what happened in Bethlehem.

Now I love my nativity plays as much as anyone. But what about that lovely carol “Away in a manger”, an essential part of every Christmas celebration.

“Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.”

A baby that doesn’t cry?! That must have been very comfortable straw!

Joy Carroll Wallis – the priest who (incidentally) was the inspiration for “The Vicar of Dibley” writes:

“My guess is that Jesus cried a lot. We know from the gospels that the more Jesus saw of the world in which he lived, the more he mourned and wept regularly. A Jesus who doesn't weep with those who weep, a Jesus who's just a sentimental myth, may be the one that our culture prefers, but that Jesus can do nothing for us.”[3]

It’s just that sort of sentimental, sanitised Christmas which air-brushes out King Herod and the massacre he ordered. Just that sort of presentation of the Christmas story which distorts our understanding of the Christian Story and falsifies our faith.

By all accounts, Herod the Great was perfectly capable of ordering such a massacre. History records that he was a client of the occupying Romans, who kept favour with the Emperor by building whole cities named after him, and by paying taxes to him.[4] And, since he retained more than enough money for himself, Herod’s people became increasingly restless. This led him to operate what, in our day, we would call a totalitarian regime, complete with spies, a ban on meetings, summary imprisonment and execution.[5] It all begins to sound very familiar, doesn’t it? But injustice, persecution and mass-murder don’t sit easily with Christmas as we have come to know it. And that’s a problem.

It’s a problem precisely because the Christian Story informs and shapes our faith. If we sanitise Christmas and Christianity, then we are fooling ourselves and others – we are doing real harm.

A faith which ignores reality cannot cope with real life. It has nothing to say to those of us who, particularly at Christmas, feel the pain of bereavement or family breakdown, or who, for whatever reason, just can’t measure up to the false ideal that we are constantly presented with.

Joy Carroll says:

“Herod represents the dark side of the gospel. He reminds us that Jesus didn't enter a world of sparkly Christmas cards or a world of warm spiritual sentiment. Jesus enters a world of real pain, of serious dysfunction, a world of brokenness and political oppression.”

This is what the writer to the Hebrews means when he says that Jesus shared our humanity – all our humanity, not just the comfortable bits!

And the danger of a sanitised gospel is that it also creates a false image of the church. In the past, I’ve been in Christian gatherings where, if I’m honest, I was afraid to be real –

where I glossed over the difficulties of faith,
denied the pain of life.

I’ve certainly known people whose image of the church and of Christians is far from a true or realistic one.

Joy Carroll puts it this way:

“The church is not a gathering of people who have [got] it all together, who look and act alike, who have no problems to speak of. The church is a community of people who are broken and needy, who in their weakness trust in the grace of God.”

And there, of course, is the key. We are a community of ordinary people, but a people who trust in God.

Jesus came because the world is as it is, because there is injustice and pain and grief. And he came because God’s purpose is to deal with all that – to make all things new. Throughout Advent we read of visions of a new world,

· a world of peace and justice and reconciliation and healing,
· a world where God’s purposes for creation are finally fulfilled.

And with the coming of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, God broke into his world and began that process of renewal, of redemption.

Sarah Dylan Breuer, commenting on this passage, puts it like this:

“God, the Creator of the universe, is making all of Creation new. That renewal, healing, and reconciliation is the most fundamental force in the universe; everything else, every force that would isolate us from one another and from God, everything that would interfere with the abundant life God has for us, is falling away[6].”

This is our hope as Christians; this is the Christian Story which draws us and inspires us – not based upon the denial of reality, but on the knowledge of a more fundamental truth: that the whole universe was created in love and destined for love.

· We rely not on a fleeting illusion that there is no pain or injustice in the world,

· but on the truth that, in Jesus, great tragedy and great need are met by greater love[7].

Our call, our privilege is to receive that love of Jesus and to share it with others.

· Yes, to recognise the world as it is,

· but together to pray and to work and to struggle in anticipation of the world as it will become!

Amen – so be it!

[1] Reader Weekend conducted by Revd Prof Jeff Astley, using material from Jeff Astley, Ann Christie Taking Ordinary Theology Seriously Grove Books Limited 2007 and Jeff Astley Christ of the Everyday SPCK 2007

[2] Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings Thought for the Day
BBC Radio 4 18 Dec 2007

[3] Revd Joy Carroll Wallis Putting Herod Back Into Christmas Sojourners Magazine December 2004 http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_archives&mode=current_opinion&article=CO_041222_carroll_wallis (accessed 20 December 2007) [Free Registration required]

[4] see Jane Williams Remembered only for his cruelty
Church Times 21 December 2007

[5] see Sarah Dylan Breuer’s Lectionary Blog on this passage http://www.sarahlaughed.net (accessed 20 December 2007)

[6] Sarah Dylan Breuer Ibid

[7] Sarah Dylan Breuer Ibid

Who would think ...?

2007-12-23T16:58:00.001Z

Well, where did those months go?!

Just 2 days before Christmas, I would like to share with you ...

not my latest rantings about the England cricket team - including the entirely predictable (and predicted!) failures of its "wicket-keeper" -

nor even a slice of humble pie about the extremely successful season enjoyed by the Green Bay Packers - I never doubted them for a moment! -

but just the words of a carol I have especially enjoyed singing this year.

Who would think that what was needed
to transform and save the earth
might not be a plan or army,
proud in purpose, proved in worth?
Who would think, despite derision,
that a child should lead the way?
God surprises earth with heaven,
coming here on Christmas day.

Shepherds watch and wise men wonder,
monarchs scorn and angels sing;
such a place as none would reckon
hosts a holy helpless thing;
stable beasts and by-passed strangers
watch a baby laid in hay:
God surprises earth with heaven,
coming here on Christmas day.

Centuries of skill and science
span the past from which we move,
yet experience questions whether,
with such progress, we improve.
While the human lot we ponder,
lest our hopes and humour fray,
God surprises earth with heaven,
coming here on Christmas day.

John L Bell and Graham Maule, of the Iona Community.

A very happy, hopeful and even humourous Christmas to you all!

The difficulty of naming a day

2007-10-05T12:58:00.000+01:00

Prevailing wisdom is that Gordon Brown is consulting the opinion polls before deciding whether to call a General Election.

The truth is far more prosaic, as Dave Walker suggests:

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

It's "I told you so" time!

2007-09-19T18:04:00.000+01:00

No prizes for guessing then that I am returning to the subject of England's wicket keeper!

You will recall, gentle reader, that in my capacity as cheerleader for Nottinghamshire 'keeper Chris Read, I asked a pertinent question regarding the new coach's favourite, Matt Prior (see "So Prior can bat ...")

The question was "Is he an England wicket-keeper?"

Well, not only do we now know that Prior is a poor 'keeper, his batting career has taken much the same course as that of his predecessor Geraint Jones. Like Jones, Prior began with an impressive century but has since done little or nothing with the bat; and as his batting has deteriorated, the spotlight has eventually illuminated how truly mediocre he is as a wicket-keeper at Test level.

Naturally, as with Jones before him, it's not Prior's fault. What was he going to say when they invited him to play for England? "Well, thank's a lot, but I don't really think I'm good enough!" ? But he isn't good enough, as discerning Read-fans suspected all along.

And now the unfortunate Prior has broken his thumb. So who's next?

David Graveney and his selectors [whatever happened to that post-Ashes-debacle review? Graveney's still there, in spite of everything ...] have come up with the answer! Having repeated their previous policy of the coach's favourite - Peter Moores used to be Prior's coach at Sussex - they've switched to the captain's favourite - they have chosen Phil Mustard. Mustard happens to keep wicket for one-day captain Paul Collingwood's county of Durham.

Now I don't know anything about Mustard. The reports of his selection - as yet just for the one-day tour - point to his batting average of 49.61 in one-day games this season. There's no assessment of his ability as a wicket-keeper, of course. Chris Read has a one-day average for Notts this year of 51.85 by the way, but it may be that the more telling comparison is between Read's average in first-class games this year of 55.16 and Mustard's mere 25.75.

Of course, you would expect me to drone on about Ready, wouldn't you. But Graveney's "Anyone but Read" policy is alive and well. No doubt he hopes that captain Collingwood's judgement in wicket-keepers is better than his choice of pre-match relaxation!

I ought perhaps to refrain from asking the obvious question about a player called Mustard - but, particularly as a wicket-keeper, we will need to find out if he cuts it!!

Catching up - again!

2007-09-19T17:42:00.000+01:00

Well now ... what happened to August, you might reasonably ask?! The answer is - as you might guess - that we were on holiday for part of it. But we have been back for almost exactly a month now! And no blog posts.

We had a really lovely holiday in South West Ireland - the Dingle Peninsula - which I would certainly recommend. Who knows, I might even post some photos eventually. But it does seem to have been very busy since we got home. Hence I have an excuse for the lack of postings - to be taken alongside the usual excuse, of course - that I'm not very good at keeping up!

I have taken services in a few of the local churches I don't normally get to - a combination of holiday cover and a vacancy in a group of parishes in our Deanery. I quite like the opportunity to worship elsewhere from time to time - I don't feel the mild to moderate terror I used to, though those who know me will readily attest that I like my familiar routines! And people generally seem very accepting of me, which is both nice and an encouragement.

This week I get to preach in our own churches for the first time in a while - which is good from my point of view, whatever the regulars might think ;-)

So that's the story to date - holidays and work. But there is one other thing I just thought, which will be the subject of my next post ... [Bet you can't guess what it will be!]

How bad things are

2007-07-25T12:29:00.000+01:00

I regularly take part in a public opinion survey which asks how I think things are going in my neighbourhood, in the UK and in the world. The definitive answer is provided by Dave Walker:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

David Cameron, the truth and another good story

2007-07-25T12:10:00.000+01:00

Beginning to sound uncharacteristically like an apologist for the Tory party here, but ... what is all this fuss about David Cameron jetting off to Rwanda and ignoring his constituents?

If you read carefully, then you will spot - hidden away deep in the text of this alarmism - the admission that:

"On Sunday [Mr Cameron] visited Witney, his West Oxfordshire constituency, where 3,000 homes have been flooded. He said he had been in touch with the local council leader since arriving in the Rwandan capital Kigali."

So, just to get things straight, he's not ignoring his constituents then. That's just an impression the rest of the article tries to create.

I thought the BBC had said it wasn't going to misrepresent people any more?!

We can spot the media's current narrative by noticing the description (elsewhere) of Mr Cameron as "embattled". Seems as if the fashion is changing - once again, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Davis doesn't go there

2007-07-21T11:40:00.000+01:00

I am no great fan of the Conservative politician David Davis. I suppose if pressed, I would probably confess to grudging respect for him - a respect enhanced by an episode this week, recounted by the BBC's Nick Assinder.

Shadow home secretary David Davis wins the prize for the shortest, sharpest answer yet given by a guest at the monthly lunch for political journalists.

Davis was asked, first what advice he thinks Alastair Campbell would have given him had he been running his campaign to be leader of the Tory party and, second, what he believed David Cameron's biggest mistake had been so far.

After no more than a nano-second's pause, Mr Davis replied:

"He would have advised me not to answer the second question."

It was the only time I have witnessed a guest getting a round of applause half way through his appearance.

Myers Briggs for Potter fans?

2007-07-20T16:18:00.002+01:00

I scored Lupin over Hermione on a tie-break question! This means either that I am in touch with my feminine side ... or that I am even more confused than I thought!

50% Snape is a bit worrying ... Either I am, or I'm not?!

You scored as Remus Lupin, You are a wise and caring wizard and a good, loyal friend to boot. However sometimes in an effort to be liked by others you can let things slide by, which ordinarily you would protest about.

Hermione Granger

75%

Remus Lupin

75%

Ron Weasley

70%

Albus Dumbledore

60%

Ginny Weasley

55%

Severus Snape

50%

Draco Malfoy

45%

Sirius Black

45%

Harry Potter

45%

Lord Voldemort

45%

Try the quiz here

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...?

QuizFarm.com

More on Public service broadcasting

2007-07-19T15:07:00.000+01:00

It may just be me, but isn't the BBC's Director General, Mark Thompson, stating the blindingly obvious when he says:

"We must never, ever knowingly deceive the public. There is no excuse for deception."

Surely employees - even those of production companies engaged by the BBC - ought to realise that? They are supposed to serve the public, not deceive us.

After all, they are so fond of invoking the "public interest" when it suits them.

(The key points of Mr Thompson's speech to staff are given here.)

The BBC, good faith and public service

2007-07-14T12:19:00.001+01:00

I awoke the other morning to extremely prominent BBC radio news reports that the Queen had stormed out of a photo session. I must admit that my first reaction was along the lines of "so what?!" Her Majesty must get impatient like the rest of us, and surely she is entitled to react from time to time.

But then, as the day wore on, the story changed. It turned out that the Queen had extracted an apology from the Corporation! In a delicious phrase, the BBC admitted that "the actual sequence of events was mis-represented." BBC Statement here.

News Sniffer catalogues the many revisions of the story - the actual volte-face happening here.

The senior executive responsible, the Controller of BBC 1, says that he does not intend to resign, since he "used the sequence in good faith".

I'm not at all sure that he should resign - though I am sure he will have learned some lessons. People make mistakes, and should be allowed to apologise for them. But it occurs to me that the BBC regularly sneers at others in public life who claim to have acted in good faith! The Corporation's treatment of Tony Blair springs immediately to mind.

Good faith is routinely doubted and regularly ridiculed - except it seems when the motives of BBC executives are concerned!

The other point, of course, is that the BBC and other media organisations often misrepresent events. They do so - explicitly or implicity - by presenting them slanted by a particular political bias, or by an underlying set of assumptions, or just by the desire to sell papers or to promote programmes. The difference here is that the Queen has the clout to extract an apology and a swift correction of the impression created.

What about those who are misrepresented and have no means of obtaining redress? Public service broadcasting indeed!

A remarkable day

2007-06-27T21:26:00.000+01:00

Reflecting on the departure of Tony Blair as PM is extraordinary – it’s one of those days which I‘ve known is coming, which I thought I had adjusted to … and yet now it has happened, it seems so strange!

I remember how strange it was, back in May 1997, to hear him referred to as “the Prime Minister”, after 17 years during which that had inevitably meant a Tory, and usually Margaret Thatcher. And now “the Prime Minister” is Gordon Brown, or as Nick Robinson of the BBC called him this afternoon – even after he had gone into Number 10 to begin forming his government – “the Chancellor”! It’s not just me who will have difficulty adjusting!

A strange day, too, in that – as happens all too rarely – it revealed the human side of our political life. You can’t help but reflect what it must be like for Tony Blair and his family, leaving the pressurised and surreal world they have inhabited for so long. You can’t help but wonder at Gordon Brown’s feelings, as the moment he must have thought about for so long finally arrived. And those remarkable scenes in Parliament!

Were those indeed heartfelt and generous tributes? Did they – just for a few moments – put aside the pantomime roles and recognise the service Mr Blair has rendered to the country, and what it has cost him and his family? I think so. It certainly seemed like it!

If only our public life would continue in that vein! But probably not ...[!] Days like today are rare exceptions. But they are just a glimpse, a mere suggestion, that behind it all, there are genuine people, struggling to do their best in public service. Didn’t the (former) Prime Minister say as much, as he left the despatch box for the last time?

Michael White on the media beast

2007-06-13T14:41:00.000+01:00

Some quotes from Michael White of The Guardian, responding to Tony Blair's analysis of the modern media and their effect on public life. (The emphases are mine).

"The consequences [of the modern media being driven by instant technologies and 24/7 global markets] are hard to dispute. ... The tricky bit is how society responds to the problems thereby created, notably the fast-declining levels of public trust in public institutions, by no means confined to politics and politicians in an information-rich age where the boundaries between facts and comment - and between both and entertainment - have all but collapsed."

"But as a political reporter for 30 years, I believe [Tony Blair] is more right than wrong, as John Major often was.

Margaret Thatcher was luckier with the media - until the very end.

A high proportion of allegations routinely made against governments, Labour and Tory, in the media are untrue - though they are widely accepted as true.

Dealing with that fact of life was what led Blair and Alastair Campbell into the jungles of spin after 1997 - an error, he admitted today."

"As for the tired claim that newspapers are accountable to their readers, TV to the viewers - well, that's humbug, although you will read a lot of it in tomorrow's papers.

The media has little of the external accountability which other walks of life now face.

It's a major player in the triangle between government and governed, but rarely acknowledges its own role."

Read the whole article here.

Biting back

2007-06-13T14:15:00.000+01:00

Tony Blair's characterisation of today's media as "like a feral beast" - a phrase they seem to have siezed upon with a greater or lesser amount of glee - has provoked the response he predicted. The BBC sums up the press biting back here.

It's interesting though that some of them seem to admit, somewhat shamefacedly, that the PM has a point.

The BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson is gracious enough to concede at least some of Mr Blair's argument [here], and indeed to link to an article by Michael White (for a long time one of the very best political observers) which both supports the PM and snipes at Mr Robinson.

Of course the real test will be whether Mr Blair manages to kick-start a much needed debate leading to a real improvement in the quality of the media reporting of our public life.

Initial indications are that the contributions from much of our media will not be gracious or constructive. They have no interest in dialogue with their prey, nor in the public interest they claim to represent.

Parting shots

2007-06-12T19:19:00.000+01:00

Prime Minister Tony Blair has given a remarkable speech analysing the effect of today’s media culture on modern public life. It is thoughtful and reasoned: the sort of thing a politician can only say nowadays when he is on the point of retirement! As he himself says, “I know it will be rubbished in certain quarters. But I also know this has needed to be said.”

The speech really repays reading in full [here]. But these are just a few of the things that particularly struck me.

[Blair quotes, my emphases]

“My principal reflection is not about ‘blaming’ anyone. It is that the relationship between politics, public life and the media is changing as a result of the changing context of communication in which we all operate; no-one is at fault - it is a fact; but it is my view that the effect of this change is seriously adverse to the way public life is conducted; and that we need, at the least, a proper and considered debate about how we manage the future, in which it is in all our interests that the public is properly and accurately informed.”

“We devote reams of space to debating why there is so much cynicism about politics and public life. In this, the politicians are obliged to go into self flagellation, admitting it is all our fault. …

And, believe it or not, most politicians come into public life with a desire to serve and by and large, try to do the right thing not the wrong thing.

My view is that the real reason for the cynicism is precisely the way politics and the media today interact. We, in the world of politics, because we are worried about saying this, play along with the notion it is all our fault.”

“They [the media] are not the masters of this change but its victims. The result is a media that increasingly and to a dangerous degree is driven by ‘impact’ Impact is what matters. It is all that can distinguish, can rise above the clamour, can get noticed.

Impact gives competitive edge. Of course the accuracy of a story counts. But it is secondary to impact. It is this necessary devotion to impact that is unravelling standards, driving them down, making the diversity of the media not the strength it should be but an impulsion towards sensation above all else.”

“The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged. Something that is interesting is less powerful than something that makes you angry or shocked. The consequences of this are acute.

First, scandal or controversy beats ordinary reporting hands down. News is rarely news unless it generates heat as much as or more than light.

Second, attacking motive is far more potent than attacking judgement. It is not enough for someone to make an error. It has to be venal. Conspiratorial. …

Third, the fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out.

Fourth, rather than just report news, even if sensational or controversial, the new technique is commentary on the news being as, if not more important than the news itself.

So - for example - there will often be as much interpretation of what a politician is saying as there is coverage of them actually saying it. In the interpretation, what matters is not what they mean; but what they could be taken to mean. …

In turn, this leads to a fifth point: the confusion of news and commentary. Comment is a perfectly respectable part of journalism. But it is supposed to be separate. Opinion and fact should be clearly divisible. The truth is a large part of the media today not merely elides the two but does so now as a matter of course. ...

The final consequence of all of this is that it is rare today to find balance in the media. Things, people, issues, stories, are all black and white. Life's usual grey is almost entirely absent.

‘Some good, some bad’; ‘some things going right, some going wrong’: these are concepts alien to today's reporting. It's a triumph or a disaster. A problem is ‘a crisis’.

A setback is a policy ‘in tatters’. A criticism, ‘a savage attack’. NGOs and pundits know that unless they are prepared to go over the top, they shouldn't venture out at all.”

“I do believe this relationship between public life and media is now damaged in a manner that requires repair. The damage saps the country's confidence and self-belief; it undermines its assessment of itself, its institutions; and above all, it reduces our capacity to take the right decisions, in the right spirit for our future.”

[Quotes end - do read the speech!]

As you will probably know, I tend to go on a bit about the media - and here I go again:

In my view, the media are making public life an arena into which fewer and fewer people will wish to venture – at least for the motives we would all hope our public figures would hold. The all-pervading, sneering cynicism which is the “default setting" in our media is warping our society beyond recognition.

It used to be said that we get the government we deserve. Nowadays, increasingly, we get the government our media allows us. The standard of political thought and debate, and essentially the level of engagement by most people with politics and public life is now so low that I'm afraid our disease of cynicism may be terminal.

So Prior can bat ...

2007-05-18T21:10:00.000+01:00

So now we know that England’s latest wicket-keeper can bat!

Matt Prior’s innings of 126 not out against the West Indies (in 128 balls) must have been worth seeing – and congratulations to him! [Did that come out all right between clenched teeth?!]

Writing on the BBC website, Oliver Brett is ecstatic:

“Prior's innings was a superbly confident display and vindicated his debatable selection for the side. Many had felt he was elevated above other candidates having been a disciple of new coach Peter Moores when Moores had been at Sussex.”

As one of the many, could I just try and flag down that bandwagon, before it gets up too much momentum? Permit me couple of observations.

Firstly, the West Indies are not Australia.

Coming in at 363-5 at Lord’s against the current West Indian attack is rather different to facing the Aussies in Melbourne or Sydney after one of the customary batting collapses exhibited during last Winter’s Ashes series.

Secondly, an England wicket-keeper doesn’t vindicate his selection by batting.

Mr Brett has chiselled Prior’s name on the team sheet before he has even kept wicket in a Test match!

Remember Geraint Jones – Duncan Fletcher’s favourite? Well, the question mark against him as England wicket-keeper was rarely his batting – at least not until towards the end of his extended run in the team.

We knew he could bat. He just couldn’t keep wicket! At least, not to the standard required of an England wicket-keeper.

So what about Peter Moores' favourite? We know Matt Prior can bat – but is he an England wicket-keeper?

A new era for England cricket?

2007-05-16T19:20:00.000+01:00

You won’t be at all surprised to hear that I have a few thoughts on the current position regarding the England Cricket Team!

Naturally I am more than pleased to see the back of the execrable Duncan Fletcher and his bizarre selection policies. But I fear that with the arrival of Peter Moores as coach, in fact, very little has changed. Witness the sudden inclusion of Sussex players in the squad – amongst whom, of course, the latest wicket-keeper to be preferred to Chris Read. (Moores used to be the Sussex coach).

Incidentally – what’s going on there? Anyone But Read is, we know, the established policy, which Moores is only continuing. But even I have to admit that Paul Nixon (given the sort of extended run in the team always denied to Chris Read) actually did very well for England in the World Cup. He was one of the very few in the squad to emerge with any credit. So, of course, he is dropped!!

The reason I say that little has changed is simple – David Graveney is still Chair of Selectors. It was Graveney who cravenly allowed Fletcher to subvert selection procedures to install his favourites; Graveney who presided over the fiasco of the winter Ashes tour and World Cup – and Graveney who continues in post. How can selection improve?

Equally worrying is the precipitate manner in which Moores was drafted in to replace Fletcher. No less an authority than former England captain Mike Brearley has expressed serious doubts about this. He questions both the speed and wisdom of the appointment, saying “there can have been no proper search.”

Brearley continues,

"However good Moores is, there was no time to advertise the job, and it is not right for such an important job to be handed out without proper competition. We should have had more rigorous discussion and careful thought about what this new coach's role will be, and in what sort of a set-up."

What sort of set-up? Why, the traditional one long suspected in England cricket! Brearley confirms what we have always really known:

"I question the manner and timing of [Moores'] selection as England head coach. His selection smacks of favouritism."

Not so very different from Duncan Fletcher and the "old" regime then!

Catching up!

2007-05-15T16:14:00.000+01:00

I knew I hadn’t blogged for a while, but I was surprised to find my last entry was back in the middle of March! It’s been busy since then, but surely not that busy?!

What have I been up to? Well, 17 March was the first anniversary of my Dad’s death, and as you can imagine, there was a whole lot of emotion around that time. But I don’t know if I can really reflect coherently about that. As with other bereavements, I’m very much up and down. The biggest things I can sometimes carry off, whilst the smallest things “get me”! A familiar pattern.

I have taken on some responsibilities within the Diocesan Readers’ Association, including a role in our Archdeaconry, which is interesting and stimulating, but demanding too. Sometimes I don’t cope so well with “demanding”! It is literally years and years since I took on a new job!

Of course, there has been Easter – and Easter holidays! We managed a few days in London, including a trip to the theatre to see Stomp! I also managed to see the Cabinet War Rooms again – I’d been wanting to see the new Churchill Museum there, which is excellent, but I had seriously underestimated the time I would need to go round it all, so I ended up rushing. (Those who know me would probably say that one can never underestimate the time I take in museums …!) Actually my best trip to London was an indulgent day to see Richard Schiff – yes, Toby in The West Wing – in a one-man tour de force Underneath The Lintel. I even got to hang around at the stage door and meet him after the performance! (I know …!)

My wife arranged for a group of us to see African Snow at York Theatre Royal, so I’ve been to the theatre more times in the last couple of months than I usually manage in years. That, too, was a remarkable presentation. I have been greatly affected by what I have learnt around the anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. In reality, that whole era of slavery is a Holocaust we British are responsible for – I’d never really thought about it before. We saw Amazing Grace at the cimema too – a superb film, well worth seeing.

What else? In football, Free Agency and the NFL Draft, of course. The Packers are still re-building – no big acquisitions and some impatience from us fans – and from the franchise Quarterback too, by all accounts. And looking back, it’s surprising how many friends have dropped in – or attempted to – which rather makes me wonder why I sometimes feel isolated, happy as we are in our “new” place.

So, that’s a very quick sketch – am I up to date? Haven't even mentioned the prospect of a new Prime Minister, the replacement of the England Cricket Coach … What have I been thinking about all of that??

As for blogging - must try harder!

Cameron moves to the Left

2007-03-16T16:59:00.000Z

Just in case anyone was in any doubt about the quality of political reporting and analysis in the UK, here is the latest political story: Tory leader David Cameron has changed his hairstyle!!

The BBC analyses the implications here.

Amongst the profound insights the Corporation brings us is this:

"Several commentators noticed the change on Wednesday and had come up with their own theories for it. Some thought it was an attempt to look more masculine, but others said a left parting was more feminine.

"Daily Mail sketchwriter Quentin Letts said image was important to voters and told the BBC: 'Cameron seems to be changing direction - which is of course a very good metaphor for what he's doing with his party.'

"But a spokesman said of Mr Cameron's change: 'There is no political significance in his decision to do so.'"

Naturally the Daily Mail had to be involved somewhere - good to know that "newspaper" is keeping up its standards!

The BBC report ends by sonorously informing us that a recent photo of Mr Cameron appeared to show his first grey hairs!

Is it any wonder, given this quality of media coverage of the political issues of our day?!! Any serious politician, or anyone who cares for the quality of our democracy would be tearing their hair out!

The Anglican Way

2007-03-05T17:08:00.000Z

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Dave Walker sums up where he's at - at present!

I reckon that I can tick 3 out of the 4 boxes - and I love a mug of tea. My problem is that I don't know whether I am a post-evangelical or a pre-liberal!

Questions? You gotta love 'em!

2007-03-02T17:06:00.000Z

Maggi Dawn has blogged this quotation from the poet Rilke which has a wonderful insight into the value of questions:

I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

— From the letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, [my emphases].

Maggi's full blog entry is here, together with a link to where she found the reference.

Not sure the candles would work quite so well in our shower?!

"The love of God is broader ..."

2007-02-22T12:27:00.000Z

Thanks to Karin for blogging this Thought for the Day from Giles Fraser.

It closes with a quotation from one of my very favouite hymns:

"For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind
And the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind
But we make his love too narrow with false limits of our own
And we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not own."

[Pity about the exclusive language - but I quibble!!]

Diversity in Faith

2007-02-20T17:16:00.000Z

Father Matthew juggles the issues!

Watch him here: Diversity in Faith

For me, this is mavellously profound!

A Costly Standard

2007-02-20T12:54:00.000Z

Canon Mark Harris, an Episcopal Priest in the Diocese of Delaware, says however that "the fat is in the fire." He reminds us that the standard is not one set by the Primates, the Lambeth Conference or anyone else ...

The Standard and its costs.

He writes [my emphases]:

"Jesus is Lord as a standard makes everybody nervous, and it sure should make the Primates nervous.

"The Communiqué has many good things in it, and I can only imagine how hard the Primates had to work to cobble something together. But I am sorry to say, I am unmoved by the constant reference to Lambeth 1.10 as 'standard of teaching on human sexuality.' As far as I can tell it says nothing about human sexuality, save to dictate the proper limits of the rubbing together of body parts. I remain unmoved by that as ethics.

"In a world in which the modus operandi is death and destruction we have every reason to wish that people would form covenants between and among themselves for their common welfare and good, honoring and loving one another in ways that are respectful and supportive, and when possible with sensual delight. I am unmoved by the constant rumble that there is this STANDARD. It sits like a millstone around the necks of all of us."

Read the whole piece here.

I state the obvious: we must continue to pray.

An early American response to the Communiqué

2007-02-20T12:19:00.000Z

I thought this was a interesting and measured first response to the Communiqué from Fr Tony Clavier, an Episcopal Priest in West Virginia.

The Primates Speak

Amongst other things, Fr Tony writes:

"The House of Bishops and the Executive Council [of the Episcopal Church of the US] are being given perhaps the most difficult and most important decision in the history of Anglicanism in America. At least the Canadians have now ample warning to prepare themselves to respond to the [world-wide Anglican Communion].

"Surely if it is in God's will that gays and lesbians may marry, or bishops in same sex relationships are the thing of the future, we can all wait to see if this revelation becomes apparent more widely across the world before we break ranks with our family and tradition?

In the meantime perhaps those on the right can practice good manners and the language of Anglican diplomacy."

Do read the whole piece here.

Waiting must be especially difficult for those who feel marginalised and excluded - but there are those on all "sides" who must be feeling this way.

Dangerous innovations!

2007-02-20T11:23:00.000Z

The Primates of the Anglican Communion have concluded their meeting and issued their Communiqué. Because I am "a bear of very little brain" (especially in such matters as these!) I have not begun to digest the text or its implications, but I did notice one particular phrase.

Paragraph 10 of the Communiqué speaks of the "two threats to our common life" identified in the Windsor Report -

"certain developments in the life and ministry of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada which challenged the standard of teaching on human sexuality", and

"cross-boundary interventions" in the life of those Provinces.

It then explains that:

"the cross-boundary interventions arose from a deep concern for the welfare of Anglicans in the face of innovation." [My emphasis].

That's what got me!

Innovation in the church - whatever next?!

We now have official confirmation - at the highest level - that innovation causes deep concern for the welfare of Anglicans!

It's probably just me, but I wouldn't have thought that the outbreak of rampant innovation was all that much of a danger in the Anglican Church!

One of my favourite events in the life of the Church is when Peter is asked to go to the house of Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10. I am bound to observe that if Peter had not responded positively to God's will for innovation, then there would be no Anglican Communion!

What is truthiness?!

2007-02-18T20:29:00.000Z

Here is an excellent primer from epiScope on

How to read the UK Press.

A magnificent dissection of what passes for journalism these days!

Amongst other things, it has introduced me to a new word:

truthiness noun
the quality of stating facts that you believe or want to be true, rather than stating facts that are known to be true.

I will be using it, and its associated adjective truthy at every possible opportunity!

Thanks to Dylan for bringing this to my attention in her digest of anglicana.

Time to Listen

2007-02-18T19:07:00.000Z

Reading Father Rick Lord's comments on the Anglican Primates' Meeting, I am reminded that we are supposed to be listening to each other, and particularly to the experiences of gay and lesbian Christians.

Rick begins by remarking (my emphases):

"All week long I've been struggling to write a post on this blog about events unfolding at the Anglican Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I am encouraged by every attempt the Primates are making to hold the Anglican Communion together and equally discouraged by pronouncements about 'impaired communion' and the astonishingly prideful (in my opinion) walk out of seven primates yesterday from a scheduled Eucharist. I wonder if Jesus envisioned his followers using the Eucharist as a form of protest? I have to agree with Jim Naughton [Director of Communications at the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC] who is quoted in an AP release as saying:

'Imagine if every believer, everywhere insisted on knowing the views of every other worshiper in a church on all the hot-button issues of our time before they would agree to go to Eucharist. When you don't attend a Eucharist because you disagree with the views of the people who are attending with you, you make it seem that the Eucharist is about you. It is not about you. It is about God.'

Here on the ground, in the daily grace and grind of the human condition, we are about to begin the season of Lent, a season that calls us to return, to come to grips with the genuine state of affairs within our hearts, to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. We will confront the hard truths of our pride and mortality."

Rick goes on to reflect on the Transfiguration, on who we should really be listening to, and on what it might mean if we did.

Read his article in full here.

Thanks to Kathryn for pointing me to Rick's reflection, and for her own perspective, as one who has presided at the Eucharist today.

Rick concludes:

"So I continue to pray for our leaders, our bishops and primates, that they will indeed be enlightened by God's special grace. May they listen to God's beloved Son and recognize him in one another with the eyes of faith and the eyes of love. Pray God, that I can do the same."

Grace - God's pass mark!

2007-02-17T22:23:00.000Z

As usual, Dave Walker is hitting ecclesiastical nails squarely on their heads!

His comment on the "Communion Sub-Group" report on The Episcopal Church of the USA reflects a rather more generous assessment than I fear will be forthcoming from some ...

The full series of cartoons is on Dave's Cartoon blog here
Permalink: http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2007/02/16/the-primates-meeting/

Please pray for the Anglican Communion

2007-02-17T22:06:00.000Z

Just to show that I am not completely obsessed by snubs to a cricketer ...

Here is a wonderful post by Kathryn urging us to pray for the Primates of the Anglican Communion, meeting in Tanzania. (Naturally, I had completely missed the typo - but a very appropriate prayer).

Is this shipwreck?

Heavenly Father, in your Son Jesus Christ

You reconcile the world to yourself.

Forgive us when our own hurt and anger drowns out your voice.

Forgive us when our divisions distort your image

and hinder the proclamation of your Gospel of freedom for all.

Give us that love that drives out fear

So that we may journey on together

In the unity which is your gift and your will

Through that same Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

AABR policy no surprise to Newell

2007-02-16T16:57:00.000Z

I was wondering when Nottinghamshire's Director of Cricket Mick Newell would comment on England's treatment of his wicket-keeper. Here are his comments ... I actually think he has been quite restrained!

Newell slams England selectors
(from the Notts CCC website), my emphases added.

Mick Newell has strongly criticised the England hierarchy after Chris Read was left out of the England squad for next month’s World Cup.

The 28-year-old wicketkeeper ended last season as England’s number one behind the stumps, but coach Duncan Fletcher axed him for the start of the Ashes in favour of Geraint Jones.

Jones’ lack of form eventually led to a recall for Read, only for the selectors to then call up 36-year-old Leicestershire stumper Paul Nixon for the CB Series.

Nixon has now been named as first choice for the World Cup, with Read returning home without being given a chance to prove his case for selection.

Newell said: “It is no surprise at all that Chris has not been picked when you consider the way the winter has gone for him.

“His treatment has been appalling from the moment he was dropped at the start of the Ashes tour without even getting the chance to play in a warm-up game. If they didn’t want him there, then why take him?

“I don’t think he will ever get back into the side under Duncan Fletcher, but if a different coach comes in, then you never know.”

The BBC has this interview with Newell, which adds a little more to the saga. Most revealing is this (my emphases):

"Chris wasn't given any chance to compete this winter. The man-management of him has been poor. ... He was told two weeks before the first Test in Australia that he wasn't going to be in the side. But if that's the case, how has he got any opportunity to compete for a place?

"Everyone would agree he's not only the best wicket-keeper in England but right up there in the top two or three in the world. But I just don't think Fletcher rates him as a cricketer and doesn't want him in the team. "

Newell's summary:

"The whole thing has been made very difficult by the way it has been handled and that has been down to Duncan Fletcher."

Maybe Fletcher is finally going to find the guts to actually exclude Chris Read from selection - or maybe the England Selectors are going to find the guts to take back responsibility for the selection of the team.

But no ... that ship sailed with the departure of Read's staunch supporter Rodney Marsh - who, after all, knows a bit about wicket-keeping! And as an Aussie, he knows a bit about winning too!

ABR policy confirmed!

2007-02-14T14:46:00.000Z

This from the BBC Sport website, on England's squad:

"Paul Nixon is the only wicket-keeper in the 15. [Chair of England Cricket Selectors, David] Graveney said that if necessary Andrew Strauss or Ed Joyce could take the gloves."

As both Strauss and Joyce are specialist batsmen, this, in fact, represents a refinement of the "Anyone but Read" policy. The policy, enunciated by the Chair of Selectors, is now

"Absolutely anyone but Read!"

Anyone but ...

2007-02-14T13:56:00.000Z

So Paul Nixon has been selected as England's only wicket-keeper in the Cricket World Cup. I am bound to ask "Why?!"

Consider the following statistics from cricinfo.com:

England Career (one-day internationals)

Player/ Matches/Runs/Highest Score/Average

Nixon 10/ 104/ 49/11.55

Read 36/300/30*/17.64

Jones 49/815/80/24.69

The natural conclusion from this evidence is:

if you want a world-class wicketkeeper who can bat, pick Chris Read;

if you want a batsman who is a barely competent 'keeper standing back, pick Geraint Jones.

Nixon is neither Read nor Jones!

He is however Duncan Fletcher's latest choice as England wicket-keeper! As the Americans say: "Go figure!"

One would be hard pressed to figure out Fletcher's selection policy at wicket-keeper - particuarly if one were Jones or Read!

As recently as the beginning of England's disastrous tour of Australia, Fletcher was lauding Jones as the best man for the job. This at least had the virtue of consistency, since Fletcher had given Jones an extended run in the side, despite his lack of success.

Then the coach generously allowed Read his customary 2 games (in a completely demoralised team, at the end of an Ashes series which had already been lost).

Then he plucked Nixon from a career in county cricket - with the singularly underwhelming results chronicled above. And many of those innings were played from No 8 in the order, whereas Jones and Read had batted at 7.

But Nixon it is for the World Cup. Again: "Why?!"

The inescapable conclusion is the one posted by a contributor to a BBC cricket forum a few days ago: Fletcher's policy regarding the selection of England's wicket-keeper is in fact very simple:

"Anyone but Read".

Well, I now have a similar view regarding the post of England Cricket Coach:

"Anyone but Fletcher!"

Nice try, Mr Graveney!

2007-02-12T14:03:00.000Z

David Graveney, the chair of England's cricket selectors, says that critics of his coach, Duncan Fletcher, should apologise after England's one-day series win over Australia and New Zealand.

Is he joking?! (Decide for yourself here)

Mr Graveney may kid himself, but he doesn't kid me!

However welcome, a win in a money-spinning one-day series in no way makes up for England's totally abject 5-0 defeat in the Ashes Tests. Messrs Graveney and Fletcher have presided over a tour in which the shortcomings of their preparation and selection policy were cruelly exposed, and in which the Ashes were not just lost, but tamely and pitifully surrendered.

If that doesn't make David Graveney and Duncan Fletcher apologetic, then nothing will!

Procrastinate, moi?

2007-02-07T17:41:00.000Z

This is worrying! It's beginning to look as if Dave may have a hidden camera in my study!!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Save the Planet - Stop Ironing

2007-02-06T17:48:00.000Z

Here's an inspired idea from Dave Walker - it could just work!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Wittgenstein, Freud and wheelie bins!

2007-02-06T14:59:00.000Z

What an unexpected joy to have Clive James back on our airwaves with his first contribution to BBC Radio 4's A Point of View! I normally dip out when Brian Walden finishes a stint on this programme, but now I'll try and tune in to Mr James - always providing my Sunday morning hasn't degenerated into full panic mode by 8.50 am!

This week Clive touches on environmental issues, seduction by language and male pride. I especially enjoyed this section on the wheelie bin and male/female roles. To say that I recognised myself would be ... absolutely true!

In Cambridge we divide our garbage into two wheelie bins, marked compostable and non-compostable.

The two classifications don't apply to the wheelie bins, both of which are made of heavy-duty, non-compostable plastic, but do apply to their contents.

As the dolt of the household, a mere male and therefore little more than a brain-stem with a bank account, I myself am correctly regarded as too stupid to decide what goes into each bin. My job is to substitute one bin for another in the garden shed according to which week which bin is collected.

Only women are clever enough to plan this schedule but only men can do the heavy labour involved, employing the brute force for which they have been famous since the cave, when everything was biodegradable.

... Each time I change the bins I almost subtract myself from the present total of the inhabitants of East Anglia because for evolutionary reasons I am unable to lug one bin out and push the other bin in without impacting my forehead into the top frame of the shed door.

After the first time I fell to the flagstones clutching my bisected skull, when I jokingly suggested to the three watching eco-furies [wife and 2 daughters] that if I croaked in mid-manoeuvre they could always recycle me, I was informed that this possibility was on the cards because just outside of town there is a cemetery where they will bury you in a cardboard box.

There is also a graveyard called All Souls which has two wheelie bins standing outside it, one marked "All Souls compostable" and the other marked "All Souls non-compostable".

In the terminology we use in our household, it is important to recognise which are the "blue jobs" and the "pink jobs"!

Clive's full talk is here.

Community

2007-01-25T11:29:00.001Z

I have had the opportunity to listen to 2 wise Christian leaders in recent weeks – Archbishop Sentamu and Rev Graham Carter, current President of the Methodist Conference. Both were inspiring and much of what each said seemed to me to echo the other. (My reflections on what they said are mine alone – sadly I cannot vouch for the reliability of my memory, so I should emphasise that these are my impressions of what I heard!)

They both touched on the subject of community, in terms of how we relate to other Christian denominations and, as Christians, to other faith groups, whilst remaining true to our own distinctive beliefs. To me, and doubtless to others too, this had resonance for the differing groups within the CofE and the Anglican Communion too!

Graham Carter made the point that unity and community is about much more than simply going down a statement of faith and ticking boxes. Both he and Abp Sentamu stressed the importance of listening to each other with respect, but that those of other faiths did not expect – or want – Christians to abandon our beliefs. We should however engage in dialogue and work together wherever we can, as a recognition and reflection of our common humanity. Both leaders were also very clear that we cannot expect – nor should we claim – to understand God, nor to know the entire truth.

In her blog, Kathryn has recently reminded me of Henri Nouwen’s book of reflections, Bread for the Journey. I have started to use these again – and just the other day there was this reflection on community:

Community, a quality of heart.

The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naiveté. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4). The question therefore is not “How can we make community?” but “How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?”

[Emphases mine]

Are we as a Church – am I as an individual – exclusive, self-satisfied and isolated? Or are we – am I – open-hearted, looking outwards, seeing the interests and concerns of others as more important than my own?

May God build in us, and through us, broad, inclusive communities where we can share our humanity in safety, trust and love.

A Christian Response?

2007-01-10T16:52:00.000Z

Ekklesia reports the response of Faithworks leader Revd Malcolm Duncan to the controversy over the Sexual Orientation Regulations. Mr Duncan argues for a truly Christian response - ie one which reflects the love of Jesus. He says

"Christians are called to follow Jesus’ example, and he says remarkably little about sexuality in scripture. Rather, he treats all people he comes across with love and acceptance, and does not refuse his service to anyone, even if he does not agree with their lifestyle."

He concludes

"The proposed SORs are an opportunity for Christians to demonstrate the love and grace of Christ. However, vociferous opposition, a lack of constructive dialogue, and threats of civil disobedience mean that the Church is in danger of sounding homophobic and is doing little to give itself a credible voice." [My emphases.]

The complete report is here, and Mr Duncan's explanation of his position here.

How very refreshing to hear an evangelical voice raised for love and grace, not to mention constructive dialogue. Could it catch on?!

Obsessive, moi?

2007-01-09T12:13:00.000Z

Now the England "cricket" team, fresh from losing heavily to Australia in the Ashes series, loses heavily to Australia in a 20-20 game. I see that the usual selection policy has been applied - Chris Read has had his customary 2 matches and is dropped again!

Do tell me if I'm getting boring on this subject ....

Just a fan

2007-01-05T11:19:00.000Z

When Chris Read was belatedly recalled to the England cricket team in August, the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew wrote:

“It is to be hoped that [Read’s] return comes with the similarly generous guarantee of an extended run that Jones was given in Antigua."

Which I thought was admirably even-handed of him, and I said so in one of my earlier rants!

Yesterday, after Chris Read had played 3 and a half Tests, Agnew wrote:

“[Read] is not a number seven batsman at this level”.

What price generosity and even-handedness?

Of course, I berated him on the Test Match Special blog – but in truth, I have to wonder if he is right. Ready’s scores of 3, 26 not out, 2 & 4 in this woeful Ashes series can hardly be characterised as a man seizing his opportunity – even though his wicket-keeping has, of course, been world class.

Chris Read’s misfortune in coming up against one of the truly great test sides, at the top of their devastating form, reminds me of the fate which befell many England batsmen in the 1970s, when granted the dubious privilege of a tour to the West Indies!

The truth is that, in almost every department – including management and preparation – this England team has been soundly beaten by the best team in the world. What this tells us long term about the abilities of the players involved is difficult to say. They have played well against lesser Test sides, and it may be harsh to discount them on the evidence of this hammering, embarrassing as it has been.

My fear is that the customary rush to judgement will be unfair on many of them – Chris Read included.

Anyone wondering about my record as a sports pundit might also like to know that, after my early and vehement criticism (see September 06 archive), my beloved Green Bay Packers managed a record of 8-8 in the NFL regular season and very nearly made the playoffs. Their season, which began with a 26-0 shutout loss to their old rivals the Chicago Bears, ended with a 26-7 win at the Bears. Symmetry and hope for continued improvement – hope deferred if legendary QB Brett Favre does not return for another year!

After all, in Football as in Cricket, what do I know? I’m just a fan!

From the bizarre to the ridiculous

2006-12-20T15:41:00.000Z

Time to review the England cricket coach Duncan Fletcher's decision to install Geraint Jones as England's wicket keeper for the current Ashes tests against Australia.

You will recall that Mr Fletcher has selected Jones on the basis of his being "the better package" compared to rival Chris Read. By this he means that Jones is the better batsman ... (see previous rant here)

Since I last wrote, England have played 3 and lost 3 in the 5 match series, and hence have lost the Ashes in the shortest possible time. Geraint Jones' scores in these 3 tests have been:

19, 33, 1, 10, 0 and 0 - an average of 10.50.

As such, he actually averages comfortably below spin bowler and No 11 batsman Monty Panesar - who Mr Fletcher also contends can't bat - but there's another (related) story!

It will be interesting to see who Fletcher picks to keep wicket in the next Test. Does Geraint Jones get yet another chance to make some runs? If so, then things really will have gone from the bizarre to the ridiculous!

The Offence of Religious Festivals

2006-12-09T19:09:00.000Z

Stimulated by current objections around whether we should celebrate Christmas at all, when this might be offensive to some, John Bell of the Iona Community offered this "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4. (The emphases are mine.)

Thought for the Day, 7 December 2006

John Bell

Today is Thursday, but I don't hear many people objecting. At least I haven't noticed anyone in Glasgow ripping calendars from office walls in protest against the workplace being invaded by a religion which not everyone espouses.

I mean, Thursday celebrates Thor the god of weather and crops. And Thor was the son of Odin or Woden the god of war, education and poetry whose name is honoured every Wodensday or Wednesday. Such revelations tempt me to exclaim, 'By Jove!' But that would offend countless millions who don't want to be reminded that Jove or Jupiter is the god of oaths, treaties and marriages.

It's not just Christmas trees, flashing stars and civic nativity scenes that are suspect. For the sake of linguistic purity we'll have to go the second mile...except that would be quoting Jesus and non-believers would demand we say goodbye (or God be with you) to all that!

If you think this is an allusion to the annual displacement activity of taking Christ out of Christmas, you're dead right. But it's not because Christmas needs to preserved as the prime opportunity for the churches to engage in furtive evangelism via Bing Crosby's voice and charity greeting cards. No, I would want to defend Christmas as I'd defend Hanukkah or Ramadan or any comparable religious festival of a celebratory nature. For it seems to me that they have a humanitarian potential in reminding us of realities such as love, justice and generosity which transcend mundaneness and ego-centricity. And I believe that such festivals, which can include and enhance the lives of believers and non-believers alike, are increasingly necessary as the economies of the western world offer an alternative and much more sinister pantheon of deities for honouring.

Some of these deities hide behind advertised products I would not be allowed to mention here on air, but if I ask who comes to mind when I speak of fulfilment through eating fast foods, or success through having brand named clothing, you'll know the kind allurement I'm referring to. And you might also recognise that encouraging people to believe that having is more important than being is a much more socially exclusive activity than erecting a Christmas tree or hanging up tinsel.

To speak from a purely Christian perspective, a festival like Christmas which is centred on peace, humility and generosity is hardly a threat to a profit-driven secular society which can fund a foreign war but cannot eradicate child poverty. It is not a threat, but it might be a corrective.

Naomi Campbell's palate

2006-11-30T16:29:00.000Z

Did you happen to see recent reports about model Naomi Campbell and her court case? Here is The Independent's report:

Naomi Campbell to negotiate "palatable" community service

"Lawyers for Naomi Campbell, the model accused of assaulting a former maid with a mobile phone, are negotiating with prosecutors in New York in an effort to avoid a trial - and the possibility of a long prison term - in exchange for agreeing to community service.

"But her lawyer insisted that any such task would have to be 'palatable', fund-raising for Aids or cancer research rather than sweeping the streets, as Boy George recently did.
...

"Were [Ms Campbell] to be found guilty of the allegations made against her, she could technically serve up to seven years in prison and then be deported.

"[Her lawyer] declined to offer any details on how the negotiations were going. He did, however, indicate that he was setting conditions on the kind of community service his client would be prepared to do. Sweeping the streets, for example, would be out of the question."

Is it just me?? Setting conditions?!?!

Perhaps such a statement doesn't sound as outrageous in legal circles as it does to me, but my immediate reaction - not tempered a great deal by the opportunity for mature consideration - is that the authorities should break off any further negotiations and let matters take their course!

I suspect that after a little while in prison, even Ms Campbell's discerning palate might acquire a taste for a little community service!

Mixed weekend - and a refresher course!

2006-11-23T11:21:00.000Z

A very mixed weekend was last weekend! Some discouragements at church - about which probably the less said the better - but one of the high points was the Service of Admission and Licensing of Readers at the Minster.

Archbishop Sentamu battled laryngitis (if that's how you spell it) to preside and preach. The sermon and the service were both encouraging and challenging - which is as it should be! There's a report here - scroll down to the bottom to read Sentamu's sermon.

I always find such services a good reminder of what I "signed up to" - a kind of "refresher course." It's exactly the same when I attend weddings!! How about this, from the Admission and Licensing:

"Readers have the privilege and responsibility of participating in a ministry whose form reflects the richness of God's gifts to them, affirmed and celebrated by the Church. They are called to care, in public and private ministry, for God's people. They should share, with the clergy alongside whom they serve, a ministry of mutual upbuilding, encouragement and support."

Wow! I need to reflect on that regularly!!

The trouble is that it takes an awful lot of affirmation, mutual upbuilding, encouragement and support to overcome some of the other stuff which we receive from time to time!

But hey, that's just my personality type coming out - and my thin skin!

I think the point is that, (rather than checking for specks of dust in other people's eyes), I need to concentrate on fulfilling my calling: my "privilege and responsibility."

"By the help of God, I will."

Archbishop Rowan, women priests and a good story

2006-11-16T17:58:00.000Z

I thought I heard a report on BBC Radio 4 this morning that the Archbishop of Canterbury was being equivocal about women's ordination. Well, it turns out I needn't have worried. Once again I am reminded of the question:

"Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?"

Archbishop Rowan says he has been the victim of "wilful misinterpretation" - it's not entirely clear by whom. (Text of his press release here).

To her great credit, Maggi Dawn never doubted him for a moment - as she reveals here. She says it's just that he is a natural academic rather than a natural politician! Sadly our media do not understand (or choose not to understand) people who "say thoughtful things out loud in public".

Even Ruth Gledhill of The Times was apparently wrongfooted - but she recovers her footing here. She explains that

"[Archbishop Rowan] is a victim of his own fairmindedness. What we have here is a fair and lovely man who is a terrible polemecist."

and that

"We should still remind ourselves when coming across such statements that Dr Williams is a poet. Balance and ambiguity are just a few of the devices to which he is drawn by both inclination and practice. "

May we deduce from this that balance and fairmindedness are alien to our modern media? Or am I being unduly polemical?

Bizarre is one word for it!

2006-11-13T21:26:00.000Z

Firstly, I have to declare an interest: I am a Nottinghamshire Cricket fan, and have been all my life. Readers therefore need to be aware that Chris Read plays for Nottinghamshire!

Secondly, it is a while since I have had a really good rant! So ...

England Cricket coach Duncan Fletcher has announced that Geraint Jones will again be England’s wicket-keeper for the first Ashes test, replacing Chris Read. Fletcher states, somewhat enigmatically, that in his view Jones is “the better package”.

Once again we are being fed the line that Jones is the better batsman of the two. This is still in the realms of theory – in practice Jones has proved himself little better than Read, despite having ample and extended opportunity. No-one (except Jones’ county coach) seriously contends that Jones is the better 'keeper.

What price equality of opportunity? When Jones controversially replaced Read, Fletcher generously guaranteed him an extended run in the team – a run which in fact extended to 31 Tests. The coach kept his protégé in the team until it was absolutely impossible to defend his mediocrity (with gloves or bat) any longer.

Commenting at the time, the BBC Cricket Correspondent Jonathan Agnew expressed a desire for even-handedness:

“It is to be hoped that [Read’s] return comes with the similarly generous guarantee of an extended run that Jones was given in Antigua. “ (Agnew’s article in full is here)

A vain hope!! Chris Read has played 2 (yes, two) Tests before finding himself out of favour with the England hierarchy again – during which he has kept impeccably and scored 38, 55 and 33. Yes, that’s 31 Tests against 2.

Whenever the two players are compared, it is apparent that Fletcher is prepared to excuse any number of wicket-keeping errors by Jones, and yet any minor blemish on the part of Read is magnified as if he were expected to be infallible. Conversely with the bat, Jones can do no wrong – even whilst in reality doing very little of note at all – whilst Read can score as many runs as he likes and still be stigmatised as “unable to bat”.

Anyone watching Chris Read’s performances for Notts, and his 2 Test return to the England team, can see just how ridiculous this jaded assessment of his batting now is!

And yet Mr Fletcher continues to extol his favourite – the “better package”!

Mick Newell, Read’s county coach says that the latest decision to eject Read and re-instate Jones after so little time and with so little evidence is “very bizarre”. [Newell's views reported here]. His restraint (and Chris Read’s, to date) is to be admired. Personally, I have always felt that there is more to it than that.

The truth is that whatever Chris Read does – and he has done remarkably well by any standard over the past 2 years and more – Fletcher will never give him credit.

Whilst Duncan Fletcher is the England coach, Geraint Jones is anointed as the favoured son. However badly he keeps wicket, he is always “working hard”, always “improving”, and he only has to get a few runs, very occasionally, to have his England place guaranteed. I’m sure Fletcher always intended to pick Jones for the Ashes Tests – whatever Chris Read did with his token 2 Tests in the interval.

Bizarre is one word for it.

The BBC's Martin Gough manages a more balanced assessment than I can here. His explanation of the "intriguing" selection process, and of Fletcher's role in it, is particularly informative.

Vicarage wildlife?!

2006-11-07T17:36:00.000Z

Making my way round a local supermarket this afternoon, I rang the Vicar, my wife, to check up on my shopping list - no reply. A few minutes later she rang back with a confusing tale.

She hadn't been able to answer because the postman wanted her to see the beaver cubs!

Now, I'm a duffer on all matters relating to wildlife - so this one really confused me! We have beaver cubs at the Vicarage?!?

Well, not exactly ...! It seems the postman who came while I was out is also a Cub Leader, and the Beavers are a junior branch of the Scouting movement! I guess the visit is now in the diary.

Now, of course, I should have known that - but that's not what I heard!!

Blogging from India!

2006-11-06T20:40:00.000Z

No, not me!! I'm way too much of a wimp!

But Kathryn - Good in Parts - is managing to keep up her wonderful blog during her visit to India. Now that's what I call a curacy placement!

Read her latest here.

A revisionist view of Suez

2006-11-03T10:55:00.000Z

Anyone who has been following the analysis of the Suez Crisis 50 years on might be interested in Andrew Roberts' re-assessment here.

It is clear from this that Mr Roberts is no champion of "high-minded liberal internationalism", but it's intersting to read a view so radically different from the one I grew up with.

For example, Mr Roberts contends that "[US President] Eisenhower himself years later admitted that not supporting [British PM] Eden over Suez had been his greatest foreign policy mistake."

He also states:

"On the eve of victory, just as General Hugh Stockwell telegraphed Downing Street to say that within 48 hours the entire Canal Zone would be in British hands, Eden was stabbed in the back by a cabal of unscrupulous Cabinet colleagues, short-sighted allies and a small and unrepresentative group of Tory liberal internationalists.

"It is undoubtedly true that Suez tragically proved that Britain was no longer a Great Power, but this was their fault, not Eden's. "

I enjoy reading Andrew Roberts' "counterfactual" history - it might be a little harsh to place this in the same category!

Andrew Roberts' full Suez article
Andrew Roberts' website
BBC's "Remembering Suez" section - a more conventional viewpoint

One day in my history

2006-10-25T17:52:00.000+01:00

You may know that the History Matters website is encouraging people to contribute to "One Day In History". We are all asked to post our own accounts of one day - Tuesday 17 October - to provide a kind of electronic time capsule for future generations.

Well, you might know that I couldn't resist adding my 650 words - though even on an "ordinary" day I had difficulty keeping within the word limit. That shouldn't really surprise anyone either ...! ;-)

So, here is my contribution ...

Today has been a fairly ordinary, uneventful day! My wife and I have a wonderful 14-year-old son. She is a parish priest in the Church of England. I suppose women clergy are a new historic trend in the CofE. I am a Reader – effectively a volunteer worker for the Church.

My day begins at 7.25 am. Start negotiations with our son about him getting up. Kettle on – cup of tea essential! Make breakfast and packed lunch for son, then cereal for me. My wife joins me in front of Breakfast TV – I have my daily moan about how little real news there is on it any more.

Son finally up and out to school. I shower and shave. Got to write a talk for the service at church tomorrow, so now begins the desperate search for anything else to do, rather than knuckle down to work! The Internet – always good for prevarication!

Read my emails, some related to my role as a Governor of our local Primary School. Governors’ Meeting last night – for me two overriding impressions remain. Firstly, the continual need to raise academic standards; and secondly, I don’t know how our Head-teacher copes. Heads these days have such demanding jobs! I must admit to feeling gloomy about the whole thing – and I am only on the very fringes!

Since I am feeling down, it occurs to me that I ought to pray! Need to get some perspective on things – and God might even have something he wants me to say about St Luke – it’s his day in the Church’s calendar tomorrow, and I still haven’t thought of anything. Conclude in a better frame of mind, but without inspiration on the subject of Luke!

Then, just as I almost get down to work – the phone rings! My brother ringing from his home in France. Our Dad died only a few months ago – Mum died 13 years ago – and we are trying to keep in touch. I feel strangely “out on my own” without our parents there to provide the “glue” holding us together. Now we really must make an effort to keep in contact, especially since we can hardly pop round for a chat. On the history theme, both Mum and Dad were involved in World War 2: Dad was captured at Dunkirk and a prisoner of war; Mum in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force – a wireless operator. What a remarkable generation – we have so much to be grateful to them for.

After the phone call, I declare an early lunch. My wife is “in” today, so we can eat together – a real benefit of her working from home. When we both went out to work, it was always difficult to make our lunch hours coincide.

The afternoon is spent reading, reflecting and writing about St Luke – see, I finally got round to it! Only one interruption: when our son gets home from school I take him to our doctors’ in the town for a booster inoculation. This is a multiple “jab”: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella. He faces the jab in his arm like a man; I have to look away – I know I get queasy about such things, so no point trying to impress anyone! We both survive OK! We take our healthcare for granted, but any one of those diseases would have been a threat not many years ago.

I’ve almost run out of words for my ordinary day – don’t worry, I don’t go on like this in church! Cooked dinner, then watched a film on DVD with my wife – unusually she wasn’t working this evening. Our son spends his evening upstairs on his computer. Then off to bed. Finished the day with a few pages from ex-President Bill Clinton’s autobiography – I love my modern history. Now President Clinton would never have been lost for words, even on St Luke!

"Locked-in vicar rings for help"

2006-10-25T17:08:00.000+01:00

My wife saw this on the Daily Telegraph web site - you can see why she would have spotted it.

There but for the grace of God go we! (Note especially the role of the son ... ours doesn't play the drums, but our vicarage is a bit further away from the church).

(Telegraph link here)

Locked-in vicar rings for help
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 1:52am BST 20/10/2006

A vicar who inadvertently locked himself and his wife into his church used the bell to send out a "morse code" distress call to his parishioners. The Rev Steve Rathbone, 45, spent 20 minutes pulling on the rope before neighbours in Rainbow, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, realised something was amiss.

Mr Rathbone and his wife, Jo, might have been freed earlier had their son, Jake, 16, who was in the vicarage next door, not been playing on his drum kit.

They became trapped after a coffee morning when a helper left the building and locked it, unaware anyone was inside.

Mr Rathbone, who has been the parish vicar of Rainbow for three years, said: "People said they didn't know for sure that it was an SOS, but they could tell it was an unusual rhythm for a church bell.

"They came to investigate, realised we were trapped and let us out – for which we were truly thankful".

"Now I have ..."

2006-10-25T15:35:00.000+01:00

Of course, some of us can quite naturally turn good news into bad news ...

Peter Graystone in the Church Times wrote this week that blogging is a good thing. However he recommends blogging every day for 15 minutes.

Is it Rex in Toy Story who says:

"Now I have guilt!" ?

So much to be guilty about, and so little time ;-)

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

2006-10-13T14:18:00.000+01:00

An interesting perspective on the "news" from our 14-year-old son. We were watching a BBC report on the Health Service which proclaimed, (as the web version does here) that "Half of NHS trusts 'must improve'". Our son, ever the mathematician, shot back:

"But that means that half of them are doing OK!"

It seems that for the BBC, the glass is always half-empty!

Meanwhile on the same day, the Corporation reported on the "failure" of the scheme allowing early release from prison in the UK in conjunction with electronic tagging - "Tagged offenders went on to kill."

Of course murder and violent crime is always truly dreadful, but you would have to read or listen very carefully indeed to glean that, in fact, re-offending rates for those released under the tagging scheme are considerably better than those released directly. I'm guessing that many of those released untagged also went on to kill.

The BBC is required to report in a balanced way - perhaps the balance is askew? Why give us the good news, when it can be presented as bad?

How about an MA in Robin Hood studies?

2006-10-12T12:20:00.000+01:00

Did you see this latest offering from my old University?

Robin Hood is a scholarly subject (BBC)

From Sherwood Forest to University Park (Univ of Nottingham)

As a former resident of Nottinghamshire - indeed of Robin Hood's Village - now living in Yorkshire, how could I miss this story?

Made in the image of God – marriage, right relationships and growing in community.

2006-10-11T17:17:00.001+01:00

Here is a remarkable commentary on Mark 10 2-9 – a passage on divorce which is daunting (to say the least!) for the preacher! It comes from the Lectionary Blog of Sarah Dylan Breuer of The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I shouldn’t even begin to try and summarise it – you have to read the whole piece! It deals with marriage and human sexuality, as well as relationships (in the particular and more general sense.) It is a glorious affirmation of the truth that all people are made in God’s image!

Here are some highlights which particularly struck me:

"'It is not good that the human should be alone'(Genesis 2:18).

God creates us for community. To become more fully who we are, who God made us to be, we need to walk alongside another who will be with us for the long haul, who sees us at our best and our worst and will tell us the truth about both, who knows us deeply and loves us unconditionally."

"With people made in God's image and created for self-giving love, that's an amazing experience of God's glory, God's creativity, and God's goodness."

"A relationship between two people that helps both live more fully in the world their identity and vocation as human beings made in God's image is blessed by God."

Sarah characterises this passage of Scripture as a profoundly liberating and challenging word from Jesus. She explains that it challenges our culture’s idolatry of romance and sexual attraction, pairing up and parenthood. It is a call to affirm singleness, as well as marriage.

She says that to take up the challenges of Jesus releases the potential to set us free for authentic right relationship with one another – each loved uniquely as God's child, each challenged and supported to grow in community.

Wow!! Go on – read the whole commentary here!

Certainty and humility in the Anglican Communion

2006-10-11T15:43:00.000+01:00

Here is a very interesting post from the blog of Father Rick Lord, World of Your Making, which recounts an evening spent with Abp Rowan and Jane Williams. The Archbishop's comments are illuminating - as you would expect! The full post is here

I was particularly struck by this:

"[The Archbishop] reminded us that there are those who affirm the authority of Scripture and the Lordship of Christ expressed through Scripture, but who do not share the same certainty as some of their brothers and sisters on the current issues so vigorously debated in the Communion today."

A little less certainty and a little more humility would go a long way.

David Beckham and Darren Clarke

2006-10-04T17:24:00.000+01:00

I was touched by this from golfer Darren Clarke's website

(You probably know that Darren's wife, Heather, recently died of cancer).

3 October 2006
Beckham Puts His Shirt 0n Clarkes

Darren Clarke writes …

I’ve never met David Beckham; I’ve no idea if he plays golf and, to be honest, I’d no idea he had any idea who I was.

Well now I do know because last week I received a parcel which proved to me what a scholar and gentleman the former England football captain is.

I was on the putting green at The Grove during last week’s American Express WGC event when somebody came over with a parcel addressed to me. Inside were three Real Madrid shirts all signed by David with personalised notes for myself and the two boys Tyrone and Conor.

It was a wonderful gesture particularly as it came from somebody I didn’t know personally. When I gave the shirts to the boys you should have seen their faces – they were beaming.

Full article: http://www.darrenclarke.com/ism/sites/clarke/clarke_article.shtml

Greatly exaggerated!

2006-09-29T19:47:00.000+01:00

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

So wrote Mark Twain in a cable from London to the Associated Press in 1897.

It seems however that AP has struck again. News outlets around the world reported the death this week of Paul Vance, co-writer of the song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. This came as a particular shock to Mr Vance, who saw the report on TV!

Apparently a woman who had been recently widowed repeated, in all innocence, her late husband’s claim that he had written the song.

The real live writer is still fending off telephone calls and reassuring relatives and friends that he is very much alive! Apparently he liked most of what was written in his obituaries – but wanted to take issue with some of the things he read!

The BBC had to retract it's report (here), whilst this is the Associated Press killing the story (here)! [The Guardian has now killed the link - probably not directly out of embarrassment!]

The Christian Life - a lifelong venture

2006-09-15T15:39:00.000+01:00

This week I came across a superbly honest description of what it is to be a Christian. Don't we all sometimes (often?) feel like this?

“The story of the human response to divine grace is the story of a lifelong venture. It has its moments of high drama, when the issues are clear and the demands costly. Fortunately, for most of us, those moments come not too often. At other times, the issues are filled with ambiguity, and decisive action is hard to come by. There are also lengthy periods when faithfulness seems more mundane. It consists of simply keeping at the task, struggling not to be overcome by our own weaknesses, sharing food with the hungry and seeking in small, usually unobserved ways to make the world a more humane place in which to live.”

(Walter Brueggemann, Charles B Cousar, Beverly R Gaventa, James D Newsome Texts for Preaching – Year B Westminster/John Knox Press 1993 p504)

Packer People

2006-09-15T15:11:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed a link on the right-hand side of the page to the Green Bay Packers' Website. You will not however have noticed any blog entries about the Packers - until now! This is because this season already has all the makings of a truly terrible one, and it's difficult to know where to start with my comments!

A singularly lacklustre pre-season has now been succeeded by the embarassment of a 26-0 home shutout by our greatest rivals, the Chicago Bears, in the regular season opener. The response of General Manager Ted Thompson and his new Head Coach Mike McCarthy has been underwhelming - signing troubled WR Koren Robinson (under threat of an NFL suspension for repeated alcohol abuse), the cutting of FB Vonta Leach, and now the trading of RB Samkon Gado who, despite doing great things last year, had apparently not managed to pick up Coach McCarthy's new blocking scheme.

On his arrival, McCarthy made much of his desire to work with what he called "Packer People". Now, I am all in favour of second chances - even though Robinson is on his (2+n)th chance by now. He may become a reformed character and a key part of the Packers' regeneration. After all, QB Brett Favre himself beat addiction to pain-killers to become one of the truly great ones.

But I am bound to ask, with the cutting of Leach (a model citizen) to make room for Robinson, and now the departure of Gado - for whom no-one (not even Thompson) has an unkind word ... just what exactly do "Packer People" look like?!

It's going to be a very, very long season - and even Ted Thompson may end up feeling the heat.

Yes (Prime) Minister

2006-08-31T14:27:00.000+01:00

Whilst on holiday, I supplemented our Yes Minister DVDs by buying the Yes Prime Minister ones. A bit indulgent, but on the other hand - they are so good!

I was looking for a particular quote on the web and found this excellent fan site:

The Yes (Prime) Minister Files

Looks like there is a lot of interesting material on there!

Links from the Edinburgh Fringe

2006-08-28T11:58:00.000+01:00

The links to the performances I saw are:

chimeric productions

and

Theâtre du Sablier

On the Brassens ... page there is information in English and French to download - see "Télécharger ici ... " about half way down.

Also, how 'bout this useful information I just found?!!

Typing French accents on your computer

Back from holiday

2006-08-22T18:33:00.000+01:00

Back from a super holiday in Scotland - first in Oban, then in Edinburgh for the Festival. First time we have been to the Festival - now I understand a little of what the fuss is about!

Saw Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (and was surprised how much I had forgotten of A-Level Hamlet!) and Brassens et la Femme - a musical presentation by a French Company (and was surprised how difficult I found some of it to understand!) But greatly enjoyed both productions!

Also the customary sight-seeing, lazing around and reading. What's more, we are working our way through all 7 Seasons of The West Wing! Wonderful stuff!

Much more to say, but I have some services to prepare and I will only get stressed and irritable if I don't get on with them ...

"Beyond Belief" programme on Mary Magdalene

2006-07-26T15:16:00.000+01:00

Mark Goodacre, in his NT Gateway blog, links to a programme from the Radio 4 series Beyond Belief about Mary Magdalene.

Mark's blog entry is here, whilst the audio file of the programme can be found here: Beyond Belief: 24 July 2006 (RealPlayer required)

The programme discusses Mary Magdalene in "myth", the popular imagination and in the Gospels, with due reference to The Da Vinci Code and to one woman's remarkable personal testimony.

Christianity and popular culture

2006-07-24T16:17:00.000+01:00

I’ve been prompted by 22 July – the day the church remembers Mary Magdalene – to think a little about the Christian response to popular culture. Mary’s “public profile” is as prominent as ever, being a central character in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Christian responses to the book and film vary, as ever, from condemnation and boycott to engagement. I have been helped by Steve Hollinghurst’s thoughts, and by his published material (Coded Messages )

It strikes me that the Church often needs to stand against contemporary views and events – a prophetic role, if you like – but that we cannot stand outside popular culture.

In the Declaration of Assent, (which they make at ordination and on taking up each new post) Ministers in the CofE are challenged both to affirm the traditional inheritance of faith and “to proclaim [it] afresh in each generation.” That is the key, for me.

Steve has much of interest to say about what form this proclamation might take and has also written very helpfully about the Christian response to The Da Vinci Code. (The Da Vinci Code)

He also points out here (Orthodox or Authentic) that Jesus, in sharing God’s love for ordinary people and meeting them where they were, scandalised those who held “orthodox” beliefs. Those of us in the Church ought to feel uncomfortable at this point!

On Owen Hargreaves

2006-07-20T22:03:00.000+01:00

This one a late comment on England's World Cup ... 17 July 06

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This is way late, by way of a comment on the World Cup, but ... I wasn't able to watch the England v Portugal game live and ... well it took me a while to work up the enthusiasm to watch the tape

Lots I could say, but one thing that stands out is that, after his performance out-of-position at right-back, and then his heroic efforts v Portugal, Owen Hargreaves deserves a written apology from every one of the "experts" in the media who questioned his inclusion in the squad! (Yeah, like he's ever going to get an apology from those people!)

Well done, Owen Hargreaves! All credit to you!!

A political resurrection

2006-07-20T22:00:00.000+01:00

This one more of a rant ... 21 June 06

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The re-emergence of former Home Secretary Charles Clarke in the media is interesting. Only a few months after the pundits and "commentators" conspired to kill off Mr Clarke and label him as a failure and a liability, they are now resurrecting him as a politician gifted with remarkable insight and judgement about all aspects of government!

I'm bound to ask - which is he?! Or does that depend on how he suits the media agenda?

Michael Owen's injury

2006-07-20T21:47:00.000+01:00

This one was mid-World Cup - 22 June 06

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Obviously Michael Owen's injury is a terrible blow for him, and hurts England's World Cup chances significantly, since he is a world class player. But you can't help but marvel at the attitude of the media pundits and journos.

Having spent so much of their time just recently insisting that Owen is not worth his place and should be dropped from the team, they are now wailing and gnashing their teeth and bemoaning the end of the world (cup) because he is out!