Flood Heroes

Please all take extra special care in this rain. I hope that no one will have to be a hero, but BBC Radio York have just issued this:

BBC RADIO YORK FLOOD HERO AWARDS 2012
How to nominate a hero or heroine

During the floods which hit York and North Yorkshire in late September 2012, listeners told BBC Radio York about the wonderful people who went the extra mile to help them.

The BBC Radio York Flood Hero Awards give a chance to celebrate those special people in our communities, whether they’re individuals or teams.

We want to hear about the good work people did – maybe you met a person, a group or a team who went above and beyond what was expected at that time of crisis.

We also want your nominations for brave animals affected by the floods in York and North Yorkshire – what did they endure and what made them special?

Panels of judges will choose the human winners in nine categories, and shortlist the bravest animal which will be put to a text vote.

We are looking for nominations in the following categories, and you can send your entries by emailor by post. Entries close at 11.59pm on Sunday 2nd December 2012, and the Awards will be given in March 2013.
What you need to tell us

Tell us YOUR name, postal address, email address and your daytime contact phone number.

In no more than 200 words tell us why the individual or team deserves special recognition for helping during the floods in York and North Yorkshire.

If your nominee is an individual, don’t forget to tell us his or her name and how to contact – eg address or workplace, if relevant.

If your nominee is in a group or team, don’t forget to tell us the name of the team or organisation, and how to contact them – eg workplace address.

If your nominee is younger than 16 years old you will need to provide evidence of their parent/guardian consent.

The actions for which the nomination is being made must have occurred between 24th and 30th September 2012.
BBC Radio York will be covering some of the stories sent in while the nomination period is open.

Qualifying period and geographical area

The good deed must have happened between 24th and 30th September 2012, within the boundaries of the City of York and the County of North Yorkshire. 2

Flood Hero Awards Categories

 Most Helpful Individual

(the helpful act occurred within the York and North Yorkshire geographical area)

 Most Helpful Team
(the helpful act occurred within the York and North Yorkshire geographical area)

 Most Helpful Hambleton District Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the Hambleton District Council geographical area)

 Most Helpful Richmondshire District Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the Richmondshire District Council geographical area)

 Most Helpful Harrogate Borough Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the Harrogate Borough Council geographical area)

 Most Helpful City of York Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the City of York Council geographical area)

 Most Helpful Selby District Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the Selby District Council geographical area)

 Most Helpful Emergency Services Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the York and North Yorkshire geographical area)

 Most Helpful Emergency Planning Individual or Team
(the helpful act occurred within the York and North Yorkshire geographical area)

 Bravest Animal
(the animal resided within the York and North Yorkshire geographical area)

Nominations close

The deadline for nominations is 11.59pm on Sunday 2nd December 2012.
Where to send your nominations

 By post: BBC Radio York Flood Hero Awards 2012, 20 Bootham Row, York, YO30 7BR.
 By email: floodheroawards@bbc.co.uk

Data Protection

The BBC will only use your personal details for the purposes of administering this award, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone not connected with the award without your permission. Your details, and those of your nominee, may be used by a researcher before awards are given, to highlight interesting stories from the floods. You will be contacted by a producer if we wish to feature you and your nominee in this way. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information.

'A Poor Do,' my Grandfather Would Have Said

Over thirty years ago now, my introduction to nursing was as a nursing auxilliary on a psycho-geriatric ward. We used to work 13 hour night shifts and I grew to love the patients - we spent more time with them than with our own families. Many were such characters that I remember them to this day. There was one who had owned a pub and who used to call 'time gentlemen please' whenever he wanted to get rid of unwelcome nurses or visitors at his bedside. Then there was one who had fled from Russia in the wake of the 1917 revolution and who used to enthrall us with tales of life in St Petersburg - some of which, I suspect, were grossly exaggerated but nevertheless gave a wonderful flavour of a long-lost culture. Many of our patients had physical and mental frailties that they coped with bravely - more bravely than I think I could. Some hardly ever had visitors.

I think the saddest article I have read this week (in The Times) was one that drew attention to the fact that many over 75's in Britain say they feel intensely lonely. Jeremy Hunt, the health minister, has launched a project to help councils, health services and social care agencies map isolation among the very elderly and  improve services so that people do not suffer from 'social disconnection' - a rather grand title for feeling abandoned and very lonely.

It is often said that you can judge how civilized a society is by its attitude to its oldest members. While I am sure that the majority of people respect and love their older relatives and friends, do we in fact do enough for them in our ever busier lives? What most older people need is time. Even carers now have such tight schedules that it is difficult for them to spend time 'just talking'. Apparently more than half of those over 75 live alone and about a tenth of them report very profound levels of isolation. One in five have contact with family or neighbours less than once a week. Loneliness effects a person's physical as well as mental health and the research suggests that not having any company can lead to higher levels of heart disease, stroke and dementia. It also leads to loss of confidence so that a person can spiral into a state of mind where they just can't motivate themselves to go out and meet people.

The article, by Rosemary Bennett, the Times' Social Affairs Correspondent, with its picture of an elderly lady looking absolutely desolate, frankly made me feel like crying. I can't imagine many things worse than simply not having anyone to go to with your problems and successes, no one to off-load to after an upsetting experience, no one to laugh with or to make you feel that you are understood and appreciated. One elderly person I talked to recently said how difficult she found clinic appointments. She would look forward to having a morning out with people to talk to but then find that although she was asked a lot of questions she came away feeling that there had been no real two-way comminucation which made her feel even more alone. 

What can we do? I know that many churches have teas and events for older people. One church runs 'holidays at home' for people who need a summer holiday but can't go very far. I know that here in my own village, people do look out for neighbours who live alone or need help. Apparently there is now a Campaign to End Loneliness and it is good that the government is drawing attention to the problem. However, I suspect the real answer is that we need to reveiw our attitude to older people. They are the members of our society who have the long-term narrative, they are often the ones who have learned to live with paradox and disappointment and yet somehow make sense of life. They have a perspective we can ill afford to ignore. Time spent with an older person is probably one of the most important things you can do. And even when communication may be difficult because of deafness or confusion it still matters that the gift of time has been given. 

When Winston Churchill had his 75th birthday a photographer said to him, 'Sir, I hope that I will also take your picture on your 100th birthday.' Churchill answered, 'I don't see why you shouldn't, young man. You look reasonably fit and healthy!'  Many of us are living into our 90's and 100's these days. The final 25 years of life should not be lived in loneliness. These years can be a time to cultivate a sense of fun and, in the best possible way, to help others not to take themselves too seriously! They can be a time to share wisdom and memories and to make new friends too. We had a lady in my last parish who, at 92, used to tell catarpillar jokes and play the mouth organ at church events. The children absolutely loved her. Another lady used to come to everything and just sit and smile at everybody. She never said much, even in a discussion group, but everybody missed her when she wasn't there.

If you want to do something to help (or do it through your church) or if you are feeling lonely, visit

http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org.uk

Or speak to your local Vicar or minister - lurk at the church door or give them a call.

Latest on Ash Dieback Disease

The Forestry Commission has issued some useful information about Ash Dieback Disease (Chalaria Fraxinea) which may be of help to those of you who manage churchyards. The disease has so far mainly been reported in urban areas, parks and gardens not hasd yet been widely identified in the natural environment in Britain and so it is really important that we keep a watch out for any signs of it in our churchyards and take the appropriate action. You should report any suspected cases to

The Forestry Commission Research Disease Diagnostic Advisory Service 01420 23000 ddas.ah@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Ash Dieback Disease is caused by a fungus. The symptoms are leaf loss and obvious crown dieback and the disease will probably lead to the death of a tree. The features to watch out for are wilting and blackish-brown discolouration of the leaves, small lens-shaped legions or necrotic spots on the bark which enlarge to form canckers and then the wilting and death of shoots and branches, especially in the upper crown of the tree. The disease is probably spread by insects, rain splash and by the movement of leaves, twigs and branches from diseased trees. Frost can cause some of the same early stage symptoms.

Ash is a prevelant species in the broadleaf woodlands of the the limestone upalnds in the Yorkshire Dales, so we should be extra vigilant in order to try to stop it spreading. If you have ash trees in your churchyard, please inspect them regularly and please clean boots, equipment and tyres that have been in the churchyard well. It is recommended that you do not take equipment used in one place where there are ash trees into another woodland within 24 hours. You should also clean dogs who have walked near ash trees carefully.

There is information at

www.forestry.gov.uk/planthealth (put ash dieback into the search box)

www.defra.gov.uk/fera/plants/planthealth (put 'ash dieback' into the search box)

Our Diocescan Property Office has issued the following advice:
 

What should we do about Ash Dieback Disease?

If you find signs of the disease please take photographs and contact the Property Team at the Diocesan Office immediately (0113 2000 549).

 If you find no signs of infection this does not mean that your trees will remain

unaffected in the long term. Monthly inspections are recommended until further
guidance is received from the government.

Water, Water Everywhere

The water meadows between Hutton Conyers
 and Nunwick at lunch time today

As the floods subside a little in the upper Dales our thoughts are with the people of Boroughbridge, York and Durham as the water rushes seawards tonight. Our sympathy and prayers are also with everyone who has suffered flooding in Teesdale, Swaledale, Wensleydale, Nidderdale, Wharfedale, at Catterick and all over the area yesterday and today - farmers, homeowners and businesses.

A Payer as Night Falls

 

As the water gathers force and travels with awesome speed,

Be swift to protect life and limb, O Lord.

As the water engulfs, unwelcomed, our land and dwellings,

Invade our hearts and spirits to keep us uplifted.

Shaken, yet hopeful, may we know there is an end

To flooding and a new beginning as the torrent subsides.

Emerging in the cold silence that follows the spate

May we see not just devastation, silt and tears,

But courage, resourcefulness and true grit.

Grant us to know, in full measure, pressed down

 And running over, Your sustaining, warming presence

This night, in the morning, at noon and always.

Amen.

 

You can follow the expected progress of the flood water on the Environmental Agency's website. The graphs for each river give the anticipated height of the water at specific times throughout the next 12 hours.

 

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/default.aspx 

 



Chancel Repair Liability

Some of you may have seen the article in the Telegraph (July 2012) about Chancel Repair Liability. I have received a number of enquiries as a result and so I thought it would be helpful to clarify the situation.

What is Chancel Repair Liability?

 Many churches which were built before 1850 have Lay Rectors who, for historic reasons, have some liability, acquired through ownership of land and enforceable in law, for the financial burden of repairing the chancel of the parish church.

 All such land-based liability must be registered by 12th October 2013 at H.M. Land Registry. If the liability is not registered, it will lapse when the land next changes hands. Should PCCs fail to register such a liability, it could be argued that they have failed in their duty to manage their assets according to the guidance set out by the Charity Commissioners. This might adversely affect a PCC's ability successfully to attract grant aid in the future. It is essential that all PCCs with buildings dating from before 1850 check to see if there are any Chancel Repair Liabilities on their church’s chancel. If your PCC has not yet done so, it should  check now, in good time before October 2013.  Note that the reigstration is 12th October not 31st!

 Chancel Repair Liability will be recorded in one or more of the following places

·        Your church’s Terrier

·        The local Records Office

·        The National Archives at Kew in a document called the Tithe Redemption Commission Record of Ascertainments (1936) index no. IR104/107-8

·        The Diocesan Registry

 

Some Chancel Repair Liabilities are individually held by Lay Rectors. Others are corporately held (eg. in the case of the Church Commissioners, a college or a cathedral.) Once you have identified the existence of a lay rector(s) or a corporate liability, the PCC should discuss the line of action to be taken. Most of the publicity that has arisen has been around the liability of individuals who do not have the means to fulfil their responsibility under law. Such cases give rise to moral and pastoral dilemmas for PCCs.  Legal advice should be sought in all such cases. It is essential that all PCC discussions of Chancel Repair Liability and any resolutions be fully recorded in the PCC minutes. In most cases, discovery of Chancel Repair Liability will lead to registration at the Land Registry.

More information can be found at

 Church of England FAQ’s on Chancel Repair Liability

www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/churchlawlegis/guidance  

 

The National Archives Website (for £135 they will search their records for PCC's)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  (type chancel repair liability into their search box)

The address of the National Archive is

The National Archive,

Kew,
Richmond,
Surrey
TW9 4DU

 Tel. 02088763444

Postscript; Simon Martin of the Arthur Rank Centre has sent in another two very helpful links to advice on the Arthur Rank Centre Site, though I must stress this is not only an issue for rural churches! http://bit.ly/PBN52S

http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications-and-resources/rural-church-buildings 

  

Atgofion am Aberfan; Memories

There can't be anyone who lived in South Wales who does not remember what they were doing on 21st October 1966 as vividly as they recall 9/11. I was sitting in our kitchen, off school for half term, with my mother. She put the radio on.  We couldn't quite take in what we were hearing. We were used to mining disasters in those days. Scarcely a year would pass without news of men being trapped underground and the ensuing days of worry as their colleagues worked to get them to the surface. But what we heard that day was on a different scale. I can remember wondering why there were tears in my mother's eyes; she hardly ever cried. Over the next few days, it became apparent that a slag heap had slid down the mountain at Aberfan near Merthyr Tydfil engulfing houses, a railway embankment and Pantglas Junior School and stopping just short of a second school. This had happened at 9.15 in the morning just after the children had begun their last school day before half term with an assembley. 144 people lost their lives including 116 children aged from 3 months to 14. It was a foggy day in the village and no-one saw the tip slide but everyone recalled the tremendous, eerie rumbling sound. The tipping gang further up the mountain, where the early morning mist had cleared, reported seeing the start of the slide but it all happened so quickly that there was no chance to raise the alarm or give a warning. 

Yesterday the Queen unveiled a plaque to open the new Ynysowen Primary School in Aberfan - a celebration of the life and resilience of the village, but with a sober reminder of those days 50 years ago when the coal industry regularly claimed the life of its workers and affected the health and safety of whole communities. I recently visited the Vale of Neath where I was born and was forcibly struck by the lack of much visual evidence that mining had ever taken place there. Where the slag heaps were once evident, there are green forests and, where the roads and buildings were once grimey and grey, there is a spacious and light feel to the valley. Communities have moved on and the landscape has regained much of its former beauty, but I found myself wondering whether we sometimes wipe out the past too completely and too quickly. It is natural and healthy to remember and to want to understand where we have come from and what has shaped our communities and the identity of our parents and grandparents. 

The Queen has kept faith with the people of Aberfan, visiting four times in the years between 1966 and today. I, too, want to retain that sense of keeping faith with an event that influenced my childhood profoundly and that totally and irrevocably changed the lives of people we knew. Yes, we need to move on, to create a life which does not depend on work that leads to ill health, disaster and loss of life, but we also need to remember the close-knit streets of the mining communities where a child growing up was conscious of being part of a great industrial inheritance and where, that day in 1966, 116 children and their families looked forward, as they began their day, to a future that they would never see.    

Street games, Neath, 1964

Report on Tuesday's Westminster Hall Debate

Last Tuesday MPs debated 'Women Bishops; the Church of England and Exemption from the Sex Discrimination Legislation'. The following report came through today from Hilary Cotton who attended.

'All MPs present were in support of the CofE having women bishops and urged the Church to 'get on with it'. This included MPs from all three major parties, the most urgent pleas coming from male MPs.

The debate can be read in Hansard at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201212/cmhansrd/cm120228/halltext/120228h0001.htm#12022847000001

Three significant points were:

1. The warnings given by a number of MPs to the House of Bishops not to amend the Measure or otherwise frustrate the clearly expressed wish of the dioceses that this draft Measure goes forward to Synod for approval in July.

 2. The message from Tony Baldry MP, 2nd Church Estates Commissioner and an ex officio lay member of General Synod, to all members of General Synod about the final approval vote:

"When we come to the Church of England’s General Synod in July, I very much hope that even those who have been opposed to women becoming bishops will recognise the overwhelming support within the Church of England for the Measure to go forward. In fact, if 42 outof 44 dioceses have voted in favour of women becoming bishops, it would look very perverse—indeed, it would look ridiculous—if the General Synod in July was to use its convoluted voting mechanisms not to allow that Measure to move forward. Between now and July, I hope that everyone will search their soul and I also hope that, if people are opposed to the Measure, they will recognise that there comes a point when it is necessary to acknowledge that, in the interests and well-being of the Church of England, the Measure must make progress. 

We have always wished to continue to be a broad Church, maintaining space for all those who wish to remain within the Church of England. However, there must be a recognition that this issue has been deliberated for a long time and that it has been considered carefully, with everyone in the Church of England having had the opportunity to make a thoughtful and deliberative contribution to the debate, and that—as demonstrated by the votes in the dioceses during the last year—the views of the members of the Church of England are very clear."

 3. The fact that the 2^nd Church Estates Commissioner has already paved the way in the Parliamentary timetable for Parliament to get the Measure approved by the end of this year, giving General Synod the opportunity to complete the legislative process early in 2013.'

I was also very struck by these words of one of our Yorkshire MPs, Diana Johnson (kingston Upon Hull North, Labour)


'When I looked at this issue, I was struck by the fact that women have actively engaged with the bishops in the discussions that have been held so far. In June 2008, senior lay and clergywomen attended a meeting of the College of Bishops to discuss proposals for women bishops. Since then, no women have been part of the discussions in the House of Bishops. It is inconceivable to anyone engaged in equality and diversity work in other contexts that the Church would make the decision about consecrating women as bishops without seriously engaging during this last phase with those who will be most directly affected by that decision.'

60 Years of Faithful Service

Today and tomorrow, we mark the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne. Like the majority of her subjects, I cannot remember a time when she was not our Queen. Her reign began five years before I was born; I recall stories my parents told about how they heard of her unexpected accession on the BBC while living and working in Koforidua in Ghana and then followed the preparations for her coronation through BBC radio broadcasts and magazines sent to them by relatives and friends in the UK. It felt like the dawn of a new era with so much promise. Today, we give thanks for Her Majesty's example of faithfulness in carrying out the role to which she is called both as monarch and as Governor of the Church of England. In a speech during the millennium year, she said,

'To many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example.'

God of time and eternity,

whose Son reigns as servant, not master;

we give you thanks and praise

 that you have blessed this nation, the realms and territories

with Elizabeth our beloved and glorious Queen.

In this year of Jubilee,

grant her your gifts of love and peace

as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God,

and in devoted service to her lands and peoples and those of the Commonwealth

 now and all the days of her life,

through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 Amen.

This prayer was written at The Queen's Direction by the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral for Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee. It will be used in the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday, June 5th. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have commended it for use throughout the Church of England and other Churches are also welcome to use it.

Published alongside other new prayers for adults and children, and liturgical resources for use in the Church of England during Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee year, the new prayer is available online on the Church of England's Diamond Jubilee web pages where you can find more information about how the Church of England is encouraging parishes and communities to join in with the celebrations through the Big Lunch and Big Thank You initiatives.

Prime Minister Praises Biblical Values

So the Prime Minister likes the resonances of the King James bible and believes that values that come from the bible should shape our society! Christians should hold their heads up high, be confident and contribute to public life. David Cameron was speaking at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford as part of the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the King James bible.

Well, it was an interesting and perhaps unexpected speech. It was refreshing to hear a senior politician acknowledge the central place that religion has had and still has in shaping the moral landscape we inhabit. Secular neutrality and the pretence that religion can simply be assigned to the private sphere don't measure up - they collude to tell a story about society that is untrue and misleading. Mr Cameron clearly sees crises like the recent riots in London and other cities, the MPs' expenses scandal and the collapse of parts of the banking system as symptomatic of the growing absence of a commonly accepted moral code or any sense of accountability based on coherent moral principles. And he seems inclined to look to the Church of England as well as other faith communities for help to find a set of values which will restore Britain to 'a nation whose ideals are founded on the bible' to quote Margaret Thatcher. He challenged the Church of England to be more vocal and also to be sure that it speaks to and for the whole country (he had a little go at us for our non-inclusivity) and even went as far as to say that 'the values we draw from the bible go to the heart of what it means to belong in this country.'

What are these values? According to Mr Cameron they include responsibility, hard work, charity, compassion, humility, self sacrifice, love and pride in working for the common good and honouring the social obligations we have to one another and to our families and our communities. In many ways commendable, but not all values I necessarily think come straight from the bible - or at least they don't necessarily pick up on the rich complexity of biblical morality or the priorities we find in scripture. Love, compassion, humility, self sacrifice, yes, but what about care for the marginalised, the call to care for those beyond our families, sometimes even at cost to our families, radical forgiveness of an enemy and prophetic challenge to institutions? These themes take up a large chunk of scripture. And I'm not sure I recognize pride in anything, even working for the common good if you can identify it, as a biblical value. The trouble with Mr Cameron's approach to Christianity or more specifically the bible is that it rather sounds as though he has made up his mind about what he means by proper ethical values and then looked at the biblical text to find support for them. It's a bit fuzzy about the actual content of the bible.

Now don't get me wrong. I am delighted that our Prime Minister took the opportunity to articulate what he personally finds relevant in the Christian tradition.  And perhaps especially delighted that he acknowledged a place for faith perspectives in public debate and in the ordering of the life of our country. But I think his speech showed him falling into the same trap that so many people who say 'we should get back to Christian morals' fall into. 

You can't have Christianity or a biblically shaped view of morality without the content, the commitment and the disciplines of the tradition. I would go so far as to say that I think religion can be quite damaging when we just pick the bits from tradition or scripture that support the beliefs we have anyway or would like to have. Because then we are taking fallible human wisdom and calling it the wisdom of God, investing it with a power that it has no business to have... and we all know where that can get us. People of all faiths know this. Secularists and religious dabblers usually overlook it. 

The hard fact is that the secular agenda has now taken the people of Britain so far from any serious engagement with the Christian tradition that most people really do not know what the content of the Christain faith is or what moral demands and disciplines the scriptures make. And of course these are very complex, can be apparently internally contradictory and are open to diverse interpretations. Perhaps most seriously, many people entirely miss the fact that at the heart of Christianity is a profound relationship with God, not a set of moral imperatives. The moral codes of religion that politicians so much like to talk about really don't work and can become ugly tools unless they arise out of a relationship grounded in worship and a sense of awe about who God is.

Perhaps I can put it like this - you wouldn't join a political party or a sporting or artisitc movement unless you were going to find out what the underlying principles and activites were and practice them until you were familiar with them! At least, if you did , you would probably acknowledge that your membership would not have very much meaning. So-called Christian morality only gives value in society when it is practised in a disciplined way by people of faith. We can  no more wake up one morning and decide to put society right by adopting some parts of 5,000 year old scriptures (written in languages and for a culture that we do not readily understand) than we can put society right by becoming Marxists or Keynesians and not reading Marx or Keynes. Christian morality comes of a steady, profound, lifelong engagement with all that the Christian tradition has to show and teach. It demands willingness to worship and pray, to wrestle with doubt and complexity and to be continually changed by what is grasped. So, while I partially welcome the Prime Minster's speech, I do so with some reservations. If Christianity is going to have an impact on future society in the way he suggests, two things are needed. Firstly, people who are willing to engage with the content of Christian faith rather than simply to use the Christian faith to justify the way we live anyway. (And this takes time and real commitment and immersion in the tradition.) And secondly, a relationship between people of faith and secular society that fosters two-way respect. People of faith must show that they can be trusted, that they try to live according to their beliefs especially concerning love, care for neighbour and forgiveness, and that they have the welfare of those who do not share their faith at heart. Secularists should have a care not to cariacature people of faith but to discover where they have values and ways of working in common with those who live by belief in God and transcendence.    
     

Motivation and Ambition in Business

It is crucial to affirm the positive role of business in God's purposes and to think about the application of Christian faith and values in business' The Revd Dr Richard Higginson

The Diocese of Ripon and Leeds has been undertaking an exercise called 'Ambition for Mission' through which we hope to research and discover more about what makes churches grow and become more effective in their mission, their ability to encourage true discipleship and their ability to get into partnership with community and business organisations in their own locality. My eye was caught by the details of a conference at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, run by the Faith in Business Initiative, which clearly has something to say in this area. The organizers comment that the level of debate about the economic issues underlying the present, perceived national and international financial crisis has been disappointingly low. (This statement is borne out in the remarks of the Archbishop of Canterbury, today, in the Times where he criticises just about everybody from all sides of the debate for over-simplifying the causes of the current financial difficulties.) The aim of the conference is to explore the question of how faith impinges on motivation and ambition. Speakers include

Beverley Shepherd, a mamgement training consultant
Andrew Tunswell, CEO ToughStuff
Graham Codrington, founder TomorrowToday
Jim Wright, consultant Soterio
Harald Holt, chair Noroff AS
Richard Higginson, Director Faith in Business

Topics cover Adventuring with God, Running a Social Enterprise, Motivational Differences, Big Business and the Kingdom of God, Success and Signifiance, Motivation in China.

I have attended some of these Faith in Business conferences myself and the great thing is that I have always come away having met one or two truly inspirational people who have then gone on to affect my life or the life of the churches and organisations I work for in significant ways. I know Cambridge is the deepest south, but it just could be worth the journey...!!!  'A rich diet of inspiring talk and candid sharing lies in store for you. Attending this conference could be a life changing experience.'

If you are in business, are a church or community leader or an entrepreneur, if you care about the ethics behind business and the financial community or the pastoral care of those who work in the financial sector, this could be for you. The conference is at Ridley Hall in Cambridge from 30th March - 1st April (honest!) 2012. Cost £265 or £240 for early bookers.

To book using the secure online system go to

http://www.faith-in-business.org/programme.html

Drive Safe!

The roads of North Yorkshire are said to be some of the most dangerous in the country. I have heard police spokesmen say that the police are more concerned about road safety than about crime levels in the region which are, relatively speaking, low. Last Sunday, I travelled from Ripon to Wetherby on the A1 in fairly thick fog. It was scarey to be passed by vehicles doing easily 100mph while traveling at 50mph in the slow lane. Basically, they were hurtling into the unknown - there could have been anything infront of them including a pile up of vehicles or an unlucky broken-down driver emerging from a car or lorry.  In the summer we also have motor bikes speeding up and down dales, often overtaking round blind bends or in dips. I ended up in a ditch on the way back from Masham a couple of years ago, when an oncoming car emerged from a dip in the road, overtaking a tractor. Farm traffic, horse boxes, cyclists and pedestrians do not stand much chance of avoiding the ill-judged manouvre. When such an accident occurs, the victim's family's life is never the same again, and neither is the life of the person who causes the accident. It all happens in a split second. Clergy hear these stories all the time. 

I was struck, today, by an item on the radio. A school had set up a scheme with the local police. Motorists who were caught speeding past the school were given a choice; they could either take their fine and have the points on their licence, or they could come into the school and meet the children. The children were geared up (apologies for the pun) to explain to the motorists just how their driving habits impacted on the local community in terms of deaths, injuries, fear, noise and inability to be out and about on the streets. Apparently most motorists were embarrassed, moved and even tearful after their encounters with the children. They are likely to remember these encounters long after they have forgotten about the points wiped clean from their licenses.

From long ago, I know someone who was driving, very moderately, at 30mph and who knocked over a child who dashed across the road; not their fault. Because my friend was driving moderately, the child survived but it took my friend a long time to come to terms with what might have been a much, much worse accident. This could happen to any of us. 

It's partly about time, isn't it? Why are we are all so short of time? Why are we so driven? The clergy and readers of this area rush around on Sundays, trying to get from service to service without being late. Sunday is a day when there are always lots of cyclists on the road. Many of my colleagues and I spend our lives rushing from meeting to meeting - and this is as nothing compared to the sales and haulage people who have tight schedules to keep, or the nurses and care workers who have to fit a certain number of calls into an hour. 

I worked in A and E for a while and I have done hundreds of funerals over the years. Friends, it is never worth taking that extra risk to be there on time, if it means potentially endangering others or ourselves. And if we are breaking the law, then we are almost certainly tasking that risk. Be unpopular and be late! Be a nuisance and keep people waiting! Postpone or canel an event if you really can't get there. It might be your life you are saving or it might be somebody else's.  

http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/roadsafety

Olympic Torch

The Olympic Torch will be passing through the archdeaconry on 20th June 2012, the 33rd day of its journey from Land's End to the Olympic Stadium in London. Its route from York to Carlisle lies through Thirsk, North Allerton, Aiskew, Bedale, Aysgarth, Leyburn, Richmond and Barnard Castle. The whole journey takes 70 days, beginning on 19th May and ending, in London, on 27th July.

Nine Eleven

Everyone has their own memories of that beautiful early autumn day ten years ago with a clear blue sky and a smiling sun and the promise of glorious days ahead before the cold weather. I had a student living and working with me in the parish and we were just putting things away after a toddler service in church when one of our regular congregation rushed in and said, 'Go home and put your television on. Something is happening in America.' She couldn't tell us any more.  We rushed home to put the telly on. I remember seeing a plane crash into a building and thinking, 'Ah, wrong channel, it's a film.' So I hopped to another channel and saw the same image. It was at that point we both realised this was seriously not normal. I remember the next few days as a time of confusion with people desperately trying to find out what had happened to friends in the USA - it seemed everyone, including my student, knew someone who might have been in New York - and a time when people came to church in large numbers to express their shock and outrage and sorrow. The church was packed two nights later as we met for prayer and to light candles and remember those who had died. Somehow Vivaldi's Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera  and Barber's Adagio had already become almost synonymous with the event, much as some of Gorecki's music, such as his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, is bound up with the forced migrations across Europe in the 1940's.

People say the world changed. It undoubtedly did for those who were immediately involved and certainly the political scene shifted, but I find myself wondering about how much real change there has been in terms of international relationships and human attitudes. My mother commented that the images from New York gave her the same feeling of total unreality that she had experienced when watching the bombing of London from Greenwich during the second world war. The West had experienced terrorism and terrorist attacks before but what seemed to be new about this was the scale of it and the fact that the USA had been under attack on its own soil and had, for a few brief hours, wondered if it was going to suffer something much worse and much more widespread.

Reflecting on it ten years later, we still feel revulsion at the fact that terrorists chose to squander their own lives in order to destroy, almost at random, thousands of innocent people. As a result of 9/11, we, in Britain, are more aware of the attitude of the rest of the world to the USA and to Western Europe. I remember travelling to Asia before 2001 and feeling anti-American, sometimes anti-British currents which were seldom then reflected in our media but were prevalent and forceful. But has very much changed for the better in the last decade? There does not seem to be a qualitative difference in understanding between cultures and world views.  Many thousands of innocent citizens and service men and women have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan; people have been unjustly imprisoned in attempts to save us from the effects of further, more wide-spread terrorism. Power has changed hands; oppression, liberty and anarchy have danced uneasily around one another, jostling for the upper hand in locations far from America and Britain. The influence of religion for both good and evil has perhaps persuaded Western governments to take the insights of religious communities more seriously. The imbalance between rich and poor has not improved - in fact, it has worsened. Despite the many acts of heroism which it has inspired and from which we draw strength and hope, I don't think 9/11 did very much more than show us, again, that human beings can engage in stupefying acts of evil and that it is very difficult, even among people of good intention, to prevent one evil action from leading to another.

It is appropriate, tomorrow, to remember quietly all those who died on 9/11 and who have died because of 9/11 in the years since and their loved ones; to remember the emergency service personnel who gave their lives to try to save others; to pray for those whose lives were changed for ever on that day by personal loss or by the responsibility to take certain actions required of them by their office or role. It is appropriate to pray for the efforts of all who, anywhere in the world, will sit down and listen and talk to those who are different from themselves or whose world view appears to threaten theirs. And  perhaps the most important thing we can do is  to search for reconciliation in our own lives wherever we can. Broken relationships create the potential for evil; a deeper understanding of those who are not like us and who challenge or even offend us holds open at least the possiblity of opposing evil and finding healing and reconciliation.  

Vivaldi's sacred motet challenges us, 'Can there be peace in the world?'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08a0rxFOYrs
         

Localism Bill Ushers in Neighbourhood Plans

Churches ought to be aware of the new Localism Bill which is currently working its way through the House of Lords and will become law before the end of the year. One of the most important features of the bill is the provision made to allow communities to come together to develop a Neighbourhood Plan which will set some parameters for development in their area. The plan will have to meet certain criteria in order to do this. It would be worth all PCCs (parochial church councils - the 'governing body' of each church) finding out whether such a move is afoot in their neightbourhood and making sure that they are part of it. It might be that, in some places, it would be appropriate for the PCC to take the lead in setting up such a process or campaigning to get one going. 

The idea of Neighbourhood Plans is that they ensure that local communities are able to take an active part in developing their own area in the light of the concerns and priorities of residents. The needs and aspirations of the local community will be key drivers - for example planning for new housing, relevant types of housing, 'joined up' transport services, conservation and ecological issues, bridal and cycle ways and footpaths, development of community space and policies regarding the kind of development allowed in the area can all become part of the Plan. Communities who have Neighbourhood Plans will have some access to funding such as the New Homes Bouns and the Community Infrastructure Levy and this will help to finance local activity. To quote the Newsletter of Rural Action Yorkshire, 'Used positively, the neighbourhood planning  process could give you significant leverage to ensure local authority co-operation in your neighbourhood's prefered development priorities. Rural Action Yorkshire is working in co-operation with the Prince's Foundation and other bodies to make sure that rural communities in Yorkshire are able to access the new government-funded support for neighbourhood planning.'

All sounds a bit dry? Or maybe you are sceptical? On the other hand, it could be just the opportunity your community needs to get something done, to reverse a trend or to bring people together to find mutually beneficial ways forward. It's too early to know how the bill will work in practice and whether it will deliver even part of what it claims, but churches should be aware of what is being proposed and should, I would suggest, be contributing in places where communities decide to create Neighbourhood plans.

For more information go to

http://www.ruralyorkshire.org.uk/

and click on 'Community-led Planning'.    

Archbishops, Riots and Police

You can read the full text of the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech in the House of Lords on the Bishop of Bradford's blog, together with a comment from Bishop Nick who is on holiday in the USA, trying to keep up with developments here. 

http://www.nickbaines.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/just-say-something

I thought the Archbishop's speech was one of the more positive contributions I've heard to the debate - 'Seeking explanations is not the same as seeking excuses...'  He is so right to point out that education has become too 'instrumentalist' - striving for a narrow range of competencies and skills rather than to create character and the practice of virtue and good citizenship.  I also thought Archbishop Sentamu was good on Newsnight last night, avoiding the  'I told you so'  line and the woolly liberal line and managing to make some positive comments about how moral education could be different and about how we can generate among younger people a belief in a future to which they can contribute. Bishop Nick is right to say that it is really for the bishops of the areas affected to comment in detail on what happened during the riots themselves - they have the local information. Talking to friends around the country, what happened in each of the different cities and towns was distinctive. 

I agree with ++Rowan in wanting to thank the police for the courageous job they did in impossible circumstances, especially before the COBRA meeting could be convened. I am sure that mistakes were made in places but, had they gone in with greater force, we could have been looking at the loss of many more lives and, frankly, a much, much worse situation, escalating into widespread, deliberate violence against large numbers of people as well as property. Also, we should thank the fire and ambulance services for their courage in facing both threat from the rioters and danger due to the fires and damage to buildings.

Our thoughts continue to be with all who have lost lives or loved ones, those who have been injured or lost homes or property, and those who have to continue with their businesses and pay their staff while unable to open their premises as usual.  

(See yesterday's post Riots on British Streets (11th August) for more opinion.)

Riots on British Streets

In some ways the riots of the last few days seem far removed from rural North Yorkshire. But we've been looking and listening and, like everyone else, trying to make sense of this startling and bewildering development in our national life. Several members of my family live in Nottingham where 5 police stations were fire bombed or pelted with bricks and missiles and where our friends, and especially some of their children, are now nervous about going out just to do everyday shopping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-14472172

What are the reasons for the riots? It's too early to know which of several possible factors were the decisive ones in turning our streets into arenas for violence and looting. Tragically lives have been lost but the main focus seems to have been property. The reasons that are being given are

• criminality - but why? and why now?
• breakdown in family life and the morality and discipline that good parenting and schools provide.
• rampant consumerism - an attitude that pervades the whole of society and which says 'I should be able to have what I want now.'
• disenfranchised groups in society - people brought up in a consumer society with little opportunity to make choices and become legitimate consumers themselves.
• reaction against the police and against law and order - a desire by the voiceless  to take power by showing that they can break the law if they choose to.
• the atmosphere created by government cuts and the threat of the breakdown of our whole economic system which lurks behind our present lived reality. 
• the new era of tweeting, twittering and facebook and other forms of messaging which allows riots to be spontaneously organised with hundreds of people gathering in one place at a particular time - something that could not have happened until recently. This is the more sinister side of Internet democracy, perhaps akin to what we have witnessed recently in Middle Eastern countries. 

Probably, the true reasons for the riots are drawn from all these and from other factors that have not yet been identified. The court cases yesterday and today show that plainly this urge to violence and anarchy is not a problem confined to young people or to people who are unemployed or uneducated. Politicians seem to be falling into two camps - on the one hand, those who want to attribute it all to criminality, brook no excuses and deal with it through punitive measures and, on the other hand, those who want to find the social causes and who are fearful of punitive measures such as long prison sentences, stopping benefits and withdrawing housing as these will fuel discontent. I saw Harriet Harman on Newsnight vigorously trying to argue that both approaches are needed - a response that punishes lack of individual responsibility and a response that looks at the social forces that have made this possible and, for once, I agreed with her! 

Well, it is too early to make judgements about why all this has happened - summer madness of the most sobering kind. The worrying question is, 'Is what we have seen just the tip of a very ugly iceberg which now underlies the waters of normal social dealings in this country?'  Three things which have been concerning me for a while are not, I think, unrelated to what has happened.

Firstly, there is now greater disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest in Britain than in any other country in Europe. People are living in real poverty cheek by jowl with those who have vast resources. In the parish where I served in the early 90's in Nottingham, I can take you to places where teenagers live ferral on the streets, the care-home system, never mind their families, entirely unable to contain them, young children are so hungry they hang around the chip shop bins and eat discarded food, and homeworkers do menial jobs like assembling hangers - a house full of women working all day for perhaps £15 to be divided between them. These people are not lazy. Prositution and the drug culture are rife and are a normal part of middle class life but destroy the lives of those who are unemployed or poorly educated and who often service these habits. Within sight of parts of the parish are hotels where you can spend £800-£1,000 for a night's stay. Poverty was not the direct cause of the riots, but huge disparity between the resources available to people generates anger and lack of respect in different ways from different parts of society and the riots have played into this. The fact that groups within society are living with poverty, hunger and lack of opportunity that most of society does not acknowledge or appear to care about points to a deep degree of unhealthiness in our social order. It is wrong when we simply care about what we have got and whether we have got what we want, right now. The rioting and looting demonstrated that, in fact, this is exactly how some people from all parts of society think today.  

Secondly, in many familes and communities right across the social classes we seem to have lost the ability to exercise discipline with quite young children; the seeds of an attitude that says 'I am entitled to whatever I feel like...' are planted well before secondary school. At the same time, adults, apart from professionals who work with young people, often don't seem able to engage in conversation with and listen to youngsters - you have been able to see that in some of the interviews over the last few days where rioters and their supporters have been asked their opinion only to have it dismissed and shouted down. Where respect and real listening don't occur, problems cannot be solved. Even if someone has committed a crime, we have to try to understand what the world looks like from their perspective if we are going to take measures to prevent the same thing happening again. There is a worrying lack of willingness for different age groups to listen to one another and I think this is a growing phenomenon. 

Thirdly, we do not yet have systems of politics, government, law and order and communication that have adapted to the presence of the Internet. We do not yet realise the degree to which the Internet has changed, for ever, the nature of authority, democracy and control in society. People can now circumvent much of what formal education, politics and even the media have to offer and they can form local and global alliances which have nothing to do with recognised social or political structures; they can just as easily disrupt conventional alliances and systems. They can do this very speedily and in unpredictable ways. I suppose all this is one reason why I blog. I think it is important to learn, first hand, about the power of the Internet and of digital communication. We are all on a very steep learning curve to discover how power operates in a world where, if you just hit the right tone, you can bring 100's or 1,000's of people of all ages and backgrounds together to achieve something very noble or something very ignoble...and the outcome may indeed be frighteningly unpredictable.  
  

A Very Norwegian Place to be



The Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay


http://www.norwegianchurchcardiff.com/

We spent a very interesting few hours at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay, yesterday. Built on Bute Dock in 1868 for the many service men who sailed into Cardiff Bay in an age when Cardiff exported more coal than any other port in the world, the little wooden church is still a distinctive feature of the sky line in Cardiff Bay. Originally it both provided a place to relax and write home for the many Norwegian sailors who came to Cardiff and also acted as the hub for the thriving local Norwegian community. The church fell into disrepair in the 1960's and 70's but was restored in 1982 by a conservation group whose president was the author, Roald Dahl. Dahl was born in Cardiff, of Norwegian parents. Today, the church, which is within sight of the Senedd (the Welsh Assembley Building), has been newly refurbished and houses a cafe and gallery. It was very poignant to be in the cafe, yesterday, as the news of the terrorist atrocities in Oslo was breaking on the BCC's world news chanel. It brought home to us the importance of such missions to seamen all around the world; here was a place where people come together to feel connected with home at times of national anxiety and tragedy as well as at times of rejoicing. Our heart goes out to the people of Norway, a nation well known for its exemplary tradition of democracy. 

The gallery at the church is currently hosting a facinating exhibition of photographs illustrating the message of each of the 66 books in the Bible. Masterminded by Owen Brown, the exhibition marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. I quote from the book which accompanies the exhibits, a paragraph which I think reflects the location of the exhibition at the heart of one of the ports that shaped the Britain and America of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

'You may think our modern world is founded on secular ideals, but arguably the translation of the Bible not only influenced the English language and literature more than any other book, it was also the seedbed for Western Democracy, the driver for the abolition of the slave trade, the shaper of the British legal system and the framework for the Christian culture of both the British and American empires. And...it is also a book which outsells, is read by more people and is being translated into more languages than any other today.'   

The exhibition takes each book of the Bible and illustrates one verse with a photograph which captures the theme or the flavour of the book. I was struck by the power of this simple idea to communicate something of the essence of the scriptures in a way that gets people thinking and talking and brings out the contemporary relevance of the Bible's themes. You can find more information about the exhibition and see some of its stunning images on

http://www.66portrait.wordpress.com/