An Archbishop for the whole Communion?, E4,E5 SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2012
he athletes have spent years training, the builders are finishing off the stadiums and the transport system is gearing up for at least nine million extra visitors to the capital – and now we’ve begun the 100day countdown. But for most of us, the start of the Torch Relay will truly begin the Olympics. Arriving in the UK on 18 May, the torch represents peace, unity and friendship. It will make its way within 10 miles of 95 per cent of the population during the 70day journey. The Salvation Army, through More Than Gold, have many plans to use this opportunity for prayer, hospitality and outreach – and you can get involved too. While you may not have been chosen to carry one of the torches, you can take up the prayer baton and join in
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one of a number of prayer and praise initiatives, including attending one of the meetings at each of the overnight torch stops. Salvation Army vans will also be serving Fairtrade drinks and snacks along the torch’s route and during events, while Methodist halls will be baking treats; perhaps hospitality is the way you could get involved. As a form of outreach, the Salvation Army bands will be playing to the crowds and handing out special editions of the War Cry and Kids Alive. If your church wants to join in the fun, Traidcraft have created a Church Pack with loads of ideas for everyone to get involved with the Relay. All information can be found at: www.morethangold.org.uk.
Name: Mark Blythe Location: Surrey Church: Molesey Community Church Relay Leg: Waltham Forest, Sat 21 July Occupation: Work for Ambassadors in Sport, World Sport Ministries, Chairman of the Southern Area Christian Football League, founded the National Christian Golf Cup and the National Christian Cricket Festival. Other: 3 children, 3 stepchildren and 3 grandchildren Background: I had no Christian upbringing, apart from going to St Mark’s CofE Church in Marske by-the-Sea on the north east coast near Middlesbrough, regularly once a year on Christmas Eve to keep my mother company! That was it until I met a Christian lady when I was 35, divorced, debt-ridden and jobless. What an eye-opener: Jesus really existed and did walk this earth, news to me and good news! I have always loved sport; played football, cricket, run marathons and triathlons, etc. The Church of this Christian lady I had met, who is now my wife Lesley, had a church football team and I was invited to play, even before I had joined the church or become a Christian, strange! The guys were very competitive, but also played sportingly what a whole new area for me that was and they loved this bloke called Jesus, even more strange! God had his hand on me and I soon chose to follow this Jesus, what a massive change in my life, almost like being born again! Reason for being selected for the relay: I threw myself into the sport side of the church and before I knew it I was running the adult footy, the kids’ footy, Secretary of the local Church Football League, had set up a church cricket team and golf society and started organising national Christian sports competitions so other churches could benefit from my event management experiences from my previous jobs. I had great spells working for the Evangelical Alliance and Rock UK Adventure Centres before I felt God saying go work full-time in sports ministry. It was for this work that one of my Christian friends nominated me to be a CocaCole Future Flame, as we are called. Our kids’ football is free on Saturday mornings and has now been going for 12 years, the adult football now for 20 years, although I’ve only been involved for 17 of those. I have set up a national website for people who love sport and Jesus – there is no obvious place to go to find information about the 30+ sports missionary organisations that are here to serve the local church and Christians in the UK. There are Christian golf, football, motor racing, multi-sport, youth sport, etc, organisations all keen to help people engage with their local communities and use their passion for sport to do this. Reaction to the news: Wow, selected to carry the Olympic Torch, this is an honour that is hard to believe really. I have read so many amazing stories about Torchbearers through the Coca-Cola Flames Facebook group that I don’t know why I’m there. So I’ve been asking God why has he blessed me with this opportunity? What do I do to deserve it? Aims for the future: To serve local churches, helping them to start and develop sports ministry programmes. Mark’s website, UK Sports Ministries: www.uksportsministries.org. Mark Blythe is Sports Outreach Co-ordinator for Molesey Community Church
Holding the Torch Mark Blythe
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Andrew Carey:
View from the Pew
Racism and the Church s there ‘naked racism’ behind the ‘stop John Sentamu’ campaign in the Canterbury stakes? I tend to think that while there certainly is an unexamined form of prejudice behind some of the statements made by anonymous church leaders with particular references to ‘African tribal chiefs’, racism is not the dominant motive. Similarly, in the 2002 Canterbury race, Michael Nazir-Ali experienced a similar character assassination with one cleric even describing him as a ‘Paki-Papist’. The motive for attacking Michael Nazir-Ali and John Sentamu in such unpleasant terms is a purely embittered theological reflex. It is born of a deep resentment in theological terms that the broad church/liberal party has lost its dominance in the Church of England and a desperate attempt to retain the reigns of
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power before they are lost irrevocably. Lord Tebbit put it rather well in his Telegraph blog this week (www.blogs.telegraph.co.uk ‘Archbishop Sentamu’s real offence in the eyes of his nasty critics is that he sticks firmly to his faith’, 23 April 2012) in his contention that both Sentamu and Nazir-Ali offend the ‘progressive’ establishment because they uphold Christian belief. “They have offended the Guardinista BBC establishment, which would normally have been crying out that it was time that someone from a black and minority ethnic community should be made Archbishop of Canterbury, by being traditional conviction Christians.” He added: “How sad it is that it is those who condemn racial and sexual stereotyping are the most prone to practise it.”
A liberal view that is illiberal It is shameful that the appointment of Nicholas Holtam as Bishop of Salisbury didn’t inspire the same sort of reaction as the 2003 fiasco over Jeffrey John. It was known that Holtam is a man of radically liberal views and so it has proved. To the Cutting Edge Consortium he gave a speech at the weekend, ‘Making Space for an Honest Conversation’. In it he elevated innovative and marginal Christian support for homosexuality, to the level of tried and tested traditional and Biblical views on marriage held by the vast majority of churches and Christians. Furthermore, like many liberals his views turn out to be illiberal. To take one example he condemns the church’s exemptions from equality legislation. The only presumption can be that if he had his way, the churches would be compelled to marry homosexuals under equality legislation if gay marriage is enacted. Is it too much to ask of liberal Anglicans that they defend the right of other Christians to their conscience and convictions and allow these controversial matters to be decided by theological debate rather than compulsion and coercion?
Room 101 Into Room 101 goes the bizarre notion that the Gospel is offered differentially to people. The Archbishop of Wales recently claimed that Christians “need to show how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for gay people.” Bishop Alan Wilson’s blog puts it in a similar way (www.bishopalan.blogspot.co.uk): “Thus the prime question Christians have to ask is not ‘is the idea of gay marriage right or wrong?’ but, whatever we make of the theory of the matter, ‘how can we be good news to the real human beings involved?’.” This is entirely upside-down. The fact is that in proclaiming the good news, Christians are not offering ourselves to others, but we are pointing to Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all of us without any distinction to our gender, race or sexual orientation. It is simply summed up in the first Bible verse I ever learnt by heart: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The very idea that this is good news for heterosexuals but we have to offer homosexuals something else is first-order nonsense. Your suggestions for Room 101 – things that irk you about church life – can be emailed to me at carey.andr@gmail.
Keeping the weeds at bay
Bishop Tom Again
Southwark has a history of media-savvy clergy. Nick Stacey was once given space in The Observer to explain why the church was a failure in Woolwich. At least he wrote after he had been in post a few years. Giles Fraser seems to have given up on his parish already. “My new church consists of a failing set of unattractive buildings,” he told readers of The Guardian. The local view is that St Mary’s, Newington, is not a bad example of 1950s architecture. One parishioner has been weeding the front of the church but Giles thinks the weeds will win. He was inducted as Vicar on Wednesday and is due to leave for Salisbury next week to give the Sarum Lectures. At least St Mary’s vicarage is close to Kennington tube, from where it is a short journey to The Guardian offices at King’s Cross. Giles should keep on penning editorials like the one that referred to Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines and pointed out that the “New Testament is populated with single men and women whose domestic arrangements have little in common with the model of Christian marriage being defended by Cardinal O’Brien”. The Grauniad doesn’t normally do wit. Giles shines amidst weeds like Polly Toynbee and Seamus Milne.
Why do we keep coming back to Giles Fraser and Tom Wright? Perhaps because there are so few characters in the modern Church of England, although Arun Arora looks promising. Bishop Tom was at Southwark Cathedral last Friday to launch his latest book, When God Became King. He has now written over 50 books and must be a good bet to overtake Barbara Cartland, who managed to turn out at least four a year. The bishop was on good form at the launch, telling of an amusing encounter with a US immigration official. Looking at the passport in front of him and realising that Tom was a bishop, the officer asked him to recite John 3:16. The bishop obliged – in Greek. SPCK hosted the event and Southwark Cathedral provided hospitality. It is good to know that under the leadership of Simon Kingston SPCK’s publishing arm does not look set to follow the bookshops into liquidation. Despite the economic downturn, over 90 books a year are being published. Almost all of them, and some back numbers, can now be found on Kindle but interestingly digital books account for only five per cent of sales.
. .. y r e l l a G g n i r e p s i h The W More on Gay marriage It is not only the Church of England that is split on gay marriage. Divisions reach as far as Christians in Parliament. The President of this organisation, Conservative MP Gary Streeter, who once started and pastored an evangelical church, takes the traditional view of marriage but not vicePresident, Tim Farron. Farron is a member of an evangelical church in Kendal but he has mailed Lib Dems as Party President urging them to get behind the campaign for same-sex marriage. “We decided before any other party that civil marriage should be open to same-sex couples equally,” he told party members. “The Liberal Democrats in government are now delivering on that.” He went on to urge members to respond to the consultation launched by the Government. After his U-turn on the letter to the Advertising Standards Authority in support of street healers in Bath, people are beginning to wonder if Farron isn’t the Mitt Romney of the Lib Dem party, the man who is always ready to ‘etch a sketch’ depending on the political demands of the moment.
Faith on the box British star of Homeland, Daniel Lewis, told the Evening Standard that he only agreed to take part in the drama on the understanding it did not involve any demonising of Islam. Other actors could take a lead here and make the same conditions about Christianity. Midsomer Murders appears to have dropped its hostility to the Church following the disappearance of John Nettles from the series. But what about a drama that presents a Christian in a positive light. Drew Christian, the canny Jesuit who edits the weekly magazine America, has spotted an interesting feature of Lewis. Sergeant James Hathaway, who works with Lewis, is an ex-seminarian and a Catholic. Lewis lost what faith he had when his wife died but Hathaway is a mystery. We see him light candles or stop to look at a Nativity scene but we are given little clue of what he believes or why. Christiansen sees him as “the image of the mature, educated, even sophisticated post-modern believer who holds his faith a closely guarded secret”. Either that or ITV can’t bring itself to have a series about a mature, educated and sophisticated man who is also a Christian.
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D ia m o n d m em o ries in the m a k in g ucklington Primary Schoolchildren in Oxfordshire will each receive a souvenir edition of the New Testament this summer to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Their 200 copies are some of the 120,000 advance orders received in just two weeks since the publication was announced by HOPE, the Church of England and Biblica, who are working together on the publishing project. The Ducklington children will receive their New Testaments as part of the school’s celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Lay Reader Ruth Edy explains: “It is a C of E school and my husband is the vicar of the parish church. We have been working closely with the head of the primary school, doing assemblies, using the church for special services, and involving the schoolchildren in special church events. The head has asked us to be involved in the school’s celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.” Ruth was given a New Testament 60 years ago to mark the Queen’s coronation. She will be taking her 60-year-old New Testament to show the Ducklington school children at their celebration assembly. Ruth will explain that the Bible was described as ‘the most valuable thing this world affords’ when it was presented to the Queen at the coronation. True to the spirit of HOPE, which encourages churches to do more together in mission, in words and action, St Bartholomew’s is working with Ducklington Baptist Church to ensure that a total of 300 local children will be given a specially inscribed Diamond Jubilee New Testament.
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Diamond memories In the north of England, a Cumbrian youth project is also planning to give away the special New Testaments. The Shackles Off youth project in Seascale have ordered 100 copies to give away as part of their local Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Events include a community celebration afternoon on Tuesday 5 June with dressing up and a sing-a-long-a-tea party. The Shackles Off
project is asking Seascale residents for photographs or other memorabilia celebrating the Queen’s Coronation and her Silver and Golden Jubilees to create a display called ‘Silver, Gold and Diamond memories’. As well as offering the souvenir New Testaments for churches and community groups to buy to give away, HOPE is supporting local churches in their Diamond Jubilee events with a range of resources and ideas for use in schools, residential care homes and at Big Jubilee lunches, which can be downloaded free from http://www.hopetogether.org.uk. Souvenirs for seniors Heathervale Baptist Church in Addlestone, Surrey, runs regular Seniors’ Tea Parties. In the run-up to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations their tea party for around 50 elderly people will have a special Diamond Jubilee theme. They will be giving each guest a copy of a special souvenir brochure produced by HOPE and CPO, which includes pictures of the Queen’s life and the words of a Grace specially written to be used at Big Jubilee Lunches and events. HOPE’s resources also include a Big Thank You sheet, which anyone can download to write a special thank you message to the Queen for her 60 years of service to the nation and Commonwealth. The Big Thank You letters will be collected and presented to Her Majesty. Roy Crowne, Executive Director of HOPE, said: “We hope that many churches will be at the heart of their communities as they celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, using the resources from HOPE to give this mission moment lasting impact.” The limited edition Diamond Jubilee New Testament, with eight pages of images from the Coronation and the Queen’s life linking her 60-year reign and her Christian faith, is available to order online at http://diamondjubileebibles.eventbrite.com in packs of 50 at just 50p a copy. Orders close on 1 May.
t the Guardian, Maria Exall writes: “George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has argued that Christian employees are excluded from many sectors of employment, have their beliefs ‘vilified’ and are ‘driven underground’. He insists that equality laws, particularly those that give LGBT people civil rights, discriminate against Christians. He has sent in a submission to the European Court of Human Rights in support of the challenges it is considering under current UK equality legislation... Carey’s assumption that there is an issue of principle at stake where religious and LGBT rights are counterposed, however, is not borne out by closer analysis. “First, empirical evidence would seem to complicate matters. Many Christians, and other believers, are actually motivated by their faith to embrace principles of equality and have a respect for diversity that enhances the public good in their personal morality and their work life. The opinions, preoccupations and ethical stance of the Christian Institute and the Christian Legal Centre, which are the funders and promoters of the cases being reviewed by the European Court, are in contradiction to the more common inclusive values of many ordinary people of faith. Unlike Carey, there are many Christians who find there is no incompatibility between the expressing of their faith in the ‘public square’ and progressive equality legislation.” One contributor writes: “Despite having the weight of
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Ruth Edy
What the Blogs Say the establishment behind them, all the money and buildings, and even 26 unelected seats in the legislature of the state, their church attendances continue to dwindle away to nothing. Have you ever thought it’s not everyone else’s fault?” The Bishop of Huntingdon, the Rt Rev David Thomson, blogs on a new report being undertaken by ResPublica: “‘Re-Imagining The Church of England: Social Action and Civic Role’ is supported by a number of senior bishops in the Church of England and will explore the role and value of the established Church for communities and the national political sphere in Britain today. “Over the past decade the Church of England has grown in confidence and self-understanding, asserting more than ever the importance of its role in public political life and responsibility for social action. Although increasingly recognised as significant for upcoming policy agendas, this growing and developing narrative has gone largely unnoticed by Britain’s wider population and its various media outlets. With the social capital, networks and relationships fostered by local faith groups largely underexplored, opportunities for the Church to learn from others and others to learn from the
Church remain unrealised.” The first phase of research involves consultation with faith leaders, community groups, churches, members of parliament and civil servants to gauge the social impact and present role of the established Church. ResPublica are seeking further partnership opportunities for this. If you are interested, please contact caroline.julian@respublica.org.uk. The Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt Rev David Hamid, blogs: “In some quarters of Greece there are strong feelings of animosity towards Germany as the latter is blamed for the imposition of strict austerity measures as part of the EU financial assistance programme. But at the level of the Church, Anglicans in Germany have been expressing their solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Greece. For three Sundays in Lent, St George’s, Berlin, took up special collections and raised funds which they sent to their sister parish of St Paul’s in Athens. “Some examples of how the Fund has been used in the past weeks include payment for urgent medical tests for a new born baby whose parents are Nigerian but whose father has not been paid by his employer for three months, and the purchase of sleeping bags for several men who have to sleep in one cold rented room, with no mattress or bedding, as they are unemployed. And the needs continue daily.”
E4 By Philip Johanson OBE ho is taking the lead in submitting a name to the Prime Minister to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury? We are told that the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion has written, on behalf of the Crown Nominations Commission, inviting all members of the Anglican Communion to offer views on the priorities for the ministry of the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Advertisements have also appeared in the church press inviting people to contact the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments and the Prime Minister’s
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www.englandonsunday.com Appointment Secretary. Whilst all this work is going on we have yet to learn who the Prime Minister will appoint to Chair the Crown Nominations Commission for this appointment. In addition we have not yet heard which Bishop has been elected by the House of Bishops to sit on the Commission, and whether or not the Archbishop of York is to be a member of the Commission or another Bishop elected in his place. It would therefore seem that the Crown Nominations Commission for the See of Canterbury is not yet fully in place yet much work seems to be taking place already.
The website suggests that the Crown Nominations Commission will not have its first meeting until late May. Are we therefore given to understand that the person appointed to Chair the Commission will only be a figurehead and that certain members of the Commission will have done much of the work before the commission officially begins its work? The Advertisement in the church press regarding the forthcoming vacancy in the See of Canterbury invites readers to write to Ms Caroline Boddington, the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments, who we are told will share the information received with the Prime Minister’s Appointment Secretary. Is there not a potential conflict of interest in that Ms Boddington is married to the Bishop of Derby who, at least in theory, is a potential candidate for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury? In addition it does appear strange that the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments is involved with the appointment of her future boss. Is the job too big? The fact that the Anglican Communion has been invited to submit views raises the larger question regarding the function of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In this day and age is it realistic to expect one person to the Bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, Primate of All England and first among equals in the Anglican Communion? The Archbishop of Wales paying tribute to the Rowan Williams said:
April 29, 2012 “It is a truism to say that the job of the Archbishop of Canterbury is next to impossible. In addition to being Primate of all England with all the responsibilities that that entails in terms of the Diocese of Canterbury, the Synod, the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners, House of Lords, House of Bishops, relationships with Government, to say nothing of being asked to comment on a host of social, ethical and moral issues, he is also the Head of the Anglican Church worldwide. That means being responsible for the Lambeth Conference, regularly visiting other provinces and dealing with a thousand and one issues, large and small, that come his way daily from across the Communion.� Surely it is time that thought be given to having a Primate for the Anglican Communion without having the additional responsibilities of the Church of England. What is to stop bringing about a situation whereby the Anglican Consultative Council or some other such body appoints a Primate for the Communion free from Provincial responsibilities? The seat for Primate for the Anglican Communion could for instance be in St George’s Cathedral Jerusalem. Perhaps it is time to re-visit, review and update the report ‘To lead and To Serve’ regarding the responsibilities of the Archbishop of Canterbury produced by a group chaired by Lord Hurd of Westwell which was commissioned by Lord Carey towards the end of his time as Archbishop of Canterbury. Surely some fundamental questions regarding workload and other related matters need to be considered before inviting the Anglican Communion to offer views on the priorities of the next Archbishop of Canterbury. What if it was decided that the work load is too great for one man and the position of the Primate of All England was separated from the hitherto Anglican
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Communion responsibilities? The priorities of the Church of England will almost certainly be different to those of other parts of the Communion. The place of the C of E in the Communion The fact that the Church of England has apparently rejected the Anglican Communion Covenant makes the question regarding the responsibilities of the Archbishop of Canterbury in relation to the Anglican Communion all the more urgent. Based on the assumption that the majority of Anglican Provinces approve or subscribe to the Covenant, although at this stage that is far from a foregone conclusion, and it is therefore implemented, one assumes this will leave the Church of England in some kind of ‘second tier’ group being able to attend meetings but without voting rights. Perhaps the more interesting question is where does it leave the Archbishop of Canterbury in relation to Anglican Communion affairs if his own Province is in this ‘second tier’ of any revised pattern of Communion membership? Several people who have paid tribute to Rowan Williams have spoken about the fact that he has held the Anglican
Communion together. Without wishing to take away from the near on impossible job the Archbishop has undertaken is this really true – I guess it depends on how you define being held together. Around 200 Bishops didn’t attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference, eight Primates decided not to attend the 2011 Primates’ Meeting. The Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada have not kept faith with the Lambeth resolution regarding same-sex blessings and the ordination and consecration of people to be bishops who are in a same-sex relationship. Several Provinces on the African continent likewise have not kept faith with the Lambeth resolution regarding not ministering in another Province without the invitation of that Province or Diocese. We also now have the Province of the Anglican Church in North America with Archbishop Bob Duncan, although this Province is not officially recognised in official Anglican forums. Has the time not come for some honesty and to say that the Anglican Communion is no longer held together in the
‘Surely it is time that thought be given to having a Primate for the Anglican Communion’
way in which it was and to begin to work out what the future might be? Surely if the Communion is to move forward, if some kind of resolution is to be found and if the Anglican Communion is to continue to flourish, it demands no less than a full-time Primate who can devote his energies to the task ahead. Likewise, the Church of England, if it is to continue as the Church for the Nation, requires an Archbishop of Canterbury who can devote his energies to leading that Church with all the demands involved in that task. If the Church of England still has a real desire to continue as the National Church in relationship with the State, that is to say the State Church, the Established Church, then surely it makes sense for the Prime Minister to take back to himself what Gordon Brown when Prime Minister gave up, that is the involvement of the Prime Minister in the appointment of Diocesan Bishops, including that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Without that kind of involvement how can the Church continue to argue for seats in the House of Lords for Diocesan Bishops? If the Church of England is to continue as the State Church then surely there must be a partnership between Church and State in senior appointments that is real and does not just pay lip service to the process. The ChurchState relationship needs to be on a two-way street.
Stepping out in faith… Archbishops’ Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, Bishop Graham Cray, says there is often a reality gap between the language of pilgrimage and the experience of sitting in the same place doing the same things inside a church building each Sunday. ‘The Church is intended to be a pilgrim people,’ he adds, ‘continually on the move in response to the call of Jesus to deeper discipleship and missionary engagement. The Church of Scotland report Church Without Walls described it as people with Jesus at the centre travelling wherever Jesus takes us.’ ow Wood Green Mennonite Church, London, is giving this theological language new meaning by piloting a ‘walking’ fresh expression. Phil Wood, a member of Wood Green, explains how the monthly church is a mixture of walking, talking, prayer, liturgy and meditation. ‘We’ve had to take a close look at what we understand by the term, Walking Church. There are plenty of organisations for Christian walkers and many churches have walking groups but we are not looking at an ecumenical “fellowship” made up of Christians who walk in their spare time but a church that walks! Imagine a congregation where the essential elements of church – mission, sacraments, worship and the Word – primarily take place on the move or in the context of hospitality along the way. ‘The idea is to create a community of faith where the heartlands of “church” happen in the course of walking. ‘My congregation at Wood Green caught the vision and, following an Epping Forest taster last autumn, we pulled on our backpacks for a full-blown 2012 pilot. We’re walking four London locations this year with walks arranged for the final Sunday morning of the month, changing location every quarter. Every walk has a leader responsible for a theme and three or four reflections. We walk, eat, listen, meditate, pray and sometimes sing - though the latter is a topic of discussion. It also involves hospitality - whether in homes, pubs or cafes. Each time we learn a little more. ‘In February, I joined others on a walk between Highgate and Alexandra Palace. Wayne Hostetler led it on the theme of ‘perspective’ and there were some splendid views of north London to illustrate the point. We talked about the panorama from Alexandra Palace with the City skyscrapers to innercity Tottenham and the ‘smudge’ of Epping Forest — all that poverty and power cheek by jowl. Since then, we have also tackled the 4.5 miles Parkland Walk in London’s largest nature reserve following the old railway line from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace. ‘Where do we go next with this idea? We are trying to get our priorities right and inclusiveness is a challenge. How do we accommodate ‘serious’ ramblers, not-soserious amblers, exponents of ‘walking meditation’ and pilgrimage and those walking for health and ecological awareness? Also, how do we go about youth and
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children’s work and what provision are we making for those with limited mobility? ‘I see Walking Churches as having enormous mission potential. According to the Mission-Shaped Church report, 20 per cent of the UK population is involved in walking as a leisure activity — a figure just slightly lower than that of the entire British churchgoing constituency. There are 139,000 members in the Ramblers (formerly the Ramblers Association) alone. In large areas of Britain there are more people out walking on a Sunday than going to worship. ‘Of course, there are a number of potential pitfalls for Walking Church – with one of the most obvious being the weather! Although the main activity would obviously be walking there is clearly a need for some time indoors as well as outdoors - as long as this doesn’t undermine the nature of the church. ‘Hospitality is the bridge to providing this support, especially where a Walking Church is linked to an existing congregation. However, there’s nothing to say that hospitality needs to be in a church building; it could be in a pub, a home, a youth hostel or any number of other locations. I believe the cell church model - with some adaptation - offers the best insights for structuring walking churches. ‘I have been thinking too as what might be possible as Walking Church develops. Here are some of the early thoughts: * A link with a Tourist Information Centre * Launching Walking Church via a long-distance path such as the Pennine Way or the Ridgeway, perhaps involving people from different churches along the route * Offers a natural window into powerful expressions of social justice in identification with the stranger, the homeless and the refugee * Walking Church ‘guidebooks’ could be an exercise both in devotional and travel writing * Play a significant role in extremely rural communities * Could walk ‘home or away’ (ie near or far away from where most members live) or it might draw members from a wide area based on a network connection. So, a Walking Church might have a close association with one locality or much more of a network focus. ‘We’re learning something about evangelism in the values driving this particular fresh expression. One of our walkers likes us because we don’t “proselytise”, instead we “reflect”. Are we too peaceable to share faith? I hope not — but our message isn’t “become like us and you will be saved”. We are “peace church”. Yes, words are important, but mostly peace is in the pace. It’s easier to listen at three miles per hour…’ Fresh Expressions: www.freshexpressions.org.uk London Walking Church: http://www.menno.org.uk/walkingchurch
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Three French films to satisfy the most discerning cinemagoers hree French films are doing the art house rounds. One takes a sympathetic line to illegal immigration, another finds a journalist investigating prostitution getting involved more than she intended, and the best of the bunch is a romantic comedy about loss and love. Le Havre (cert. PG) has already been out a few weeks. Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) is a young boy, 10, maybe 12, part of a consignment of immigrants from the Gabon, whose container ends up by mistake in the docks of Le Havre. He goes on the run, and is helped by elderly shoeshine man Marcel Marx (André Wilms), perhaps himself with a refugee feel about him. Remarkably, others in the backstreet community behind the
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docks are equally sympathetic, concealing Idrissa from local police inspector Monet (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), whose attempts to find the boy seem a matter of duty rather than of interest. It’s written, directed and produced by Aki Kaurismäki from Finland, whose storytelling is rarely spectacular but always fulfilling, as in The Man Without a Past (2002), though it lacks that film’s clear religious themes. Some comic timing and the illness of Marcel’s wife Arletty (Kati Outinen) broaden the story, but it’s often the careful framing of shots that marks out the appeal that won Le Havre the film critics’ prize last year at Cannes.
lles (cert. 18) is at times torrid, at times tender. Juliette Binoche plays Anne, a journalist writing for Elle magazine, whose latest project, deadline looming, is to investigate the lives of students supplementing their income by prostitution. It’s written and directed by Malgorzata Szumowska from Poland, emphasising the international feel of European filmmaking, and one of Anne’s two subjects is Alicja, a Polish student who arrived in Paris with no accommodation. The other is Charlotte, trading as Lola (Anaïs Demoustier), whose provincial origins are partly behind her choice of income, although she moonlights in a fast food restaurant to cover her activities from her boyfriend Thomas (Arthur Moncla). The strains on Anne’s own family life are plain, as husband Patrick (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is often away on business, and elder son Florent (François Civil) is in rebellion. It’s the nonchalance, the freedom, that Lola and Alicja display about their lifestyle that seems both to repel and attract Anne, and there’s a whiff of Catherine Deneuve in 1967 film Belle du Jour. The stories are told part in interview, part in flashback, and part in Anne’s erotic imagination – the naked guitar-playing client (Nicolas Layani) is a notable example – and the alternation between pleasure and squalor is emphasised in scenes ranging from (as the credits have it) “crying client” to “sadistic client”. The ending, though upbeat, seems unrelated to what has just unfolded.
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est of the three is Delicacy (cert. 12A), and this time the writer-director auteur is David Foenkinos. It’s based on his own novel, though brother Stéphane shares directing credits on the film. Audrey Tautou stars as Nathalie, burying herself in work after her partner François (Pio Marmaï) dies, just when they were contemplating starting a family. Her boss Charles (Bruno Todeschini) offers more than sympathy — and not just a promotion to team leader — but it’s a member of her team, Markus (François Damiens), an awkward and occasionally clumsy Swede who’s lived in Paris 15 years, who finally breaks into her sorrow.
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Nathalie’s best friend Sophie (Joséphine de Meaux), a rock during bereavement, hesitates to tell her that she’s pregnant (and time passing is neatly indicated by Sophie’s pregnancy, and her new daughter’s age). When her expectations that Nathalie’s Swede is tall and blond are shattered, she seems shallow, not least in the awful verdict, “You could do better”. Markus, used to rejection, is baffled by Nathalie’s attention (at times inappropriate, even in a French work situation). At one point, after an evening together at the theatre (Strindberg’s Miss Julie), he literally does a runner, for his own “self-protection”. Songs from Émilie Simon’s record Franky Knight, some written specially, add poignancy. Simon’s fiancé François died from influenza, and that sense of connection pervades the whole film. That’s perfected in the final scenes where Nathalie takes Markus into the country to visit her grandmother. In the garden, Markus imagines a montage of stages of Nathalie’s life, as he contemplates whether he can trample on her grief.
A great new game for players of all ages Zip-It his is a great new game that will be loved by crossword fans of all ages. Based on a simple idea, the game consists of 24 cubes with letters on each of the six sides. Played by two players, the idea is to make crossword grids out of the cubes. There are various letters on each of the six faces, so the combinations are immense. The beauty of the game is that is suitable for all ages (providing they can read, of course). Simply divide the cubes between the two players and then put
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together your crossword ‘grid’ as quickly as possible. The first person to use all the cubes is the winner. And the first to win 10 points wins the game. Zip-it is fast and furious, a game can be completed in as little as 20 seconds, but it is highly addictive. Created by the team who invented Bananagrams, this is an ideal game to take on a trip. The cubes are all contained in a handy pack and the zips on the pack double as a scorecard. It is small enough to fit in a handbag and would be great for whiling away the time on a train journey, for example. Zip-it also comes with a handy little booklet called Weords, containing weird words that win word games. A quick look through the book reveals a list of ‘Q’ words that don’t use the letter ‘U’.
April 29, 2012
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n Finding God in Other Christians (SPCK) Lorraine Cavanagh urges her readers to put rancour behind them and find God in Christians whose views might be very different from their own. A previous work by the same author on the same topic has been hailed by Rowan Williams, among others. Cavanagh uses biblical exposition, stories, personal experience and practical suggestions to drive her message home. Ideal for two or three churches of different churchmanship but maybe in the same deanery to use as a discussion book. The Lord and his Prayer by Tom Wright. No, not another new book from this author (although one is due at the end of this month) but the re-issue of a book first published in 1996 that has been reprinted a number of times. Deservedly, this now takes its place in SPCK Classics. In Sacraments and Worship (SPCK) Maxwell E Johnson of the University of Notre Dame has put together key readings on the history and theology of Christian worship from the New Testament to the present. This is an ecumenical collection that will be a useful work of reference for clergy and all Christians with an interest in the subject. Keith Lamdin is well known in the Church of England for the leadership courses he ran as Oxford’s Diocesan Director of Training. Other dioceses made use of the expertise of him and his team and to run programmes for clergy and diocesan staff. Lamdin is now Principal of Sarum College, Salisbury, and has written Finding Your Leadership Style (SPCK) as a guide to different ways in which leadership can be exercised. Lamdin sees leadership as being about change and about how power can be used in a creative and wholesome way but he draws on his own experience as well as on a good deal of theoretical work to explore possible styles of leadership. In a crowded field, this will stand out. James Allison will be familiar to many people in the Church of England. He is the son of former Church Commissioner and a godson of John Stott. His own spiritual pilgrimage took him to the Roman Catholic Church where he was for a time a Dominican but he now supports himself as a theologian who has established a major reputation as a writer and speaker. Knowing Jesus (SPCK), published in 1993 when Allison was still a Dominican, and asking what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus, was his first book. Allison tried to learn from his evangelical upbringing and also to some extent reacted against it. This is another excellent addition to SPCK classics. Peter Walker will be familiar to many readers of CEN. He teaches biblical studies at Wycliffe Hall, has written a good deal on the New Testament and led study tours in the Mediterranean. In In the Steps of St Paul (Lion) he follows up an earlier volume devoted to Jesus by describing the places Paul visited and asking how the apostle would find them today. This is a superbly produced book with fine illustrations and maps that will help to bring Paul and his world alive.
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Recipe of the Week
Richard Holloway battles boredom Leaving Alexandria Richard Holloway Canongate, hb, £18.99 ichard Holloway tells us that he has a low boredom threshold. Not surprisingly, when it comes to religious experience it is the intense variety that he has sought. In this honest and beguiling memoir he tells us how as a young, novice monk at Kelham he would slip into the chapel at 2.00 am in the morning for prayer. As the rector of an Edinburgh parish he tried with his wife and family to live in a commune with his two curates and their families. When he caught the charismatic bug, Holloway tell us that he spent two hours in the toilet of the train to Edinburgh, praying in tongues, on his journey back from meeting with Graham Pulkingham in London. Convinced that he had received the gift of speaking other languages, he accosted a Chinese woman when he arrived Edinburgh and spoke to her in what he believed was Chinese. Not surprisingly, the poor woman fled. Later Holloway became a radical, committed to the ordination of women and to advancing the rights of gay and lesbian people. He was disgusted by the 1998 Lambeth Conference debate on sexuality and resigned as Bishop of Edinburgh two years later. Now, although the possibility of the transcendent still tugs him and he continues to preach, he is critical of the church and of all claims to certainty
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about religious belief. “I no longer believe in religion,” he tells us, “but I want it around: weakened, bruised and bemused, less sure of itself and purged of everything except the miracle of pity.” Holloway writes well and it is not surprising that his book has received enthusiastic reviews in the secular press from the likes of Alain de Botton. As anyone who has heard him preach or speak can testify, he is a brilliant communicator. I still remember a sermon I heard him preach in Old St Paul’s in the 1970s, extolling the virtues of the charismatic movement. But while Holloway is a great communicator he is not a wonderful theologian. In fact it is unclear whether theology really interests him. He quotes, very effectively, from a number of poems but he rarely refers to a theologian. Paul Tillich is one exception. Perhaps one poet he could have given more attention to is RS Thomas. Thomas deals with the problem that greatly concerns Holloway, the apparent absence of God, and manages to show how the hidden God does make himself known in elusive moments of revelation. A theologian who might repay more attention from Holloway is Karl Rahner, because Rahner shows how God is present to us in ordinary experience, not in moments of religious ecstasy when we live prostrate in chapels in the middle of the night, but when we find our view of the world or of the
Treat yourself to this deliciously different salad with its lively lemon dressing.
claims of other people upon us transformed. Holloway tells us that he was drawn to the prophetic side of religion. He has little love of the institutional aspect of religion although he concedes that without the institutional church Christ’s teaching would have disappeared. In retrospect he thinks he should not have been a bishop. Institutions are often like individuals: a mixture of good and bad. Most of us who stick with the church acknowledge her shortcomings but we have also seen the enormous amount of good she does and feel called to work for her reformation rather than leave her ranks. Holloway is unreasonable in demanding the kind of perfection from the church he would be the first to recognise it would be unrealistic to look for in an individual. Holloway recognises that the church contains saints and he mentions a number of them, including the aristocratic Lilias Graham and the Presbyterian minister, Graham Shaw, both of whom he met in the Gorbals. But saints are perhaps the best evidence we have for the existence of God. As Cardinal Suhard once observed, their lives make no sense without him. The big discovery we make in life, Holloway tells us, is the person we have been revealed to be. This honest book makes gripping reading (after a slow start) but believers will pray that Holloway will not cease his religious quest. Alongside greater knowledge of himself, he may one day find that God has been there lurking in the background all along. Paul Richardson
Wine of the Week La Gioiosa Pinot Grigio Blush 2010 Tesco £5.00 (offer price to 30 April)
Ser vings: 2 Preparation time: 10 min Cooking time: 10 min Level of difficulty: Easy
Prawn and asparagus pasta salad with lemon dressing INGREDIENTS 50 g pasta, dried, shells 150 g asparagus spears, trimmed and halved 1 teaspoon lemon(s), finely grated zest 1 tablespoon lemon juice 6 tablespoon very low fat plain fromage frais 1 tablespoon parsley, or dill (chopped, fresh) plus sprig for garnish
225 g peeled prawns, peeled, defrosted if frozen 1 pinch salt, and black pepper, freshly ground 1 portion lettuce, shredded 1/4 portion cucumber(s), thinly sliced 12 portion cherry tomatoes, halved
METHOD
Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water, according to pack instructions, until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Meanwhile, cook asparagus for 4-5 minutes until just tender. Drain well. In a large bowl, mix lemon zest, lemon juice, fromage frais and dill or parsley. Stir in pasta, asparagus and prawns. Season to taste. Arrange lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes on two serving plates. Top with pasta mixture and serve, garnished with dill or parsley.
“Blush”, as readers might suspect, is an American term, invented in the 1980s for a Rosé white Zinfandel. This offering from northern Italy, the Veneto, is plainly aiming to use the present popularity of Pinot Grigio, a grape used for white wine, to jump a step further in its marketing to the English-speaking world. Though we know it as a white wine, the grape skins are bluish or even darker, and the pressed juice is not left to pick up colour from the skins. My guess is that for “Blush” they are (though there are other ways of getting the light red tint). In the glass then, light pinky-gold, on the nose, straight from the ‘fridge, aromas of white peach. So chilled, though decidedly very dry, there were also orchard fruit notes, to me white plum. There was a lively finish. But, 10 minutes after, on the palate it became, at least this bottle, very ascetic in its dryness. Its thinness was pronounced: very unlike the succulent white Pinot Gris, in fact the same grape, from Alsace, or some other Veneto pinks. My taste also is to prefer a Rosé to be rounder and fuller in mouthfeel. Screw-capped, its Alcohol by Vol. is 12%. Graham Gendall Norton
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Catherine Fox
A novel view of the week
Countryside scare have just spent another interesting week in the depths of Shropshire, teaching creative writing for the Arvon Foundation. This time it was a group of 14 schoolchildren from Glasgow. Some of them had not been away on a school trip before, and none of them had ever stayed in such a rural spot. A spot so remote that torches were essential at night if you wanted to get from the Main House to the Clockhouse. While I was rejoicing in the lack of light pollution, which made the sky seem crowded with stars, they were terrified at the thought of… I have no idea. Ghosties and ghoulies? Psychopaths? As a country girl myself, I hastened to reassure them: Look, the worst that’s likely to happen in the dark is that you trip over. Don’t worry boys and girls! That terrifying screaming noise is only the owls. Feasting on human flesh, mwa ha ha! Their teacher told me that the part of Glasgow where students live is carved up into a dozen tribal patches that are so fiercely guarded that nobody strays off their own territory at night, even to visit friends and family. And yet they were scared of the deep peace of a Shropshire night in April. As the week went by they relaxed, of course. They walked and ran confidently rather than edging along the path in groups, clutching one another and screaming,
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their torch beams scything the undergrowth like light sabres. I’m sure it would take me considerably more than a week to learn how to relax in the streets they call home. The other big challenge they faced was the Arvon menu. Arvon is committed to providing healthy food, cooked from good ingredients, locally sourced where possible. We arrived to find a range of artisan breads, for example. Perfect with hummus and a wedge of Shropshire blue, yum yum! Ooh, homemade beef curry with whole chilli peppers in! Or so the teachers and tutors thought as we piled out plates. The children’s reaction was closer to: It’s food, Jim, but not as we know it. Faced with the thought of throwing away 14 portions of fresh salmon, the centre director changed the menu for later in the week. But for some of the students, even a chicken leg portion (plain roasted without fancy stuff on) was too steep a culinary challenge. So there they were, the poor things, in the middle of an alien landscape, in the dark, with nothing to eat. At 10pm out came all the contraband pot noodles from the suitcases. Arvon hosts school groups from all kinds of backgrounds and regions. There’s a range of attitudes to the menu, many of which are flushed out when the students arrive in the kitchen for their turn at cooking. One private
girls’ school apparently had issues with the coq au vin. ‘But we can’t make that! There’s not enough time to marinate the chicken!’ The experience of teaching varies too. I’ve tutored groups from private schools, and in some ways these super-confident articulate young people are easier to teach. You ask them to read out what they’ve written. You can say, ‘What do we think of this poem?’ and get a flurry of responses. This was not what happened last week. Blood and stones is the dominant image that springs to mind. When I did get an answer, there was a high likelihood I’d only understand one word in three. But by the last night, all of the students had produced a good body of work, and some of it was outstanding. They all read out loud, in front of everybody. Having seen the journey they’d made in the course of the week — battling the alien environment, the strange food, the Sassenach tutors who couldn’t speak their language — that achievement was all the more moving.
The latest depressing NHS reforms After a week more or less cut off from the media, I came back to learn of the latest depressing NHS reforms. The health secretary is proposing that staff be paid less if they work in poorer areas of the country. Well, apart from ‘highly paid managers working in new bodies established to deliver Lansley’s controversial NHS reform programme’, (the Guardian). The reason behind this thinking is that you have to offer higher pay for these posts in order to “attract and retain high-calibre leaders and staff responsible for transforming delivery”. Having just spent a week in the company of some exceptionally high calibre teachers, who work on the coalface of a secondary school in one of Scotland’s most deprived regions, I’m speechless. Where to begin with the back-to-front thinking here? You can pay your highflying managers the biggest bonuses outside of banking, but unless you are also managing to keep hold of your teachers, your midwives, your nurses, then the poorer areas of the country will spiral into ever deeper deprivation. Transforming delivery! A good teacher can transform a child’s life. This is what I was seeing last week. But I’ve also seen — over and over — teachers and medical staff leaving the profession because they are burnt out, underpaid, under-resourced and undervalued. These proposals are the most staggering piece of false economy we’ve seen in a long time. A bonus for working in poorer areas would make more sense.
Close Encounters — The Next Archbishop of Canterbury This is a topic we discuss here in the Close. We all have our different opinions. We speculate about the selection process. Personally, I’m in favour of mixing it up a bit. I seem to remember that when George Carey retired I shallowly suggested that a gut-barging contest was a suitable way to decide upon a successor. Well, I’ve matured since then. I’m now in favour of Turkish wrestling, with the candidates clad in nothing but tight leather britches and olive oil. Provided the oil is fairly traded, I can see no objection. Having canvassed Twitter, I’m sure it would prove a popular spectator sport as well.
Janey Lee Grace Live Healthy! Live Happy!
Get your ZZZZZZs eep trim with a good night’s sleep’ was a newspaper headline last week. According to research, sleeping well is the key to staving off diabetes and keeping off the pounds, if it were that simple many of us would simply take to our beds (I
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April 29, 2012
have just read The Woman who went to bed for a year by Sue Townsend… my hubby’s getting concerned…). The problem is that Insomnia is practically a national crisis and doctors are regularly prescribing medication to deal with it. In addition to regular sleeping tablets there is a whole industry of herbal remedies for sleep, special CDs and a massive range of ‘sleep-easy’ mattresses, pillows and lighting equipment. Who’d have thought something so simple would become such a project! For troubled, exhausted parents there are agencies who offer ‘night nannies’ and experts to help you to establish a good sleep routines for babies. We’re often told we need less sleep as we get older but according to this latest research – clearly not if we want to remain healthy and slim! A few hours sleep for some people can feel refreshing, for others they get agitated if they wake or need to go to the loo (I don’t look forward to that bit of getting older!!) but many have anxiety over not getting ‘quality’ sleep. Perhaps as some life coaches might say we should ‘reframe’ our old beliefs and conditioning about sleep, so that we can look at it a different way and wake up smiling. I do believe effortless sleep is achievable. Check your diet — are you consuming foods that interrupt the body’s natural patterns? Alcohol, caffeine, additives and stress levels will all affect sleep. The environment is important too. What you absolutely don’t need is any electrical equipment buzzing away next to your head. It creates EMFs (electromagnetic fields), which interfere with the brains sleep patterns. Definitely remove computers, cordless or mobile phones from your bedroom and switch off your wi-fi at night. In other cultures sleep is not such a big issue. In the fantastically enlightening book The Continuum Concept (Penguin), Anthropologist Jean Leidloff travelled with the men from the ‘Tauripan’ tribe through the South American jungle with some very real dangers of wild animals around them. Here’s what happened when they settled down to sleep… (They had the habit of) telling a joke in the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep. Though some were snoring loudly, all would wake instantly, laugh and in seconds resume sleep, snoring and all. They did not feel that being awake was more unpleasant than being asleep and they all awoke fully alert, (Jean Leidloff, The Continuum Concept). I might try that tonight, I think I’ll pop into the kids bedrooms while they’re in their deepest sleep and shout out a ‘knock knock, who’s there’ and just wait for the howls of laughter.