End Violence Against Women

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Let's Applaud Dedication

Two stories in the media yesterday gave pause for thought about prevailing attitudes to health care workers.

The first was the clearing of Pauline Cafferkey from any wrong-doing by the Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. The complaint against her was brought by Public Health England despite the fact that the evidence as reported in the press would suggest their own management was to blame, at least in part, for the chaotic screening process Pauline Cafferkey was put through at Heathrow Airport in 2014. The second was a report about a group of seventeen live-in care workers who are alleging they were paid 3.27 an hour by their employer at a time when the minimum wage was 6.70. As reported, the complaint seems to be about the fact that, while they are required to be present and undertake tasks over a 24 hour period, they are paid only for 10 hours.

So, we have two bodies whose role it is to uphold standards in public health very publicly discrediting a nurse who, by most people's standards, should receive an award for bravery. They have done this despite the fact it appears that one of the bodies may, themselves, have been part of the cause of the problem. Then we have a case which highlights the appalling payment level of some care workers and an argument that seeks to justify it by refusing to acknowledge that live-in carers have 24 hour responsibility toward their clients unless they are relieved by colleagues.

The thing that struck me about these two cases is that they both show bodies who have responsibility for the conditions, training, welfare and standards of health care workers in fact letting down the very workers they should be supporting. This is a worrying situation. We need and should applaud the dedication of people like Pauline Cafferkey and workers who care enough to continue to support their clients in conditions that most people would find unacceptable. They do this simply because, well, they do care and they choose to put their clients and patients before their own needs. Nursing can be a risky business which can occasionally involve the nurse in the danger of contracting disease. Social care is unavoidably frought with the responsibilities of 24 hour  provision. There is no such thing as being present to people without 'doing anything'. If the bodies that employ, manage and regulate health and social care professionals do not affirm dedication and hold out against poor or unrealistic practice, then what sort of a health service can we hope for? We need more Pauline Cafferkeys and experienced care-workers in positions to influence policy and set priorities.

(As a post script, does anyone else wonder why the airport screening appears to have held an individual responsible for recording their own temperature? Isn't the principle of most medical examination that the officer undertaking the examination is responsible?)
   

A Few Rather Simple Thoughts on the EU Referendum

I don't think we should be having this referendum at all. We elect MPs to make these kinds of decisions because they have access to the crucial facts. The electorate can hold MPs accountable after an election but who will we hold accountable for the result of this referendum and by what means?

However, we are having a referendum, the outcome is of great importance, and therefore we should all vote.

I'll be voting remain. I cannot see how leaving one of the world's largest legislation-making bodies or one of its largest trading blocks can possibly be of benefit to the UK.
I want to see our government at the centre of Europe, able to influence decisions, policy, legislation, finance and membership from within. I believe that the relative stability  of Europe over the past 70 years has stemmed in part from the EU and that the EU is our best hope to avoid future bloodshed and to deal with humanitarian crises. I believe our membership of the EU strengthens our position with the USA, China and India and gives us a better platform from which to work with Middle Eastern countries.

I welcome the opportunities the EU brings for Britons to work in other countries and for citizens of other states to work in Britain. The place to deal with services and industries that survive by undercutting a living wage is centrally, across Europe; if there was a meaningful living wage operating in every country, that would deal with much of the angst about alleged job-snatching. I believe the current refugee crisis can better be addressed by the nations of Europe talking and formulating a shared response and I want Britain to continue to be part of the solution.

The present UK government has been to withdraw Britain from the Human Rights Act. To withdraw from the protections afforded in European law at the same time is madness. I think that many women, members of minority groups and many employees sometimes fail to realise the extent of the very basic protection they enjoy under European law.

We are facing huge ecological challenges and these can much better be addressed within the EU; the issues do not arrange themselves according to national boundaries.

There are regions within the UK that have benefitted hugely from European subsidies - South Wales, and parts of Scotland and the North East, for example. I have heard no plans for how the government expects to take on future demands for finance to support areas where the local economy is under threat.

If and where we do exit European controls (e.g. fishing quotas), I have heard no convincing plans about how the ensuing situation will be policed to ensure that other countries comply with British requirements.  

Britons are Europeans by global location. To opt out of a central role in governing and ordering our own continent is short-sighted in the extreme. It is always better to remain at the table and talk than to turn away. The majority of our political partners from other parts of the world want us to remain.

To vote to exit the EU will commit us to further years of uncertainty as terms of engagement with and beyond Europe have to be re-negotiated.

I don't think it's the function of religious leaders to tell people how to vote in a democratic election. They should encourage us to inform ourselves and to vote. But there is a difficult question which, worryingly, begins to raise itself in Britain today. Religious leaders should expose and name policies that harm groups or individuals on grounds of their gender, race or other personal, God-given characteristics, on grounds of poverty and exclusion from the resources needed for life, health, education and community cohesion, on grounds of belief and freedom of thought, and on grounds of dishonesty. At what point does exposing these things become allied with the need to speak out against certain specific political groups or movements? The ground is shifting in Britain and we should all be very very vigilant.

6 O'Clock News or Twitter?

Remember the days when the family sat around on Saturday morning (or Sunday afternoon) reading the newspapers? It was soooo irritating when Mum kept commenting out loud and Dad pontificated on an article he'd just read on something you really didn't care about. It was those family sessions with the weekend newspapers that gave me a lifelong interest in current affairs, politics and world issues. And it was evenings spent arguing with the speakers on Any Questions (the radio precursor to Question Time) that taught me not only to debate but to look outwards and try to learn about life from other peoples' points of view and from situations different from my own.

So, I ask, what's different about doing your news-gathering on social media and, in my case, especially Twitter? There are pros and cons.

+ves

• it's more interactive.
• there's a wider range of subjects and opinions readily available.
• conversation is wider than just family & immediate friends.
• it's occasionally prompted me to write articles/join campaigns that have demonstrably made a difference.
• it's more democratic: anyone from anywhere in the world can contribute, they don't need to hold a recognised 'position' - MP, Pope, celebrity....
• the information you see is not controlled by one group such as journalists.
• I read news articles alongside articles on philosophy, science, arts, ethics, religion (no sport!) and professional development in my own field everyday so the cross-fertilisation of ideas is greater.
• it's easier to drink coffee and eat toast while looking at a screen than when holding a newspaper.

-ves

• it can be more difficult to distinguish between well-researched material and superficial, misleading or downright inaccurate information.
• judgements about quality are down to you alone and not necessarily mediated through recognized publications with guaranteed standards.
• what you see on screen is controlled by your previous choices and it's easy not to venture outside sites that are presented to you and make you feel comfortable or significant.
• you tend to stick with limited material generated by people with opinions like yours. 
• it's a dangerous illusion that you are free to choose what you read.
• there can be pressure to get involved in spur of the moment uninformed or heated discussions.

On balance, it's just a very different way of 'doing news', neither obviously better nor worse. And, of course, it can be blended with the older conventions of TV, radio and newspaper. It all has to be kept in its place time-wise but I think I'm a little better informed than I used to be and a little more inclined to check things out with others - 'Was that article about a green moon appearing every 420 years really based on fact?' 

Online news is undoubtedly changing power structures. I'm excited about the effect this is having on politics. The political world as we knew it is already being challenged - think of the Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump phenomena or the degree to which there's now grass roots exchange between profoundly different cultures. Three years ago I did not regularly converse with people in Indonesia and China or with people of other faiths. This is all a bit of a melting pot and I don't think we can yet see how (or if) the conventional political structures will adapt and assimilate. Corbyn is a good case in point: it's undoubtedly true he has an enormous grassroots following - you can see this clearly on the internet and in the fact that local parties report figures like 800% increases in membership. But how much of this is based on purely internet activity which the parliamentary party system can choose to ignore? And how much is the response to Corbyn simply too disparate to have any long term impact - people see him as a potential leader for their passing cause? In the case of Trump and some of the right wing movements in Europe, the effect of the internet has been to produce knee-jerk reactions and over-heated debate - this is less benign than the Corbyn phenomenon. What we can be sure about is that politics will be different in 25 years time and all this will have a profound impact on both national and international balances of power.

I'm even more interested in the effect internet comment is having on authority. Organisations that have depended on a central authority which to some degree controls what people can know (the most fundamental kind of power) and the parameters within which they say and do things have already begun to struggle. A leadership team commissions a report or sets out a mission statement and it is now immediately open to highly eclectic degrees of scrutiny. Polite critical comment may be welcome; tearing something mercilessly to shreds may end in tears or sackings but authority will have been undermined, public image and relationships within the organisation damaged. I believe we have yet to see how conventional authority structures give way to a more democratic and less 'expert protected' approach to organisational development.

There was a cartoon doing the rounds at Christmas. The angels appear to the shepherds and begin to sing 'Peace to God's people on  earth...'  'Yes, yes,' say the shepherds, 'It's already been on twitter!' So what does the digital angel - harbinger of profound truth - look like and how will internet communities recognise such messengers? 

       

Abuse as Crime Against Truth

It's very distressing to read frequent stories of abuse or allegations of abuse by individuals and institutions. Since the revelations about Jimmy Savile these stories seem to have become endemic. Behind each story is pain: the pain of the abuse itself, the pain of not being believed and having evidence publicly picked over, and the pain of being rejected, blamed or further abused by institutions hell-bent on protecting reputations and insurance costs. There's also the pain of those accused wrongly and the near impossibility of restoring a reputation thrown into question; again, lives are indiscriminately picked over and the public is not always able to distinguish proven from alleged behaviour.

These two extremes of pain - that of the victim not believed and that of the person wrongly accused - throw into relief the real nature of the crime of abuse. Because of its covert nature and the shame and difficulty in speaking about it experienced by many victims, abuse plays with truth in a way that is perniciously corrupt. Its hiddenness spawns untruth upon untruth. Ultimately, in many cases, it is simply not possible to get to the truth or to do so in a way that provides sufficiently convincing evidence. This playing with the nature of truth is what does such lasting, deep damage to both victims and the wrongly accused. Abuse is not only a crime against an individual, it is a crime against a community, putting intolerable strain on normal relationships and tearing up the rule book when it comes to trust. Over many years, often via a many-layered journey of painful, slow attempts at investigation, the abuser appears to 'win' by destroying the possibility of ultimate truth-telling and, with it, the capacity for trust and faith. There have been suicides.

So there are rightly severe penalties for those who abuse. There  ought to be tougher scrutiny and severe penalties for institutions that frustrate investigation, dissemble and cover up pointers (especially early ones) to abuse. This is not about suspecting abuse in places where there is none or about regulating behaviour in over-constraining ways, it is about a seismic change in institutional culture.

At the heart of physical, psychological or sexual abuse is the misuse of power and the creation of corrupt networks where power is inappropriately exercised. Healthy organisations have good levels of awareness about how power is exercised and how this differs from the exercise of influence. Power does not ultimately allow those over whom is it exercised space for choice, influence does and can use choice as a positively or negatively motivating factor. In all organisations both power and influence are present in complex ways that are related to the core purpose of the organisation. To create a culture that lowers the incidence of abuse requires honest acknowledgement of the ways power is used, with robust, transparent safeguarding checks and regulatory processes in place. 

Perhaps more significant, however, is the role of influence in an organisation. Influence is directly related to character. Being this or that sort of a person in this or that kind of context sways the opinion, motivation and behaviour of others. What do members of an organisation think about the exercise of power in their context? What is their attitude to whistle-blowing, bullying, gender relationships and minority voices? Most importantly, what behaviours are regarded as unacceptable or damaging and why? Healthy organisations spend time and resources promoting this kind of open discussion and look for behavioural changes as a result. Without this kind of education and re-education, opportunity for abuse will continue to occur and, as seems to have been the case in too many places, flourish.

What are the danger signs in an organisation?

• Defensive attitudes to questions, suggestions and criticism
• Refusal to take seriously concerns or complaints
• Similar concerns raised about behaviour by unrelated sources
• Frequent occurrence of low-grade bullying or humiliation
• Covert, hidden behaviour or behaviour that obsessively seeks anonymity
• Buck-passing and inability to resolve issues
• Lack of freedom of expression
• Lip service to and over-reliance on policies that are not properly carried out.

It will be interesting to see what the Goddard Enquiry uncovers. From current reports, it appears to be the case that abuse and its concealment occur either where there is an obvious imbalance of power (eg. the care system, the judiciary, schools and over-stretched police forces) or where belief systems are involved (eg. politics, religious groups, media). In the case of power imbalance, rather than simply escalating regulation of these bodies (though that may be appropriate) it would be good to see a thorough-going examination and incorporation of leadership structures and practices from institutions that show a low incidence of abuse - that could mean similar institutions from other countries or dissimilar institutions demonstrating high degrees of effectiveness in related fields. 

In the case of belief systems impacting on the incidence of abuse there must be, first of all, an honesty about the extent of abuse and the ways it has/has not been addressed at the highest level in these organisations. Only when this is achieved can these groups begin to address the painful and difficult questions about how belief and behaviour are related. In particular, such groups should focus on the way that authority, leadership, sexuality, gender roles and image are portrayed, enacted and talked about in their organisations. This is something which, although externally required, can only be achieved through changed attitudes among those in power and a willingness to listen to voices previously discounted or overlooked so that fresh truth and a more rounded story begins to emerge.

Here are two examples of projects I have recently come across that are working toward cultural change at opposite ends of the age spectrum: 4YP Bristol's project The Bristol Ideal which works in schools to help children explore healthy relationships and Age Action Ireland's Do Something which does inspirational work across generations. Both projects demonstrate an approach that shows commitment to the value of communication in bringing about much needed cultural change. 4YP works in the area of effective, accessible health education and advice for young people. Age Action's website also hosts a blog about issues to do with ageing - well worth a visit in my opinion! Click on the links below for further information.

Age Action Workshops
here

Schools Project to Prevent Abuse
here

   

Two Calls to Reconciliation

It's usually very peaceful in Southwell Minster. Wander in on a grey afternoon and you will find a polite, helpful but un-intrusive welcome. There's often an interesting art exhibition in situ and I was not disappointed last Thursday. An hour to spare between appointments on a wettish afternoon presented me with an unexpected opportunity to drop in and I was delighted to find, as so often, an exhibition that chimed in with the season, stimulated the imagination and raised all sorts of questions about familiar stories and beliefs.

The artist Ian McKillop currently has an exhibition of paintings in the Chapter House entitled Transforming Pain Into Hope. It consists of two series, 'The Seven Last Words from the Cross' and 'The Seven Songs of Resurrection.' The extraordinary thing about McKillop's paintings is the extent to which, at times, he places the viewer alongside and very close to Christ so that you are looking at the scene almost from Christ's perspective. This is theologically very powerful and achieves Mckillop's expressed aim of helping the viewer explore what it means for the Divine to enter the world through the Christ event. McKillop's 'Seven Last Words from the Cross' challenge the viewer to think about the Divine response to persecution and violence and about the yearning for reconciliation that lies at the heart of the Godhead - sometimes uncomfortably as we see that love and forgiveness are bestowed universally and not confined by human notions of justice.

The 'Seven Songs of Resurrection' were astonishing, I thought, for their portrayal of the Spirit of the Risen Christ being unleashed and gradually transfigured into the Spirit that enters the lives of all believers. The sense of Divine power pervading the world through transformed lives was palpable. 'These paintings are...conceived as memorial to innocent lives taken as a result of war in all nations.... Destructivity, terrorism or warfare is not Christ's way to solve political or social problems. The images ask us to learn new ways, following Christ's loving, self-sacrificing, forgiving, non-recriminatory, peace-bringing example. We are asked to pray and work for peace.' These paintings were inspired by a visit to Wurzburg, a city devastated in 1945 and rebuilt preserving and creating as much art work as possible.

The exhibition closes on 22nd March so hurry! For more information about the artist and a preview of his work, go to McKillop's website here

It was hard not just to stay with the impressions and thoughts created by these wonderful paintings on the nature of forgiveness. However, I couldn't resist a small pilgrimage round to the south side of the Minster to see one of my favourite works of art. Jonathan Clarke's 'Stations of the Cross' have been at Southwell for a number of years. Portrayed in aluminium and oak, Clarke's stations have two very distinctive features. Firstly, you are invited to touch and to walk along the Via Dolorosa through tactile experience. Secondly, the size of the cross changes as you progress along the route. It becomes larger as its burden becomes heavier and, at the point of crucifixion, it fills the visual field. Uniquely, you are then invited to move beyond the cross, turn, and look back toward Golgotha from the perspective of the deposition and tomb; as you do so, the size and impact of the cross diminish.

You can see an image of Clarke's Stations in the gallery on his website here (in date order under 1999.)

A great deal of food for thought, imagination and prayer.
Thank you, Southwell Minster!

Candlemas 2016: Mary at Southwell

Southwell Minster has been hosting an exhibition The Art of Mary  here as a lead into the celebration of Candlemas. It presents the work of 22 contemporary artists whose names I've included below. It's a really unusual and exciting exhibition showcasing an amazing variety of images that provoke conversation between themselves and enliven the attempt to conceptualise the Mary hidden in the stories, biblical and traditional, we have about her. This is the interaction of theology and art at their best.

Matthew Askey's very personal oils portray the 'self effacing generosity' required by motherhood while Mark Cazalet's Epiphany Star is universal in scale, combining ideas from the Magnificat and the Magis' profession to produce an extraordinary canvas ranging across the joy and grief of Mary's experience and connecting it to the experience of all humanity touched by the Divine. Nicholas Mynheer's ten Scenes from the Life of Mary encompass most of the narratives we have about Mary 'from the teenage mother (who pondered the word of God in her heart) to the young mother who seemingly overrides Jesus' words at Cana...to the mature mother at the foot of the cross.' Each picture introduced me to some observation or question about Mary I had not encountered before. Karen Thompson's photographs, although 'inspired by the art of Renaissance painters and 'Old Masters',' had a very contemporary feel and raised for me questions about memory and generational wisdom passed between mothers and daughters. One of the most striking paintings, (perhaps its impact was enhanced as it was the first one I saw) is Roger Wagner's Writing in the Dust. At first viewing, it does not seem to be about Mary at all but about the woman taken in adultery in John 8. The artist's comment explains why this depicts something significant about Mary but I won't spoil the impact by repeating it here. However, the painting is haunting in the many, many questions it raises about first century and twenty first century relationships between religions, genders and communities. Jean Lamb's Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Sorrows, displayed to good effect in the Chapter House, brings Mary's open, potential-drenched womb to the heart of the exhibition and adds the teasing detail of unknown divine? human? hands holding or, perhaps, presenting Mary herself as gift among us. Susie Hamilton depicts the post-annunciation moments following the angel's departure, showing Mary deep in thought amid gorgeous, light-filled emptiness. Sophie Hacker's First Communion of the Virgin is inspired by Oliver Messiaen's Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus and returns us to the universal significance of the Christ event - Mary's womb with a 'fragment of nascent life' presents over a background of star-scattered space. 

The other artists are Hester Finch, Chris Gollon, Lee Harvey, Ellie Hewitt, Rebecca Hind, Iain McKillop, Hannelore Nunn, Celia Paul, Gill Sakakini, Anna Sikorsky, Helen Sills, Hanna-Leena Ward, Tom Wood and Sandra Cowper. Matthew Askey led a schools-based project (the Minster School, Huthwaite and Selston schools) to create an origami nativity.

The exhibition as a whole is a wonderful preparation for meditation on the mysterious story of Christ's presentation in the temple. I went twice with different friends and both times found it rich with insights into the way sorrow and joy, practicality and dreams, specific detail and universal significance, fear and hope are brought together in the words exchanged between Simeon, Anna and Mary. 

On Not Celebrating Christmas

Quakers don't traditionally celebrate Christmas.The incarnation is something that we try to be conscious of everyday. Moments and places of God breaking into the world that catch us unawares are causes for joy and celebration at any time. I seem to recall Calvin taught something similar about the crucifixion and resurrection and the keeping of Good Friday and Easter. God's presence at the heart of the world's suffering, the hope that suffering will be transformed, and the reality of new life where it is are always with us; the challenge is having eyes to see.

It's interesting (and difficult) not celebrating Christmas in a culture where you can't get away from it. Carol services, trees, cards, carols on the radio and in shops, gifts, the obligatory rich food and mulled wine and, above all, the expectations make it nearly impossible. So what is the sensible way through?

It's been a complete refreshment to the soul and a very spiritually enriching experience to take a step back. Where there is real joy and excitement, it's wonderful to watch and join in. Where the impact of the story of Jesus' birth is genuinely challenging, delighting or changing lives, that's something to make the heart sing. It's been lovely, though, to avoid, as much as possible, the commercialism and the frenetic sense of having to engage in so many expectation-driven and only tangentially relevant activities.

The quiet has proved rich and I have pondered moments like 

* The calm of midweek evening streets in Nottingham for a short interval after the shops have shut.
* The December Peace Supper when we ate and talked about education programmes to teach children skills of reconciliation.
* The silence in Sunday Meeting for Worship unusually punctuated by the children's contributions - a story, a single verse from a carol, a light given and stars made. (I still marvel at how the children enter into silence - a whole hour of it on this occasion!)
* A shivering man who asked us straight out, 'Please will you give me enough for a hot drink?' We got talking and I began to appreciate how easy it is, if you have some money, not to think about its real value. It takes a lot of 5ps, 20ps and 50ps to afford a drink, a meal or socks.
* Letters from friends around the world not heard from very often. Meetings arranged with old friends for the year ahead. 
* The welcome of being invited into neighbours' homes, to the village Panto and to the WI dinner as strangers and newcomers.
* The neighbour who rigged up lights in our hanging basket to illuminate the driveway.
* Fires and the warmth of shared meals.
* The background of floods affecting friends in Cumbria and Yorkshire and Wales and the executions in Saudi Arabia reminding us again that the old, old stories of rulers and natural phenomena disrupting human life have contemporary relevance.

My one concession to conventional Christmas celebration was a tree. My father was a forester and we have my grandparents and parents' decorations, some handmade and dating back to the 1920's. I love to have a tree in the house for a short while each year because it reminds me of Biblical trees from the Garden of Eden (conveying knowledge and the power of life and death) to the Book of Revelation (where the tree on the bank of the river that flows through the holy city produces fruits that are 'for the healing of the nations.')

To those of you who have kept the 12 days of Christmas, may their joy and insight remain with you throughout the year!