Ordinations at Louth

Many thanks to Gordon Plumb for the great photo he took after the ordinations at St James Louth this morning.  Excellent sermon from Fr Owen Beament reminding those about to be ordained to ’smile’ in their ministry and it looks as though they have already put his wisdom into practice!

Keep the ideas flowing

Such is the amazing reach of BBC radio Humberside that,  since I mentioned it on air, the number of hits on this site has rocketed.  I have to admit to have become something of an addict to this means of communicating ideas.  It is so democratic to be able to place ideas into the public domain – ideas about how you see life and how you respond to events.  No longer do you have to negotiate with editors or anyone — from one’s desk you can communicate with the world.

Day-by-day it becomes more apparent that we live in a world which is significantly challenged.  The price of fuel, the price of food, the changing climate are each symptoms of the future being different.  We have had a period of time in the West which was well described by Harold Macmillan way back in 1957  when he remarked “indeed let us be frank about it – most of our people have never had it so good”.  Little did he know how right he was, we have had cheap energy, cheap food and cheap travel which have combined to enable us to develop a way of life which so many of us have enjoyed immensely.  With key elements of life becoming inexpensive, we have had money to spare and so have been able to enjoy purchasing luxuries such as cameras, ipods, games cubes and the ;attest fashions, not on an occasional basis but as a regular pattern of consumer activity.  News today that there is the distinct possibility that for the first time in human history there will be no ice at the North Pole this summer is a further reminder that the future is going to be different.

As I paid the staggering sum of £83 to fill my car yesterday, I could only reflect that life is changing rapidly and I that I am going to have to get used to different patterns of travel. When I go shopping, like many others, I am going to have to have to buy less and perhaps we are all going to have to go back to days when we have things repaired when they break down, rather than constantly replacing them.

The question which I keep posing is how are we going to respond to all this change?  History suggests that when enormous changes face us, we can very quickly become violent and irrational in our response.  In the early 19th century when the weaving looms became mechanised, there was a group called the Luddites whose response to what they understood as a threat to their way of life was to smash the new mechanised looms.  I think that we are we are faced with similar threats to our way of life, but do we have repeat patterns of anger and violence as these realities force us to see and understand life differently?

I do believe that we can be rescued from this pattern of change and violence if we keep our ideas flowing – ideas about what is enough in terms of what we consume; ideas about how to live carefully giving space to other people in this world to flourish; ideas about how to be generous; ideas about how to be kind; ideas about how to be reasonable.

There is nothing new about such ideas, they are to be found in the depths of ideas about faith and God.  Fundamental to the Christian faith is a searching question about how to live in such a way as to enable one’s neighbour, whoever they may be, to also enjoy the experience of being alive.  And the greatest gift we have as humans is to use our amazing brains to discover how to adjust to new contexts for life.   So we need to keep the ideas flowing and cyberspace gives us the opportunity to keep sharing our ideas about what’s happening in a beautiful but complex world.

Spirituality is what is needed in schools

Thursday’s breakfast bit on BBC Radio Humberside

Later today I am having lunch with headteachers of church secondary schools. It is something I do every year and it provides a valuable opportunity to engage with a remarkable group of people who are committed to the flourishing of our children.  I think being a headteacher of either a primary or secondary school must be rated amongst the most demanding and stressful jobs in the land.

Each and every day a headteacher is at the centre of so many expectations and demands – from students, parents, teachers, staff, governors and of course politicians.  It is I believe the latter — the politicians — who make life most difficult for headteachers and indeed for everyone who is involved in education.

Schools and colleges have become an area of great interest to the politicians.  In so many other ways government control and influence over areas of public life has been reduced by the international nature of economics and politics.  Yet education is one area where the government has by and large the opportunity to prove its credentials as being able to change things.  So ministers in the Department for Education, Children, Schools and Families find themselves very much on the front line of government effectiveness.  The consequence of this is that schools are constantly a target for new initiatives aimed at demonstrating how effective the government is in finding remedies for our problems.

As I see it, the real problem is that we don’t really know what we want our schools to achieve.  We live in a very fast changing world – the facts that you gather today, can very quickly become redundant.  I spent a great amount of time when I was at school learning that a rod, a pole or a perch is 5.5 yards and that 4 poles make a chain and 40 chains are a furlong – and I have had to wait some 50 years to be able to use that information and I hope you feel better for it!  Already our children can carry in their pockets an enormous amount of information as digital storage becomes smaller, cheaper and more accessible. Once digital information can be held at the atomic level, then the possibilities for carrying facts and information on very small personal computers are almost endless – every bit of information, every fact, every database and every book ever printed will be carried around by each of us..

If this is the future for our young people, then is not going to be about what they know in terms of facts, but about how they will use and apply the immense knowledge available to them.   The real question is how do we educate young people in a digital age to use all this knowledge in ways which are positive and beneficial.  In a fast changing, information rich and complex world,  children will need to know how to use all this information and bring quality to their decisions and choices. In the end, the quality of decisions is in a spiritual issue,  because it asks us to bring values to bear when making decisions and when exercising our ability to choose.  There is nothing new in this except that the power of information is going to be accessible for everyone.

The problem for the politicians is that you cannot have league tables for spirituality and so it is low on their priorities, the challenge for headteachers is that unless we concentrate on the spirituality of young people and the quality of the choices they make and the values which they take into their future – then young people are going to be custodians of knowledge without the wisdom and they need to use that knowledge in ways which will help them to flourish in the future which lies before them.

Fear of strangers

Wednesday’s offering for ‘Over-to-you’ on BBC Radio Humberside.

Yesterday I was working down in London and although I was born and brought up in the capital, I found that a day travelling on the underground and negotiating the crowds was quite enough for me.  I always find it a strange sensation to be on the underground, sharing a confined space with loads of people and yet feeling totally isolated.

There are a number of unwritten rules about surviving on the underground – don’t look at anybody; don’t smile; don’t engage; wear headphones; have your iPod at a volume which ensures that you can’t hear those around you; if you don’t want to have your head immersed in one of the free newspapers then read the advertisements or study the underground map, but above all – don’t engage.  By following these rules you can negotiate your way through the millions of people who commute into London each day.

At this time of year the commuters are joined by hosts of tourists who appear blissfully ignorant of these unwritten rules — they look at fellow passengers, they smile, they ask questions, they engage, they acknowledge that they are sharing space with fellow human beings and in the main they are ignored.

Cities are hostile and impersonal places.  There is an underlying fear of the stranger and to survive in them you have to turn off that fundamental human attribute of relating to others in your community.  Although I was brought up never to talk to strangers, over the years I have found that whenever you actually do talk to a stranger you are invariably rewarded by the encounter.  I have met some fascinating people with stories to tell, experiences to share and ideas to explore.

Fear of strangers is of course one of our survival mechanisms and it is rooted in insecurity. Fear of the stranger constantly battles against other human instincts which drive us to live in relationship with those around us, an instinct which is there because we are actually safer when working together. When we allow our fear of the strangers to dominate then we become very dehumanised and it is when we are dehumanised that we are at our most dangerous.  Racism and ethnic cleansing are not new phenomenon, but occur when we allow our fears and insecurity to control our understanding of others.

Making community, engaging with those who live around us, understanding the diversity and difference which is part and parcel of the human race are activities which enrich our experience of being alive.  When disasters happen, such as last year’s floods in our region, we need the support of those who live around us, we need to relate, we need to engage, we need to belong.  In an increasingly global village our concept of community has to extend for we need to work together at the problems facing our planet and we will never overcome our fears of the stranger unless we engage with them, risking our conversation, looking into their eyes, letting them see our smile, communicating that we are people of peace.

We get a distorted view of the stranger through the press and the media as they only report the exceptions to human behaviour not the normal and the government has now made an industry out of making us afraid of the stranger – so whilst there are some very dangerous and difficult people in the world, the vast, vast, vast majority of strangers are just like you and me – they want to find a space to live their lives in peace, to bring up their children, to enjoy the gift of life and to belong.  In the Bible one of the most repeated phrases is “don’t be afraid”, for when we are afraid then we are at our worst — and I’ve glimpsed what world looks like when we are afraid of each other – it is called the London Underground.

A recipe for inner peace

My contribution to BBC Radio Humberside’s Breakfast programme on Tuesday 24/06/08

Good morning, a little while ago I was asked contribute to a cookbook for a healthy life.  Being asked for a recipe is not an unusual experience as any number of organisations will bring together a ‘celebrity’ recipe book as a means of raising funds.  So when parishes, PTAs or local societies make such a request I have a number of recipes to offer them.  This, however, was the first time that I had been asked for something healthy and as I looked through my list of favourite recipes, I realised that double cream and saturated fat featured in every single one of them.

So it was back to the drawing board. Casting around for some ideas, I remembered that there is far more to being healthy than gathering the right ingredients for a dish.  So much of life appears to be in a rush, sweeping us up into a maelstrom of activity – children to collect; deadlines to meet; so much to do; expectations to live-up-to.  Alongside the rush, and perhaps a consequence of it, there is so much conflict in our world, not just on a global/political scale, but also more locally within the politics of community, work and, at times, even in our homes.  It is small wonder that we can become exhausted.  So, I came up with a recipe for the sort of inner peace which can nourish us during the rush and bustle of the day and which may help us avoid becoming part of the conflict.  So on this Tuesday morning I thought I would share that recipe with you and if you can’t take a note of it now you can find it on my blog www.BishopDavid.co.uk along with the rest of my contributions this week.

The Ingredients you need are as follows,

A large worldview

A generous understanding of others

A sense of proportion

5 minutes of quality time

A measure of humility

A dash of humour

A seasoning of prayer

Method

Find a quiet corner and take all the hassles, expectations and dilemmas which demand our time and attention, and set them against all the troubles, sorrows and joys in the world.  Think of all the people we find difficult and see them not as opponents or competitors, but as fellow pilgrims in this life and full of the same vulnerabilities as we are. Think of the really challenging things in our lives and balance them with the good things and the blessing which we fail to count.   Allow all this to settle for five minutes and accept that we may be part of the problems we encounter, smile at the nonsense to which we contribute and thank God that we can laugh at ourselves. After five minutes, rejoin the rush.

I find that this recipe gets better if made every day.

Spare a thought

My contribution to BBC Radio Humberside’s Breakfast programme on Monday 23/06/08

The news from Zimbabwe that the Movement for Democratic Change has decided, in the face of mounting violence and intimidation across the country, not to contest the presidential election run-off, is a salutary reminder of Lord Acton’s observation, as far back as 1887, that ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.  It is a desperate situation for the people of this country – a place so full of natural resources and potential, yet held in the vice like grip of a corrupt regime which presides over the economic chaos which gives rise to so much poverty and injustice.

The people of Zimbabwe join with those of Burma and Tibet in experiencing the political impotence which comes when those who have power have no real interest in the long-term flourishing of the individual, but are consumed with retaining power for themselves.

Of course on a Monday morning in Humberside all this seems a long way away and it is tempting to relegate the plight of the Zimbabweans to the background chatter of the news headlines.  There are other things more pressing on our time and demanding of our attention – yet one of the strengths of our age is that the plight and sufferings of others has an immediacy which draws us into their situation.

Freedom is a precious commodity, which I believe is God-given.  It gives us the dignity of making choices about how we shape our lives and our futures.  In a democracy we surrender something of that freedom every time we go and vote. Elections give us the opportunity to comment on the way in which our freedom is being used by the government and if we feel that they are wasting the opportunities we’ve given them, then we can remove them from power.

It has taken us a long time to reach the point where the democratic choice of each and every adult is part and parcel of our freedom and a sign of our dignity with in our community.

We quickly forget the struggles that we had in our own country for everyone – male and female to be able to vote.  Indeed it wasn’t until 1928, only some 80 years ago, that women in England got the same voting rights as men.  The struggles for the right to vote where about status — to be given the vote confirmed that a person mattered – they had status.

The way in which the people of Zimbabwe are being treated by their government just says that the people don’t matter – in the eyes of a corrupt regime the people have no status.  And as our week gets underway we may well feel that there is nothing we can do to change this situation – but there is – we can give them status by just pausing to think about them.  Those of faith can hold the Zimbabweans in their prayers and those who don’t have faith can still stop and give the people of is Zimbabwe a status by keeping them in their hearts and minds.

One might feel that this is a rather small and inconsequential response to the plight of a people so abused by the powerful — but deeds of darkness flourish when the world is preoccupied with its own busyness.  Robert Mugabe’s regime will fall, but its end will be hastened by a world which recognizes that people of that country, each of them, have a status which cannot be removed by the corruption of politicians and in the meantime we gave a small amount of our time each day to think of them because they may not matter to your Robert – but they do to us.

Whither the church……

One of the most demanding aspects of being a church leader today is in helping the people of the parishes engage with the way in which the church is evolving.  This isn’t about the headline issues of women and sex, but the reality that year-by-year there are fewer vicars in the church.  In addition, there is also the challenging factor that a significant proportion of those who are currently vicars, are aged over 50.  This means that there are going to be some further challenges ahead when these people come up to retirement in 10 or 15 years time.

The problem is that we have developed a model for being the church which is associated with the figure of ‘The Vicar’.  So the generous and effective ministry of non-stipendiary priests and others offering ministry whilst still having jobs etc. is too often understood in terms of ‘filling gaps’ where we don’t have vicars, rather than being an authentic expression of the church’s ministry.

Much of our conversation as a church has been about individual vocation.  In our diocese we have invested a significant amount into individual vocation, thus developing non-stipendiary ministry, licensed lay ministers (Readers) and lay people to undertake a aspects of pastoral ministry within the parish.  This has been very fruitful and productive, but it continues to concentrate on the individual rather than developing the Christian community in its life together.

We have actually invested relatively little into discovering the vocation of the church in its local context.  Yet I think that the most important question facing the church is  what does God need from his church in our society and culture?     So, an enormous amount of time and energy is put into continuing the existing model, without addressing this fundamental question about the vocation of the church.  Indeed, I find that people can become quite grumpy when having to address the implications of there being fewer stipendiary priests (vicars) in the church – some even see it as a kind of Episcopal plot to “take away our vicar”.

If people are not feeling called to the full-time stipendiary ministry, then I believe that we have to respond to that reality – which is perhaps a God-given reality.  There are still a good number of people offering themselves for the full-time ministry, but at a rate which does not match the resignations and retirements.  So there will be fewer vicars to be shared out across the deaneries and benefice of the Church of England.

The mission and ministry of the church is, however, just as vital today as when we were blessed by an ability to have a priest in nearly every parish.  If the local church is to adjust to a new context for its mission and ministry, then we need to rediscover the vocation for the church with in its community.  I suspect that we will do this best if we engage with the realities of change, rather than I trying to avoid them.

If we invest in discovering our vocation as the people of God, then the patterns for our mission, ministry and worship won’t be better or worse than the past – but just authentic to our calling to be that people of God, serving the communities in which we are set. Being authentic is probably to be prized most about our ministry.

The CartoonChurch.com cartoon originally appeared in the Church Times and is taken from ‘The Dave Walker Guide to the Church’, published by Canterbury Press.

Church in meltdown….?

Ruth Gledhill’s article on the front page of today’s Times, suggesting that the church is in meltdown due to Women Bishops and gay marriage, continues to demonstrate that matters of religion, faith and the church are still of importance in our society. A space on the front page and two full inside pages are not given lightly and although we might wish that it was a more positive story about the gospel, the very fact that we are considered worth reporting is good news.

Can we turn this to our advantage? The questions facing the Church of England are deep and in many ways intractable. They are about how we understand God – how he works, how he reveals himself and whether his changelessness can accommodate changes in our understanding of what it is to be human.

To me the deepest question is whether we can forgive each other for understanding God differently. We are like rival siblings angry with each other for finding different truths in our parents. The family will fall apart unless we can forgive each other for the sin of loving different attributes about God and coming to different conclusions about his revelation in Jesus.

Forgiveness is supposed to be fundamental to our character as Christians – as we wrestle with deep questions within our faith, we will only come through as the family of God’s people if we bring the grace of forgiveness into our debates.

‘Church survives through forgiveness’ would be a great headline and a witness to the world.

Everything must change

I have just been reading a really challenging book by Brian McLaren called ‘Everything must Change’. In the book McLaren looks at the values which are around in contemporary life and sets them against the life of Jesus. He argues that the core message of the gospel actually addresses the economic, political, environmental and social problems of our age, but for it to speak into our age, the church has to move away from talking about the externals of faith and concentrate on what Jesus was actually trying to say.

In many ways he is stating the obvious, but I have sat through so many sermons (and preached a few of them myself I fear!) which are brilliant about the finer points of doctrine, or biblical criticism, or church life, but which don’t actually address the gospel themes of justice, peace, forgiveness or hope. Too often we assume these things are known and understood, forgetting that we are in a culture which doesn’t really understand that this is the stuff we are about. What McLaren reminded me was that this lack of understanding is to be found amongst those who are part of the church, as well as amongst those yet to include themselves in our number.

If you really want to be challenged about the Christian faith – what it means and how we have allowed the practice of faith to divert us from the core message of Jesus, then this is the book for you.

28 or 42 days – living within the tension

As the House of Commons prepares for its vote on the extension of how long terrorist suspects can be held without charge it is encouraging to see some MPs in moral anguish about which way to vote. Liberty and freedom are ill served by MPs who blithely support the government regardless of concience or regard to the bigger picture of freedom and rights.

When we give power to governments through the ballot box, the first duty of the elected government is to protect the people from abuse of the power which they have been given. It is often portrayed that the government’s first duty is to protect the people from external threat, but history suggests that the biggest threat to the individual comes not from a foreign power but from their own government and its agents abusing their power. We are too quick to forget the Matrix Churchill affair where it was clear that the Government was more concerned about its public face than the freedom and rights of the individual. The Scott report revealed that the government of the day was prepared to sacrifice the freedom of the company directors by putting them on trial, rather than lose face (see The Scott Report).

We have already seen the anti-terror laws used in ways they were not intended, e.g. to prosecute individuals such as Milan and Maya for expressing their freedom of speech. More and more laws, give more and more opportunities for agents of the government to abuse the power they have been given.

If freedom is a God-given aspect of being human and a symptom in each of us having a God-given dignity, then we need to resist every attempt to interfere with that freedom, unless we are convinced that the gift of freedom has been abused. We need to set a high standard for removing or restricting the freedom of others, for we are each the focus of God’s loving attention. There has to be a balance between this belief and the safety of the community – the real question for MPs tonight asks how far we are prepared to live within that tension.