Choosing Life

 Choosing Life

Notes for Sermon preached at St Ann, Belfield 2022 and used in much abbreviated form in a short reflection given in the High Court in my hearing after breaking the North Warwickshire injuction.

Why would any of us knowingly do something very likely to hasten our death ? If there was a cliff edge just ahead of you, and experts said there was a cliff edge, would you keep on walking ?

If your leaders said “Keep going, don't worry about the cliff, trust us not those who know all about what happens when you walk off a cliff, would you believe them ? 

And when some people started falling off the cliff, and you saw pictures on the TV, would you keep following the leaders ?

Of course You wouldn’t ! 

Yet that is exactly what is happening today. We are heading towards disaster. Professor Sir David King, the former government chief scientist, says what we do in the next three to four years will determine the future of humanity. He’s talking about our survival as a species. 

But still our leaders are walking us towards the cliff edge.

Leaders of nations have made these reckless choices before. The words of Deuteronomy 30.15-20 cry out to us. 

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.  But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,  I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

What will we choose ?

Wendy and I were arrested last week. Wendy spent just under 12 hours in  Chelmsford Police station. I went to Basildon Police Station. This happened because we sat  on an access road to an oil refinery. As we did that, we later learned, some others had been tunnelling under the same road. Astonishingly they are still there having spent 10 days underground. The purpose was to block access to the depot which distributes oil and petrol. This has not been achieved because the authorities have decided to continue to run 70 ton trucks overhead even tho’ there are people underneath, no supports or boarding. 

Why risk your life in a tunnel ? Why sit on a road in front of an oil tanker? The papers often label such people as mad or bad. Please try and suspend your judgement and hear me out. Just Stop Oil has the simple demand that there should be no new oil projects. Respected scientists, the UN, the world bank all say there should be no new oil, gas or coal. But our government is planning over 40 new oil and gas projects.

They are saying come on, let’s walk faster. And like zombies we are following !

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 

Our vocation - as human beings, made in the image of God, is to choose life.

I interviewed the bishop of Bolton a few weeks ago. You can see it on YouTube. He spoke about his granddaughter. He wondered what sort of world she would grow up into. I wonder the same for my children and especially for my one grandchild.

The reading from Deuteronomy goes on to say that if we obey the commandments of the Lord ourGod, then we shall live and become numerous and the Lord will bless us.

There are good choices to be made.  There is another way to live. We do not have to choose this path of death and destruction. The economy can be changed, redirected for life. Human beings can do great things. Consider how nations coped with COVID, supporting the weak, protecting the vulnerable. Or how the US economy was changed from making cars to aeroplanes and tanks to face the threat of war.

We do not have to be bewitched by the leaders who are leading us onto the cliff overhang. There is a way to a new life. It begins when each of us chooses life and resists the walk off the cliff edge.

Our Father in heaven loves us so much. How he must weep when he sees what we are doing. How we are held in mental captivity by false and dangerous gods. When I was arrested recently in April it was for holding a banner that had the words “Jesus Wept”.  Many are weeping now because of the deaths that are caused in a hotter world.

Dorothy Soelle begins her book Choosing Life talking about the exile that Israel experienced in Egypt. They rather enjoyed the fleshpots of Egypt. They were slaves but they had sort of got accommodated to it. We in the wealthy industrial West do not feel that we are exiled from God, we have adapted ourselves to such an extent that in the very midst of Egypt under the domination of Pharaoh we feel quite at home. Referring to the passage from Deuteronomy 30:19 she says choosing life in the face of death means chiming in with the great yes to life that is God. She goes on to say that choosing life is the very capacity for not putting up with the routine destruction of Life. That routine cynicism that we are expected to follow.

Conclusion

(I’m not sure how I finished this sermon. Perhaps you, dear reader, can write/think of a conclusion that speaks to you ? )

This Little Light of Mine

 This Little Light of Mine

Sermon preached on Sunday 5 February 2023 at St Ann’s Belfield

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.16)

It should have been a delicious meal. All the ingredients were good. It looked delicious on the plate. But it had no flavour ! All it needed was salt. But there was none on the table. And I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to offend my kind host. 

In the ancient world, having your own source of light at night was essential. If your light went out you were stuck. If there was a knock at the door you would not be able to see if it was friend or foe.  There wasn’t much sympathy if your light had gone out because you had been careless and had not topped up the oil. Who are you going to ask for a light ? Of course neighbours are happy to help but … well.. It is a bit embarrassing.

The two Biblical images of salt and light are very familiar, and make perfect sense in any age. We can imagine our Lord speaking to the people who gathered to listen to him about being salt that has flavour, and not hiding your light under a bushel basket. (Matthew 5.13-14)

 

Homely though they sound, salt and light became for Jesus images of human resistance. They invite us to take the courage to stand up against hunger, exclusion, poverty, greed and all that hurts and harms God’s children. In a world where fellow human beings are made distant objects so we come to believe that their death is not our concern, the salt reminds us that small acts of love, small acts of resistance against death, really matter. The light tells us not to give up but to look at the light still shining.  To keep oil in your lamp.

You may know the Gospel/children’s song “This little light of mine”. It’s become for me a mini song of resistance. When I was court a few weeks ago, it was often on my lips. Especially when the bombast of court was at its loudest.

How do we live in the middle of these crises ? Professor Sir David King, the former government chief scientist said in 2021 that what we do in the next 3 to 4 years “will determine the future of humanity.” But our government plans to add fuel to the fire 

At such a time we cannot spend all our energy making shopping lists of our minor sins. Our collective folly needs to be tackled. As Walter Wink said “The issue is not, "What must I do in order to secure my salvation?" but rather, "What does God require of me in response to the needs of others?" It is not, "How can I be virtuous?" but "How can I participate in the struggle of the oppressed for a more just world?" (Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way)

We invest our energies in establishing our own purity in the eyes of God. There is a secular version of this privatised spirituality, which the talk of carbon footprints plays into. As a church, even in our response to the existential emergency, others, we succumb to "a satanic temptation to die with clean hands and a dirty heart.” 

I was in court in January. As I try to stand up against the destruction of the world, I feel almost crushed by the darkness. It was hard to hear the prosecution define what I had done as “causing chaos.” My intention was, and still is, for us - as humanity - to avoid chaos.

It was not a small thing to decide to block a road. I wish there was another way. But I and others have tried over many years to bring a stop to the murderous fossil fuel emissions, by lobbying Parliament, signing petitions, etc. I could not speak about my motivation in the court in January. Because of the nature of the offence we were charged with, we were silenced. I could not make reference to science, or the floods in Rochdale, or how I worry for my grandchild. Or that we have very short time to act.

The darkness may be great but it has not overcome the light. I sat there humming silently this little light of mine. I sat there in quiet contemplation of  the love of God for each one of us. I thanked God for my co-defendants. I prayed for the judge and the jury.

I could not run from this situation. Like many of us, I have often tried to keep calm and carry on. We human beings are very good at avoiding the darkness.

Jesus stood up for love with every part of himself. The Light of the world faced the darkness head on - with mind, body and spirit - with love, with sorrow. Remember how he wept over Jerusalem ? He kept his light, God’s light, shining in the darkness. That’s what I hope to do.

In the film Gandhi we see a powerful depiction of the Salt March in India in 1930. You may remember the  image of Indian protesters dressed in white stepping forward to be beaten by soldiers with big sticks. A growing number of non violent protesters walked 239 miles from Gandhi’s Ashram (place of prayer) to the coast. It began with 78 followers and resulted in 60000 Indians being jailed for breaking the law. The empire could not stop people making salt from sea water. It took some time but this and other acts of stubborn, loving resistance led to the end of British rule.

Today, we face a great darkness. The forces against us are rich and powerful. They are here there and everywhere. They have captured the minds and hearts of many talented people. 

Remember how Jesus struggled with the devil in the wilderness. He knew the power of the Roman empire. They had their gods, their technological power, their confidence and conviction. But in its heart it was rotten; the Roman Empire ran on slavery and violence.

There is a very clear parallel with us in the UK. There are massive vested interests in fossil fuel extraction. They have captured the media. 

But in spite of all this evidence, in spite of all the doom, we are a people of joy.

• Because we have experienced that light shining in the darkness

• We have seen it shining in others, they are truly “glorifying God” by their lives of courage, love and service

• We know we are called to be light too

• We know that light is desperately needed

• And that when it shines empty empires crumble to dust.

May the light always shine in you

The power of love

 The Power of Civil Resistance

Is there any point in trying to change anything ? Over the years I have been inspired by people and movements who have stood up against the state when it has been serving narrow interests and promoting injustice. I remember being inspired reading about Gandhi, the small, skinny man in a dhoti, and his challenge to the British Empire. On a Christians Aware pilgrimage to Robben Island in 2001 I sat in the cell that Nelson Mandela had lived in for years, remembered his courage and prayed that I too might be an instrument of God’s peace. Our power, our influence over history, is a good theme to consider at this point in history when it becomes ever clearer that we are on a runaway train taking us ever faster towards disaster. We are told that we have a very short time to cut emissions if we are to avert extreme temperatures that would make much of the earth unlivable, yet the UK government is issuing more oil and gas licences. Many of us are anxious and feel despairing. Can anything change ? We feel powerless.

I was arrested twice in October and spent some time in police cells. In September this year I spent a week in prison, on remand at His Majesty's Prison Birmingham. It was not unexpected. Along with another 50 other supporters of Just Stop Oil I had broken an injunction granted by the High Court. I had sat on the road at the main-gate to the oil distribution terminal. I had told the court that I considered it complicit with the fossil fuel industry which was responsible for mass death and destruction and that I planned to break the injunction again and that I would not willingly come back to the court. I was prepared to go to prison. We hoped that our action would put pressure on the government to stop the development of new oil and gas projects. 

Like Mario Savio, a civil rights activist from Berkeley, USA in 1964, I felt compelled to act

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

By its very nature prison takes away your freedom.  I could not contact those I wanted to contact, I could not eat what I wanted, I could not buy things when I desired. Most of all I could not leave my cell when I wanted. There was only one hour of ‘socialisation’ each day, when I was let out and able to walk with other prisoners in the exercise yard.

True, I was not free, but I was not powerless. I had chosen to act in defence of life, I was in resistance to the forces of destruction.  I had chosen to disrupt the fossil fuel industry out of love, inspired by my faith. I was challenging the gears and wheels that were killing so many of my fellow humans. It was for me fundamentally about following Jesus, in his emptying of himself, in his belief that love cannot be extinguished. As a bonus it was a retreat from the busyness of daily life; no mobile phone, no emails and only one book to read. Much time was spent thinking and praying I shared a cell with another in civil resistance with Just Stop Oil, who, fortunately, did not want to have the TV on all the time ! When we did talk we had some good conversations

We found ourselves alongside those who were marginalised by society. We had come into prison aware that God’s good creation was horribly despoiled, in economic terms treated as an ‘externality’. We were not good stewards but rather treating the sacred earth as a resource from which wealth was to be ruthlessly extracted. In prison, alongside those with much longer sentences than ourselves, I became more aware how society treated people as disposable, from whom wealth was to be extracted. There were many victims of inequality, abuse, violence there. Many should not have been in prison; they needed care and rehabilitation, rather than punishment. Many were black. Undoubtedly, racism and other systemic injustices were a factor in their incarceration.

In the Just Stop Oil recruitment talks I had delivered, many to churches, we would tell the story of the 'Freedom Riders', that band of civil rights protesters in the USA who in 1961 travelled, black and white together, into the southern states, where segregation was still well and truly established. They met with extreme violence but continued to break the segregation laws. In the end over 400 went to prison. They chose to act, to sacrifice their privilege and power, to open themselves to the violence of others. They freely gave up their relative privilege and safety to unlock a process of social change.

I hope we're seeing a similar process of change today. A growing number of activists are being imprisoned. As I write there are several in the UK who have been in prison without trial for more than 6 months. 

At this time when things are so bad and we have so little time in which to stop the train hurtling to the end of the line, we should remember the power we have to act. It is immense, it is the power of love. Nothing can separate us from that love, not even the might of the state or wealthy corporation. Experiencing that power, especially the collective power of stepping into action with 50 other people, has been a joy. I commend it to all !

November 2022.

For more information visit https://juststopoil.org/

Littleborough Rushbearing

I blessed the pub as well as the rushes ! Perhaps it was the glass of Moorhouses bitter I'd drunk, or the friendly community, but I strayed from convention and blessed the pub as well as the rushes, musicians and dancers. I didn't forget the residents of Littleborough.

I'd never been to a rushbearing, so was thrilled to be there. I was covering as the local priest, Father Ian, had COVID. There is no Church of England authorised set of words for a rushbearing so I had to do my own research and soon discovered that this was a tradition that spoke to our contemporary crises.

It seems that the rushes were cut down and brought to church each year for two reasons: to provide insulation for cold churches and to protect the knees of the faithful on hard floors. This was long before central heating or pews. Care of people and grateful use of natural resources came together in the rushbearing. The local landowners would give the rushes, and presumably paid the workers for the cutting and carrying on a cart. But this was a community tradition; driven by many coming together for the common good.

The rushbearing chimed powerfully  with the recent Insulate Britain campaign when the insulation of homes and the well being of the people came together in a campaign of civil resistance.

Later in the park I was part of a Just Stop Oil stall, and reached out to people about the destruction caused by oil and our resolve to engage in nonviolent civil resistance. 

Rushbearing and these two recent expressions of people resisting the self interest of the fossil fuel industry were in mind that Sunday morning as I led the service of Holy Communion at Holy Trinity in Littleborough. Nature is bountiful and God provides, the people must be protected and those with wealth and land must provide for the people. We do well to see the blessings abounding and the lack of justice in our time. 

In the Sunday readings Martha is not a good host to Jesus because she is anxious and distracted. (Luke 10.38) The Rushbearing nudges us to be attentive to the needs of the poor (whatever you did for one of these you did for me, said Jesus in Matthew 10.40) and to remember that "in him all things in heaven and on earth were created" (Colossians 1.16). 

Vigil Story (Mourning a dying Planet)

Sitting in a public place, praying, meditating, holding silence, reflecting, contemplating - whatever you call it - is a very simple but very special thing to do. I sat and contemplated/prayed with some lovely people from XR Huddersfield and Calderdale in July. Being still, sitting on a camping chair in St George’s Square, outside Huddersfield Railway Station was pretty much all that I did, action bordering on inaction, but it was a rich and powerful thing to do.

Who was there ? Well I didn't really bother too much looking for labels. I am a Christian, I know there was at least one Roman Catholic woman there, and some Quakers also turned up with a banner. We were all rebels, precious human beings and that was the shared ground on which we met. The organiser had come up with the title ‘Mourning our Dying Planet’ and that was what had attracted me. As I had felt my energy for climate activism fade over the previous few months, I wanted to return to …. well, a quiet place, a desert of sorts. To do this with others who understood what this climate and ecological crisis was all about, would be a healthy, healing thing.

Lots of people passed by, coming in and out of the station, on their daily business, some heading off on holiday. There are direct trains to Manchester Airport; at this late stage in the Pandemic there are more flights somewhere even hotter. On the way into the station some would stop to take a leaflet and many would talk. (We always had someone there who was not vigil-ing but ready to listen, chat, smile.) Huddersfield folk are very friendly. So the silence was enhanced by snippets of conversation, alongside the roaring buses, drilling builders, trundling cases, and the like. Believe it or not, it was possible to go quite deep in the silence. It was like a mini retreat to me.

Physically, we were loosely scattered on the large square. But it felt like our hearts were centred and close to each other.

Helen sat with a homemade board saying “My heart breaks over the destruction of our nature places”. She listed the peace, the stillness, the animals, the birdsong, the ponds, the butterflies, the dragonflies, and the birds “in flocks, sweeping and swooping”. Her breaking generous heart was an inspiration.

The first day of the Vigil had developed into “an action” which had a march up to Huddersfield’s producer of dangerous chemicals Syngenta. This once ICI-owned firm produced Paraquat and the like and exported poisons which were now illegal in the UK to other nations with less legal protections. I didn’t manage to join the small march up to the factory but followed it on social media. It provided an important real world edge to the vigil. We were claiming an island of Peace in a context - the profiting from destruction, and the suffering of the planet was right there for our hearts to confront with silent love.

It wasn’t all serious silence. Of course, there was chatting too, and during those times it was good to talk to others. All through my ministry as a vicar and now in retirement, I have met people who have taught me something and inspired me. I thank God for Helen and the other rebels.

Practical matters. The weather apps were predicting rain. In the end there was no rain but I did get sunburned ! So come prepared for every weather. Bring some snacks and drinks.  Toilets ? It was easy to go to the loo because some of the lovely Huddersfield rebels had made an arrangement with the rail station and they let us through the barriers to the platform toilets. No problem at all.

Was it any use ? Can anyone know ? But somehow all that love and grief, that rebelling against our destructive economy, that silence, touched a deep place. Surprising people, with countercultural silence and grief, certainly had the potential to make for a deep encounter.

Already we are talking about another Vigil.  Are you interested ?

Released: An Arrest Reflection

Released: An Arrest Reflection

The discussion about the Ark.

On Monday 7th October 2019, a grey Monday in London, at 16.16 in the afternoon I was arrested. I did not expect to be arrested so early in the Extinction Rebellion protest. I had only arrived in London a few hours earlier and was still trying to meet up with my Christian Climate Action support group. I had just spent time on Lambeth bridge, aka the Faith Bridge, listening to talks, singing, and praying. I had responded to the Muslim call to prayer there by bowing my head and touching the tarmac three times. The police were not allowing people to pass over the Lambeth Bridge so I had to take a detour via Westminster bridge to get to the other side.  There I found a large group of people filling the junction at the end of the bridge, with stalls, gazebos, prayer flags, banners, a food stall, music, etc. As I walked around, it was good to see Kate, URC minister from Wythenshawe, whom I had met on the training just a few weeks previously. 

There was a large number of people gathered around something on the ground. This was Noah’s Ark ! An Anglican priest and a group of Jews from XR were talking to the Police, who were trying to remove it section by section. I felt strongly that this symbol of rescue and promise, shared by the 3 Abrahamic faiths, should not be removed to a police compound ! I sat down in the Ark and then very quickly a police officer came along and said please move sir or you’ll be under arrest. My courage evaporated ! I moved away from the Ark and headed away from the police line.  Then very quickly I saw priest sitting on the road and went and sat next to her. A retired priest came and sat next to us briefly and he said “Anything to get out of a PCC meeting then?”. We laughed. I asked if he would pray for us, which he did, clasping our hands together as he prayed. Then I knew that this was the right time to be arrested. Within moments 2 Police officers came to up to me and issued their warning, finishing with the words “do you understand?” Absurdly I said “no comment”. I was arrested, picked up under the arms and dragged away. Then followed several hours sitting on the pavement watched over by my arresting officer Sophie. Sitting between fellow Reverend rebels Hilary Bond and Helen Burnett was a blessing - as we could support each other. There was lots of good conversation between us and with the Police, before we were taken to Croydon Custody Suite.

Released with Revs Helen and Hilary

Because of the large number of rebels, we had several hours sitting on the floor waiting to be processed. This was a very special time of communion with some very wonderful people with a deep love for the earth. Talking to these people was so humbling. Fortunately the police allowed us some flexibility and we were allowed to share our biscuits and chocolates.  We exchanged stories and shared experiences, We agreed we were in a sacred space and that the word sacred has its etymology in the idea of sacrifice.

I spent 17 hours in custody and 10 hours in a prison cell.  There were a few moments when I felt a little stir crazy but the overall experience (as XR’s Roger Hallam has said) was like that of a retreat house.  I rested, read and prayed in my cell. I was so privileged to be able to make this small sacrifice, in the hope that we get government to tell the truth, carbon reduced and involve the citizens in working out a way forward. Others have had tougher experiences in the second week of the rebellion, and I pray that they can now have a period of rest and regeneration. 

My 20 years of ordained ministry have had highs and lows. Being part of the Christian Climate Action and the XR community is a definite peak. I was (physically) arrested but in a deeper reality, released, liberated, reminded of the power of love. And not my love or bravery, but that of the one God, whose spirit can do marvellous things. In London, we encouraged each other to act together in hope rather than become dispirited in isolation. I have met some amazing people motivated by deep love working together in common cause for creation Thank you to all in CCA and XR for your training, guiding, organising, promoting, facilitating, feeding, creating artwork etc.

Back in the parish I have been amazed by the positive reaction to my arrest. I have only had one negative email, far outweighed by the affirmations. Even the negative comments are an opportunity for conversation, and It is now much easier to talk about climate change and I plan to get around to talk to wider Rochdale society about what I did and why. There’s still much more to think and pray about. 

Get Ready ! Prepare ye

Are you ready for the festivities ?!

I have been taken this year with the adverts for sparkling jewellery. Swaroski. Should I shouldn’t I ?  All the advertising is playing on our anxieties about getting everything ready for Christmas. We don’t want to let anyone down, it has to be a perfect Christmas.

Be prepared. Fill up the fridge, buy all the shopping, ….surprise, delight your guests. (Perhaps at the back of our minds there’s compete too…)

So much of our economy runs on exploiting anxiety. Marketing creating needs that we can only satisfy by buying something. We know it’s wrong, and we know it doesn’t really brings happiness, but we do it anyway.

Unlike commercial Christmas froth Advent is a time of preparation for something profound. But what are we going to get ready for? How do we get ready for Christmas, for the arrival of the baby Jesus?

Each year we re-enact the drama. We pretend Jesus hasn’t arrived. It’s a very good practice because it means we have to refresh and renew ourselves. Jesus has come, this is historical and cosmic reality, he has been born in our midst, but we hope for more, we await his coming amongst us again. We have the perfect gift, but we look to the Lord God to save us.

I have been hearing in my head recently that’s opening song from Godspell. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

It speaks to me on several levels; personally, as a church and as a society.

I had the privilege of going on retreat with some people from this benefice (Christ Church Healey and All Saints) on Thursday. I got away from the busyness, the expectations, the church duties. I spent some time in silence. We looked at at the nativity story and let it talk to us. We used our imagination.  I think we each found that when we paused,… God spoke to us. This was an attempt at getting ready. It helped.

The trouble with our economy and social world we create to sustain it, is that it seems design to stop us from looking deeper, searching for the more important things. We have to break free and get ready, get prepared, get to a new level.

You don’t need to go away on retreat this week. Not everyone can manage that. However we can put ourselves in a place of silence, of openness to His coming, of repentance from all that diminishes the divine in us. We can be ready. And Gloriously, you can do this with no money, no shopping required.

We can hear the call of John the Baptist. His message was radical, and called people back to the important things. Turn back he said. Excessive consumerism wasn’t a big problem in his time, but I’m sure he would have spoken out against it ! A few locusts and some honey was all he sought. Jesus signed up to his movement by being baptised by him. He and many others were baptised in the river Jordan. But John pointed to the one who was to more than take over the mantle. Jesus

The second track of Godspell is called Save the People.

It’s written by Ebenezer Elliott who was one of the leaders of the Chartist movement in England, 1781–1849; known as the “Poet of the People,” and by his enemies as the “Corn-law Rhymer”)

WHEN wilt thou save the people?   O God of mercy! when? Not kings and lords, but nations!   Not thrones and crowns, but men! Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they!         5 Let them not pass, like weeds, away! Their heritage a sunless day!              God save the people! Shall crime bring crime for ever,   Strength aiding still the strong?         10 Is it thy will, O Father!   That man shall toil for wrong? “No!” say thy mountains; “No!” thy skies; “Man’s clouded sun shall brightly rise, And songs be heard instead of sighs.”         15              God save the people! When wilt thou save the people?   O God of mercy! when? The people, Lord! the people!   Not thrones and crowns, but men!         20 God save the people! thine they are; Thy children, as thy angels fair; Save them from bondage and despair!              God save the people!

A strong message, cloaked somewhat. A yearning for God to act, a prophetic voice, a yearning for a better world.

Solving the problems of an unjust society and damage to the planet begins with each of us doing some spiritual work. It is amazing to think that the future well-being of people and planet depends on us. (We don’t need to be terrified by this – we are not alone, we have the Holy Spirit). This doesn’t need effort or great holiness, rather a letting go and stopping.

So the first two tracks of this perhaps dated Album have given me a nudge – prepare inside and yearn for a better society.

So I Have been trying to pray through the news. Today I see that our MP Tony Lloyd is in Bangladesh supporting the needs of the Rohingya I hear…

Don’t write Christmas off as some do – as too materialistic, too empty.

I love the exchange of gifts. These can be precious tokens of love and affection, acknowledging our relationships and connections. As you may know, It all began with Saint Nicholas that wonderful Saint, from Myra in Turkey, Patron Saint of Russia. He cared for the poor and the outcast. One of the many stories about him was that when two girls lost their parents and were at risk of being drawn into prostitution because of poverty, he got the money to get them dowries. He saved them. Thus for our good Saint Nicholas encouraging the giving of gifts to the poor children was a way of caring for the poor.

We still give gifts – but has good saint Nicholas become a Bad Santa. Is Saint Nicholas losing the battle to Santa Claus (we have lost the Nic) ?

The good news is that this season, this time of year, can be filled with hope and joy. It is not irredeemable ! We can write our own new song for Godspell

Here’s my own thoughts for an advent song of hope. Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) will be to put it into words and perhaps music.. !

As John joined Jesus movement, so can we. We have been baptised into his new community, a world-wide church that lives for his mercy, his justice, his peace. As we recommit to day in this worship, we renew our commitment this kingdom

We are in Jesus’ cosmic time. The new testament reading tells us that one day is like a thousand years. We yearn for a new heaven and a new earth, and we need it, but it is here. We yearn for him to come, but he has come, and will come again.

When we follow him, here in cold Healey, he comes again

When we comfort his people (as Isaiah has God tell us) we find him alongside us.

Because what we have and what we yearn for is #Godwithus

(Follow the hashtag on Twitter if you can)

Our song this advent can be a song of yearning, a song of sorrow at injustice, but it must also be a song of hope. The messenger will come, has come, will come again.

We must stop telling ourselves lies about the world, we must seek the truth, we must make space for some depth, an encounter with pure truth and love born among us. But we must get ourselves ready, hungry even, for it. 

From 2 Peter:

Therefore beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without blemish or spot and regard the patience of the Lord as salvation.

Nicholas - Bishop at Myra

What are people like ?

Some are saints, some are sinners...you may say. Perhaps in the current age we would say : “Some are celebrities, some are scroungers”

We do have a way - don't we - of putting things into binaries, black and white, yes and no, good and bad, this and that. It works for computer code but I don't know if it works for human beings made in the image of God.....

Perhaps now more than in previous ages and certainly since the economics of the Thatcher era arrived, the neoliberal economics that makes the market its God, we have so many stories that make people other than ourselves...and so make it possible to cut their wages, to implement austerity.

We have heard the stories about those who are poor and how they are to blame for their property because of the lack of initiative, laziness, fecklessness etc.  In today’s Rochdale Observer the story about poor children not being ready for primary school can be told to us as poor parenting causing the problem. We know now how to respond to these stories - we blame rather than feel compassion or work for change.

We have seen the way some people talk about the homeless people we welcome into our churches.

Saint Nicholas, who we celebrate today did not condemn but reached out in love to the vulnerable. He was a fourth century Bishop of Myra in Asia minor which was in southern Turkey. He had a reputation for working wonders and he is known by many stories and legends. And they can't all be factual but perhaps all are true ! Many of these tell of his concern and love and care for children, how he fed the hungry, healed the sick and cared for the oppressed.  There is a particular story where he saved three girls from a life of prostitution by providing them with dowries and so developed the tradition of bearing gifts to children on his feast day.

This of course is the practice appropriated by our Christmas celebrations.  Nicholas is also one of the patron saints of Russia.

What was Nicholas like ? We call him a Saint and we can see that his sainthood is revealed in his life. He was motivated by love. Not by the way of talking about the world which has us put people in boxes where they are other than us. In the kingdom of God there is no such thing as celebrity or scrounger .....

This time last week at a tribunal we put our way of talking about God into action as we stood alongside a member of our worshipping community who was brought up before the Home Office accused of not being a “proper” Christian. We do not believe that and we stood together and spoke of her faith.

But deeper than the legal case was the human case. We believe that everyone who comes through that church door is a child of God, whatever their faith, whatever their nationality and economic status, they are made in God's image and we are welcoming Jesus when we welcome them.

This week a woman from Tunisia turned up at my door. She had two children and had a thousand questions about where to get help and support in Rochdale. So I brought her down to the Red Cross.

So welcoming newcomers to the town and to our worship is just one way we enact the Christian story. There are no Iranians or Aghani. No alleged celebrity or scrounger. All are precious.

Like Jesus we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah, quoted in today's scripture: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, he sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the Brokenhearted, to proclaim Liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners."

Because like Nicholas we welcome the little children, and the vulnerable

As the shops prepare to go mad with a material Christmas, we commit to the ways of love and care, of justice and mercy. When we think of gifts let's think of Nicholas gift of the dowries.

Let us learn from the vulnerable, hear their stories, and build a world they can live in

Jesus said: let the little children come to me do not stop them for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

Mark Coleman

Inspired by Molesworth and Cardijn

I had half an hour spare in Rochdale Town Centre yesterday and so I dropped into Touchstones local history library. The very helpful librarians gave me a folder on "the Parish Church" and so I skimmed some pamphlets of Dr Molesworth's sermons.

I was very struck in reading about this Vicar of Rochdale that the parishioners wanted him to publish his sermons. So much so that 15 of them, all men, including one Churchwarden, had written him a letter on 10th December 1849 demanding that he publish his sermon from the 2nd Sunday of Advent. This sermon, the letter tells us would "dispel some of the fallacies" around and that "it was an excellent exposition" of the task of the Church in "holy education."

Rather than talk about the disputes and contentions that gave rise to this letter, I want to reflect on communication. Dr Molesworth published a number of pamphlets in his time. There was one reflecting on the salvation of a Rochdale horse stealer who had been executed in London.

My question is how do we encourage each other to reflect on the world we are in, so that we can better live as Christians in it. Reading pamphlets was a good way in the mid 19th Century. Reading is a spur to deeper thought.  In every time Christian writers tussle with the issues of the day and write to encourage the faithful. For example, my colleague Amy writes a very good blog. Each week new Christian books are published.

How do we live as Christians in 2017 ? What helps us "practice" the faith ? When we gather for holy communion we stop our busy lives, and look at the world around us. We open our hearts and minds to our Father in heaven, and pray. I hope it helps.

Reading about that previous Vicar of Rochdale reminded me of a a priest from a different age and indeed Church who developed a good way of helping people engage with the issues of his time. He was Joseph Cardijn.

Joseph Leo Cardijn (13 November 1882 – 24 July 1967) was a Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal and the founder of the Young Christian Workers

See-Judge-Act is a pastoral method which grew out of his work as a Roman Catholic Priest, with Young Christian Workers in the 1940s. (NB thanks to Paul Skirrow for this summary)

In Cardijn's work, the young people were talking about their life issues in the factories of the day. In general terms they had many difficulties in their working lives. For example, one complaint was that the factories were dangerous. Cardijn told the workers to come back to him with a clearer description of what they could "See". To be more specific about what the problems were.

They would come back with their stories: the safety guard is left off to speed things up; the ventilation is inadequate and fumes build up; and so on.
On the basis of their stories Cardijn sat down to "Judge" with them why this was and who was responsible. They could then decide on the best way to "Act" to remedy the problem.

So the method is very simple -
See: look carefully at the world around you, the context you are in and the things which are going on there; Judge: think carefully about what you see and whether it measures up to the values you hold onto as a Christian; and Act; do something about it!


SJA groups can meet anywhere - churches, community centres, homes.

This method from the 20th century challenges us. How do we see in our time, do we hesitate at the judging, and do we act....

It continues today as the Young Christian Workers - indeed there is a special mass this week in Salford.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By the way, there are some useful historical resources about the Church in Rochdale now available on the Link 4 Life web site.