What is there about the Church in Wales? They've made the headlines in every news bulletin today (May 16th) because they've asked their congregations to pray for more priests - on the grounds, we are told, that 25% of them are retiring in the next ten years.
I'm not sure that maths is my strong point, but I'm thinking it out like this. Get a young man or woman trained as quick as the system allows, and ordain them straight out of college, and what is the most you get out of them? Surely a ministry of just about 40 years? (All right, increased retirement ages will add a little bit there.) But most of our entrants are well on in years - they're second career people. I can't believe it's any different for Anglicans in Wales. Say you were getting an average of 25 years service per ordinand (an optimistic statistic), this means you have a complete turn over every 25 years and so expect to lose a quarter of your clergy every six or seven years. If it takes ten years as the Welsh are claiming for a quarter to see retirement, the parishes are more likely to be praying for them to go.
Compare and contrast with the URC - and I think the Methodists are in much the same situation. I can promise you things are very much worse. And so far as our synod is concerned, of the 28 fulltime stipendiary ministers (not CRCWs) currently deployed among us, I think exactly half of us are coming up to retirement age in the next five years.
Does anyone know how to get on the news next Sunday?
Sunday 16 May 2010
Pat's Palestine Blog 7
Pat Devlin shares more of her experiences as a member of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). She says “This is a more complicated posting but it does show that the devil is very often in the quite crazy detail here. If you're short of time, skip the first bit and go straight to the village stories.”
What is Area C and how did it arise?
· Areas A, B and C were a result of the ill-fated Oslo Agreements of the 1990s.
· A map showing areas A, B and C is attached. Palestinian cities and the Palestinian Authority (PA) holds responsibility for both civil and security matters here
o Area B includes smaller Palestinian towns and villages is under Palestinian civil control but joint Israeli/Palestinian security control
o Area A&B together comprise 38% of the West Bank territory
o Area C is divided into two categories. A) Areas designated by Israel for settlements or military use only, where Palestinian building or construction is totally forbidden. B) Areas, where planning restrictions make any Palestinian building or construction virtually impossible while settlements are expanded and new ones started. The latter areas contain many of the smaller Israeli settlements and roads, and is contiguous. Area C is under total Israeli control—civil and security and comprises 62% of the West Bank territory
· This division was intended as a temporary arrangement: the 1995 agreement setting these areas up was a transitory step in what were expected to be continued negotiations which would (among other things) gradually transfer control of Area C to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 1999. However negotiations became stalemated during Netanyahu's previous period as Prime Minister and collapsed altogether in 2000.
· In effect Israel now treats Area C as though it is Israeli territory—62% of the West Bank!
· According to the UN, the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C has not altered the status of the entirety of the West Bank as occupied territory.
· More than 400 Palestinians villages have part of their built up area in Area C, and 150 are entirely located in Area C. It is estimated that 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C.
· Many Palestinian villages in our area are designated Area B but are surrounded by Area C and this is quite common. Lower Yanoun is Area B, but Upper Yanoun is Area C. Madama is in Area B, but its water spring is in Area C
This is all very complicated: why does it matter?
It has a huge impact on the daily life of Palestinians.
· Construction of any kind in Area C, be it a private home, an animal shelter or a donor-funded infrastructure project, requires approval by the Israel Civil Administration (ICA) which is under the authority of the Israeli Ministry of Defence. This approval will in almost all cases be refused or, at best, long delayed.
· Existing houses: Demolition orders are placed on houses that have stood for many years but that Israel now deems to be in Area C.
· Infrastructure projects: major projects such as construction or expansion of schools or medical clinics and shelters or the rehabilitation of water infrastructure all require communities, NGOs or international funders to go through a lengthy and complex permit application process to the ICA. Approval is not guaranteed.
· Water is hugely important in what is a relatively dry area, and, apart from household and industrial consumption is used by both Israeli and Palestinian farmers for irrigation of many crops. Using the powers of an Israeli Military Order of 1967 that requires permits for all water structures, Israel monitors and intervenes to control all water related activities in Area C, hindering many villages from improving their water supplies. Palestinians consume on average 50litres per capita per day, while the World Health Organisation recommends 150 litres per capita per day Many of the communities which find themselves, now wholly in Area C live under constant threat of demolition.
We visit three such communities in and around the Jordan Valley
Tawayel is the nearest of these villages and can be seen from the tomb of Nun (Joshua’s father) Tawayel is built on land under the jurisdiction of Aqraba, our nearest large village which is in Area A, wholly under Palestinian control, Tawayel’s new (4 years old) school is in area B, but all the other buildings of the 21 families in the village are in area C and have a demolition order on them These orders have been frozen since March 2009, but the 5 most recent demolition orders are still in Beit El ‘court’ .
Khirbet Tana is a remote village to the east of Yanoun, but to reach it by road and dirt track involves taking a round about route via Nablus. About 35 families live in this location which was chosen because of the natural spring which provides water all year round. This unfortunate village and its school were demolished by the Israeli Army before 2005 and again in January 2010. The families are currently living in tents without insulation against the cold or heat. The school has just been rebuilt by the local municipality of Beit Furik But already the school and two other dwellings have received orders to stop building and two demolition orders have been issued yet again. These villagers also had to present at Beit El ‘court’. An Italian NGO is willing to rebuild the village and Beit Furik lawyers are currently trying to obtain pre 1967 land deeds from Jordan to assist in the struggle to get the necessary permits just to continue their very simple way of life in their long chosen location.
When we visit the village we meet with the indomitable Farisa who can recount the many struggles of the community over the years, from the British right up to present day harassment from the settlers and Israeli Army. Her one request, when we last visited, was for a sewing machine so that she and other women could make clothes and hangings for their tents. Thanks to the generosity of friends this was something much simpler to help with, in contrast to achieving long term sustainability for the community.
Ein al Hilwe – a community in crisis On April 26th the settlement of Maskiyot in the Jordan Valley pitched a tent just a few metres away from the first tent of the Palestian shepherd community of Ein al Hilwe There are just 7 families living in the community scattered across the valley. One family has 2 tents and the second tent is less than 10 metres away from the tent erected by the settlers from Maskiyot This second tent has now been given over as a meeting tent for those supporting the community. There were about 15 men and one woman gathered in this tent when we arrived just after 9am. We were greeted by Arif Daraghmeh of the PNA and one of the mayors of a neighbouring community and I was introduced to Jessica Street from the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group. Jessica lives in Brighton, which is twinned with Tubas one of the main towns in the Jordan Valley. She said there had been about 70 supporters of the Palestinian community in the tent for much of the night.
Unlike most of the settlers in the Jordan Valley who are farmers taking advantage of the fertile land and economic incentives to settle there, the Maskiyot settlers are Zionists who settled in the Jordan valley after being expelled from Gaza over one year ago. There were about 5 armed young men in the settler tent with 2 dogs, when we arrived. They seemed to have a rota for being in the tent, and at lunchtime a woman and children and two older men arrived and began a religious meeting in the settler tent. We were told that at night there was a bigger number 20+ and they played very loud music until 4am and Israeli soldiers had also been there the previous evening.
We spoke to some of the men who lived in the community, who told us water was their main problem. The spring is on the other side of the road near the settlement and is difficult to access. The P.A. have only brought water to them since the Settler’s tent arrived. The P.A. said it was difficult as the vehicles are often turned back or confiscated by the army and they have to pay to get them back. The other issues raised by the community were: lack of grazing for the sheep because they are surrounded by settlements; the lack of an ambulance to take sick people to hospital and concern about access to school for the children There is only one very overcrowded bus which charges to take the children to school. At the moment the older children are out with the sheep because the men cannot leave the village due to the settler threat .
Fathy, the coordinator of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group arrived with a solar panel, but there seemed to be some difficulty in fitting it up (there is no electricity) He explained that they have a project planned to pipe water to the community but need to raise more money. They have about 50% thanks to a private American Donor. He said he did not know how the situation with the settlers would develop because nothing like this had happened in the Jordan Valley before. He was keen to get a rota of internationals developed, who would provide a protective presence for the community .
Mid morning people arrived with lots of Palestinian flags which almost covered the meeting tent. Then the big delegation arrived. The Palestinian minister for Settlements with the ‘Governor’ of Tubas plus press, TV and many more - over 100 people There were speeches in the tent The man who owned the land was present with his title deeds. The Israeli army arrived to ‘protect’ the settlers. At one point the Palestinians moved to the front of the Settlers tent and things became quite confrontational for a short time, after which the army lined up on the side of the settler’s tent facing the Palestinian tent.
The next day the army presented papers ordering both tents to be removed. Although the Palestinians had refused to unilaterally remove their tent, which had been there all along, they agreed to joint removal, because the community of Ein al Hilwe did not want any trouble. After all their priority was to get the basic services and facilities, which we all take for granted, but which are denied them because they find themselves in the ubiquitous Area C
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