Insights

Insights into the mysteries of faith might be expected to come mainly from notable pulpits, where our trained theologians and men and women of religious eminence offer their views on life and belief. Of late, though,  I have been blessed with Godly insights from people with no obvious right to speak of holy things. It is as if those who are very busy in the secular world, pause for a moment - perhaps it has to do with Christmas - and reveal a light granted to them in their daily labours. They do not seek it, but it descends on them en passant and is the more powerful as a result than anything we professional God-botherers know. Here is that very worldly man Taki in the Spectator magazine: 'Although the Gospels were written by non-professionals, they exude more truth and power than you find in Homer and Dante and Milton put together.... People like Dawkins have never engaged with religion in a serious manner. They are shoddy self-proclaimed scholars who can only doubt and proclaim their doubts as proof of the absence of God and Christ. Give me a real scholar like Pascal, who proved mathematically that one cannot go wrong by believing in God. Then I happened on finance expert Martin vander Weyer writing that he waa asked to preach a sermon in his parish church at Helmsley, Yorkshire - 'A thing I was certain I would never be asked to do'. It was about Godliness and economics, setting out things 'the City must learn to avoid if its professionals and companies are ever to be trusted again.'  He pointed to a blistering report by a law firm on 'The Trust Deficit' which contains more ethical wisdom than anything I have read lately in the religious press. So 'Where can wisdom be found?' asks Job (28.12) In unexpected places, and do not forget anything by Matthew Parris, a reluctant atheist who writes like a prophet in The Times and elsewhere.

Practise

The Prime Minister has created a pre-Christmas stir by calling on the nation to r


The Prime Minister has created a pre-Christmas stir by calling for a revival of 'Christian moral values'.The nation's 18,500 clergy in the main Christian churches will be calling for this every week, but it takes the PM to get the idea onto the front pages. Mr Cameron says that he is personally only a 'vaguely practising Christian' and is 'full of doubts' about theology.  That leaves him where most non-churchgoers stand, and begs the question of 'what is a practising Christian'?  What changes a nominal Christian into a practising one? The immediate answer is that a practising one attends a church regularly and takes part in the prayers, and sings the hymns, and listens to the sermons. Can you be a Chistian withluout actually doing all that? Increasingly, the answer is  that perhaps you can, because church is what has been manifestly rejected. Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked: 'Can Christ be Lord, even of those with no religion?' What a good question !!Christian Research tells me that in 2010 there were 1.3m Anglicans, 1.5m Catholics, and other categories, adding up to roughly seven percent of the population. That hardly makes a 'Christian country' if the criteria is churchgoing. But perhaps the meaning of 'practise' is to have a general belief that there must be a God and that Jesus told us as much about him/her/it as we can hope to understand, but it matters as much as it matters that the sun has risen again. Do we derive moral values from a nominal God, or from one who has offered us a recognisable code from which we get moral guidance? And if he has, how can we neglect it? Practising surely means taking seriously what we have been shown about the nature of God and what he requires of us.  TWO Addenda: Matthew Parris, an atheist Christian prophet, writes brilliantly in The Times today (December 17), and I have heard a scientist say of his new-born child that she is all he will ever see of the 'God particle.' Brilliant !!










The

Nativity

There is no point in letting the facts spoil a good story.I will sing the old Christmas hymns again this year with my fingers crossed, because of course they contain ideas about Jesus the Christ and his coming among us that cannot possibly be verified or justified. As with many things about the nativity record in the Bible,  historical credibility is sparse. Very few clergy 'believe' the literal truth of a star, a stable, a virgin birth. But the story is so charming, and sits nicely on Christmas cards, and in children's presentations, that it would be a shame to argue about it. We love to hear the story every year. It is the ultimate 'repeat' about which we never tire, as successive generations learn and celebrate it. As a church minister I once re-wrote two or three of these familiar songs, thinking to make them more 'believable. I was pleased with them, but there was a strong pew-based revolt, because people in the church did not want to give up the virgin birth, swathing bands, or even, oddly, children 'all in white waiting around.' I surrendered, and will again join the choir singing the tuneful mythologies of Christmas with all the other carol addicts. We like things to be the same at Christmas. It is great to see that of 656 films being offered on TV during three big days only 13 will be new. It was Browning's 'wise thrush' who sang his song twice over to 'recapture his first fine careless rapture'  Just so: we like repeats. We may have heard it all before, but as Humphrey Bogart requested of the night club piantist in Casablanca, 'play it again, Sam'.

correction to in difference

last sentence: 'We should be more selective about the people to whom we are indifferent. Like the other JC'

Indifference

We all have strong opinions about something or other. Jeremy Clarkson has many, and is never slow to express them. The media takes notice because the man is a celebrity. When the Duke of Edinburgh says he has no time for power-generating windmills it is widely reported. My opinions are also robust, but nobody will hear of them, because I am a nonentity: who cares what I think about anything? Clarkson has made a fool of himself, perhaps deliberately because his income depends on the sale of his books etc. In our time there are many opportunities for expressing opinions, and on Facebook no doubt millions of people are doing so all the time. The only other way to say what we really think - and we should do it more - is in conversation with close friends, who understand whether we are joking, or in earnest. Among strong opinions I hold is that Donald Trump should even now be prevented  from despoiling the north east of Scotland with a lot of unwelcome development. What else? And what about those who steal railway cable, memorial plaques and manhole covers for scrap metal? I would lock them up, and melt the cell key down for scrap..... English football needs an English manager..... Fundamentalist religion of any kind is inimical to humanity. Studdert Kennedy wrote: 'When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by: they would not hurt a hair of him, they only let him die. For men had grown more tender and they would not give him pain. They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain.' His poem was called 'Indifference'. We should more selective about the people to whom we are indifferent. Like the other JC.
 

quality

What is it that makes one person worth employing for £1m plus a year, while the masses have to get by on less, some very substantially less? The argument goes that there is a special band of superhuman beings who unless they are paid very large sums will leave the country and ply their expensive trade in some other part of the world. We cannot, apparently, afford to lose 'top quality' people to head up the really important commercial organisations, and public bodies that sustain our national life. There are some who follow the example of the wealthy people described recently by Ian Hislop on a BBC programme 'When Bankers were Good''. But the rest can go, and see if they really can con some offshore organisation willing to shovel money their way: I for one doubt it.  The people of real quality who undergird this nation are not necessarily the super-wealthy, and our future as a nation doesn't depend on them. Whether or not we thrive depends on more than financial tactics by governments of left or right. It depends, as Abraham found pleading for Sodom, on whether there were as few as ten 'righteous' people' in the city (Genesis 18). That may or may not include moral purity: it certainly includes people of compassion, and obedience to God's commandments.

Handshake

But quite a lot can be said, or left unsaid, in a handshake. I have watched Sepp Blatter offer a peremptory hand for someone to shake. To others he has offered a casual hand, unaccompanied by a glance. These gestures mean nothing, except as a means of dismissing the other person as of no account, They convey all the dignity of footballers going through the formalities at the start of a game, greeting their opponents with no interest at all. A genune handshake, accompanie by a gracious look, is something else. It conveys a meaning  that words cannot: admiration, appreciation, recognition, and yes, even apology. Mr Blatter was not surely asking for footballers to exchangec cursory handshakes as gestures of  casual greeting. A proper handshake is enough to seal a strong and warm basis for friendship, which is surely what he intended in his recent misunderstood comment. Thus a fragile relationship is being renewed on a quite different footing from anything that may have been the case before. The handshae which offers this message does not even have to be the double grip, so often  noted as between clergy and their flock, or business people. Not does it have to be coupled with a hug, which prevents eye-contact. I cannot see any better way to create or restore a good relationship between people than a proper handshake. Not the artificial ten-second job favored by politicians for media photographers, but the five-second, face to face, act of genuine communication that says all that needs to be said.

Pockets

The minister opens a Christmas bazaar, saying: 'Friends, there is good news and bad news about the money we need to mend the church roof. The good news is that we have enough to complete the job.' Applause all round. 'The bad news', he goes on, 'is that it is still in your pockets, purses, wallets and bank accounts.' As Christmas approaches,  we are being inundated with letters appealing for funds. Everything from frail old people to lost children and tired donkeys needs help. We are pensioners, and when we have given some carefully planned donations to certain funds, there is nothing left, and we inevitably feel very sorry. Do all these excellent causes depend on us? Of course not. There must be a  worthwhile response to the effort they make to send out appeals to so many people. The national exchequer, we are always being told, can do no more now with its restricted budget. So roads can hardly be mended, youth clubs must close and all the good things being done by local authorities and others to make life worth living have been curtailed. Of course, there IS money in the nation; it is just not in the right pockets. If we all put a small percentage of our total financial possessions into a pool, we would be able to do everything that health, education, social servicves etc is being prevented from doing because of 'the cuts'. We have more money than needed to rebuild the nation. It is still in our wallets and purses, though,, and taxation notwithstanding, looks likely to stay there.

growth

The answer, we are cnstantly being told, is 'growth'. It will resolve our economic problems. It will set us  on a new course to fiscal renewal. It will create jobs and put money back into the pockets of High Street spenders. So let's hear it for growth. But what, actually, is it? I am a sec mod abacus man.A succession of well-intentioned teachers failed to interest me in arithmetic, and when my school report said I had achieved seven percent in the subject I thought my father would be pleased. 'Seven out of ten is OK, dad,' I suggested. 'No, no, son,' he corrected me. 'Seven percent is seven out of a hundred.' It makes me one of the great majority who are confused about high finance, or even low finance, and I am glad to leave it to the likes of Mr Peston and Mrs Flanders, who nightly tell us about the sorry state of the financial world. In financial terms, even I can understand that if we are going to pay for the things we need we must somehow acquire money. And if we want more things, then we need to get hold of more money. Even abacus man can understand that. But what if abacus man has a philosophy grounded in the very simple idea put about by Saint Paul, who said he had 'learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content'? It sounds, now, 'so first century', so lacking in ambition. 'Content'!!!... so retro. It flies in the face of everything we now need to take seriously if we are to rescue the world. But what if it is the basis on which we might,  au contraire, save the world?

shale

Either the people who question policies on renewable energy are wrong. Or they are right. If they are right we are all being led, for no good reason, up the most expensive path since the Garden of Eden. Christopher Booker (Global Warming Disaster, Continuum 2009) provides impressive proof for global warming being a 'scare'. requiring immense public expenditure - 'such a dramatic change in the way of life for billions of people that it is hard to imagine how modern industrial civilisation could survive'. Matt Ridley (Spectator October 2011) says: 'To persist with a policy of subsidising renewable energy... at a time when vast reserves of cheap, low-carbon gas have suddenly become available is so perverse that it borders on insanity.' He refers to fields of 'shale gas' being tapped in America and now discerned in Lancashire, which could provide reliable, green energy  for most of the next century. Apparently it is already transforming life in parts of America. Drilling near Blackpool has located 200 trillion cubic feet of gas, 'enough to keep the entire British economy going for many decades.' Objections by the big coal, gas and nuclear industries, are, says Ridley, 'almost comically fabricated and exaggerated.'  We could access this stuff, long trapped among earth's rocks, and at a stroke resolve all our foreseeable energy problems. Wow! If this is true why do we not know about it ? I took it up in a harvest sermon to 20 village chapel goers in October (small wonder it did not make international news!) I maintain that nature continues to provide the means by which life can be sustained. Shale gas and GM crops are among the 'new things' that Isaiah spoke about which are there to take over from oil, coal, and traditional farming.  Hail, shale! Vested interest, nervous reactionaries and bureaucratic inertia must not stop you!

Listen

More than anything, we need somebody to listen. Really  listen, that is, not just cock half an ear while they think of the next thing to say. Today's paper says than doctors are being treated like priests; and for sure the most popular medicos are those who make time to listen to their patients. A man I know found his surgery closed and only a cleaner on the premises. He sat on a wall outside and told her his problem, and afterwards he had no need of the doctor. A pub landlord tells me that lonely and troubled individuals are more and more turning up in the hope that he will have time for a chat, or that there will be other customers willing to listen to them. 'They want sympathy more than drinkl,' he says. 'Running a pub is hard enough without being a mixture of priest, doctor, social worker and psychiatrist.' Is this a role for the under-occupied clergy? Lots of them pretend to be 'busy' but when you analyse their day much of what they do is self-indulgent. Ministry can be a sinecure. Clergy set their own agendsas so that they appear to be immensely busy, or more or less idle. Most have not been trained in time mangement so never achieve much. A church could 'adopt' a pub or a surgery to provide willing listeners (not preachers!) to over-burdened landlords and doctors. Chaplaincy is a more useful activity than parish ministry... perhaps also for motorways and pub chains aetc,etc. Too many clergy are wasting their time and training. Discuss...

Belief

Apparently several hundred applications have been received recently from people keen to join the Progressive Christianity Network. As fewer Britons turn away from traditional Christian belief (Daily Telegraph September 29 2011)  they may not be abandoning every form of spirituality, but interested in it via other faiths systems, or no system at all. PCN doesn't ask newcomers to spell out their beliefs, which is as well, because chairman John Churcher says  every member will probably have a different understanding of what Christianity is about and  which bit of it really matters. My experience of churches is that very few of the people who attend could give you a coherent statement of personal belief. And those who are most certain are not necessarily the ones you might like to spend eternity with. A review of the BBC One programme (Sept 28) 'What's the point of Religion' suggested that 'Belonging matters more than believing'. That  is certainly true of most churchgoers, who like to see familiar faces in familiar surroundings, and enjoy routine forms of worship. They do not like change! Does 'belief' matter? Of course it does. Come right down to it, faith needs a reasonably firm foundation and PCN suggests ditching a lot of inherited medieval beliefs in favour of serious commitment to the life and teaching of Jesus, sans virgin birth, miracles and bodily resurrecvtion. It may never be popular in a culture than demands b&w certainties.  But certainty - about anything - is a mirage. Ask the Hydron Collider scientists!

Wonder

How about a new theme for harvest festivals? There is some embarrassment now in churches wondering how to dispose usefully of the fruit, veg and groceries presented for traditionl displays. My former church always had a very large loaf, designed like a sheaf of corn, as the centre-piece. We never quite knew what to do with it; come to that we didn't know what to do with baskets of fruit and veg which old people did not want; they thought it was charity! We sang with gusto the harvest hymns whose theological content is dubious. 'Give his angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast....' Thank you Henry Alford (1810-71)  The theme of thanksgiving is always going to be central, but the more we learn abut the world of nature, and our own mysterious bodies, the more we shoud be filled with a sense of wonder. Augustine wrote: 'Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge wastes of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.' James Le Fanu has written a fine book called 'Why Us?'* in which he describes the quite unaided progression of the human embryo into adult life, and the so far unexplained functions of the human brain, eye, memory, etc etc. A service with the theme of wonder at what we see around us, and how we see it, would be better than chanting about being 'gathered in, free from sorrow, free from sing...' Harvest planning committees - use you loaf - it's amazing.

*WHY US?  2009 HARPER COLLINS £18.99

theology

The media is so preoccupied with conflict, trivia and greed that it rarely takes God seriously. It tends to sneer at those who have something thoughtful to say about eternity, clashing as it may with the here, now, sexy and fiscal. So how a letter from Mr  Brian Wilson of Bristol, slipped through the massed defences of The Times letters police on September 13 is hard to guess. But good for him. He wanted to press the need for a 'new theology...to win the assent of thinking people who have abandoned traditional churches and their outdated mythologies...' Mr Wilson is so right. Amazingly, educated people are still standing up in churches reciting middle-ages creeds when belief has become much more credible and science compatible, in our time. What Mr Wilson may not know, and the media has not recognised, is that new Christian-based theology is up, running and gathering speed around the world. It is known by various names, notably Progressive Christianity, and sustained by exceptional theologians saying things that should meet the intellectual and spiritual needs of the most cynical seeker. Try info@pcnbritain.org.uk or the website at http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/ Believable, universal, inclusive faith is on offer, and it is not the mock belief system which may have served our forefathers and rightly derided by Dawkins and co. It is somehting firt for this century.

restrain

A hymn we used to sing contained the prayer: 'Those who plan some evil, from their sin restrain.' It's hardly PC to sing it now, because evil in 2011 is not necessarily planned: it just happens, casually as part of the normality of daily life.  *I read of a large increase in the number of children 'permanently excluded' from school. Even at the age of four children check in for full time education already unable to behave in what used to be called a civilised manner. They have had no restaining influence at home, not even perhaps any kind of conversation with adults.  *A report tells of travelling families (Proper Romanies don't  behave like this) leaving sites in such a foul state, with fringe vandalism a given, that communities are outraged. Restraint? By whom? These savages have human rights, accredited by Euro legislation.  *At a whim, armies of unrestrained looters create all the havoc we are still trying to understand. We watch as police  are unempowered and under-resourced to move in to restrain them. *I am about to meet a recently-retired  nurse from an institution for mentally afflicted patients. It  is now closed, because many such patients are cared for 'in the community'.  His training included techniques for restraint, absolutely vital in cases where wild individuals were causing serious trouoble. Can we continue to allow anti-social human beings to behave without restraint? Is it  wrong to cry out in despair for wrongdoers somehow to be restrained? Or is there only one remedy... to go on singing the old hymn. and hope for the best ?

Father

Much of the response to the recent riots and looting of shops has had to do with the question of parenting. Calls for a new 'moral code' suggest that we need to return to the strictures of the Ten Commandments, and in particular the fifth, which adjures us to 'honour thy father and mother'. But it is surely unlikely, as the text then suggests that if we do so, our 'days shall be long in the land.' Why should respect for parents increase our longevity? It is considered by some that the commandment may not refer to parents at all. What if the intention was to advise people to honour 'father' as our spiritual nature and 'mother' as our physical nature? It makes a lot more sense to think that if we nurture ourselves spiritually and physically, then we are more likely to have a satisfactory and constructive, even long, life. Of course it is important to honour our parents, although there are cases in which a child would do well to avoid the example set by a brutal father. Jesus' reference to  his 'Father in Heaven' assumes a concept of father hood of the highest quality. But is Jesus referring to 'the Father' being that spiritual level of reality - the universal fundamental loving energy (God) - which seeks to penetrate and influence our temporal world?  Understood like that helps make for a betterr meaning of all references to 'Father' in the New Testament., and certainly illuminates the meaning of the fifth commandment. They don't, presumably, riot in heaven !.

junkies

The British are news junkies. Is it fear of boredom? Something needs to be going on 'out there' and the more portentous and disgraceful it is the better. We can then lock the door, hide under the blanket and revel in personal safety and innocence. We need news, even if it is only about a change in the weather - anything to up the tempo and help us to feel that life is happening. News should be 'new, true and interesting'. But can we rely on news makers, reporters and presenters to be trustworthy? Does what we read and hear comply with these three criteria? A meeting to discuss this is being held on Sunday September 4 (7.15 at the Congregational Church Newcastle under Lyme) by Progressive Christianity Stoke. There is a limit to the amount of good news we can take. News of conflicts being ended and settled is less compelling than news of conflicts starting and continuing. We feed on the exploits of baddies; Bill Sykes is much more interesting than Oliver Twist. How reliable is the media that feeds us every day? We are aghast at the way phones have been hacked to tease out privated information, but salivate at what the likes of the News of the World was able then to 'reveal exclusively'. We think we have a right to personal; privacy, but gloat over personal information about other people offered in the lurid press. How far should the media go to expose the foibles of the famous? As newspape sales decline and most people now get their news from TV and electronic gadgets will news reports become less reliable? Is society being managed on sensatuional half-truths and lies? How much anyway do we 'need' to know? It's worth discussing.

outrage

It's 6.30pm on August 8 2011. If Visigoths had been on our shores we would not feel any more vulnerable than we are.  What is happening to this land? Thugs  of all ages are destroying parts of London. Rural crime is reported to be escalating, with tractos being stolen from farms; even a church bell being stolen for scrap metal. Drain covers from the roads are being stolen for scrap. The financial markets are in continuing trouble.  There is evidence all around us of moral collapse. I hear the Home Secretary and other politicians telling us that they are 'absolutely clear' that there is no excuse for this. Hundreds will get community orders and such flimsy punishments. At the same time there is evidence of faith in the laws of God being abandoned, as people have just walked away from the groups that proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ethical demands of other faith systems. Most of us feel utterly outraged by what we see happening. We are reluctant to cry 'To prayer, all is lost' because some of us remember the years of  the second world war,. when the destruction was much greater. But at least then we had identified the enemy. This time the enemy is our own people eating society from within. Surely a return to the practical values and disciplines of faith is now essential, There are thousands of good people of all ages around, who must make their presence felt.

redtops

How can any self-respecting person now buy the 'red top' papers aka the Sun and the Mirror? They may have reservations about the others, but these have become an offence to truth.It has always been suspected that some of their 'stories' are created from a miasma of invention and illegal prying, and there is only one way to register a protest: refuse to buy them. I became a trainee reporter with the Derby Evening Telegraph in 1948 and it was drilled into me then that  truth was sacred. Of course there are ways to present facts in such a way that they are compelling but the criteria for any news item is that it should be 'new, true and interesting'. The way Chris Jefferies was treated over the murder of a woman in Bristol was a disgrace based on speculation. The papers that pilloried this man are rightly being punished, but hardly with the severity that will prevent them from offending again. The way they work  to feed the apparent public taste for vulgarity is such that we must express disgust with them. Red tops dominate the piles of papers in newsagents' shops: a powerful indication of the sad lives that many people lead. NOTE: public meeting Sunday September 4 7.15 at PICL Palace, Congregational church car park,  Kng Street Newcastle, Staffs. 'Can we trust the media'.

Guilty

Things are happening 'out there' about which I can do nothing. It is not yet nine o'clock in the morning and already I feel guilty about being useless. Worse follows: I start feeling guilty about feeling guilty! I am old, and the hardest exercise I take is putting on my own socks of a morning. So what am I supposed to do about the Greek debt crisis? How can I influence Rupert Murdoch? I can send £10 to UNICEF to deal with the Somali famine, but can anything I say make the gun-mad factions see sense? We know too much. Way back as a 'copy taster' on a provincial evening paper I had to sift what mattered from the shoals of material pouring off what in those days were 'the wires' from local, national and international news sources. There was always too much. What, of all the things happening around the world, do we really 'need to know'? Ancient peasantry had never heard of China, never mind what was happening there. Good news brought 'from Ghent to Aix' took days. Marathon runners gave way to to pigeons, to telephones, to morse code, and now to instant technology so that we know what's happening before it has happened. ' Breaking News' is on our screens by the minute. So.... I have said my prayers, and have switched to Classic FM, alternating with R3 and R5Sport extra  (Can somebody silence Boycott?).  Now all I have to fret about is whether rain will interferer with the Lord's test. But hang on there's an Indian fast bowler with a hamstring problem.  So what with that, and the rain, I have something positive to worry about. So needn't feel guilty at all.

Divine hacker

There are uncanny similarities in Psalm 139 to events now coming to light in the summer of 2011.  As a journalist I am especially interested in the motivations of those who go to any lengths to unearth and report a 'scoop': information which is assumed to be of interest to the general public. Often this information is about personal things people would prefer that others did not know. Is the writer of this psalm complaining about, or celebrating, the fact that God knows all there is to know about him? It is a hacker's guide:  'O Lord you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise. You pereive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord....  such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attain.'  Verse 19 suddenly drops this open-hearted submission to the all-seeing hacker, and lashes into some unknown monster, using language we may link to unwelcome prying eyes: 'If only you would slay the wicked, O God. Away from, me, you bloodthirsty men....Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?  Then submission returns: 'Search me O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'   

Too fast

Reasons for creating a new high speed railway link from London to Manchester and possibly beyond are strongly being urged by those who think it will help the national economy. This hugely expensive plan is being vigorously opposed by those who say it will damage the environment, and uproot communities along the way. I read today that Chinese engineers believe that it would be 'easy' to build such a line, and they can't understand why there might be any opposition to it at all. There is a kind of inevitability behind any suggested project which is promoted on the grounds that it may make for greater economic success. There is a less strident body putting forward the view that faster is not necessarily better, and that the quality of British life does not depend on the frenzied demand for 'growth'. Speed is a false god. It is laughable to imagine that a journey from north to south of the United Kingdom could be accomplished 20 minutes or so faster by spending immense sums of money on rapid technology. What does the average person do with 20 minutes of spare time in either London or Manchester? It would be far more profitable to teach people in business, politics, the arts, etc, how to expedite their business more efficiently. Time spent in meetings of all kinds would be reduced if those taking part just got to the point, and business was properly marshalled. We are being held to ransom by procrastinators, and verbose ego-trippers. A national course on effective spoken precis would save us millions in unnecessary waffle, eliminate the need for fast trasport to get people to time-wasting events, and allow us more freedom to enjoy the slow, peaceful pace of what's left of this glorious country.

dying

We all do it.  Rich and poor, young and old, famous and nonentities, believers and atheists. Sooner or later the call comes and we have to go. Now that religion and its associated belief in life beyond death are regarded as old fashioned relics, the general assumption is that life ends at physical death. There is a folksy hope that the bereaved will meet their deceased loved ones 'up there' and that they are somehow 'watching over us'. But that belief cannot be tested wsith the forensic rigour of experiments with material stuiff like bodies. We live at a time of general denial of spiritual things. There is flesh and blood, and brains, but nothing else. It makes no sense to suggest that anything else is real. But what do we really know about flesh and blood and brains? We understand only a fraction of what there is yet to learn about ourselves, or the physical universe. We can hardly ask a coherent question about the size of the cosmos. We know surprisingly little about the way the brain works, and how it relates to  the mind. There is no answer to the big question: 'Why is there something and not nothing?'  That being so, the collected experiences of those who report psychic events is at least as good evidence for truth as anything that physical scientists propose. We have become so accustomed to thinking that the material world is all that can be taken seriously that spiritual reality is widely dismissed. Psychic researchers and religious believers assert, all the same, that life continues after mortal death. 'Life expectancy' is far from the usual assumption about phsyical longevity. The evidence of things heard, seen and felt by thousands of sane, rational people tells of events which have no cause apart from, psychic agencies.For some reason traditional churches are unwilling to speak openly about this, but it moves the issue of 'assisted dying', for example, into a different arena. The general assumption that death is the ultimate tragedy is wrong. Death is far from tragedy: it is the supreme adventure..

Parallel

Among all the exciting thoughts now being pursued by scientists is one about a parallel universe. Research into matter/anti matter suggests that this world is a reflection of cosmic reality in which there is a  parallel system of life, or maybe more, which  impinge on the world as we know it. None of this is entirely new, as Plato (born 429BC) wrote about an equally real parallel world in which there were 'forms' or 'ideas' like goodness, beauty and equality which interpenetrate our world, and which could transform our materialistic values if we took them to heart. We may be moving towards the discovery of a source of spiritual energy which is what Jesus the Christ referred to as the Kingdom of God, and to which he invited us to pray, as to 'our Father in heaven.' Some people in the corporeal world are especially sensitive to this other world. The idea was also defined by William  James in his classic 'Varieties of Religious Experience' (1902. as something 'more'.  He wrote: 'The world of our present consciousness is only one of many worlds of consciousness that exist and that those worlds must contain experiences which have a meaning for our life also, and that  although in the main their experiences and those of this world keep discrete, yet the two become continuous at certain points and higher energies filter in.. I can of course put myself into the sectarian scientist's attitude and imagine that the world of sensations and scientifiuc laws may be all. But  whenever I do this I hear the inward monitor whisper the word 'bosh'. Humbug is humbug even though in bears the scientific name. Human experience invincibly urges me beyond the scientific bounds.'

end

Machines

I really tried. Honestly. A TV programme called 'All watched over by Machines of Loving Grace' sounded like a fine way to end a rain-roaked bank holiday with a bit of academic rigour.  It seemed to be telling me that there is a  computer programme that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. Divinity has nothing to do with it, as Shakespeare thought. We have no choice in the matter: sooner or later nature dictates how life develops and ends up. The computer will ensure that our needs are met by a pre-established pattern of nature. It has always been so, although we didn't know it until a screen linked to the etheric demonstrated what was there for anybody to see: an inevitable pathway to fulfilment, and/or disaster. So there is nothing I can do about it: I am programmed by some ineffable force. Freewill? forget it. After 45 minutes of this hour-long stuff, I must have dozed off, because I woke to see Swansea getting into the Premiership. 'Must have been meant' I thought, and slid off to bed. The programme-planners on BBC2 had some hopes, popping 'Machines of Loving Grace' into the schedules on a bank holiday when viewers would have to be razor-sharp alert to make head or tales of it. A glass or two of best Chilean red had left me looking for something less strenuous to watch, and that it was all total baloney. Or was John Calvin right to teach predestination.? 

Cynicism

Any expression of hope, or show of human decency, is currently greeted by the British public with ill-conceaaled cynicism, or as something mildly amusing. So the visit to Ireland and now to the British Parliament by President Obama is received by the chattering classes with interest, but mild scepticism. The media are in raptures, apart from the Daily Telegraph, which may have caught the mood of the general public by being a touch cool. Never mind the brilliant oratory, what was in it for him? I have heard it asked. All Obama wanted was a boost for his 2012 election chances, it is inferred.  We have seen too much bad behaviour among people who are supposed to be our protectors and friends, really to believe in unalloyed goodness.  The default attitude is that nothing in British society really works, no promise is to be trusted; there are no good fairies, everything that sounds like good news is to be suspected. We are all being cheated, swindled, led up garden paths by banks, adverts, politicians, the media, and preachers. The presentation of a product, an idea, a philosophy, a guru, which calls for belief, trust and commitment is subject to the  Paxman sneer. It may be justified, but we have become conditioned now not to believe that anything is altogether good. Whatever, says St Paul, is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, worthy of praise,'think about such things'.   I don't know how the ancient Philippians reacted to this invitation.  It sounds mighty optimistic in the United Kingdom in 2011.

Preaching

Preaching has got the bad name it well deserves. People do not like to be 'preached at' by those whose authority they suspect. Doctors they will listen to. Stand-up comedians they will laugh at. Politicians they will jeer. But there are hundreds of preachers in British churches who would do Christianity a favour by giving it up. Something like half a million sermons are being delieverd every Sunday to around five million churchgoers. A commercial business with such a massive evangelical outreach would expect  success. Churches are not succeeding. And one reason is because, by and large, the preaching is so poor.

Churches know this, and many of them have abandoned the traditional sermon in favour of discussion groups, visual aids, 'messy' church, and silent meditation. Good preachers, all the same, should be able to attract and keep large and growing congregations. Most preachers fail, for one or all of several reasons.

1) They preach too much. Long gone are the days when a minister was expected to preach two sermons each Sunday, with a solid Bible study during the week.The emotional and intellectual energy required for such a regime is too great.  2) They have not mastered the techniques of public speaking. Preachers have a lot to learn from 'stand up' comedians about timing, humour, voice projection and eye-contact. 3)They may not be entirely persuaded by their own arguments, and it shows. Preachers need a passion for their subject, and congregations quickly recognised insincerity.  4) They may be banging an irrelevant drum. Certain doctrines that were believable 100 years ago cannot be presented as scientific and historical objective truth now. People know too much after ten years or more of full-time education, and watching experts on television to be able to swallow as anything but glorious mythology six-day creation, a virgin birth and a bodily resurrection.

Preachng has a future, but it need to be offered by convinced and convincing Christians who know and believe what they are talking about, and have mastered basic skills of communication. There are far too few preachers about who measure up. The few we have should be celebrated and widely known. And all of us should be subjected to assessment by the kind of honest critics who report on films and TV programmes. 

end

Osama bin Laden

With the death of Osama bin Laden Christians are entitled to be thankful that a man who symbolised evil in the world is no longer alive.In the long list of those who have brought terror and distress to the human family this man came near the top. As with many of them, bin Laden was reputed in his personal life to be polite and gentle, and he genuinely thought his philosophy would prove to be beneficial for mankind as a whole. We know that evil often comes with a smiling face, and soft hands, but it is deeply ingrained in human affairs. The call of international statesmen for us all to be alert to the possibility of reprisals is urgent. Even more urgent is the need for people actively to embrace a philosophy of peace and goodwill with as much fervour as bin Laden embraced his twisted beliefs. It is good at this time to read again that superb prayer by Kate Middleton at her wedding to Prince William. As we are dismayed by the presence of evil people in the world, we are encouraged by the opposite presence of people of simple goodness. God be praised ! The devil, as our scriptures say, does not sit waiting for us to fall into his trap: he 'seeks whom he may devour'. Evil is a busy, determined enemy,who succeeds in proportiomn to our anaemic failure  to resist.

food dump

The profits being made by Tesco, now running into £billions, would astonish Rev Dr RobertMalthus, the 18th Century economist who argued in 1798 tnat the population  had a natural tendency to increase faster than the means of production, and that we would soon be unable to feed ourselves. It was good sense at the time, but Dr Malthus could not reckon wioth the resources of the giant supermarkets, now able to load their shelves with nourishing foods from all parts of the world, or the ingenuity of the farming industry and what Matt Ridley (The Rational Optimist (Fourth Estate 2010) calls 'The Fertiliser Revolution'. Forecasting global doom in Robert Malthus's time was an inextact science; he was not to know how agricultural science would bless us.. Not only is there enough for us all in the well-fed west to eat, but we are eating the wrong things, and throwing away immense quantities of edible foods. It is reported  (Sunday Telegraph April 10) that households in Brtain dump 8.3million tons of food and drink a year, mostly to landfill sites. More than five million tons of this is said to be edible. What would Dr Malthus have made of the debate now taking place about 'best before' and 'use by' labels on food? What would he say to us about the huge disproportion between our plenty and the grim poverty which condemns millions to hunger and thirst while the burger and chips generation struggles with obesity? It's food for thought.

charm

You don't get a degree in it, but it is one quality that will kickstart a career rather more effectively than most academic qualifications. It's CHARM..  It is possible to work  hard to achieve a good degree and then wonder why potential employers remain unimpressed. It may be because a graduate presents little if any warmth of personality. Many successful people in a variety of careers have just about enough mastery of their subject to get by, but have progressed  because they know how to offer three simple qualities: they are an ability to LISTEN. They can SM ILE, and they MAKE TIME for the views of other people. It's an old fashioned attitude, but still vital in the art of successful human relations. A surprising number of people are successful and content with their lives, without academic qualifications, but with  a degree of empathy - they just get on with people. Can empathy be taught? perhaps not in the lecture room, but it can be encouraged and nurtured.The Campaign for Courtesy has been saying for 25 years that manners matter. As more and more graduates face frustration because they can't get a foot on their career choice ladder, it may be because they don't have the personal confidence that comes with genuine courtesy towards others. The Campaign for Courtesy offers basic guidance in this vital human resource. Contact Ian Gregory, the Campaign's Patron in Chief -  iancongist@hotmail.co.uk

priests

Those of us who are in the 'Congregational' way of being the Christian church are keen to promote the 'priesthood of all believers', and are encouraged by signs that the Roman Catholic Church is challenged by this concept. It is interesting to note that a Basque priest, Jose Antonio Pegola is being accused of heresy becasue some views he has expressed in a new book are contrary to the Vatican view. We read that the book 'Jesus; an historical approximation' has sold almost 100,000 copies, and Spanish bishops have apparently requested that a further 6000 copies should be destroyed.  Why? He writes of God being compassion, rather than power, and works out his radical view of the mission of Jesus. But I am intrigued by  this: 'In Jesus' movement all patriarchal authority disappears... no-one is above the others. There is no rank or class. There are no priests, Levites and lay people. There is no place for intermediaries. Everyone has direct, immediate access to God, the Father of all'  (The Tablot March 26 p5) That is the heart of Congregationalism. Makeof it what you can.  Henry King. AKA Ian Gregory end.

Congregational

I am sorry to hear that pressure to create a 'new image' for the Congregational Federation is increasing. More and more people in Congregational churches are telling me that they see no point in 'rebranding' the Federation at the cost of £51,000 from the Council for World Mission. The Times has recently published details of commercial 'rebradning' schemes that failed, including the Post Officer ('Consignia') and British Airways. If I thought that rebrading would encourage more people to take an interest in the Gospel via our churches then it would be fine, but it will not. TYhe aim seems to be promotion of the Federation, which is not a church, but a religious organisation with paid official;s anxious for it to grow. That is all right, but the promotion of the local church is the task of the local church, not the Federation. I hope more and more people will realise how futile and wasteful of resources this proposal is, and speak out against it. The idea  comes from the Castle Gate 'establshment', not from any of our churches. In my view it is the thin end of a sinister wedge, in which 'say-so' is being seized by Castle Gate and a few 'in' people I wonder what the late Graham Adams, our former Gen Sec, would say? He warned us about this very tendency.I am reminded of  a book by Albert Peel, 80 years ago. In 'A brief History of English Congregationalism' he noted (p78) that in its early years the Congregational Union attempted too much for its strength and found the burden too heavy to be carried. 'In recent years the current towards the centre has been running strongly.....with every increase in central funds and in the power of organised Congregationalism there must be a corresponding increase in the vigoiur of the independent  churches, a renewed sense of the presence of Christ in the midst of his people if true Congregatiomnalism is to survive...If churches come to rely on unions for support rather than on their own efforts allied to the leading of the divine spirit, the time of decay is at hand.' Peel strongly urged the freedom of the local church, and especially for the editor of its magazine. 'If a journal is merely the mouthpiece of of the officials of the union it is likely to be thought insipid and uncritical, with its editor more or less muzzled and obliged to take the official view.'  I have ben allowed that freedom in the last ten years, and we must keep watching to make sure it continues. Ian Gregory.

who needs priests?

The idea may be gaining currency that in order for there to be a proper Christian church there has to be a priest, ordained by a bishop. That is why a small number of people are now leaving the Church of England for the Roman Catholic Church. They are profoundly wrong, but we are all entitled to be wrong about our choice of beliefs. Publicity given to the 'ordinariate' (more religious jargon) gives the impression that Christianity depends on a separated, ordained priesthood, which Catholics say is the province of males ordained in the succession of Peter. It does not. There is a well-defined 'priesthood of all believers which generally applies in nonconformist churches. This says that all who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ as Lord are entitled to peform all the functions of church leadership. There is no need for a special kind of human being  to preside at the sacraments of the Church; all that is necessary is that such a person, male or female, is a Christian, normally invited to undertake these duties by a Christian fellowship. These include presiding at communion serviecs and baptising infants. The idea that the church exists only when there is a priest in charge is a fallacy, and might lead people to think that what they receive from the church without a priest is invalid. Not so. It would release the Catholic Church from its paralysis if it allowed lay leadership, as happens anyway in parts of the world where there is a perceived shortage of priests. In parts of S America Cheristians organise their worship and sacraments where there are no ordained priests. This makes them, virtually 'congregational' churches like the one to which I belong. We need to abandon the idea that there is a special category of 'holy'orders which validates God's blessing, which is freely available to all. .

funerals

It's time to play down the religious content of funeral services at crematoria. I am invited to conduct an increasing number of such events for people who have had no connection with religion during their lives, and ought not to be troubled with it in their death.  It is pointless to recite sentences from the Bible, and use traditional churchy jargon, when mourners have little idea what we are talking about. Religion, and its ideas and language are things we inflict on mourners, who sit with a glazed expression, getting no comfort from what is said. It would be better to use words and images that are familiar to them, because death is a natural event in the rourse of life, and it should not be veiled in medieval religion. People may have been with their loved ones at the end of their lives and hopefully how peaceful and 'ordinary' the end can be. We can surely fashion a funeral service which takes account of its mystery and sadness, but which also points to the natural passing from this stage of life to the next, without confusing it with strange stuff from St Paul and  the psalms. The aim should be to focus on the life and achievements of the deceased, and bring out his/her humanity, sense of humour, and general interests. Human beings are endlessly interesting, and even the most modest life can carry a good story to be told at the funeral. There are, of couse, selfish rogues in whose lives there has been little virtue. It is no part of our task to pass judgment, but there is always room for honest assessment. The hope dscribed in the life and teaching of Jesus is simple enough to make the service memorable, without baffling people with clerical robes, obscure rituals and what is virtually a foreign language. Funeral directors tell me that people are icreasingly asking for humanist services, which can be chillingly bleak and hopeless. The bereaved may have an instinct that life continues in some form after death, but they think traditional religion as being virtually meaningless. Their emotions are already in shreds. Their minds may be similarly shredded, by faux religion.  Rev Ian Gregory, retired Congregational minister

speed

There's a heavy campaign to prevent construction of the high speed railway between London and Birmingham. It has all-party support and is claimed to offer huge benefits to the economy, especially in the midlands. People who live in the environment of the route are deeply and properly upset, because this monstrous development will without doubt upset their lives, apart from tearing a gap through very pleasant countryside. Why do we need everything to be speeded up? In a nutshell, what's the rush? One of the great historic factors of British history is the numberof things that have happened to universal benefit which evolved slowly. Major medical, industrial and social improvements have been gradual, as we sampled, tested, experimented, rejected and started again, watching to see the outcome. What is the urgent need now to cut minutes of the travelling time between our first and second cities? What will travellers do with the time they save? Is it really worth the immense cost to achieve a little more time at the end of the journey? I do not believe that it is. I recall a movement to encourage slowness; it is needed more than ever. We need not be martyrs to ever greater speed, which is already increasing stress. Human beings were not built for the kind of acceleration which is endemic in today's lifetsyle. Courtesy thrives under three headings:  1 Listen,  2 smile, and 3 slow down.  Ian Gregory

bonus challenge

Re bonuses... There must surely be a fair number of people  working in banks, in the public and private sector, and in entertainment and sport whose ethical code is informed by their faith. So what do they do when their income - already adequate - is enhanced by bonuses and salary increases which take it beyond anything their lifestyle requires? There is a multi-million £ jackpot lying unused and un-needed in pockets, purses and balances: enough to meet all the immediate needs of the nation, including filling in the potholes. Christian ethics requires sensible restrictions on how much we need, on this side of extravagance. We can all eat, drink, keep warm, take holidays, educate children on, say, £75,000 a year  (There are thousands on that min) Anybody whose income from all sources exceeds this and does not give generously to those with proven need is living in opposition to the simple rules of every religious precept. A colleague says he told his congregation that there was enough money identified for a major £50,00 restoration project. That was the good news.The bad news was that it was still in their pockets. (My income, by the way, is a state pension , plus occasional funeral fees and a modest bequest. Our house is owned by our church, and we pay £90 a month management fee. We are rich!) Tonight we are having chicken and two veg and fruit pie. Our three children are happily married and a ten years old grandson has just arrived by bike for his tea.  Alleluia !