Just before the election, I was lucky to meet our labour candidate outside a certain supermarket in the middle of Ripon. We got talking - I wanted to canvass his opinion on care of the elderly and payment of people who are carers for children or for disabled, sick or elderly people. We had a good chat. Then we were joined by a man who proceeded to harangue us both about the alleged dishonesty, corruption and scurrilousness of all MPs. The candidate took it all with good grace despite the fact he could not get a word in edgeways. Eventually I excused myself and went to look for a shopping trolley feeling rather sad. I had listened to all our candidates, labour, conservative, libdem, green and UKIP at a hustings at Ripon cathedral a day or two earlier. A more coherent, committed, engaged group of people who knew and understood their community you could not hope to meet.
I've had the same sense of sadness today following the tributes paid to Charles Kennedy in the Commons. How desperately wrong it seems that it's often only after death we express appreciation for the worth and the service of our public servants. Yes, there's some dishonesty and corruption among MPs and councillors, but the vast majority work incredibly hard to do a job that demands they sacrifice a great number of things most of us take for granted, not least time with family and friends and, in the case of MPs, the relative security many of us have about where we live. Councillors do their work unpaid. I'm always touched by the time councillors give to hear the anxieties, grievances and concerns of their neighbours. In some ways it's harder to do that when you live round the corner and you're going to bump into them again the next day. We've always been fortunate to live in constituencies with dedicated, conscientious, humane MPs who are in touch with their constituents. I don't know where they get their energy and resilience from - it is not easy to work long days, to travel a great deal, to stay sharp in mastering a brief and in debate, to listen constantly, to appear relaxed and sociable and to deal with the pressure of the media. And to look the part and be constantly quickly available which we now expect.
To have given almost your whole adult life to serve in this way is admirable. To have achieved much in doing it is remarkable. To have cared and to have remained human and vulnerable is costly. To suddenly lose this way of life and the daily contact with people who have been colleagues, supporters and friends for years must be devastating. It is a very major bereavement.
Today I'm cross with myself because I've been meaning to write this blogpost ever since that encounter with our labour candidate. I wish I had done it sooner. I wanted to make a plea that we treat our public representatives with respect and some appreciation. At least let's give them the benefit of the doubt - unless proven otherwise it seems likely to me that they are people of integrity and concern for others. I may not agree with their views, I may wish to oppose them heartily, but not in a personal way and I am grateful that they were willing to stand for democratic election. If I'm ever tempted to criticise, I might first think that it's more than I have offered.
Charles Kennedy was a man of courteousness, integrity and courage. Thank you for what you have given and may you rest in peace.
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
God the Holy Trinity, Beyond Gender
God, of course, is God, beyond our wildest imaginings, beyond any human categories. Yet Christians have experienced and known God as a personality (and that in itself is a metaphor, not a category.) To express how they experience God, Christians, and before them those who wrote the Hebrew scriptures and Jewish communities round the world, have relied on the use of overlapping metaphors. Our experience of God is of a personality with many unfolding, sometimes contradictory characteristics; a being who is mysterious, who is both familiar and terrifyingly strange and whose manifestation in our lives evolves, changes, waxes and wanes. God is also consistent with God's self and this unchanging core is rather like human personality - we may present ourselves in new and different ways but we can essentially be recognised by others as an individual with a coherent personality.
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| The Trinity: Andrey Rublev 15th Century Icon |
Christians have understood relationship to be at the heart of what it means to apprehend God. The doctrine of the Trinity helps us understand and reflect on this. God is in relationship with God's self, God can observe God being in relation to God's self, God is in relationship with us and God draws us into this relationship rather as we are invited into the 'conversation' in Rublev's famous icon (above). It is vital to grasp this to understand the Christian concept of Trinity. It's also central to Christian belief that God takes the initiative in relating to humans (revelation) and can also be very elusive or absent (experienced as desolation by the Christian.)
I could probably write another 50,000 words about God before needing to mention God's gender. God is not gendered in the sense that God is beyond gender. But God reveals characteristics that are like those associated with the male and the female human person. To say God is a 'father' or a 'mother' is akin to using other metaphors found in scripture where God can be a 'rock', a 'fortress', a 'shield', a 'King', a 'hen' or a 'shepherd'. We do not mean that God is literally any of these things. They are metaphors. God is like them. Now metaphors can be used in different ways; they are loose and invite exploration. If we say that someone is 'a waste of space' or 'a monument to respectability' or a 'prune' or a 'sweet briar rose', we are inviting the hearer to delve into their experience of waste bins, monuments, squishy fruit and roses in order to understand something about the essence of that person's character. This is how religious metaphor about God works too. Metaphors can be very apt, in which case nearly everything about them speaks of the person's character. Or they can work in a much more limited way so that, for example, just one characteristic of a sweet briar rose (its smell) reminds us of the person. Overlapping metaphors 'correct' each other - or perhaps it's better to say that they raise more questions that help us to explore what the person is like and even accept paradoxes about that person. How can God protect like a fortress (which is static) and a shield (which moves around with the soldier?) Yet God is frequently described as both fortress and shield: throughout the Old and New Testaments there is a corresponding tension between times when people experience God as being mainly in one, special, holy place and other times when God is experienced as moving about and being at the heart of the community of believers or even in the heart of one itinerant believer.
So, in this sense, God is neither male nor female. However, most of the people who have written about God, and especially those with power and influence and the means to communicate widely, have been male. This is certainly true since the dawn of Old Testament times down to today. Yet in the scriptures and even in the tradition of the churches there is a lot of evidence of God being understood in terms of female experience. From the earliest times Christians have known that God is not confined by gender, but the church fathers were, well, fathers. They both consciously and unconsciously selected predominantly male imagery and concepts in which to speak about God.(There are many famous exceptions such as the Mediaeval theologian Anselm's use of Jesus' striking image of Himself as a 'mother hen'.)
The writing of the early fathers then came to be overlaid with neo-platonic thinking and with concepts like immutability - God came to be said to be 'unchanging'. (Even 'unchanging' itself is a limited metaphor - I'm unchanging as myself yet every cell in my body will be replaced during my life; the metaphor reveals consistency rather than rigid sameness.) The apparent argument about whether God is male or female is not actually the real argument. The primary disagreement is between those who want to say 'God cannot change, tradition cannot change and God is predominantly male in tradition' and those who understand God in more dynamic terms drawn from texts and doctrines that show God 'repenting', changing God's intention and relating symbiotically and reciprocally to the created order rather as a mother does to her child. (Theologians like Dorothee Solle and Sallie McFague explored this more than 20 years ago drawing on sources from deep within the oldest traditions.) The argument is also about how we use metaphor. When, for example, Jesus said, 'Pray, 'Daddy' (Abba),' was the point of the metaphor God's exclusive maleness or God's intimacy with us as children or both?
This debate is both too hot to handle because it taps into some very fundamental things about male/female relationships and the very basis of Christian theology and, at the same time, open to trivialisation and ridicule - as seen in much of the media and on social media this week. The two are related. It is because some people find this all too threatening and dangerous that there is a great compulsion to rubbish it, often in extra-ordinarily abusive terms. We are into a topic that touches on how everybody feels about their own gendered worth before the God they do or don't believe in and so this is very challenging, potentially explosive stuff. In this sense, the Daily Mail has its antennae well-tuned to be onto a whiff of impending change in the air.
For many years feminist/womanist theology, biblical studies and church history have been relegated to the 'slightly nutty' edge of theological syllabuses. Yes, the sources have been there on the reading lists but many students have avoided them. Books have been relegated to the end of the bibliography along with liberation theology, ecological theology and theology from the two thirds world (where there is much interesting theology that challenges western-centric world views.) Usually the students who have read these books have either been already familiar with the issues or very keen to disprove their validity. But these 'issues' are fast presenting themselves as the most pressing issues of the day to the world-wide church.
If you are not convinced about the need for this debate (which is clearly going to happen whatever we think about it) perhaps I can share a personal insight? When I was about 16, I found myself, while praying, trying to explain to God what it was like to be a woman…..and then the penny dropped! It was one of those revelatory moments when you know the Holy Spirit has been at work: God knows! God understands the nature of your female experience. But the weight of male imagery for God had almost obscured from my vision any sense that God might be inside the experience of women as well as outside it. This is what women continually experience and either accept, rationalise and internalize or question and challenge - the objectification of themselves as 'not the norm.' There is a more powerful story about how this happens to young children on the Blog Because God is Love here God's Gender: A Cautionary Tale.
In conclusion for now (I know this debate will run on and on well beyond my lifetime) I would like to suggest that we all, in the churches on both sides of the argument and none, educate ourselves a lot better about the matter and familiarise ourselves with the resources available for thinking and praying. I also make an appeal for charity and for careful listening. I have expressed my opinion here but I respect the opinions of others and would like to hear without rancour or anger being directed in either direction. Here are some suggested resources for those interested in female characteristics of the divine nature. They are all available to order and some to read online and should, I think, be part of mainstream theology.
In Memory of Her Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza (New Testament interpretation)
Thinking About God Dorothee Solle (on radical immanence)
Models of God: Theology for a Nuclear Age Sallie McFague
Women's Ways of Worship: Gender Analysis and Liturgical History Teresa Berger
Lifting Women's Voices: Ways to Change the World eds. Rose, TaPaa, Person and Nelson
Saturday, 2 May 2015
Green Frog Moments
There was a cartoon doing the rounds on Facebook recently that showed a recumbent Green Frog having one of those deeply necessary pre-creative moments.
We all have them! Some of us more often and for longer than others. They're not just moments in our days, but, sometimes, seasons in our lives. I don't know about you, but I can spend hours tending slightly hazy intuitions and driving half formed ideas around in my head. But suddenly some invisible lever will be thrown and I'll sit down, often not even with a plan, and write the thing I've been trying to feel my way towards in a matter of minutes. It may need a bit of revision but I'm often surprised at its coherence and left wondering 'where did that come from?' As T.S. Elliott observed about the mystical nature of writing poetry, 'We do not know until the shell breaks what kind of egg we have been sitting on.' That could equally well have been said by an artist, musician, sculptor, cook or anyone who approaches life as an opportunity to create.
One of my favourite sites for inspiration and mental-cud-to-chew is Maria Popova's Brain Pickings. If you don't know the site it's choc full of thought-provoking material for anyone engaged in the creative process here (also on Twitter @brainpickings). She just has that knack of putting together really interesting material culled from the writings of artists and philosophers in all walks of life. She's recently shared a couple of very good posts about writer's block and creativity, exploring the 'circular' nature of the relationship between spirituality and creativity.
I shared the Green Frog cartoon on Facebook and found that it chimed with a lot of friends. So much so that I half-jokingly suggested we form a 'Green Frog Society' dedicated to upholding the importance of Green Frog Space in our lives. The original cartoon suggested that this was a thing women do more than men but I completely disagree! Men more than welcome as well!
The next thing that happened was that a lovely friend who creates in glass sent me a specially crafted Green Frog coaster for the essential cuppa that accompanies so many Green Frog moments. There I was, working at my desk (and actually I was writing an article that day!) when the postman brought a package. How intriguing! So imagine my delight when out fell...
I invite you to celebrate Green Frog Space. We need more of it in all our lives! We need to talk about it and share it and, most especially, share its fruits with our friends. When I attended a conference in the Czech Republic, I was bowled over by the way, each evening, people would gather round to share beer and nibbles and tell stories, recite poetry, sing or play a song - often witty and slightly political. It seemed that time taken to create something original which could be shared was really valued.
If you value and want to promote Green Frog Space, share the Green Frog coaster photo however you like, and let me know via Facebook or Twitter (@archdeaconjanet) or post a comment here.
Meanwhile, I'll enjoy that brain-stimulating cup of tea…
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| © Silly and Snarky on Pinterest www.pinterest |
We all have them! Some of us more often and for longer than others. They're not just moments in our days, but, sometimes, seasons in our lives. I don't know about you, but I can spend hours tending slightly hazy intuitions and driving half formed ideas around in my head. But suddenly some invisible lever will be thrown and I'll sit down, often not even with a plan, and write the thing I've been trying to feel my way towards in a matter of minutes. It may need a bit of revision but I'm often surprised at its coherence and left wondering 'where did that come from?' As T.S. Elliott observed about the mystical nature of writing poetry, 'We do not know until the shell breaks what kind of egg we have been sitting on.' That could equally well have been said by an artist, musician, sculptor, cook or anyone who approaches life as an opportunity to create.
One of my favourite sites for inspiration and mental-cud-to-chew is Maria Popova's Brain Pickings. If you don't know the site it's choc full of thought-provoking material for anyone engaged in the creative process here (also on Twitter @brainpickings). She just has that knack of putting together really interesting material culled from the writings of artists and philosophers in all walks of life. She's recently shared a couple of very good posts about writer's block and creativity, exploring the 'circular' nature of the relationship between spirituality and creativity.
I shared the Green Frog cartoon on Facebook and found that it chimed with a lot of friends. So much so that I half-jokingly suggested we form a 'Green Frog Society' dedicated to upholding the importance of Green Frog Space in our lives. The original cartoon suggested that this was a thing women do more than men but I completely disagree! Men more than welcome as well!
The next thing that happened was that a lovely friend who creates in glass sent me a specially crafted Green Frog coaster for the essential cuppa that accompanies so many Green Frog moments. There I was, working at my desk (and actually I was writing an article that day!) when the postman brought a package. How intriguing! So imagine my delight when out fell...
 |
| Green Frog Coaster, created by Jacquie James, Cardiff |
I invite you to celebrate Green Frog Space. We need more of it in all our lives! We need to talk about it and share it and, most especially, share its fruits with our friends. When I attended a conference in the Czech Republic, I was bowled over by the way, each evening, people would gather round to share beer and nibbles and tell stories, recite poetry, sing or play a song - often witty and slightly political. It seemed that time taken to create something original which could be shared was really valued.
If you value and want to promote Green Frog Space, share the Green Frog coaster photo however you like, and let me know via Facebook or Twitter (@archdeaconjanet) or post a comment here.
Meanwhile, I'll enjoy that brain-stimulating cup of tea…
'I Have Come to Bring A Sword'
I was struck by some words of David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, during a recent interview for a BBC programme about the burial of Richard III. It was just a throwaway line. Asked about the opposition to Leicester Cathedral becoming Richard's final resting place, he replied 'We are used to controversy here. Following Jesus Christ today is not without its controversial aspects.'
It's certainly true that Jesus Himself generated a good deal of controversy. More than that, He seems sometimes to have deliberately turned His back on courses of action that would have dampened it down.
With the various conflicts going on around the world, I've recently been thinking about some of the very difficult sayings of Jesus - the ones we all like conveniently to gloss over. In some, Jesus appears to say outright that He has come to cause division. For example, the same Jesus who refuses to use violence or force when it is used against Him is reported in two of the gospels as having said, 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have come not to bring peace but a sword…' (Matt. 10.34)
What does He mean? Perhaps something along the lines that the result of steadfastly searching out and witnessing to the truth within ourselves may very well set us, at times, against even those we love or those who have shaped us or those we have formerly respected and lived alongside. There is to be 'nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, nothing secret that will not be made known.' (Matt. 10.26) The sword of which Jesus speaks is one that, when wielded, forces us to lay bear and clarify truth in ways that cut right through confusion and dissembling. And we all know that sometimes a spot of confusion and half-truth is much easier.
The Greek word used in the text for 'sword' is not the soldier's weapon but the 'macharia', the knife used by the surgeon, the barber, the butcher, the gardener and the priest offering a sacrifice. In other words, it is the implement necessary to the small but life-giving separations and deaths of everyday life. Without this knife there is no clarity, no healing, no fruitfulness, no nourishment. In the face of the dangerous scheming and plotting going on around Him, Jesus is talking about a truly radical grappling with truth, one that never compromises, never accepts the half truths and sophistries of political or religious leaders, philosophers or social commentators. Jesus Himself named and faced those who opposed Him with a startling clarity of differentiation. This was true even when the opposition came from His closest allies. Another of the difficult sayings of Jesus which sounds very harsh to our ears is directed at Simon Peter. 'But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.' (Matt. 16.25) It seems Jesus didn't scruple to admonish in the strongest terms a favourite disciple who tried to prevent Him from facing up to the truth of His calling which was to 'undergo great suffering, be killed and on the third day to rise again.' In order to remain steadfast and act in a way consonant with His own truth, He needed to put distance between Himself and anyone who would tempt Him away from what He knew to be true.
The 'sword' of which Jesus speaks, then, allows us to depart psychologically from a place of our own dissembling, confusion and self deception and to prepare ourselves to see, hear, speak and act upon truth however unpalatable. It enables us to see the sociologically relative nature of our own 'truth' and the 'truths' of others and to create space where apparently opposed truths can be lived, explored, evolved and understood more clearly. Lytta Basset, in her excellent book Holy Anger, Jacob, Job and Jesus (Continuum, Ottawa, 2007) here, suggests that this radical separation was the function of the sword placed at the entrance to the garden of Eden in Genesis 3.24 'a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the Tree of Life.' What an extraordinary image! This sword will not allow the commingling of that which leads to life with that which leads to death. In its wielding it forces the laying bare of untruths, self-interest, greed and all manner of dysfunction. It stands as a warning and a means of wounding for us all when we follow the path of deceit. Without its separating, defining, wounding power, there can be no growth, no healing, no reconciliation, no way for human and divine to meet, no way for truth to emerge.
A sword cuts to the quick. The sword of which Jesus speaks creates definition, it allows protected space between beliefs and actions that interfere with one another - a necessary space in which greater clarity and more honestly humble self-possession can be realised. This sword may cause the death of a previous state as being the only way for newly revealed truth to emerge. It may cut deep into the heart of relationships. The truth that breaks out when such a sword performs its excision may cause intense pain, especially where that truth has long been denied, denigrated, twisted or falsified. The eruption of truth may destroy apparent familial or social harmony if it is founded on what Bassett calls the 'lie of violent unanimity.' This process hurts and is akin to the taking up of our cross and the laying down of one understanding of one's life and circumstances so that a better, truer way can be born.
There is a Hebrew expression which means to 'cut the covenant'. It's drawn from very ancient tales of sacrifice in Genesis where the severing action creates the possibility of relationship between God and humans. Without the sword separating things that have become harmful to each other due to confusion or deliberately perverted intent, the truth of relationship cannot be properly restored, whether between individuals, societies or God and human. The processes of growth and healing in the natural world are a reflection of this.
It's sobering to realise that God is at work even in our enemies and those who deny us our 'truth'. If it is true that God will always be a companion in the injustices we suffer, He will also be a companion to others in the injustices we cause them to suffer. God alone can weigh and judge. There is, of course, one more thing to be said about Jesus' declaration that He had come to cause the differentiations and separations that allow truth to be revealed and justice to be done. Although He takes the image of a weapon that is used for violence, His own truth leads Him to refuse to respond to violence with violence. The way He lived His life produced diametrically opposed reactions and He left no-one indifferent, but He did not employ violence to counteract these reactions nor did He allow His followers to do so in His defence.The searing pain produced by this sword is the terrible pain of shedding those things which stand between us and truth, between ourselves, others and justice; it is not the vengeful pain of inflicting on others the hurt we have received or worse.
It's certainly true that Jesus Himself generated a good deal of controversy. More than that, He seems sometimes to have deliberately turned His back on courses of action that would have dampened it down.
With the various conflicts going on around the world, I've recently been thinking about some of the very difficult sayings of Jesus - the ones we all like conveniently to gloss over. In some, Jesus appears to say outright that He has come to cause division. For example, the same Jesus who refuses to use violence or force when it is used against Him is reported in two of the gospels as having said, 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have come not to bring peace but a sword…' (Matt. 10.34)
What does He mean? Perhaps something along the lines that the result of steadfastly searching out and witnessing to the truth within ourselves may very well set us, at times, against even those we love or those who have shaped us or those we have formerly respected and lived alongside. There is to be 'nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, nothing secret that will not be made known.' (Matt. 10.26) The sword of which Jesus speaks is one that, when wielded, forces us to lay bear and clarify truth in ways that cut right through confusion and dissembling. And we all know that sometimes a spot of confusion and half-truth is much easier.
The Greek word used in the text for 'sword' is not the soldier's weapon but the 'macharia', the knife used by the surgeon, the barber, the butcher, the gardener and the priest offering a sacrifice. In other words, it is the implement necessary to the small but life-giving separations and deaths of everyday life. Without this knife there is no clarity, no healing, no fruitfulness, no nourishment. In the face of the dangerous scheming and plotting going on around Him, Jesus is talking about a truly radical grappling with truth, one that never compromises, never accepts the half truths and sophistries of political or religious leaders, philosophers or social commentators. Jesus Himself named and faced those who opposed Him with a startling clarity of differentiation. This was true even when the opposition came from His closest allies. Another of the difficult sayings of Jesus which sounds very harsh to our ears is directed at Simon Peter. 'But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.' (Matt. 16.25) It seems Jesus didn't scruple to admonish in the strongest terms a favourite disciple who tried to prevent Him from facing up to the truth of His calling which was to 'undergo great suffering, be killed and on the third day to rise again.' In order to remain steadfast and act in a way consonant with His own truth, He needed to put distance between Himself and anyone who would tempt Him away from what He knew to be true.
The 'sword' of which Jesus speaks, then, allows us to depart psychologically from a place of our own dissembling, confusion and self deception and to prepare ourselves to see, hear, speak and act upon truth however unpalatable. It enables us to see the sociologically relative nature of our own 'truth' and the 'truths' of others and to create space where apparently opposed truths can be lived, explored, evolved and understood more clearly. Lytta Basset, in her excellent book Holy Anger, Jacob, Job and Jesus (Continuum, Ottawa, 2007) here, suggests that this radical separation was the function of the sword placed at the entrance to the garden of Eden in Genesis 3.24 'a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the Tree of Life.' What an extraordinary image! This sword will not allow the commingling of that which leads to life with that which leads to death. In its wielding it forces the laying bare of untruths, self-interest, greed and all manner of dysfunction. It stands as a warning and a means of wounding for us all when we follow the path of deceit. Without its separating, defining, wounding power, there can be no growth, no healing, no reconciliation, no way for human and divine to meet, no way for truth to emerge.
A sword cuts to the quick. The sword of which Jesus speaks creates definition, it allows protected space between beliefs and actions that interfere with one another - a necessary space in which greater clarity and more honestly humble self-possession can be realised. This sword may cause the death of a previous state as being the only way for newly revealed truth to emerge. It may cut deep into the heart of relationships. The truth that breaks out when such a sword performs its excision may cause intense pain, especially where that truth has long been denied, denigrated, twisted or falsified. The eruption of truth may destroy apparent familial or social harmony if it is founded on what Bassett calls the 'lie of violent unanimity.' This process hurts and is akin to the taking up of our cross and the laying down of one understanding of one's life and circumstances so that a better, truer way can be born.
There is a Hebrew expression which means to 'cut the covenant'. It's drawn from very ancient tales of sacrifice in Genesis where the severing action creates the possibility of relationship between God and humans. Without the sword separating things that have become harmful to each other due to confusion or deliberately perverted intent, the truth of relationship cannot be properly restored, whether between individuals, societies or God and human. The processes of growth and healing in the natural world are a reflection of this.
It's sobering to realise that God is at work even in our enemies and those who deny us our 'truth'. If it is true that God will always be a companion in the injustices we suffer, He will also be a companion to others in the injustices we cause them to suffer. God alone can weigh and judge. There is, of course, one more thing to be said about Jesus' declaration that He had come to cause the differentiations and separations that allow truth to be revealed and justice to be done. Although He takes the image of a weapon that is used for violence, His own truth leads Him to refuse to respond to violence with violence. The way He lived His life produced diametrically opposed reactions and He left no-one indifferent, but He did not employ violence to counteract these reactions nor did He allow His followers to do so in His defence.The searing pain produced by this sword is the terrible pain of shedding those things which stand between us and truth, between ourselves, others and justice; it is not the vengeful pain of inflicting on others the hurt we have received or worse.
***
Lytta Bassett is a Reformed Minister and Professor of Theology at Lausanne. She was named a 'spiritual master' by Le Monde in 2001. She has written a number of books that offer profound insight into how to move beyond the impasses we experience in conflicts at individual, community and global levels. Holy Anger, Jacob, Job, Jesus is a profound and wide-ranging exploration of Biblical and theological sources that show how the potentially devastating energy of anger can be transformed into the energy of rebirth and re-awakening.Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Report Back; Walk in Her Shoes
Walking 10,000 steps a day seems a wholly inadequate way to put on someone else's shoes. It's just not possible to understand what it's like to have to carry all your family's water five miles a day in temperatures somewhat greater than a British March can muster! But trying to walk this far has made me extremely grateful for the water we have access to and it's made me think a lot about how we use precious resources.
10,000 steps isn't actually that far. I qualify that statement - if you are carrying water or heavy shopping (try four large bags of potatoes) then it's far too far. But if you are just walking to get from A to B with a moderate sized bag or rucksack, it can be done easily in just over an hour. My Walk in Her Shoes effort this March has made me realise just how much our society has lost the ability? opportunity? willingness? to walk.
The school I attended was a couple of miles from where we lived down (or up) a very steep hill. I walked down and up that hill two or three times most days as did my mother who did not drive. We carried shopping and books and even on one occasion a double bass! That was normal, all my friends did the same (possibly without the double bass!). What has happened to us in the intervening 40 years? It now seems that for many people it's unusual to walk anywhere much unless setting out deliberately 'for a walk', that is, for serious exercise.
I've always walked quite a bit but I now realise just how much I've learned to depend on being able to hop in the car in order to save those precious minutes for…well, for what? I hope what I carry over from Lent with me this year will be a new determination to use buses and trams more, to walk to post letters, to walk to evening engagements whenever possible, especially in the summer, and to use lunch breaks and time off for a healthier combination of exercise and getting tasks done.
Saturday, 21 March 2015
If You Want My Vote 1: Care of the Elderly
This is the first post in a series highlighting issues I would like my next MP to address.
It is a national disgrace that a recent report here by John Kennedy, Director of Care Services at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, found that
It is a national disgrace that a recent report here by John Kennedy, Director of Care Services at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, found that
78% of frontline workers in our care homes
caring for 400,000+ people
earn less than £6.45p an hour
In 2014 when this report was written, the national living wage was £6.50p. It is now £7.85p. Most of the people who care for our elderly friends and relatives are paid less than the living wage. It's time to revisit our values and make some drastic changes.
I've worked as a nurse, lecturer, vicar and manager. I have never worker harder, physically and emotionally, than during a year I spent working on a psycho-geriatric unit. We did 13 hour night shifts with one 45 minute break. We could not leave the ward as there was no-one to cover our breaks but we were often so tired we would snatch half an hour's sleep in one of the armchairs. We laughed and cried with the wonderful people we looked after, many of whom I still remember and think about 35 years later. We had to use our empathy to guess what those who couldn't communicate easily wanted. We were far from perfect, we did our best. I had the most immense respect for the nurses and care assistants who had been doing this with dedication most of their working life.
What has happened to us that we value the people who care for our mothers and fathers and grandparents so little? They do work that includes personal care tasks many of us would find difficult to do once or twice, never mind everyday - work that is often dismissed as unskilled and menial. They have skills, yes skills, of compassion, physical care, empathy, interpretation, persuasion, cheerfulness, observation, ongoing emotional resilience and self care that many with a lower Emotional Intelligence Quotient might envy. They spend their own energy and emotional health in caring for people who are among the most vulnerable in society. They get to work when it snows and it's foggy and icy or there's a road block. If they can't get there, other staff stay on late or come in to do extra shifts, or sleep overnight in a chair to make sure someone is on duty the next morning. They have to get on with whoever is on a shift with them, whether they know them or not, in order to co-operate in the most intimate of tasks. Their skills and experience cover social care, basic nursing care, mental health care, end of life care. They are advocates for their elderly charges in a society that increasingly finds it difficult to make time and space for the elderly or to listen to them. They work with people with dementia whose next of kin may also have a degree of dementia.
Carers do this 365 days a year so that hundreds of thousands of elderly people are safe and warm and as happy as possible. They enable many other people to go out to work and to fulfil the responsibilities they have for other family members. They save the NHS, which would otherwise be caring for many more elderly people than it does, millions and millions of pounds a year.
We have to rethink the way we pay and support carers.
Contact your candidates or Jeremy Hunt (Con) Minister for Health, Norman Lamb (Lib Dem) Minister for Care and Support, Liz Kendall (Lab) Shadow Minister for Care and Older People.
Contact your candidates or Jeremy Hunt (Con) Minister for Health, Norman Lamb (Lib Dem) Minister for Care and Support, Liz Kendall (Lab) Shadow Minister for Care and Older People.
Saturday, 31 January 2015
Candlemas Meditation
How many times in your life have you heard those haunting words,
'Lord, now you let your servant go in peace,
Your word has been fulfilled,
My own eyes have seen your salvation,
Which you have prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles
And the glory of your people Israel.'
Luke 2.29-32
What do these words evoke for you? Memories of school? Your favourite cathedral choir? The scents and light of a summer evening? The dark shadows of a winter night? Or you may think of John le Carre's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the haunting theme tune from the TV adaption. Or T. S. Eliot's rather dark poem A Song for Simeon?
If you're a clergy person then the chances are you've read those words hundreds or thousands of times as you've led the coffin from the church after a funeral. 'For my eyes have seen your salvation..' the hope toward which life is directed.
What a wonderful text. You couldn't find a richer one, could you? It has three central themes
Candlemas is when Christians all over the world remember the bringing of the infant Jesus into the Temple for his dedication - the occasion on which Simeon utters the words of the Nunc Dimittis. It's a strange story veiled in the mists of time and half-forgotten legend. Who was Simeon? Who was Anna? Where did they come from? Why do they seem to have a special prescience - they know things, they see the future. The text tells us that the Holy Spirit has promised Simeon he will not die until he has seen the Saviour. This strange story is pervaded throughout by the Holy Spirit who is mentioned three times (unusual, in that the Spirit is not often explicitly mentioned in the gospels.) This baby's birth has been the work of the Holy Spirit and it is the Spirit who propels Simeon into the Temple on this particular day. After a life of payer, he's inspired by the Spirit to grasp the moment and to do what his whole life has been leading to, namely to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the One uniquely sent to show people what God is like. And Anna, the old prophetess is also wise, supernaturally wise beyond all knowing. Notice the gift that accrues to the Christ child from her encounter with him is that he 'grows in all wisdom'. Simeon and Anna are Spirit and Wisdom. This moment is the culmination of their lives, the moment toward which everything they are has been moving. Having seen Jesus and spoken the words of Spirit and Wisdom, they are liberated to 'go in peace'. The Spirit shimmers in the shadows of the Temple; the glory, the shekinah of God is present in the Temple just as our candlemas candles remind us of God's presence and glory in the snowy depths of winter.
And yet...that is not the whole story. The radiance and the peace are shot through with a very real sense of fear and warning. Isn't is true that often our most glorious moments are tinged with an awareness of human frailty and mortality? An anxiety that present joy and assurance will pass? Certainly these emotions are present here. In Simeon's words, there is an awareness of the struggle in this child's life that will lead to the cross. There's an acknowledgment, ahead of time, of the struggle His life will bring to individuals and nations . 'And a sword will pierce your heart,' he says to Mary. 'Many will oppose him' and He will bring division to the world. A moment of painful prescience and luminosity, a fore-knowing and a forth-telling. Just imagine the priest saying something as disturbing as that at a fmily baptism today. Mary, stunned, stored up these words in her heart and, harsh as they were, no doubt they helped her make sense of her strange and unique child's life and to support Him through it to the foot of the cross.
This text looks backwards to antiquity; it's based on even more ancient texts behind the Greek text that Luke gives us. It connects us to 5,000 years of Jewish and Christian history. Yet it looks forward and warns of what is to come in Jesus' time and of what, for us, is still to come yet. But more than that it invites us to live our lives as a part of what will happen within the complexity of God's purposes. In Lutheran churches, this song is sung or read after the congregation have received communion. It forms a dismissal - 'go back out into the world in peace and live as those who expect and are beginning to know God's salvation; show the glory of God in your living, the beauty of souls rescued from the worst excesses of human behaviour and the luminosity of lives given to God.'
No wonder this text speaks so profoundly to our experience, appeals to our hearts and to our intellect. It travels with us from our deepest and most ancient roots to our personal and communal and global futures and it whispers the hope of eternal life.
'Lord, now you let your servant go in peace,
Your word has been fulfilled,
My own eyes have seen your salvation,
Which you have prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles
And the glory of your people Israel.'
Luke 2.29-32
What do these words evoke for you? Memories of school? Your favourite cathedral choir? The scents and light of a summer evening? The dark shadows of a winter night? Or you may think of John le Carre's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the haunting theme tune from the TV adaption. Or T. S. Eliot's rather dark poem A Song for Simeon?
If you're a clergy person then the chances are you've read those words hundreds or thousands of times as you've led the coffin from the church after a funeral. 'For my eyes have seen your salvation..' the hope toward which life is directed.
 |
| Ripon Cathederal |
- peace - personal and between nations
- salvation - the hope that God's purposes will triumph
- glory - the full slendour of God, the shimmering presence (or 'shekinah,' the Hebrew word) of God among the people.
- the song of Mary - the Magnificat
- the song of Zechariah (John the Baptist's father) - the Benedictus
- the song of Simeon - the Nunc Dimittis
Candlemas is when Christians all over the world remember the bringing of the infant Jesus into the Temple for his dedication - the occasion on which Simeon utters the words of the Nunc Dimittis. It's a strange story veiled in the mists of time and half-forgotten legend. Who was Simeon? Who was Anna? Where did they come from? Why do they seem to have a special prescience - they know things, they see the future. The text tells us that the Holy Spirit has promised Simeon he will not die until he has seen the Saviour. This strange story is pervaded throughout by the Holy Spirit who is mentioned three times (unusual, in that the Spirit is not often explicitly mentioned in the gospels.) This baby's birth has been the work of the Holy Spirit and it is the Spirit who propels Simeon into the Temple on this particular day. After a life of payer, he's inspired by the Spirit to grasp the moment and to do what his whole life has been leading to, namely to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the One uniquely sent to show people what God is like. And Anna, the old prophetess is also wise, supernaturally wise beyond all knowing. Notice the gift that accrues to the Christ child from her encounter with him is that he 'grows in all wisdom'. Simeon and Anna are Spirit and Wisdom. This moment is the culmination of their lives, the moment toward which everything they are has been moving. Having seen Jesus and spoken the words of Spirit and Wisdom, they are liberated to 'go in peace'. The Spirit shimmers in the shadows of the Temple; the glory, the shekinah of God is present in the Temple just as our candlemas candles remind us of God's presence and glory in the snowy depths of winter.
And yet...that is not the whole story. The radiance and the peace are shot through with a very real sense of fear and warning. Isn't is true that often our most glorious moments are tinged with an awareness of human frailty and mortality? An anxiety that present joy and assurance will pass? Certainly these emotions are present here. In Simeon's words, there is an awareness of the struggle in this child's life that will lead to the cross. There's an acknowledgment, ahead of time, of the struggle His life will bring to individuals and nations . 'And a sword will pierce your heart,' he says to Mary. 'Many will oppose him' and He will bring division to the world. A moment of painful prescience and luminosity, a fore-knowing and a forth-telling. Just imagine the priest saying something as disturbing as that at a fmily baptism today. Mary, stunned, stored up these words in her heart and, harsh as they were, no doubt they helped her make sense of her strange and unique child's life and to support Him through it to the foot of the cross.
This text looks backwards to antiquity; it's based on even more ancient texts behind the Greek text that Luke gives us. It connects us to 5,000 years of Jewish and Christian history. Yet it looks forward and warns of what is to come in Jesus' time and of what, for us, is still to come yet. But more than that it invites us to live our lives as a part of what will happen within the complexity of God's purposes. In Lutheran churches, this song is sung or read after the congregation have received communion. It forms a dismissal - 'go back out into the world in peace and live as those who expect and are beginning to know God's salvation; show the glory of God in your living, the beauty of souls rescued from the worst excesses of human behaviour and the luminosity of lives given to God.'
No wonder this text speaks so profoundly to our experience, appeals to our hearts and to our intellect. It travels with us from our deepest and most ancient roots to our personal and communal and global futures and it whispers the hope of eternal life.
Sunday, 25 January 2015
The Hippocrates Initiative
It's always good to discover something completely new. I was intrigued to stumble across a website for the Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine the other day while on an early morning bus in Lancaster (on-bus wifi is a wonderful thing!). The Initiative is all about encouraging people involved in the medicinal and health care professions to write poetry. A prize is awarded annually under three categories - to someone who works in the NHS (or has worked there), to a young person aged between 14 and18, and to anyone who enters, globally. In previous years there have been some wonderful poems about the limits to which explorers and athletes push their bodies as well as poems about aspects of caring and what the performance of medical work does to the person practicing medicine.
The reason I was so thrilled to find this site is that ever since my early days as a nurse on some very high dependency units, I have found that an excellent way to come to terms with some of the things you see and experience is to write poetry about them. Of course, this doesn't usually see the light of day in the form of publication, but it has often been a way to integrate emotions and to reflect on difficult, sad or challenging situations. The medics I've worked with have often had their own particular creative outlets for the high degree of pressure they face. I've had colleagues who are excellent artists and musicians - one could even be heard practising in the hospital chapel in the mornings before operating. There's something extremely relaxing and restorative about engaging in right brain activity when so much of your professional life involves detailed left brain activity.
One of the great powers of poetry is that it allows you to inhabit a story - to tell it and to reshape in over and over again. (Kirkegaard did this in Fear and Trembling with the profoundly difficult story of the sacrifice of Isaac.) As you retell the story, the narrative enables you to see different aspects of it and this can be a therapeutic exercise, helpful in allowing you to create meaning and revisit or discover the different emotions that a situation gives rise to.
There's always a debate about how far medicine in a high tech setting is a science or an art. Most of us would acknowledge that the best doctors blend the two approaches to what they do, utilising the skills of an artist in finding creative ways to communicate and motivate their patients and also in keeping their own reactions to the inevitable pressures and drama of medicine healthy.
I've been inspired to revisit some of the poems I wrote years ago while nursing and to re-live situations that even now I find it hard to forget. Many of the poems remind me of people and events that have had a lasting impact on my own sense of self - this is the gift of patients to those who care for them. It's been heart-warming to re-live some of those moments from over 30 years ago and to be surprised by the joy and insight and sometimes the sadness they bring. This body of poetry now has a very special place in my life and plays its part in shaping thought and prayer about what I do in the present.
It's a bit late to enter for this year's competition as the closing date in 31st January. However, I now have something to aim for for January 2016! The site can be found at Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine It's well worth listening to some of the entries from recent years and I found the stories about the people involved inspiring. This is a unique site, hosting information about what has become one of the most influential poetry prizes in the spectrum, linking as it does medicine and poetry, science and art, technical knowledge and imaginative insight.
 |
| http://hippocrates-poetry.org/hippocrates-prize |
The reason I was so thrilled to find this site is that ever since my early days as a nurse on some very high dependency units, I have found that an excellent way to come to terms with some of the things you see and experience is to write poetry about them. Of course, this doesn't usually see the light of day in the form of publication, but it has often been a way to integrate emotions and to reflect on difficult, sad or challenging situations. The medics I've worked with have often had their own particular creative outlets for the high degree of pressure they face. I've had colleagues who are excellent artists and musicians - one could even be heard practising in the hospital chapel in the mornings before operating. There's something extremely relaxing and restorative about engaging in right brain activity when so much of your professional life involves detailed left brain activity.
One of the great powers of poetry is that it allows you to inhabit a story - to tell it and to reshape in over and over again. (Kirkegaard did this in Fear and Trembling with the profoundly difficult story of the sacrifice of Isaac.) As you retell the story, the narrative enables you to see different aspects of it and this can be a therapeutic exercise, helpful in allowing you to create meaning and revisit or discover the different emotions that a situation gives rise to.
There's always a debate about how far medicine in a high tech setting is a science or an art. Most of us would acknowledge that the best doctors blend the two approaches to what they do, utilising the skills of an artist in finding creative ways to communicate and motivate their patients and also in keeping their own reactions to the inevitable pressures and drama of medicine healthy.
I've been inspired to revisit some of the poems I wrote years ago while nursing and to re-live situations that even now I find it hard to forget. Many of the poems remind me of people and events that have had a lasting impact on my own sense of self - this is the gift of patients to those who care for them. It's been heart-warming to re-live some of those moments from over 30 years ago and to be surprised by the joy and insight and sometimes the sadness they bring. This body of poetry now has a very special place in my life and plays its part in shaping thought and prayer about what I do in the present.
It's a bit late to enter for this year's competition as the closing date in 31st January. However, I now have something to aim for for January 2016! The site can be found at Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine It's well worth listening to some of the entries from recent years and I found the stories about the people involved inspiring. This is a unique site, hosting information about what has become one of the most influential poetry prizes in the spectrum, linking as it does medicine and poetry, science and art, technical knowledge and imaginative insight.
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Walk for Water
Care International are inviting us to walk 10,000 steps every day for a week between 18th and 24th March. In many countries countries women and young girls have to walk further than this simply to fetch water for drinking and cooking. The idea is to try to walk the equivalent of about 5 miles every day for a week in solidarity with them. At the same time you can raise funds to help provide clean water for more communities. If you tramp hospital wards each day, you may find that in fact you could double this target. If you register on the site below, you can order a tee-shirt and pedometer or simply register your intent to take part.
I thought I would give it a go, maybe finding a place I need to go each day and walking rather than driving. Other suggestions include volunteering to walk someone's dog, walking to work (my brother-in-law walked nearly 22 miles to work a couple of years ago starting out in the middle of the night!), taking the stairs, buses and trains (this can clock up a surprising number of miles) or organising a friends and family walk in your neighbourhood taking in a local fun spot/beauty spot. Share your ideas!
Or you can join the official International Women's Day walk on 8th March. For the details, log on here
I thought I would give it a go, maybe finding a place I need to go each day and walking rather than driving. Other suggestions include volunteering to walk someone's dog, walking to work (my brother-in-law walked nearly 22 miles to work a couple of years ago starting out in the middle of the night!), taking the stairs, buses and trains (this can clock up a surprising number of miles) or organising a friends and family walk in your neighbourhood taking in a local fun spot/beauty spot. Share your ideas!
Or you can join the official International Women's Day walk on 8th March. For the details, log on here
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| Care International |
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Woman's Touch Not Welcome
My name on Wikipedia comes up with (among others) Philip North, soon to be consecrated Bishop of Burnley. I don't know Philip, we have never met. Nothing I say here is intended to reflect on him personally and I wish him well in his new ministry.
However, this tenuous internet connection puzzles me because my life has been dedicated, among other things, to the quest for a theological and social understanding of the equality of men and women, an equality I believe to be demonstrated in the Gospels and the teaching and actions of Jesus.
Because the Archbishop of York and other bishops ordain women, it has reportedly been requested that they refrain from laying hands on the new bishop at his consecration. Jonathan Clatworthy here writes about this in the Modern Church blog.
There is a very old tradition in Christianity that Eve, a woman, was the first person to disobey God. Down the centuries, this story has been used to explain pain in childbirth (such that some nineteenth century Church of England theologians taught it was contrary to God's purposes to relieve a labouring woman in pain.) It has also been used to justify the belief that women are temptresses and more sinful than men. The impact on social attitudes to women down the ages and, still, today has been incalculable, leading to the persecution of women in many societies. It seems very clear that Jesus flouted and undermined such attitudes. He socialised with women, allowed them to touch Him, accepted their gifts, debated with them and let their words and actions shape His thinking. Finally, He accepted them to the extent that His resurrection was first witnessed by a woman.
Those who oppose women's ordination appeal to arguments about the necessity for a purely male succession from the original male apostles to today's priests and bishops. It may seem to some a small concession to make. It is not.
A white woman's labour got into serious trouble. The on-call obstetrician was black. When she arrived on the labour suite, the woman's husband said, in very offensive language which I will not repeat, that he would not have his wife delivered by her. Events took over and the woman and baby were safely delivered. The obstetrician gave the husband her hand and he broke down in tears, thanking her.
What do we have to endure or say or do to get across that it is deeply damaging to have bishops who cannot be touched at their consecration not just by women, but by men who have touched women in consecration? Again, you may be tempted to say that this is a rarified churchy argument. It is not; it emerges from a whole belief system that pervades many societies and puts women down, claiming they are second class, more sinful, to be ruled by men and to be kept within certain boundaries. The impact of this teaching was powerfully brought home to me at Christmas. I listened to a sublime recording of a Kings College Carol Service from the 1950's. The music was wonderful. The first reading was given by a young choirboy who solemnly read the words,
'And the Lord God said unto the woman, 'What is this that thou hast done?' And the woman said, 'Thou beguiled me and I did eat.'…….. Unto the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be for thy husband and he shall rule over thee.' (Genesis 3 v.13 & 16, King James Bible.)
This was read without any explanation or interpretation by a boy of perhaps 13 - the sin of woman, clearly proclaimed as the reason for the incarnation (Christ's coming to earth). The story is understood by most people as an aetiology, in other words, an explanation, after the event, of the way things are. Scholars saw that women suffered in childbirth and looked for an explanation. However, in 1952, the whole message of the service was clearly that womankind is responsible for God having to rescue us from sin and this message was proclaimed to a mature and intelligent congregation by a thirteen year old boy. I guess that either you can or you can't see the connection between this and the treatment women have endured down the centuries.
It is really not acceptable for the Church of England or any church to go on teaching that it is OK to believe this. If you replace 'woman' with a whole range of other people whose genetic characteristics are different from some traditionally or socially defined 'norm', you may understand how outrageous this is.
I have seen women bleed to death after childbirth who could have been saved if their husbands had allowed them to go to hospital; I have taught English to girls deprived of education because they are women; I have earned three quarters of a man's wage because I am a woman; I have listened to stories of domestic abuse justified by leaders; I have been bullied by those who cannot cope with the reality of a woman doing the job.
I completely agree with the Archbishop of York that the challenge of our time is to dismantle the massive imbalance in available resources between the poorest and the richest both nationally and globally. If you are a woman or a girl child, you are a great deal more likely to suffer from the multiple effects of poverty. I've recently been reading a book challenging the church to stop arguing over matters to do with gender and sex and to get back to an agenda that agonises and takes action over economic and resource-based injustices. Absolutely. This ought to encompass a priority toward the disenfranchised. Instead of saying, 'Let's sidestep the plight of women and concentrate on hunger/violence/clean water/disease control' (which is a fallacy anyway, as women disproportionately suffer these ills) we should be saying, 'Let's sidestep the requirements of those who see the touch of women as unacceptable in order to concentrate on hunger/violence/clean water/disease control.
However, this tenuous internet connection puzzles me because my life has been dedicated, among other things, to the quest for a theological and social understanding of the equality of men and women, an equality I believe to be demonstrated in the Gospels and the teaching and actions of Jesus.
Because the Archbishop of York and other bishops ordain women, it has reportedly been requested that they refrain from laying hands on the new bishop at his consecration. Jonathan Clatworthy here writes about this in the Modern Church blog.
There is a very old tradition in Christianity that Eve, a woman, was the first person to disobey God. Down the centuries, this story has been used to explain pain in childbirth (such that some nineteenth century Church of England theologians taught it was contrary to God's purposes to relieve a labouring woman in pain.) It has also been used to justify the belief that women are temptresses and more sinful than men. The impact on social attitudes to women down the ages and, still, today has been incalculable, leading to the persecution of women in many societies. It seems very clear that Jesus flouted and undermined such attitudes. He socialised with women, allowed them to touch Him, accepted their gifts, debated with them and let their words and actions shape His thinking. Finally, He accepted them to the extent that His resurrection was first witnessed by a woman.
Those who oppose women's ordination appeal to arguments about the necessity for a purely male succession from the original male apostles to today's priests and bishops. It may seem to some a small concession to make. It is not.
A white woman's labour got into serious trouble. The on-call obstetrician was black. When she arrived on the labour suite, the woman's husband said, in very offensive language which I will not repeat, that he would not have his wife delivered by her. Events took over and the woman and baby were safely delivered. The obstetrician gave the husband her hand and he broke down in tears, thanking her.
What do we have to endure or say or do to get across that it is deeply damaging to have bishops who cannot be touched at their consecration not just by women, but by men who have touched women in consecration? Again, you may be tempted to say that this is a rarified churchy argument. It is not; it emerges from a whole belief system that pervades many societies and puts women down, claiming they are second class, more sinful, to be ruled by men and to be kept within certain boundaries. The impact of this teaching was powerfully brought home to me at Christmas. I listened to a sublime recording of a Kings College Carol Service from the 1950's. The music was wonderful. The first reading was given by a young choirboy who solemnly read the words,
'And the Lord God said unto the woman, 'What is this that thou hast done?' And the woman said, 'Thou beguiled me and I did eat.'…….. Unto the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be for thy husband and he shall rule over thee.' (Genesis 3 v.13 & 16, King James Bible.)
This was read without any explanation or interpretation by a boy of perhaps 13 - the sin of woman, clearly proclaimed as the reason for the incarnation (Christ's coming to earth). The story is understood by most people as an aetiology, in other words, an explanation, after the event, of the way things are. Scholars saw that women suffered in childbirth and looked for an explanation. However, in 1952, the whole message of the service was clearly that womankind is responsible for God having to rescue us from sin and this message was proclaimed to a mature and intelligent congregation by a thirteen year old boy. I guess that either you can or you can't see the connection between this and the treatment women have endured down the centuries.
It is really not acceptable for the Church of England or any church to go on teaching that it is OK to believe this. If you replace 'woman' with a whole range of other people whose genetic characteristics are different from some traditionally or socially defined 'norm', you may understand how outrageous this is.
I have seen women bleed to death after childbirth who could have been saved if their husbands had allowed them to go to hospital; I have taught English to girls deprived of education because they are women; I have earned three quarters of a man's wage because I am a woman; I have listened to stories of domestic abuse justified by leaders; I have been bullied by those who cannot cope with the reality of a woman doing the job.
I completely agree with the Archbishop of York that the challenge of our time is to dismantle the massive imbalance in available resources between the poorest and the richest both nationally and globally. If you are a woman or a girl child, you are a great deal more likely to suffer from the multiple effects of poverty. I've recently been reading a book challenging the church to stop arguing over matters to do with gender and sex and to get back to an agenda that agonises and takes action over economic and resource-based injustices. Absolutely. This ought to encompass a priority toward the disenfranchised. Instead of saying, 'Let's sidestep the plight of women and concentrate on hunger/violence/clean water/disease control' (which is a fallacy anyway, as women disproportionately suffer these ills) we should be saying, 'Let's sidestep the requirements of those who see the touch of women as unacceptable in order to concentrate on hunger/violence/clean water/disease control.
Sunday, 11 January 2015
What is Tolerance?
Now here's a telling fact. More people took part in today's 'March Against Hatred' in Paris than took to the streets when Paris was liberated at the end of the second world war. (John Lichfield in the Independent.) I suppose the population is considerably bigger today but still, that's a resounding statistic. Three million people wanted to protest at the taking of human life, including the leaders of Middle Eastern, African, Asian and European nations.
What has today made me think?
As a confessing Christian, I deplore the act of taking life to defend one's God; this has indeed been a misguided and shameful part of the church's history, but Christian, Muslim and Jew can surely join together in affirming that love of God is an empty concept without love for the Divine being transformed into love of one's fellow human. And however much you disagree with a person or struggle with anger or jealousy or outrage at what they say, that means upholding the value and sacredness of their life.
Freedom of speech, freedom to try to express what you think is most true, tempered by the freedom and right to life of another, is the basis on which most Western democracies are built, that, and the requirement to act within the law and challenge it only by non-violent means. To participate in a democracy means living by this code.
I read yesterday of the massacre of possibly 2,000 people by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Moving as it was to see the leaders of the world march arm in arm through the streets of Paris, why do we Europeans not work as hard to show our outrage at the loss of innocent life in other places, on other continents?
The probability of increased sectarianism, racially motivated tension, right wing extremism and a clamp down on the movement of immigrants and asylum seekers seems to have been immeasurably increased by the events of the last few days in Paris. What can we do to promote open debate between every section of our communities? The responsibility lies with every citizen of whatever cultural, ethnic or religious/non religious background - speak to your neighbour. Find out what they think, what is important to them?
In a secular and religious society how do we live together? I'll give the last word to Voltaire, that champion of freedom of religion and freedom of expression, tonight. 'What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.'
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| © Christian Today pic.twitter.com/qclgRHNiuv |
What has today made me think?
As a confessing Christian, I deplore the act of taking life to defend one's God; this has indeed been a misguided and shameful part of the church's history, but Christian, Muslim and Jew can surely join together in affirming that love of God is an empty concept without love for the Divine being transformed into love of one's fellow human. And however much you disagree with a person or struggle with anger or jealousy or outrage at what they say, that means upholding the value and sacredness of their life.
Freedom of speech, freedom to try to express what you think is most true, tempered by the freedom and right to life of another, is the basis on which most Western democracies are built, that, and the requirement to act within the law and challenge it only by non-violent means. To participate in a democracy means living by this code.
I read yesterday of the massacre of possibly 2,000 people by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Moving as it was to see the leaders of the world march arm in arm through the streets of Paris, why do we Europeans not work as hard to show our outrage at the loss of innocent life in other places, on other continents?
The probability of increased sectarianism, racially motivated tension, right wing extremism and a clamp down on the movement of immigrants and asylum seekers seems to have been immeasurably increased by the events of the last few days in Paris. What can we do to promote open debate between every section of our communities? The responsibility lies with every citizen of whatever cultural, ethnic or religious/non religious background - speak to your neighbour. Find out what they think, what is important to them?
In a secular and religious society how do we live together? I'll give the last word to Voltaire, that champion of freedom of religion and freedom of expression, tonight. 'What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.'
Leadership Means Partnership
It's been an interesting time to reflect on leadership. While I'm currently in the middle of an MA in Hospice Leadership, the Church of England has produced The Green Report (nothing to do with ecology!) about senior leadership in the church. Given the coherence and creativity of approach toward leadership training I experience among my hospice peers why, I ask myself, has the Green Report met with such an outcry and so much criticism?
Michael Sadgrove (who has the wisdom of one who's been Dean of two Cathedrals with significant growth) writes a measured blogpost here in which he welcomes the new work that's being done to identify and develop church leaders while being cautious of some aspects of the report, especially its approach to spirituality. Martyn Percy, long time Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon and newly appointed Dean of Christ Church Oxford, writes in a more critical vein at here about the lack of any systematic theological approach to the matter.
The objections are mainly around what many see as the wholesale adoption of management-speak and the lack of theological and ecclesiological depth. I have sympathy with this, but let me first say I'm heartened by the fact the Church of England is at last beginning to take the need to prepare leaders seriously. Some of us have been articulating the need for this for over two decades. I've been involved in setting up various leadership programmes and facilitating the only induction available for archdeacons, all on a shoestring/non-existant budget and mostly woefully inadequate. This has happened without any forum for co-ordinated discussion about what kind of leadership the church actually needs. The £2m budget over 2 years with £800k set aside annually thereafter recommended by this report does not seem unrealistic for an organisation the size of the Church of England if it wants to continue to have impact.
My concerns about the report are largely to do with process.
I have no objection to insight drawn from strategic and operational management contexts as long as it's not confused with leadership itself. The role of a leader includes understanding what is required for good management but leaders should not attempt to undertake direct responsibility for the details of its provision. Leadership requires you to spend your best energy in other directions, taking key decisions about where to invest attention and resources for maximum impact. Leaders interpret context, understand the flow of information inside and outside the organisation and use influence to shape finance, funding, governance and accountability structures. They set direction and tone rather than become over-involved in detail. I'm not convinced the report shows that this is understood. Talk (for example) of bishops being involved in the detail of Ministry Development Reviews and even of archbishops participating in the leadership training modules on a regular basis makes me wonder if the authors really understand the relationship between management and leadership.
The process of training described in the report worries me because it takes an isolationist approach. There's really dynamic thinking about leadership beyond the world of the church but, apart from a non-specific allusion to a 'content supplier' for the proposed modules, the report says little about partnership. It gives the impression of being unaware of the many institutes, universities and companies that promote discussion between leaders and research about leadership. It gives the impression that theological and spiritual insight is the prerogative, primarily, of the leadership of the church; this is far from the case.
A few years ago I attended a Bayswater Institute course on complexity in organisations. It was attended by delegates from all over the world leading public, private and voluntary sector organisations. The sense of vocation to their role was palpable and spiritual issues were very much on the agenda. On the final day, delegates offered seminars in their own field. Almost every person on the course chose to come to a seminar offered on approaches to life after death. This said something to me about the profound degree to which all good leaders do what they do out of a very personal engagement with ultimate values.
The MA in Hospice Leadership I mentioned earlier began with a module on personal mastery which explored the interiority and being of the leader. Leadership wells up primarily from who you are; what you know and what you do follows on. The module gave us experience-based and academically rigorous opportunities to think about our vision, values, motivation and purpose. We spent time meditating, listening, being.
I'd like to see the group who eventually put together the church's training engage with sectors beyond the church to evolve their thinking about leadership. They should avoid a dualism that correlates church with spiritual and secular with non-spiritual. The report falls into this kind of dualism too often, for example, in the section where it polarises 'professional wisdom' and 'the wisdom of Solomon' or 'God-given wisdom'. Christian theological reflection on society is what the church distinctively offers and its leaders ought to be excellent and persuasive at this. But to develop these skills in isolation means that the church will never have much cutting edge. To contribute theological insight you have to be in conversation with other leaders who will challenge and interrogate you. It's important to resist any tendency for the church to talk to itself. This already happens a lot with so much leadership energy going into the synodical processes of the church which, while very worthy, do not engage the popular imagination or interest.
This report is a beginning. The attempt should be applauded. It's all too easy to criticise, and criticism can stifle the implementation of change. However, I would ask those responsible for acting on its recommendations to
The hospice movement offers an informative parallel with the church. Hospices are places driven by a strong sense of vocation, they utilise a wide range of skill sets provided by professionals and volunteers working together, they largely generate their income by inspiring people to give, they have a strong pull toward (a much younger) tradition and they are places where faith, symbolism, ritual and strong secularising influences are all in the melting pot. The movement is facing something of its own moment of crisis and opportunity. It was obvious a few years ago that, if the insights of palliative care were to influence the wider provision of health care, then the intentional identification and training of hospice leaders was urgently needed. These would be people who could drive the movement to contribute into the context of a rapidly changing demography, giving it new direction and a much more clearly articulated purpose. Changes in funding, the withdrawal of the Liverpool Care Pathway, greater patient involvement, funding streams and potential changes in the law about assisted dying were all factors demanding a new approach to leadership. Vital assistance and 'direction setting' has been provided by research done by Help the Hospices, now renamed Hospice UK which has commissioned a number of reports reflecting new thinking and co-ordinated and supported the training needs arising from these reports.
Michael Sadgrove (who has the wisdom of one who's been Dean of two Cathedrals with significant growth) writes a measured blogpost here in which he welcomes the new work that's being done to identify and develop church leaders while being cautious of some aspects of the report, especially its approach to spirituality. Martyn Percy, long time Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon and newly appointed Dean of Christ Church Oxford, writes in a more critical vein at here about the lack of any systematic theological approach to the matter.
The objections are mainly around what many see as the wholesale adoption of management-speak and the lack of theological and ecclesiological depth. I have sympathy with this, but let me first say I'm heartened by the fact the Church of England is at last beginning to take the need to prepare leaders seriously. Some of us have been articulating the need for this for over two decades. I've been involved in setting up various leadership programmes and facilitating the only induction available for archdeacons, all on a shoestring/non-existant budget and mostly woefully inadequate. This has happened without any forum for co-ordinated discussion about what kind of leadership the church actually needs. The £2m budget over 2 years with £800k set aside annually thereafter recommended by this report does not seem unrealistic for an organisation the size of the Church of England if it wants to continue to have impact.
My concerns about the report are largely to do with process.
I have no objection to insight drawn from strategic and operational management contexts as long as it's not confused with leadership itself. The role of a leader includes understanding what is required for good management but leaders should not attempt to undertake direct responsibility for the details of its provision. Leadership requires you to spend your best energy in other directions, taking key decisions about where to invest attention and resources for maximum impact. Leaders interpret context, understand the flow of information inside and outside the organisation and use influence to shape finance, funding, governance and accountability structures. They set direction and tone rather than become over-involved in detail. I'm not convinced the report shows that this is understood. Talk (for example) of bishops being involved in the detail of Ministry Development Reviews and even of archbishops participating in the leadership training modules on a regular basis makes me wonder if the authors really understand the relationship between management and leadership.
The process of training described in the report worries me because it takes an isolationist approach. There's really dynamic thinking about leadership beyond the world of the church but, apart from a non-specific allusion to a 'content supplier' for the proposed modules, the report says little about partnership. It gives the impression of being unaware of the many institutes, universities and companies that promote discussion between leaders and research about leadership. It gives the impression that theological and spiritual insight is the prerogative, primarily, of the leadership of the church; this is far from the case.
A few years ago I attended a Bayswater Institute course on complexity in organisations. It was attended by delegates from all over the world leading public, private and voluntary sector organisations. The sense of vocation to their role was palpable and spiritual issues were very much on the agenda. On the final day, delegates offered seminars in their own field. Almost every person on the course chose to come to a seminar offered on approaches to life after death. This said something to me about the profound degree to which all good leaders do what they do out of a very personal engagement with ultimate values.
The MA in Hospice Leadership I mentioned earlier began with a module on personal mastery which explored the interiority and being of the leader. Leadership wells up primarily from who you are; what you know and what you do follows on. The module gave us experience-based and academically rigorous opportunities to think about our vision, values, motivation and purpose. We spent time meditating, listening, being.
I'd like to see the group who eventually put together the church's training engage with sectors beyond the church to evolve their thinking about leadership. They should avoid a dualism that correlates church with spiritual and secular with non-spiritual. The report falls into this kind of dualism too often, for example, in the section where it polarises 'professional wisdom' and 'the wisdom of Solomon' or 'God-given wisdom'. Christian theological reflection on society is what the church distinctively offers and its leaders ought to be excellent and persuasive at this. But to develop these skills in isolation means that the church will never have much cutting edge. To contribute theological insight you have to be in conversation with other leaders who will challenge and interrogate you. It's important to resist any tendency for the church to talk to itself. This already happens a lot with so much leadership energy going into the synodical processes of the church which, while very worthy, do not engage the popular imagination or interest.
This report is a beginning. The attempt should be applauded. It's all too easy to criticise, and criticism can stifle the implementation of change. However, I would ask those responsible for acting on its recommendations to
- get into partnership with organisations and enterprises that are already far ahead in terms of equipping people for leadership (not management).
- avoid false dualisms like 'lay talent and ordained talent' (talent is talent), 'spiritual/nonspiritual' (spirituality exists wherever there are people), 'professional wisdom/God-given wisdom' (any human activity can be suffused with God's wisdom).
- be clear about what leadership is and what it is for.
The hospice movement offers an informative parallel with the church. Hospices are places driven by a strong sense of vocation, they utilise a wide range of skill sets provided by professionals and volunteers working together, they largely generate their income by inspiring people to give, they have a strong pull toward (a much younger) tradition and they are places where faith, symbolism, ritual and strong secularising influences are all in the melting pot. The movement is facing something of its own moment of crisis and opportunity. It was obvious a few years ago that, if the insights of palliative care were to influence the wider provision of health care, then the intentional identification and training of hospice leaders was urgently needed. These would be people who could drive the movement to contribute into the context of a rapidly changing demography, giving it new direction and a much more clearly articulated purpose. Changes in funding, the withdrawal of the Liverpool Care Pathway, greater patient involvement, funding streams and potential changes in the law about assisted dying were all factors demanding a new approach to leadership. Vital assistance and 'direction setting' has been provided by research done by Help the Hospices, now renamed Hospice UK which has commissioned a number of reports reflecting new thinking and co-ordinated and supported the training needs arising from these reports.
The Church of England needs something similar. I hesitate to call it 'Help the Church of England', but the archbishops need to commission some focussed, in-depth, coherent thinking about the future and how the church responds to the interests and needs of a rapidly changing population. Appropriate identification and training of leaders can only happen in a context where there is strong, clear, flexible vision. It would be very sensible to partner with other organisations. I think, for example, of the kind of work the Joseph Rowntree Foundation does in terms of investigating social issues. Hospice UK reports are reasonably readable (though perhaps in the 'could be better' category). The form and language of Church of England reports is notoriously indigestible. In particular, they have a habit of including every conceivable possibility when defining an issue of role. The Green Report falls into this trap; I'd like to see a slimmed down and shrewdly prioritised view of both role and curriculum but I don't see much hope of it emerging from this report. Some serious consideration needs to be given as to how the archbishops and bishops engage in the task of communicating emerging vision (and I sense there is some new vision and wisdom around) to their senior leaders and, through them, to worshippers and those beyond the church. I'm not advocating yet another group or working party - I'm thinking of a loose 'institute' approach with well articulated guiding principles and a number of projects and individuals working in different ways.
Finally, I thought the little section on suffragans was very telling. This was a point at which some of the shadow assumptions with which the group were working slipped out. The report talks of 'cherishing the role' and 'privilege'. Leadership is precisely not about cherishing roles but rather about creating and developing the roles that are needed to serve the vision. If we think it's about privilege, perhaps we ought to read the Gospels again.
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