Pat's Palestine Blog 1

Pat Devlin, who is known to many of us in the region, not least through her work with CAP, is at present in Palestine as part of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

It has taken Pat a while to get a laptop and email connection, but we hope now to have regular updates following this first post that tells of her arrival in Jerusalem.

We arrived in a very tense Jerusalem on the evening of March16th. You may have read about the disturbances at Al Aqsa mosque, but what you probably didn’t hear is that Jerusalem had been closed for five days This means that Palestinians who live in the West Bank with permits to work or study or access health care in Jerusalem had not been allowed to enter and no Palestinian was allowed into the Old City of Jerusalem, unless they lived there.

The steps down to the Damascus Gate, which had been teeming with street traders on my previous visit were deserted. Instead, police and military vans lined the northern wall of the Old City and we saw the riot gear being assembled, which some of us have seen on London demonstrations – but here it also includes live amunition . Our Jerusalem training included a session with a coordinator of Breaking the Silence, an organisation for former Israeli soldiers who have decided to speak out about their experience of ‘national service’ He explained that ‘riot’ control procedure is as follows( but sometimes soldiers do not have full range of equipment and stages get missed):

· Order to disperse

· Throw stun grenades & tear gas

· Fire rubber bullets (but the rubber conceals metal bullets & is sometimes removed)

· Fire live ammunition ( officially at the legs)

The picture shows Palestinian men at Friday prayer( behind the military) on the pavement opposite the Damascus Gate, because their entry to the Old City and the Al Aqsa mosque is barred

The closure had originally been declared because of the rebuilding of a Synagogue which had been used as a military launch pad in the defeat of the Arabs in 1948 and this was followed by rumours that the cornerstone of the Third Temple was to be laid at Al Aqsa mosque. The disturbances at the mosque soon spread to areas of East Jerusalem, where Palestinian homes are under threat of demolition, as the Israelis take steps to make Jerusalem their undivided capital.

During our training we took a tour with ICAD ( Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions)

The Picture shows the Al Bustan

Residents’ campaign tent

In the Silwan and Al Bustan neighbourhoods, ( as shown on the Panorama programme) the proposal from the Israeli government is to demolish 88 Palestinian homes, making 1500 people homeless, to make way for the creation of an Archeological Park, part of the excavations for the City of David. This will be a major tourist attraction, but there are serious questions about the archeological authenticity of the excavation. In another area we heard that foreign capital from dubious sources is purchasing all available land between Palestinian settlements in East Jerusalem as part of the Judaisation of Jerusalem and we witnessed the stark contrast in the levels of service (eg. sewage, waste collection, pavements, play facilities) between the new Israeli houses and the existing Palestinian houses although all are paying rates

Doing anything interesting for Lent?

It’s that time of the year again. Lent. The annual preparation for the commemoration of Holy Week and Easter beyond. Sackcloth and ashes - self-denial, fasting, abstinence! Bring it on!
The Old English word ‘Lent' simply means ‘springtime'. In our church lectionary we turn from the Christmas liturgical cycle to the Paschal cycle, we turn from winter and anticipate summer. In our Lenten services we begin to address Luke’s moving and compassionate parables, his attention to the events of Holy Week and the physician’s beautiful crafted cameo stories of post resurrection experiences.

In an “affluenza” age of unbridled self interest where dominant market forces seem to be that of acquiring, consuming and maintaining “sustained economic growth” the church of late has found ways of softening our Lenten observances. We tell ourselves that Lent isn't about giving things up. We journey to a countryside retreat with a Lakeland Plastics outlet on hand. We may wish to resume membership of a relaxing gym with a bubbling jacuzzi later to detox with juice-broth for inner healing. Perhaps this year a new book may guide us on our spiritual journey (try Timothy Keller’s The Prodigal God). We might engage in positive and creative Lenten activities to express our support with our brothers and sisters who are hungry and thirsty. But fasting and abstinence – a temporary restraint from sex, food and alcohol? Well perhaps not this Lent!

Yet Jesus clearly expects us to fast. He fasted for 40 days, so did Elijah and Moses. A fast is simply a personal act of devotion to God. Jesus told us that when we fast (not if) we are not to make a show of it, like hypocrites do. A fast is different from a hunger strike; it is also different from anorexia nervosa: it is disciplined diet, not total abstention from food. You still eat; you just abstain from certain foodstuffs, by eliminating luxury items from your diet, such as meats and chocolates. The idea of a fast is to draw us closer to God, to love him more. Abs(stin)ence makes the heart grow fonder?

Can we be counter-cultural and get back to old fashioned Lenten observances to think carefully about what fasting and abstinence could mean in our individual spiritual life? For some fasting might imply thinking about reasonable limits on what we can and can't have, for others it might mean a more balanced approach to our lifestyle, maybe to enjoy a more greener lifestyle. Yet others it may mean a new or different approach to focused prayer. Why not try a corporate fast, a day time fast, a fruit and veg fast, a partial fast, a Wesley fast (John Wesley used to fast on Tuesday and Friday most weeks, but would only miss breakfast & lunch)

So go on, turn the telly off, take a phone break and try a disciplined fast this Lent – you may not wish to go up a mountain to pray all night – so instead rest, relax, enjoy a smoothie , read the bible in preparation for Easter – pray - you know it makes spiritual and ecological sense.

Ray Anglesea

Please Note:
1. If you are pregnant, on medication or have any long term illness, please do not undertake
any kind of food or drink fast without the agreement of your doctor.
2. If you use any of the fasts which abstain from food for more than a couple of days, it could
impair your ability to drive or operate machinery.
3. If you experience dizziness or any other unexpected symptoms please stop the fast until you have been able to consult a doctor.

Church or Mission? Apply or Die?

What do you think would have happened if the Early Christians had been more focused on Church than on Mission? They would probably, for the first generation have made a reasonable job at it: Jesus would still have been their inspiration and role model and they would have tried to be a very loving community and in that sense would have been quite attractive. But as the generations passed they would have marginalised the Holy Spirit more and more and become more and more locked into tradition and ritual. In the end they would become a kind of Christianised version of the Pharisees intent on keeping themselves pure and locking others out by ever increasing rules.

The truth is that the Early Christians were more focused on Mission than Church; in fact we would think they were zealots for Mission in comparison today. Focused on Mission they won more and more, day after day, to Christ and their numbers grow exponentially, and then whoops we need to organise this lot: oh yes Jesus said about building His Church, so that’s what we will call it and in case folk haven’t got the point another name will be the Body of Christ. That’s thank God how it all started and if it hadn’t then I am not sure we would be sitting here today. Sadly over the years the Christian pendulum has swung between Mission and Church. Up to AD 300 it was Mission that predominated and from 300 AD to the Reformation it was Church and the name History ascribes to that period is the Dark Ages. Thankfully Mission began to reassert itself from the Reformation but it took till Wesley & Whitfield to swung the pendulum back to Mission. Since then Pendulum has largely been more towards Church with a few wonderful individual and corporate exceptions. Focus on Church creates a religious elite or dependency and squeezes out the Missionary zeal and endeavour, which is the life flow of the Holy Spirit, formed Missionary Church.

In Northern Synod, within the URC, and over much of the Body of Christ in the UK we have stark choice to make. We can continue to allow the pendulum to dictate our preoccupation with Church and not with Mission or we can begin to turn the Titanic and decide as congregations what our core business really is and start through some small steps to turn our hearts towards Mission once again.

I believe that when congregations do this the Lord lets out a loud hallelujah and sends His Holy Spirit of Mission to assist as well as an army of angels to protect us as we go out.

Here in Northern Synod we want to encourage churches in this decision: that’s why the Mission 4 Life Fund was established: not so we could feel go we had paid lip service to Mission but so we could engage in Mission once more and become missionary congregations within a Missionary Synod!! And so to our challenge to every congregation.

Before the end of June decide on at least one new initiative in Mission and to go for it. And if you need help financially to fund such a Mission project then please apply for help. We want to hear from every congregation what your initiative is and whether you need help from the fund. If we get more than we have resources to fund we will find the resources from somewhere (perhaps our bigger congregations) but what we are asking of you all is a seed change in thinking, a new step of faith, a leadership decision to become Missionary congregations once again.

The alternative you know as well as I do: this is God’s time and God’s Call to the Synod and its congregations: we ignore it at our peril. Apply or die?

David Bedford

Greatest living preacher?

My friend and colleague Ray Anglesea sent me two fascinating links to the Times Online yesterday – both about preaching.

The first, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6993099.ece , outlined some recent research undertaken here in Durham to mark the 50th anniversary of the College of Preachers. This has discovered that people who regularly go to church actually value sermons: 96.6% even claiming to look forward to that point in the service.

Then comes the predictable discussion about how long the sermon should be. We all know that Catholics don’t really preach sermons, but only homilies – and 10 minutes for a homily seems fair enough to me. I don’t know any Baptists myself who’d like their minister to go on for an hour and a quarter – but maybe there are some lurking somewhere. Happily no one seems to have asked for a URC view on the matter – though I suspect we’d be with the fence-sitting Anglicans who’d rather it was all over and done with in ten minutes if it’s boring, but will cope with twenty if there’s something worth engaging with.

Funny though that the researchers seem to feel the need to apologise for the “counter-intuitive” discovery that there might still be something to be said for preaching. And what a strange thing, to suggest that communicating face to face with people pastorally or through preaching somehow puts us into an old-fashioned analogue age, and separates us off from our trendy digital colleagues who use alternative technology and spend half their lives on Facebook. I’ve got a feeling some of us are a bit more versatile than we’re given credit for.

But I liked the quote at the end of the piece that informed us that Rowan Williams was among the church leaders who have signed the College of Preachers’ jubilee pledge, commiting themselves to “forward-looking preaching, engaging faithfully with the Bible, directly with the congregation and prophetically with the world, to proclaim Jesus as Lord”. Surely there’s got to be a whole variety of ways of doing that – and sermons of every length and style to fit the bill!

But then I was a bit surprised by the second link that Ray gave me - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6993077.ece . Times online seems to have been very religious yesterday! Here we have a little run-through of great preachers of the past (Luther, Donne, Wesley etc) to lead to the rather cloying conclusion that “Our greatest living preacher is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. His set speeches are notoriously perplexing but his sermons are something else.” I confess I’ve never heard the Archbishop preach, but I can’t help wondering how on earth you could make the claim that anyone was the greatest preacher around. I know there are Preacher of the Year awards, but I always think they sound like something out of Father Ted.

Surely the problem is there in the first linked piece: different individuals and different Christian traditions have very different ideas of what a sermon is – let alone what constitutes a good sermon. I wonder, are those of us who try to vary our sermon style and content depending on the congregation reckoned to be preaching a better sermon to the one rather than the other? I suspect that across the churches we might find a good deal of agrement on what constitutes a bad sermon (with sheer boredom being a significant factor) but very different ideas on what makes a good sermon or a great preacher.

I’m not sure I’ve got a clue who the greatest living preacher might be. But even if I did, since I don’t think preaching is a competitive activity, I’d rather keep quiet about it.


PS As well as sending round useful links, Ray has recently shared some thoughts with some of his colleagues as he’s been preparing his own sermons. I think several of us last Sunday were sharing thoughts about “the third day” as recorded at Cana in Galilee. Do you know why so many Jews marry on a Tuesday?

I’m wondering if we should develop a synod sermon blog, to share both thoughts and finished sermons. Let me know what you think please!

"Front Page FOCUS" response

In part I would agree with Peter’s secular analysis of Advent. I would not go so far as saying that the last vestiges of Christendom have disappeared but the church does, it seems for a while at least, to have lost the narrative plot of Advent. Before we rehearse the traditional apocalyptic Advent themes of death, judgment, hell and heaven, Christmas has already started in most our local communities, in our high streets and garden centres. In Durham’s Market Place the 2008 Christmas tree was erected before Remembrance Sunday! We do indeed sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. As we step through the wardrobe door we have entered a fantasy world of spiritual amnesia and neglect. For in this land it is already Christmas.

But it is too easy for ministers like me to jump on their hobby horse and enjoy a seasonal rant about the relentless tide of consumerism at this time of the year, desperate as that is. We need to be careful! I too enjoy all things Christmassy in the Advent season - Christmas shopping, the smell of baking Christmas cakes, wrapping presents, selecting cards, the gossip at office parties and preparing new house designs for Christmas. Far from being free of the corrosive values of consumerism, I like everybody else are compromised by them - I guess we are all implicated in the values of our society.

But the church cannot be exempt from Peter’s criticisms either. Some churches have their Christmas tree displayed from the 1st Sunday in Advent, we are reminded of that holy night as carols are sung as the 1st Advent candle is lit. A crib of plastic and pottery wise men greet me in the church vestibule. And all those Christmas church activities, Victorian markets, pantomimes, winter wonderlands, mince pies and mulled wine, Christmas Fairs, all encouraging us to part with our money. Christmas too, it would appear, in some of our churches at least, is in full swing from St. Andrew’s Day onwards. The Advent season forgotten.

The question is then (which Peter I think might be referring to) - is it worth trying to keep Advent at all? Should we just abandon the season and go with the flow? Do we really want to hear sermons about death, judgement, hell and heaven in a society and a church that would rather embrace sweet nostalgic Rutter carols and the warm lullaby atmosphere of a manger? Alas there is not much comfort in the Advent messages of divine judgment from the 8th century prophet Isaiah or the hissing, impatient, relentless radical- desert prophet voice of John the Baptist.

But if we were to persevere with our Advent readings and “keep” the season of Advent we might find the season’s readings about judgement a thankful relief. To hear of God’s impending judgement, frightening and alarming as that might be, is of course, to recognise in ourselves our failings and shortcomings, our ambivalence that often motivates selfish thoughts and actions. Advent in its brief 4 week season offers us a place to come before God as we are, without hiding, without pretence – and to reflect and think about what distracts us from being humane and God-filled as St Paul invites us as well as his Galatian church to become. Advent at its heart, is an invitation to reflect on what we truly need and long for in life. It's a summons to know ourselves.

But I think Advent can offer us more. If we can leave aside for a while John Betjeman’s “ tissued fripperies, the sweet and silly Christmas things, bath salts and inexpensive scent and hideous tie so kindly meant,” Advent I believe invites us to amendment of our lives as the Book of Common Prayer says, to know and discover God in a new way. For when God comes as Judge, he also comes as William William’s hymn Cwm Rhondda has it - as a great Redeemer. Our Advent readings of hope are shot through with the promise of salvation, so that those last things become the first things. The readings and Advent carols, our thoughts of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets, the Baptist and Mary begin to change our direction and focus, open doors of possibility, offer new goals and values to live by, they give back to our lives dignity and worth, and help our churches in a new more positive direction.

The 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard talked about ‘the truth by which we live and die'. Advent is a time for doing both, to practise the one and rehearse the other. The church may indeed have lost control of the Advent narrative for a while. But let’s break the mould! Might I suggest we regain control of the powerful themes and images of the Advent season in our own lives and in our churches as we remain wakeful, waiting and praying with joy for the advent of God's kingdom of peace and truth. For the spirit of Advent, as the Welsh poet R S Thomas said in his poem Kneeling, “The meaning is in the waiting.”

Ray Anglesea

Making Sense

Recently an unexpected event happened which has changed my life. I was made redundant. Rather my post was made redundant. After 36 years of continuous employment I was unemployed. The job I thought was for life suddenly evaporated into thin air.

Earlier in the summer I remembered an Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France suddenly vanished over the Atlantic after flying into turbulence. Sudden events happen to us in everyday life. Our days are suddenly, without warning, interrupted. Out of the blue an unexpected phone call relays sad news: suddenly you miss the promotion you were expecting, suddenly you find yourself with a medical condition that requires a radical change of lifestyle. Suddenly and unexpectedly a child is born with severe disabilities. Suddenly a bright, loving, teenager is randomly stabbed. Suddenly a gifted 40 year old finds himself slipping into a mental wilderness. Suddenly a close and loving friends dies. Life can suddenly change course for millions of people every day, and then life can seem terribly unfair, cruel, messy and decidedly unjust. That is the human condition. We live with uncertainty. Sudden events happen. What then do we do? How do we deal with these sudden unexpected life events that interrupt and change our lives?

Sudden events happened to Jesus too. Matthew records a couple of incidents that interrupted Jesus’ daily schedule - the account of the menstruating woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and the synagogue leader whose daughter had died (read Matthew 9 18-26 in the Authorised Version and the use of the word suddenly). How did Jesus deal with these two unexpected events which interrupted his daily life, how did he respond to this present emergency? The answer – with love and compassion. Jesus stepped outside the normal religious and cultural expectations and regulations of his day – he touches a dead girl and menstruating woman. He breaks with his society’s taboos of completeness and perfection (represented by the number twelve). He heals these two women by making himself ritually unclean. So when unexpected sudden events happen to us and to our friends Jesus way of dealing with such circumstances is to act with love and compassion, to embody mercy. Sudden events, good and bad, large and small will have affected most of our lives. It is often these sudden events that shape our lives for good or ill. Can you see in them, as Jesus was challenged to do, God at work bringing life and hope?

Janet Morley, writer and poet, has a challenging prayer which expresses this challenge of compassion and mercy in the sudden events that take place in our lives. It begins "O thou sudden God, generous in mercy, quickener of new life, giver of new love, irreverent, subversive " and concludes with Augustine's famous words from his Confessions, "Late have I loved thee O beauty so ancient and so new." Can we hold together in our experience the suddenness and the ancientness of God and of God's ways of mercy and compassion and be faithful to both?

O thou sudden God, generous in mercy, quickener of new life, giver of new love irreverent, subversive, deep source of yearning, startling comforter, bearer of darkness unmaker of old paths, bringer of strange joy, abundant, disturbing, healing unlooked for tender and piercing: late have I loved thee. O beauty so ancient and so new.

(c) Janet Morley, 1988


Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new! Too late have I loved Thee. And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside, and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee. Those beauties kept me away from Thee, though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness. Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight. Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath, and now I pant after Thee. I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee. Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace...."

Augustine Confessions (Lib. 10, 26. 37-29, 40: CSEL 33, 255-256).


Ray Anglesea

Masterclass

Birds. David Attenborough suggests that there are over 9,000 species of birds, the most widespread of all animals: on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Humans, alas can only look at and listen to birds, we cannot fly! We can enjoy their lightness, their freedom and richness of their plumage, and their song. Writing in his new book Life Stories taken from his BBC Radio 4 programme of the same name, Attenborough suggests that human beings are not the only creatures that sing. Birds do, and accordingly he suggests that the prime function of their song is something else. Shakespeare wondered if music was the food of love. Vocally in the bird and animal kingdoms, says Attenborough, it certainly is.

This theory was put to the test when I attended the Autumn Samling masterclass at the Sage Gateshead. I am delighted to say the hypothesis turned out to be true; music is indeed the food of love. Every season Samling elects talented young singers to take part in week-long programme of study where they are coached intensively in opera and lieder singing by some of the world's finest artists and eminent musicians. As part of the week’s tuition Samling opens its doors to the general public who are invited to observe the 'masters' and their Samling scholars at work in a masterclass afternoon. This season the six young performers performed to an exceptionally breathtaking standard – it was a sheer joy to listen to their captivating music of rich and beautiful love songs.

What links Birds with Masterclass? St Francis. One of Francis's most famous sermons is one he gave to a flock of birds. "My brothers, birds, you should praise your Creator very much and always love him; he gave you feathers to clothe you, wings so that you can fly, and whatever else was necessary for you. God made you noble among his creatures, and he gave you a home in the purity of the air; though you neither sow nor reap, he nevertheless protects and governs you without any solicitude on your part."

This love of and praise for the Creator is found in scripture but primarily in the verses of the psalms, a masterclass anthology of some of the most beautiful love poems and verses in the bible. The Psalms not only expresses our love and praise of God as St Francis instructed his noble birds to do – but also expresses the light and shadow of the whole human condition and Christian experience. That great teacher and reformer of the faith, Martin Luther, said of the psalms ‘In the Psalms you can see into the hearts of the saints as if you were looking at a lovely garden. How delightful are the flowers you will find there which grow out of all kinds of beautiful thoughts of God and his grace. Or where can one find more profound, more penitent, more sorrowful words in which to express grief than in the psalms of lamentation? In these, you see into the hearts of the saints as if you were looking at death or gazing into hell, so dark and obscure are the shadows. So, too, when the Psalms speak of fear or hope, they depict them more vividly than any painter could do, and with more eloquence than is possessed by the greatest of orators.'

The psalms are a mirror of who and what we are as Christians praying out of every conceivable condition known to human beings. Like a masterclass of musical tonality of expression and nuance the psalms touch the depths of despair and the heights of ecstasy, they teach and instruct about who and what we are and what we want to become, our love and our hate, our doubt and our longing, our fear and our hope, our celebration, thanksgiving and praise.
The Psalms were part of Jesus’ formation. According to three of the gospels, the first words he heard at his baptism came from the psalms, and the last words he breathed from the cross were drawn from them. If you want to hear the voice of Jesus at prayer, it is to the psalms that you must turn.

Ray Anglesea