Movement 141

MOVEMENT
PRODUCED BY
Issue 141. Summer 2012.
profits or prophets?
Money, madness and morals –
finding hope in the economic crisis.
digitalnun
On websites, vocation and who
you should follow on Twitter.
after occupy
Sam Slatcher reflects on
keeping hope alive.

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contents
issue 141
2 Editorial
3 update
4–5 news
6–7 groups and campaigns
8-9 Interview with Sr catherine wybourne
Charlotte Gibson talks to the digitalnun
10 lectio divina resource
Feature: money money money
11-12 keeping hope alive after eviction
By Sam Slatcher
13 simple living and easy access
By Nicola Sleap
14–15 the real jubilee
By Tim Jones, Jubilee Debt Campaign
16-17 co-operatives build a better world
By Richard Bickle, SCM Friend
18-20 Reviews
21 Groovement fun page
Y
M
Y
Y
MY
K
14 16
13
8
18

the sidebar
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
In a section on bearing witness to humanity, and bringing
about a just and compassionate society, the Quaker booklet
‘Advices and Queries’ also asks Quakers to ‘try to discern new
growing points in social and economic life’. The phrase ‘growing points’
has echoes of the idea of ‘grassroots’ organising, and suggests to me that
determined people can shape the course of new ideas.
I recently saw ‘Four Horsemen’, a documentary that criticises the economic
systems that cause injustice, war
and poverty and offers alternative
ways to organise money. The
analysts interviewed in the film
encouraged the audience to be bold
in criticising economic systems,
and not be intimidated by people
who insist that there are no viable
alternatives. The film reminds us
that there are creative alternative
ways of dealing with work and
money that create justice, equality
and co-operation, and that if we
know they exist, we have the power
to choose them.
I think that the contributors to this
issue of Movement reveal some of these choices, whilst reflecting on what
it means to live in the imperfect systems we have.
SCM member Sam Slatcher writes about the ‘compelling new narrative’
of the Occupy movement, and recognising the sites of resistance that we
may be called to as Christians.
SCM Friend Richard Bickle writes about the ‘co-operative economy’ that
builds a better world in the here and now, and offers advice on how we can
start our own co-operatives.
and SCM member Thomas Ruston reviews ‘Crisis and Recovery’, a
collection of essays on ethics, economics and justice that offers a view of a
world built on the values of ‘community and creativity’.
Our summer edition of Movement will be about
spirituality and the arts. If you’re interested in writing
an article, or submitting artwork or poetry, please email
editor@movement.org.uk.
jay clark
SCM office: 504F The Big Peg,
120 Vyse Street, The Jewellery
Quarter, Birmingham B18 6NE
Tel: 0121 200 3355
scm@movement.org.uk
www.movement.org.uk
Advertising
scm@movement.org.uk
Tel: 0121 2003355
Movement is published by the
Student Christian Movement
(SCM) and distributed free to all
members, supporters, local groups
and affiliated chaplaincies and
churches.
SCM is a student led movement
seeking to bring together students
of all denominations to explore
the Christian faith in an openminded
and non-judgemental
environment.
SCM staff: National Coordinator
Hilary Topp, Groups Worker
Lizzie Gawen, Project Worker
Chris Wood, Administrator Lisa
Murphy. Editorial Group: Jay Clark,
Tim Stacey, Charlotte Thomson,
Debbie White, Georgie Hewitt,
Stephen Canning, Sam Slatcher.
The views expressed in Movement
magazine are those of the particular
authors and should not be taken
to be the policy of the Student
Christian Movement. Acceptance
of advertisements does not
constitute an endorsement by the
Student Christian Movement.
ISSN 0306-980X
Charity number 1125640
© 2012 Student Christian
Movement
Do you have problems reading
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update
As a ‘movement’ we’re always changing, so this page is
to keep you up to date with all the latest projects and
plans for the future.
This year we’ve seen a revival of Edinburgh SCM and
welcomed new groups including Exeter MethAng and
Aberystwyth MethSoc.
To make room for more grassroots student-led
gatherings, General Council decided to reduce the
number of national gatherings that we run. Students
have been running regional and national gatherings
in Wales (Aberystwyth and Bangor) and in the north
of England and Scotland. For the second year running,
we’ll be running our Summer School to equip, train
and inspire students from all over the country - book
your place soon!
Building on the success of this year’s conference, in
2013 we’ll be running our biggest conference yet:
‘Seeds of Liberation’. We’ll be celebrating the 40th
anniversary of SCM’s 1973 Seeds of Liberation
conference by creating one of the biggest Christian
student conferences on social justice seen in years. We’ll
be having a schools day and a weekend conference
followed by a day of action, so we’ll be recruiting and
training student leaders and volunteers. To find out
more, visit www.movement.org.uk/seedsofliberation.
Finally we have our Annual General Meeting coming
up on 16th July. This is your chance to have your say
about the running of your movement, so come along
and help shape SCM’s future plans.
Want to join the movement? There are lots of ways you
can get involved:
• Become a member - join online now at www.
movement.org.uk/membership
• Find a local group - www.movement.org.uk/
groupmap
• No group at your uni? We can help you start one!
Get in touch with Lizzie our Groups Worker by
calling the office or emailing lizzie@movement.
org.uk
• Come to Summer School! Visit www.movement.
org.uk/summerschool for more info
• Join the masses of worshippers, stewards, artists,
theologians and justice lovers and help us put on
‘Seeds of Liberation’!
• Become a student rep for your uni – be a point of
contact for other students, let people know about
events, help organise regional meet-ups or visit
other SCM groups. Contact Chris for more info
– chris@movement.org.uk
• Want to do more? Get elected onto General
Council and help run the movement. There
are several positions coming up for election in
July. Find out more about how to stand for GC
and what it involves at www.movement.org.uk/
generalcouncil or email the Convenor, Jelly -
generalcouncil@movement.org.uk.
SCM Summer School
16– 20 July 2012,
Felden Lodge, Hemel Hempstead
The SCM 2012 Summer School is your chance to
gain new skills, deepen your faith, share ideas with
students from across the country, and be inspired
to put your faith into action! We’re excited to be
partnering with Christian Aid this year, and with
a line up of speakers including Michael Taylor,
Tina Beattie and Jeremy Clines, Summer School
promises to be an unmissable event!
Movement – Issue 141 Page 3

SCM Conference 2012
NEWS
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
‘With All Your Mind’
Kester Brewin was the speaker at this year’s science and God are one and the same, that our use
conference, and he talked about the time of ‘pause’ of science is a way of glorifying God’s creation here
during university, in which you move away from on Earth and beyond as well!”
your home environment and the world created for
you by your family, to encounter dangerous ideas The new structure of the conference gave more
and ‘brilliant antagonists’. He retold the story of the prominence to student-led workshops in the ‘Scratch
prodigal son as a story of the son’s nerve and failing, University’, an opportunity for people to share their
as he’s lured home to the comfort of his wealthy skills with other participants. As part of this was the
father’s house when the going becomes too tough, ‘Living Library’, an idea designed to create open
describing it as a: ‘a radical parable about economics, and respectful spaces for listening and conversation.
about class and charity and lethargy... about having People volunteered themselves as ‘books’, either on
the spirit to do something and then giving up when topics of their own identity, such as being a disabled
the good life calls’. He advised us to ‘waste time’ person, or a pacifist, or on experiences they have had,
while at university, use the space around study to like being part of a Jesuit Volunteer Community, or
reflect on what we are truly meant to do, and then volunteering in El Salvador. The ‘readers’ and books
keep this knowledge when we come down off the paired off and talked together, and their structured
mountain.
5-10 minute conversations often turned into longer,
organic discussions after the session had ended.
Among the workshops given over the weekend was
Terry Biddington’s arrestingly titled ‘Gods, Guts,
Wombs and Bowls: Imagination and Discernment’
and Andy Cope’s ‘A Mind of Resistance’, reflecting
on his time working in Palestine. Beth Smith
from Campaign Against the Arms Trade also led
a workshop called ‘Kicking Arms Companies off
Campus’ that inspired two participants to take up
disarm campaigns in their own universities.
Participant Romail Robin said: “I was very reassured
by Ruth Bancewicz’s workshop ‘Why Should
a Christian be a Scientist?’ and her book ‘Test of
Faith’ (I highly recommend it, brilliant read!) that
The panel session on the theme ‘With all Your Mind’
saw students discussing the topic alongside Ginny
Jordan, chaplain at Roehampton University and
Father Aethelwine, an Orthdox priest. We are now
looking forward to next year’s conference, ‘Seeds
of Liberation’, which we hope will give Christian
students further opportunities to explore faith,
action and community.
As Romail said of ‘With all your Mind’: “At the end
of it all I had made loads of new friends, the food
was great, York looked awesome - eagerly looking
forward to the next one!”
SCM Regional
gatherings
Aberystwyth MethSoc held a
regional training day on 24th of
March which included workshops
on Christianity and Social Justice,
Reading the Bible and Prayer and
Worship. Bangor MethSoc also
have a weekend gathering planned
for the 27th – 29th April, and there
are plans for a Northern England
and Scotland event. If you want
to organise something in your area,
let us know! We can support you
by running workshops, providing
speaker ideas and connecting you
with other student groups in your
area. Contact Lizzie our Groups
Worker by emailing lizzie@
movement.org.uk
Churches
celebrate
Education Sunday
Churches around the country
celebrated Education Sunday in
February, using resources developed
by SCM and other organisations
on the ecumenical steering group.
This year SCM contributed the
opening paragraphs, encouraging
people to reflect on learning and
service. “In our culture, access to
education is often taken for granted
and education is increasingly seen
as a commodity to be bought and
sold for individual gain. This was not
Jesus’ view of education. Jesus used
parables and stories as an accessible
way to help people see the world
through God’s eyes and challenge
them to act for justice.” To read the
full text go to www.educationsunday.
org
WSCF Staff and Officers meeting
What does it mean to be an ecumenical
organisation in Europe? It was this
thought provoking and challenging
question which took me to the World
Student Christian Federation Europe
(WSCF-Europe) Staff and Officers
Meeting in Bremen in February.
We were made to feel welcome by our
hosts, ESG Bremen. During our week
together we explored a range of topics,
from using social media to a workshop
on the WSCF-Europe journal Mozaik,
where we created our own promotional
video for the magazine. For me, it
was the times of worship that really
brought us together as a community.
Coming from all over Europe and from
a variety of Christian traditions, as we
sang ecumenical hymns in languages
both familiar and unfamiliar to us, we
celebrated our diversity and were united
in our common faith.
SCM Faith in Action
project launched
SCM launched their exciting new Faith
in Action project at conference. Inspired
by the thinking and writing of Dietrich
Bonheoffer, the project will see two paid
interns employed for a year, exploring
the relevance of the Christian faith in
After the conference I feel I have a
better understanding of the work of
WSCF in Europe and globally, and
how SCM in Britain connects with a
wider movement of students who are
“living faith together for justice” (to
borrow from the WSCF-Europe strap
line).
I had a fantastic time in Bremen and
would recommend attending a WSCF-
Europe conference to anyone interested
in exploring how their faith connects
them with a broader movement for
change. Sign up to our e-newsletter at
www.movement.org.uk to hear about
these events and how to apply.
Chris Wood
For more info about WSCF-Europe
you can visit their stylish new website:
http://wscf-europe.org/
today’s society. Interns will be focussing
on a particular justice issue that they are
concerned about, spending part of their
time on placement in an organisation
working these issues, and the rest of their
time sharing their reflections with the
wider movement through regular blog
posts, workshops and on-line resources.
Page 4 Movement – Issue 141
Movement – Issue 141 Page 5

oups
Welcome to our Groups Page. SCM
supports student groups on campuses
and in churches across Britain. You can
find a full list at www.movement.org.
uk/groupsmap
Read on to hear the exciting things
SCM groups have been up to this term.
If you’d like to affiliate your student
group or chaplaincy to SCM, email
Lizzie, our groups worker - lizzie@
movement.org.uk for more information.
Edinburgh SCM
Greetings from Edinburgh! We have
been running weekly Bible studies in
the Chaplaincy, engaging with different
methods of reading the scriptures,
varying the method week to week. Two
of us attended the SCM conference
in February and came back energised
and ready to continue building up the
group. We are excited to see what the
coming months will bring!
Aberystwyth
Methodist Society
At Aberystwyth MethSoc we’re open
to discussing theological questions, big
debates of the day and what our roles
and attitudes should be as Christians.
We’ve recently supported a member
to raise money for Macmillan Cancer
Support by hosting a Promise Auction
– which was a big success! We also
held a day of workshops with SCM for
students in and around Aberystwyth,
and are making plans to visit Bangor
MethSoc. Exciting stuff!
Groups news
round-up
Manchester SCM brought music and
support to the members of Amnesty
International and Student Action for
Refugees, as they braved the drizzle and
slept on the streets of Manchester to
When and where do you meet?
Sundays at 7pm and Thursdays at
7:30pm in the Chaplaincy
Who comes to your meetings?
Mainly Christian students. We run
regular interfaith events and welcome
those of all faiths and none.
What are your meetings like? Sunday
is a social, and we share food cooked
by one of our members. Thursday is
a talk usually on a Christian topic
or from a Christian perspective.
Talks have ranged from ‘Disney and
Religion’ to ‘Women and AIDS’ and
‘Social Justice’.
What have been your highlights
this academic year so far? We began
last June with our annual summer
barbecue, and at the end of the year
raise awareness of the destitution of UK
asylum seekers.
Sheffield SCM ran a series of Lent
discussion and study sessions, and
welcomed Tom from Christian Aid,
who ran a workshop.
Birmingham MethSoc took part in one
of Britain’s largest ever student interfaith
meetings. ‘Around the World in Eight
Faiths’ was organised by Birmingham
University’s Interfaith Association. They
served vegan food to hundreds, as well
as sharing in the riches of many faith
traditions
Durham MethSoc hosted the
annual National Methodist Student
Conference in January, which was
attended by students from Cambridge,
Canterbury and Newcastle.
GROUP PROFILE:
Warwick Christian Focus
attended the Chaplaincy Ball with
other Chaplaincy-based societies.
After the summer holidays, we
welcomed Freshers and spent a
weekend in Gloucester. We’ve held
two interfaith picnics with members
from Muslim and Jewish societies,
been to Laser Quest, and will soon
host a pizza-and-pudding sleepover.
What are you looking forward to in
the Summer term? W e ’ r e
looking forward to the end of year
Chaplaincy Ball and some more
amazing speakers.
How do you tell people about your
group? We use a notice board in the
Chaplaincy.
Do you have any tips for other
groups? Keep organised and have fun
:)
Page 6 Movement – Issue 141
campaigns
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
living below the line
Christian Aid’s
Chris Mead
shares his
experience of
taking up the
‘Live Below the
Line’ challenge.
Last year I decided I’d have a crack at
being sponsored to live below the line
for a week, which meant that I had a
fiver to spend on all my food between
Monday and Friday. Suddenly I was
facing the possibility of blowing my
entire daily budget on a Mars bar and
some Frazzles. Or as I like to call it
‘Chris’ Daily Welcome to Work Fun
Hamper’.
£1 a day is the wage below which a
person or family is defined as living in
extreme poverty. So symbolically I was
acting in solidarity with some of the
world’s poorest citizens. Except that
their £1 had to cover every aspect of
their lives, whereas I still had my Oyster
card, plumbed in toilet and extensive
BluRay collection.
Even with all these advantages I
struggled – I valiantly choked down
5p tins of beans and mysterious frozen
sausages. I endured cup-a-soups and
noodles in a variety of sauces that tasted
like not-quite-chicken. I even gave up
using public transport, television and
computers for the week. It was like
someone had turned the saturation
down on my life and reduced everything
to muddy shades of grey.
But if my laughable, watered-down
approximation of poverty has taught
me anything, it’s this; poverty is a lack
of options. While living below the line
I had a constant headache, I couldn’t
concentrate, I was rude and tired and
awful to be around. It seems to me that
what poverty does is rob people of their
identity, makes them less than they are;
denies them their potential and erodes
their individuality.
And yet so many of these people refuse
to lie down, they fight and they plan
and they achieve these things anyway.
So I’m asking you to live below the line
this year, and to get sponsored for doing
it so that Christian Aid can continue
its ground breaking work to support
partner organisations who face the
worst poverty can throw at them every
day and prevail anyway. Against the
odds and without the aid of Pot Noodle.
Sign up to Live Below the Line here:
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk.
Visit the Christian Aid Collective at:
http://christianaidcollective.org
WSCF Water
Justice campaign
The current ‘Water Justice’ campaign
of WSCF Global is part of a
campaign of advocacy and solidarity
which includes working for gender
rights, and economic and ecological
justice - including mining justice and
indigenous rights.
Although World Water Day was on
the 22nd March, you can still get
involved. The Ecumenical Water
Network created a weekly reflection
resource for lent this year called ‘Seven
Weeks for Water’. Each week had a
different theme, including ‘Thirst for
water - thirst for life’ and ‘A spiritual
basis for an alternative economy’.
These can be found on their website
under the resources page: http://www.
oikoumene.org/en/activities/ewnhome
Move Your Money
Campaign
‘Move Your Money UK’ is a campaign
to spread the message that we can
build a better banking system through
choosing where we bank and invest
our money. It’s based on a successful
US campaign which has resulted in
10 million customer accounts moved
‘from Wall Street to Main Street’.
Students can play an important role
in this kind of action because banks
know that once people start banking
with them, they are more likely to get
divorced than to move their account!
To find out how to pledge to move
your money, visit the MYM website at
www.moveyourmoney.org.uk
Movement – Issue 141 Page 7

Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
interview with
the digitalnun
Sr Catherine is usually known as digitalnun, and is Prioress of the Holy Trinity Monastery
in East Hendred, Oxfordshire. She read history at Cambridge, did Ph.D. research in Spain
and then spent a few years in banking before becoming a nun. This totally non-technical
background probably explains why she loves designing web sites and playing with bits of
code and various gadgets. She is a keen gardener and is rumoured to write poetry in secret.
How did you come to be the ‘digital nun’? I’m actually
just ‘digitalnun’ (lowercase, one word) as I have a ‘rival’
in the States who calls herself The Digital Nun! It goes
back to my first email address in 1996 (?) when I chose
the name because I thought it was easy to remember
and reflected my then work, running the Stanbrook
Abbey Press. It seems just as appropriate today with
my interest in web and app development. Moreover, it
is in tune with something very Benedictine: most of
our work is anonymous, ‘by a Benedictine of X or Y’;
so, a blog by digitalnun, for example, is in keeping with
that tradition.
Can you tell us how you were
called to your vocation? It
crept up on me. As a research
student I had to read the
whole of St Bernard, the
great Cistercian writer of the
12th century, and eventually
I realised that I was more
interested in living monastic
life myself than in researching
it for a Ph.D. I read the Rule of St Benedict and was
captivated by its Christocentric quality. After that, it
was a no-brainer!
At our conference this year, Kester Brewin was
talking about the importance of university as a time
to discover your true intentions and passions. What
advice would you give to students about finding a
vocation? I think it’s important to think about what
you enjoy doing and to pray for guidance. The two are
equally important. You don’t want to spend a lifetime
doing something that is essentially unfulfilling, not
in tune with your deepest aspirations. No amount of
money or ‘success’ can compensate for not living with
integrity. Prayer is part of the discernment process. You
“You don’t want to
spend a lifetime doing
something that is
essentially unfulfilling,
not in tune with your
deepest aspirations.”
have to invite God into your reflections, because God
has a way of surprising us: not this, but that. Being open
to God, sincerely desiring God’s will is, in the end, the
only way of being truly happy in what one does.
Do you think there’s a counter-cultural aspect to
your life as a nun, in terms of holding possessions
in common? I think the whole of a nun’s life is
counter-cultural: obedience, single chastity, the
common life, they are all aspects of living that many
find incomprehensible. They mean that there’s nothing
and no one we can claim as
our own. St Benedict is very
severe on all forms of private
ownership because he saw that
as weakening the focus on the
search for God in community
under a rule and superior.
Have your fundraising efforts
for your new community
house given you any call to
reflect on money? Well, I’ve
always been reflecting on money, having been a banker
before becoming a nun and having served as cellarer
(bursar) since! Fundraising has reinforced my view
that generosity cannot be measured: the widow’s mite
continues to be the basis of all fund-raising for Church
causes.
Can you tell us a bit more about your time as a
banker? Did your faith play a role in your work? There
isn’t much to tell. That was in the long-ago days when
computers were still in their infancy and occupied
whole floors of buildings! But it gave me an interest in
money as an abstraction, and an even greater interest in
the people who deal with money. I was lucky enough
to be in banking in the 1970s when, for example,
the Society of Christian Bankers still had a fairly big
membership and there was a strong sense that absolute
integrity went with the job. A major deal could be done
on a handshake, and no one would renege. I found no
difficulty reconciling my faith with what I was doing
because it was all about being honest and helping others
achieve intrinsically worthwhile goals.
And what is a cellarer? The cellarer is the business
manger of the monastery and in his Rule St Benedict
devotes a whole chapter to him and his work. It is used
quite a lot nowadays as a kind of instruction manual for
management. I blogged about it recently here, http://bit.
ly/HfcnNQ. One of the things that has always impressed
me is the way in which Benedict links humdrum admin
with service of the altar: Everything potentially can
‘contain’ God, just as the altar vessels do.
What do you think about the current economic crisis
and the role of the church? I’m uneasy about some of
the assumptions that both individuals and organisations
make about why we are in a mess economically, just as
I’m uneasy about the unreal expectations many people
have about what they are ‘entitled’ to. I think the social
teaching of the Catholic Church deserves to be better
known. There is more than a century’s worth of quite
radical thinking about economics and the rights and
duties of citizens which I myself find helpful. What
I find rather less convincing are some of the recent
pronouncements of leading priests and ministers. I stood
on the sidelines for the Occupy London movement, for
example, because I thought the analysis offered by the
protestors and some of the Christians who were most
vociferous in their support was, frankly, inadequate. That
said, I am very unhappy about the greed and selfishness
that seems to have come to predominate in many of our
financial institutions.
How do you argue against the idea that technology
is a distraction from the ‘real world’? Technology
CAN be a distraction, just as anything or anyone can
be; but I don’t agree that there is an inherent opposition
between the real and virtual worlds. We are, or should
be, the same people in each, only we use different ways
of communicating.
At the Church and Media conference last year
you spoke about website hospitality. Do you have
any advice on making media strategies as a whole
hospitable? I think it’s important to be aware of what
web users are looking for rather than emphasising what
may be of most interest to ourselves. It goes without
saying that web sites, apps and so on should be userfriendly:
easy to navigate, quick to load, well organized
and attractive. That doesn’t mean incorporating all the
latest gimmicks: it means thinking through the purpose
of what we’re doing and then setting about it. What we
don’t say or do is as important as what we do.
And finally, who should we be following on twitter?
A good mix of people you agree with and people you
disagree with. Apart from that, follow your fancy.
Interview by Charlotte Gibson.
Page 8 Movement – Issue 141
Movement – Issue 141 Page 9

a group
ectio
a Bible
Divina
ina, you’ll
ome find
ent easier
le than the
pecially if
it before.
agree on
e session.
hen guide
the stages
ne thing
ar in mind
ays seem
tually are,
o time 3-5
silence to
If you’ve ever visited a Benedictine monastery, you might have heard
about the monastic practice of lectio divina. This practice, which
literally translates as divine reading, is by no means exclusive to
monastic communities. Many individuals and groups find it a useful
way of praying with scripture. It provides a slow, contemplative way
of meditating on the Bible and listening to what God is saying to
you personally through the text. It can be done alone or in groups.
The process of
Lectio Divina in a group
Before beginning a group session of lectio divina, you’ll need to
agree on a Bible passage to use. Some find the New Testament
easier and more accessible than the Old Testament especially if you
have not done it before. You’ll also need to agree on someone to
lead the session. This person will then guide the group through the
stages of lectio divina. One thing for the leader to bear in mind is
that silences always seem longer than they actually are, so you might
like to time 3-5 minutes for each silence to allow people to think,
pray and share.
Reading/Listening
When starting, it’s important to find a quiet place where you won’t
be disturbed. First, allow people to find a comfortable position,
become silent and start to focus on their breathing. Breathing slowly
helps to calm you down before you read or listen for the first time.
Encourage people to listen to the sounds in the background around
them. Some like to use a word or phrase as a ‘centering prayer’
during this time. Read through the passage once slowly. Allow a
time of silence and then ask people to share, without elaboration,
one word or a short phase that attracts them.
Reflection
Ask another person to read through the passage and invite people
to reflect on how the passage is speaking to their life today. Again,
allow a period of silence and time for people to share briefly.
Calling
Ask a third person to read through the passage and invite members
of the group to think about what God is calling them to do through
this passage. Allow a time for silence and sharing.
Resting
Finally, encourage people to rest in God’s presence either with a
final reading of the passage or another time of silent prayer. A short
concluding prayer is a good way to end.
Suggested passages on the theme of money:
• Treasures in Heaven, Matthew 6:19-24
• The Widow’s Offering, Mark 12:41-44
• Love of Money, 1 Timothy 3-10 and 17-19
• Sowing Generously, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Andy, Southampton SCM
Reproduced from the SCM Little Book of Prayer
Page 10 Movement – Issue 141
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
keepinghopealiv
Keeping alive after eviction
One of the most poignant images taken of the evictions
outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday, 28th February
was a photo of a protester praying on the steps of
the cathedral as three police officers forcibly try and
remove him. His eyes are closed and hands together
in prayer; one police officer is trying to prise his hands
apart, while others prepare to haul him up.
To me it symbolises the sorrow and disappointment
of so much going on in the world. A face that carries
the sadness and worry of a world where capitalism is
left unquestioned. The more I look at this photo, the
more the charm of protest gives way to the reality
of confronting neoliberalism. In a symbolic way, this
moment is the closest the protest at St Paul’s found
itself to being in solidarity with the real suffering of
the world. A face hidden by clasped hands praying for
the courage to remain hopeful, not to forget the others,
the 99%, and in doing so inadvertently investing in the
richness of an alternative world. The refusal to fight
back, to act violently, is a refusal to let an ideology
of violence characterise this alternative narrative. For
the struggle is not against the flesh, but against the
principalities and powers that be.
Following the eviction, the question isn’t whether the
Occupy movement has a future, but what kind of future
– I want to reflect on keeping alive a spirituality of
creative possibility and the role of faith in the Occupy
Movement.
The character of the Global Occupy Movement has
a unique internal logic that mustn’t be overlooked.
In many ways it is this logic that will ensure that the
idea precedes the eviction of the physical site of the
protest. While there were a few inevitable scuffles on
the night of eviction, on the whole the movement
retained its credibility by its refusal to act with violence.
In the scriptures, we’re reminded that the struggle is
not against “flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers” (Ephesians 6:12). Moreover, we must
remember the great lengths ordinary folk went to to
ensure all agreements were made by general consensus,
creating a radically inclusive space that avoided
hierarchy, and remained politically open to allow for
vision, dream and prophecy. As followers of Christ, I
believe we can be encouraged by, and find grounds to
participate with, the logic of a global movement calling
for greater inclusion and a true ‘democratic awakening’,
to borrow Cornel West’s phrase.
Movement – Issue 141 Page 11

Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
Nicola Sleep was part of the Disabled Students’ Campaign in Cambridge.
She’s a member of SCM and lives in Birmingham.
fterevictionsimple living AND
equal access
At the church I attend we’ve been re-reading the
opening chapters of John’s gospel. Every week I’m
amazed at the unwillingness of the religious leaders to
embrace the new things Jesus is doing. For example,
declaring a time when Jews and Samaritans will neither
worship on the mountain top or in Jerusalem but in
spirit and truth ( John 4: 21 – 24), or healing a lame
man on the Sabbath demonstrating the higher laws
of love over man made rules ( John 5: 17 – 18). These
examples not only contravened some of the laws of
the time, but also made the
righteous very uncomfortable.
Do we not see this hesitancy
today to embrace the new
things God may be doing? On
the horizon, traces of another
world emerge – a Kingdom
“from another place” ( John
18:36) – the unexpected, the
surprising, the confusing, but also the hopeful. We must
be careful not to miss opportunities and gifts from the
One who restores and transforms all things.
Secondly, thinking or even preaching ‘incarnational
theology’ is one thing, but exploring the practical
manifestations of ‘incarnation’ requires a deep
imagination: a prophetic imagination, to quote Walter
Brueggemann, of realising where God is moving and
what possibilities His spirit might be opening up. But
imagination also helps us to think beyond the protest
outside St. Pauls to imagine other forms of occupying
physical space, as well as symbolic or other imagined
spaces. While having a protest turn up at the doors of
the Church couldn’t be a more opportune moment to
encourage the Church to engage deeply with social
“We must be ready to accept
other sites of resistance which
God might be calling us to,
recognising Christ at the margins,
beyond the doors of the Church.”
issues, we must also be ready to accept other sites of
resistance which God might be calling us to, recognising
Christ at the margins, beyond the doors of the Church.
If we think of current events in terms of visibility and
invisibility, we might say now is a time of temporary
invisibility, as the movement goes underground: but the
idea of a ‘compelling new narrative’ cannot be evicted.
If we believe in the Kingdom Come, we can put hope
in acts such as the Occupy Movement – not in the
protests as an ‘end’ in
itself – but in possibilities
such as these that point
to a more sustainable
and just world order. Our
hope isn’t necessarily in
the idea of re-occupying
the same site in London
– although this may be
a way to keep hopeful – but rather in the idea of reinscribing
a new narrative that seeks to affect change
in a variety of different ways and at a series of different
sites (the body, the soul, the family, the church, the
bank, the city, public policy, community spirit). This
means emphasising both the tackling of indifference
and apathy, as well as influencing substantial societal
and governmental change, and encouraging the church
to not be silent on issues that affect the wellbeing of the
marginalised and dispossessed.
Sam Slatcher is living in Durham, studying for his
Masters in Faith and Globalisation. As well as being
active in the Durham SPEAK group, Sam enjoys
song writing, meditation, mountain walking, ale
drinking and discovering abandoned railway lines.
See Sally Quinn, “Cornel West Keeps the Faith for Occupy Wall Street,” The Washington Post, available at http://washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/
post/cornel-west-keeps-the-faith-for-occupy-wall-street/2011/11/10/gIQAZxhk8M_blog.html
Brueggemann, W. The Prophetic Imagination. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1978)
Fraser, G. “Occupy London’s eviction is a failure for the church, not the camp” Guardian, 31st January 2012, available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
commentisfree/2012/jan/31/occupy-eviction-st-pauls-cathedral
Living simply and on a low budget can
be challenging at the best of times. As
a disabled Christian, money and simple
living become more complex still. When
one piece of essential mobility equipment
can cost thousands of pounds, it’s hard
not to be conscious of the importance of
money in equal living for disabled people.
Despite very much acknowledging
disabled people’s fundamental rights to
the support and adjustments they need
to live on equal terms with non-disabled
people, I sometimes find myself trying to
justify some of my own disability-related
costs to myself or others. I think this is in
part because we are often socialised into
believing that we should not spend more
than we earn.
This socialisation assumes non-disability
as standard, however. The term ‘earn’
also of course implies a link between
deservedness and money. We are at
no point taught that in order to access
society on equal terms some people’s
living costs are far higher than others.
This is a failing of our society, and one
which feeds harsh judgements about the
seeming ‘extravagances’ of many benefit
claimants common in some sections of
the media.
The additional costs of living as a disabled
person vary considerably depending upon
an individual’s impairment and access
needs, but there are almost always some
additional costs. Physical impairments
which affect someone’s mobility tend
to result in very high additional costs.
In order to get around independently,
for example, many wheelchair users do
not simply need to buy a wheelchair,
but also need to buy a car big enough to
store their chair, and often need to have
a hoist installed in their car to lift their
wheelchair in and out.
Similarly, the costs of personal assistance
for people with sensory or mobility
impairments and chronic illnesses are
very high. Particularly in order to live
alone, many disabled people need at least
some personal assistance each week. This
ranges from interpreters for deaf people
to domestic assistance for those with
mobility impairments, chronic illnesses,
or both. If people employ PAs themselves
they’ll likely encounter far more costs
than an hourly rate of PA, such as paying
for employers’ liability insurance.
Besides these perhaps more obvious
additional costs for disabled people, there
are many unforeseen and unforeseeable
extra costs. Disabled people, for example,
need to spend more on food than their
non-disabled counterparts. This can be
due to physical issues with preparing
and cooking food, or due to issues with
motivation or fatigue. Both of these can
result in having to pay more for readyprepared
food.
Added to the many and varied additional
costs of living for disabled people is the
fact that some disabled people cannot
work full time. Research by the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation in 2004 showed
that a disabled person working 20 hours
a week on minimum wage and in receipt
of relevant benefits had £118 of unmet
living costs per week if they had lowmedium
needs. If they had medium-high
needs this figure rose to £189 of unmet
living costs per week.
Disabled students also encounter
considerably higher costs than nondisabled
students. They frequently need
assistive software, one to one study skills
support, ergonomic seating, and adapted
hardware. Currently Disabled Students’
Allowances cover these costs, but in this
climate of cuts that may soon change.
My own sense of unease at some of my
outgoings is also due to my feeling that
as a Christian I should not value money
too highly or spend too much of it, and
that I should live simply where possible.
However I feel that it is very important
to recognise the inclusivity of the gospels
and that disabled people have an equal
right to full participation in society. My
struggle with understanding exactly what
living simply means for me will no doubt
continue, but I’ve come to the conviction
that it should involve fully recognising
and meeting my disability-related needs
and their associated costs.
Page 12 Movement – Issue 141 Movement – Issue 141 Page 13

Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
the real jubilee
A movement for financial justice
Tim Jones is policy officer at Jubilee Debt Campaign, part of a global movement demanding
freedom from the slavery of unjust debts and a new financial system that puts people first.
This year the Queen is celebrating her 60th ‘jubilee’.
But the original meaning of jubilee had a lot more to
do with righting injustice than an extra bank holiday
and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace.
The word jubilee comes from the Jewish scriptures,
and occurred every fifty years. Rather than lavishing
expensive vehicles on a monarch, in the jubilee year
everyone took the whole year off from working the
land - not just one day - living simply off surpluses
from previous years. All debts between people were to
be cancelled. All slaves were to be released. All land
was to be returned to the original sharing between the
Hebrew tribes.
The idea was to try to restore a sense of equilibrium
into the economy. People working on the land got into
debt when harvests failed. To feed their families they
borrowed from their neighbours – supposedly without
being charged interest, though many found ways to
get round this law. As debts accumulated and families
became unable to pay, they had to sell off their land to
their creditors.
Rent was charged on the sold land, creditors got richer,
debtors poorer, and debts were likely to increase.
The first known ‘jubilees’ took place in Mesopotamia
3,000 years ago. As David Graeber sets out in his book
‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’, farmers often became
stuck in debt and had to sell their children into debt
slavery. So periodically rulers would cancel the debts.
This can be interpreted as either an act of benevolence,
or a safety valve to prevent economic collapse or violent
overthrow of the lenders.
Debts have continually brought economic chaos within
and between countries. During the Wall Street crash
and great depression in the early 1930s, 24 governments
defaulted on paying their debts.
This was followed by a period of relative stability after
the second world war. From 1945 to the mid-1970s, just
four countries had to default on their debt payments. A
global system of regulating loans and debts across the
world existed; limiting the movement of capital across
borders.
This system broke down in the 1970s and the current
economic system - what we might call neo-liberal
capitalism - began to emerge. The US abandoned the
gold standard and began printing far more dollars.
Controls on capital were removed. At the same time,
oil price increases led to large amounts of ‘petrodollars’
from oil exporters being put into western banks. These
dollars were lent across the world - huge amounts going
to Latin American and African countries.
At the start of the 1980s, the same US banks who had
lent the money out, increased interest rates in order
to control inflation. The prices of commodities fell - a
problem for the many Southern countries dependent on
these commodities for export. Many Latin American
and African countries were unable to pay their loans
to the bankers - the ‘third world debt crisis’ was born.
Rather than bankruptcy or some form of jubilee,
the powerful pushed for so-called ‘bailouts’. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank
lent money, effectively repaying the banks, and simply
transferring the debts. At the same time they insisted
on structural adjustment; austerity, and rapid radical
deregulation and liberalisation. The result; countries
lost their ability to make democratic decisions about
their economic policy. Latin American and African
countries saw their economies decline for the next
twenty years, and poverty and inequality increase.
With continued deregulation across the world, loans
and debts between countries continued to increase.
And so the debt crises continued from Mexico, to
Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia, then Russia and
Argentina, and a few years ago reached the US, UK and
the Eurozone.
The Jubilee 2000 campaign was launched in the late-
1990s calling for a debt free start for 52 countries - a
jubilee that was to be declared in the year 2000. It was
based on the work of activists from indebted countries
who saw that the loans had done little or nothing to
benefit ordinary people, but had created a debt which
was bleeding their countries of resources.
The campaign had some impact. From 2005, thirty-two
countries, mainly in Africa, began to have significant
amounts (around $130 billion) of debt cancelled. But
to qualify, governments had to keep following IMF and
World Bank neo-liberal policies.
Other governments took matters into their own hands.
In 2001, Argentina, in the middle of a debt crisis,
defaulted on its debts, devalued its exchange rate and
brought back controls on capital. After a few months
of turmoil, its economy grew strongly.
Today we live in a world of huge debts. The debt owed
by everyone in the UK – individuals, companies, the
government – is 950% of our annual income. Debts
owed between countries are large and growing
rapidly. The total debt owed to foreigners by the most
impoverished countries still stands at $930 billion, an
increase of $300 billion since 2006.
Whilst slavery is formally abolished, in many parts of
the world the burden of debts still denies people their
freedom. A family with a large mortgage and negative
equity are trapped where they live. Deeply indebted
countries, from Greece to Jamaica, have their economies
run by foreign powers. Land and capital have become
increasingly owned by a few at the top.
A real jubilee would be to stop and examine what
sort of society we are living in, and to choose one in
which everyone’s needs are met. In a modern context
this would mean radically reducing debts, regulating
finance and controlling the banks to ensure they are
run in the public interest.
Across Europe, this vision is inspiring people again.
Campaigners are calling for debt audits - public
assessments of an economy’s debt so that ordinary
people can decide how just these debts are and whether
they should be paid. The idea comes from the global
South, but debt audit movements have now been set
up in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France.
Activists in the UK are now considering following their
own debt audit campaign.
The call for a jubilee goes well beyond a call for charity.
It is a call for justice. Just as it mobilised people 15
years ago to combat debt slavery in the global South,
we believe it can mobilise people now to combat debt
slavery everywhere, to challenge the type of financerun
economies we live in and to restore the notion that
we should all have a say in how our economy works.
For more information see:
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
www.redpepper.org.uk/behind-the-bankers-mask/
Page 14 Movement – Issue 141
Movement – Issue 141 Page 15

Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
Cooperatives
Build a
Better World
Mention co-operatives, and often the first thing
people think of is ‘the Co-op’ – the corner shop
at the end of their street, the Co-operative
Bank with its ground-breaking ethical policies,
or perhaps the local undertaker!
All these are examples of genuine co-operative
enterprise, businesses that are owned and
democratically controlled by their members,
but they are also part of a global movement
for economic justice that seeks to place the
control of enterprises and their profits in the
hands of the people who matter most – their
employees, customers, or the producers of basic
commodities.
As Christians, co-operation offers us a way
of doing business that is based on a clear set
of values including equality, equity, solidarity,
democracy and collective self-help that we can
relate to the life and teachings of Jesus. Rather
than waiting for someone else to change the
world for us, for a single revolutionary moment
of change, co-ops are about building a new
world in the here and now. More than that,
they offer a practical means of reconciliation by
providing for the needs we have in common
as human beings (food, shelter, employment,
dignity and self-respect), rather than dividing
us through differing political or religious
identities that can be used to sow the seeds of
conflict.
In the UK the large customer-owned co-ops
are visible on virtually every high street, but
both here and around the world much of the
‘Co-operative Economy’ is almost unknown
beyond its immediate members. So that the
Co-operative Movement starts to get the
recognition it deserves as a vital part of the
economic and social fabric of communities the
world over, the Unoted Nations has designated
2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives
under the slogan: ‘Co-operatives – together we
build a better world’.
In countries such as Canada, the UK
and across Scandinavia, co-operatives
are widely recognised for their role in
bringing Fairtrade marked goods to a
mainstream market, whether that be
through co-operative supermarkets and
wholefood shops, or worker co-ops like
Equal Exchange. What is less known
is that 75% of Fairtrade certified goods
come from small-scale producers in the
developing world who are organised
through local and regional producer
co-operatives without which they
would have no route to market. Shared
Interest, a Newcastle based ethical
investment co-operative, also plays a
key role by operating a revolving loan
fund which provides up-front finance to
allow Fairtrade producers to buy seeds
and raw materials at the beginning of
the season and repay the loan only when
the goods have been sold (see www.
shared-interest.com).
Taking this ‘co-operative’ approach to
Fairtrade one stage further, over the past
couple of years I’ve been involved in
founding a unique new kind of Fairtrade
business, Revolver Co-operative (see
www.revolver.coop). The first unusual
aspect of our business is that we’re a coop
that’s been spun out from a private
company – successful Wolverhampton
based indie record label, Revolver
Records.
We are a multi-stakeholder co-op with
membership open to everyone in the
supply-chain from developing world
producers and their co-operatives,
through our employees, retailers and
distributors, right up to the consumer.
Inspired by our Christian faith, we
believe that this is the only truly just
way to organise the international trade
in complex commodity markets.
Since the international financial crisis
began in 2007/8, most conventional
businesses have found that times
are hard – fewer customers with less
money to spend, loan-finance becoming
Just Film:
for a Fairer World
In March 2010 a group of friends in Birmingham (including SCM Friends,
members and staff ) launched the Birmingham Co-operative Film Society to
show films that raise important issues of social justice, peace, international
development, the environment and co-operation. Films are screened each
month in central Birmingham and everything shown has been nominated and
voted on by the members of the film co-op. There is also a Manchester Film
Co-op (www.manchesterfilm.coop) and there are moves afoot to establish film
co-ops in other places across the UK. www.justfilm.coop
increasingly expensive and hard to find,
and a general lack of confidence in the
future. In contrast, the ‘Co-operative
Economy’ has held up well and actually
found opportunities to increase its
credibility and grow its scale and impact.
At the start of the crisis in the UK,
the member-owned mutual and cooperative
financial institutions were
notable in their resilience compared
with their capitalist competitors. The
Co-operative Bank has seen growing
market-share and profits, and the Credit
Unions (community based financial cooperatives
offering a range of savings
and loan services – see www.abcul.org)
have also performed well as they have
promoted a model of ‘financial inclusion’
that reaches out beyond the confines of
the traditional ‘poor person’s bank’ image
to a mainstream market.
Recessions also tend to be times when
people find themselves out of work, or
underemployed, and may be willing
to work together to form new co-ops
providing themselves with employment,
or their communities with badly needed
services. In the 1840s it was unemployed
hand-loom weavers in Rochdale who
formed one of the first really successful
and widely replicated co-operatives.
Commercial property and secondhand
equipment are also often available
relatively cheaply, so this could actually
be a good time to go into business!
(Continued on page 20...)
Starting Your Own Co-Operative
There has never been a better time to start a new co-operative in the UK.
Thanks to funding from the Co-operative Group, the largest co-operative in
the country, specialist advice and support is available free of charge wherever
you live via The Co-operative Enterprise Hub (www.co-operative.coop/
enterprisehub). There is a simple on-line form to fill in and finance is also
available from The Co-operative Loan Fund and from specialist lenders like
Co-operative & Community Finance (www.coopfinance.coop). This includes a
special loan package for small housing co-ops that want to buy a shared house.
Page 16 Movement – Issue 141
Movement – Issue 141 Page 17

eviews
BOOK
Crisis and
Recovery: Ethics,
Economics and
Justice. Edited by
Rowan Williams
and Larry Elliott
Economy seems to dominate the lives
of people in society; people give up
their time in return for the capacity to
acquire products necessary to create a
home, to provide for family and to build
their life. As Rowan Williams points
out, economy is derived from the Greek
‘oikonomia’ which literally means ‘law of
the house’ or to put it in vernacular terms
‘housekeeping’. Economy is implicitly
the organisation of resources to allow
the expression of human creativity in its
fullness. Rowan Williams’ contribution
to this anthology is to postulate our
society as having experienced a crisis -
literally a turning point - where instead
of resources allowing the flourishing
of human creativity, human creativity
is exploited to enable the growth of
resources. Accompanying this crisis
has been the transition of economic
metaphors within language (e.g. the
‘personnel’ department has become
‘human resources’ and people have
become the customer or client of
business) along with the abdication of
responsibility within economic affairs.
Economy has been turned on its head.
The title of the book, ‘Crisis and
Recovery: Ethics, Economics and
Justice’, implies an exhaustive and
ambitious project to analyse the cause
and solution to the recent recession,
perhaps an overreaching task for its
editors, an economic writer and an
Archbishop. The sceptic may suggest
that economic analysis is the preserve
of economists and financiers, whose
theorems lead to a trickle down benefit
for society. However, when fluctuations
of a speculative market based economy
results in 8.7% of the British population
being unemployed, 22% of 16-24 year
olds being unable to find work and
cuts to vital social, public and health
services, the public are entitled to
ask fundamental questions about the
culture in which economics operate.
Consequently, ethical, political and
theological perspectives on economy
are no longer marginal but central and
integral to any penetrating analysis
of how society generates and utilises
money. Economic practise cannot be
separated from the consequences the
economy has upon the most vulnerable
people in society.
Were this just another evaluative
description of the financial collapse
in 2007 and 2008 the book would be
redundant, but ‘Crisis and Recovery’
adopts an innovative approach
in advocating responsibility and
accountability of the economic system
to society. Through recognising the
porous nature of economics, this book
looks at the neglected topics of ethics
and virtue in economic debate. As
such it de-mystifies economic practice
and challenges its readership to break
with the apathy that has tolerated
irresponsible and destructive behaviour
within the financial world.
Mercifully, the book is not an extended
diatribe against specific political parties
or businesses. That would only serve
to alienate the readership from the
business and financial world with which
there needs to be a greater synergy
with society’s citizens. This anthology
creates a necessary dialectic through the
contributions of its authors from Marxist
and capitalist perspectives, and ideas
drawn from ethical, sociological, political
and economic backgrounds. There is
a necessary evaluation of the erosion
of the Keynesian model of economics,
which was propagated in the wake of
calls from Roosevelt’s administration for
investment which was accountable to
the state following the Great Depression
of 1929, in favour a ‘neo-classical’ model
of economics whose central tenets are
laissez-faire and speculative investment.
In addition, there is a balance between
critical and analytic voices of current
economic practice (namely Adam Lent,
John Reynolds, Robert Skidelsky et al.)
along with a proportioned debate on the
cultural assumptions of politics exercised
in the shadow of market forces, and on
the values that should support society
(drawn from Zac Goldsmith MP,
Phillip Bond, Will Hutton, Johnathan
Rutherford and Andrew Whittaker).
This book did leave me yearning for a
deeper and more radical economic model
where we discern how as individuals we
could embody values which support an
economy of community and creativity.
However, the books creates its unique
niche in drawing together voices from
an array of perspectives to challenge
the assumption that businesses are
‘too big to fail’ and too big to change.
An unwillingness to change is a
commitment to cultural stagnation and
poverty. A wise man once wrote, ‘It is
only on the brink that we discover the
capacity to change and the resources for
growth.’
Thomas William Ruston
BOOK
‘Jesus: An
Historical
Approximation’
by José Pagola
As someone who engages regularly with
the academic issues raised by ‘historical
Jesus research’ I approached Pagola’s
bestselling introduction to Jesus,
translated from the original Spanish,
with a complex web of expectations and
ideas. Yet many readers, even committed
Christians, will be treading new ground
on this scholarly mine-field. What does
Pagola offer to them?
A Catholic priest and committed
historian, he attempts to provide a
portrait of Jesus as he lived in history,
based on a reading of the principal
sources (the texts of the New Testament,
contemporaries) and of a synthesis of
the work of other academics in the
field. The range of sources is impressive,
and Pagola maintains a fastidiously
balanced approach, encompassing the
views of the most liberal scholars (look
up ‘Jesus Seminar’) to the moderately
conservative (Dunn, Wright). Usefully,
he offers clear references to the views
cited, and a detailed bibliography, for
the committed. As such, this work
makes for a good introduction to a
rocky conceptual landscape. Pagola’s
democratic approach means that when
one wishes to query his reconstruction,
the way of further enquiry is completely
open.
So what does this volume do? The early
21st century has seen a proliferation of
studies in the life, teachings and person
of Jesus, many of which are highly
accessible and innovative. In the last
15 years, Jesus has been seen through
the lens of temple theology (Perrin),
as a middle-Easterner (Bailey), or as
radical prophet (Borg), to name but a
few. Even Pope Benedict has offered us
a compelling portrait of Jesus, drawing
heavily on the interpretations of the
early Christian theologians. Pagola,
however, aims at something rather
different, drawing the reader into a
narrative of Jesus’ life, starting from his
formative experiences in rural Galilee
through to his itinerant preaching and
onwards to the cross – and beyond.
The translator has made Pagola’s prose
flourish beyond its native medium and
the intensity with which one is drawn
into the most beautiful and illustrative
portraits of Jesus’ life not only make
many of the historical facts come alive
in the imagination, it also reveals a
scholar who is not afraid to view Jesus
through the eyes of a prayerful and
intellectually-engaged faith. The result
is an approximation of Jesus which will
be enlightening for many, even if some
of Pagola’s conclusions demand further
investigation. The narrative format
has much to commend it, and the
central investigation is complemented
well by a set of appendices including
archaeological, literary and
methodological issues (pp.453-503)
which aid technical discussions such as
chronology, an especially useful aid for
anyone who finds themselves perplexed
by such complexities.
Like any historian, Pagola is not
uniformly convincing. The final section, a
welcome discussion of resurrection faith,
has difficulty elucidating the relationship
between the life of Jesus in history and
the subsequent faith of the disciples in
the early Christian community, often
resorting to ambiguous and generalised
language; the New Testament texts
apparently do not imply ‘that the risen
one has appeared as a visible figure, but
that he is acting within his disciples,
creating conditions in which they can
perceive his presence’ (pp.397-8). I was
left crying out for further clarity on
the nature of the resurrection event:
were Jesus’ followers capable of such an
understanding of ‘resurrection’? What
does it mean that Pagola includes
the account as part of his historical
approximation? As such, one is left to
wonder whether more needs to be said
about issues like the historicity of the
gospels, the contemporary texts, the
process of early narrative transmission,
as well as the underlying hermeneutical
position of the author – these would be
complementary to the other excellent
chapters. Most importantly, in times of
cultural and theological upheaval such
as ours, it is incumbent upon Biblical
theologians to help us understand these
issues by arguing their cases clearly and
boldly. Only then will our communities
be equipped to preach the good news of
Jesus.
This said, Pagola himself only claims to
offer an approximation, and we will do
very well to take up his invitation to look
at Jesus afresh, worshipping the risen
Lord with all our minds as we do.
Sam Gibson
Page 18 Movement – Issue 141 Movement – Issue 141 Page 19

eviews
Movement Issue 141 summer 2012
groovement
FILM
THE TAKE
Back in 2001 Argentina’s economy
collapsed overnight. The effects were
devastating on the people there, with
employers suddenly unable to pay their
workforce. Families that were living
comfortably were suddenly plunged
into poverty and uncertainty. With
manufacturing plants lying empty, a few
groups of suddenly unemployed workers
across Argentina moved in and occuied
the factories where they used to work,
staying there day and night, seeking to
restart the machinery and production of
goods.
This is an inspiring story of what can be
achieved through occupation, initiative
and persistence. It focuses on the story
of the workers at an auto-parts factory
near Buenos Aires as they join together
to form a workers co-operative. Each
worker is equal and they all have a shared
responsibility for their work. Together
they set the machines going, and begin
to produce and sell goods again.
That is just the start. They face many
challenges along the way, especially from
the factory owner who is keen to stop
them using his property. Seeking support
from his friends in political positions he
wants to evict them through the courts.
All this takes place at an interesting
time politically, with Argentina gearing
up for presidential elections. Together
the workers struggle to fight for justice,
learning with other co-operatives, and
looking to influence politics from the
ground up.
As we celebrate the International Year
of Co-operatives in 2012, this film
documents well the positive benefits that
co-operatives can bring to the economy
and society. It is a story of inspiration
and frustration, of possibility and reality,
which captures beautifully a snapshot of
a story that is ongoing. It is a story of
groups of individuals joining together
to show that there is an alternative way
to do business - a way that is based on
justice and equality for all.
Heather Leppard is an SCM member
currently living in the Jesuit Volunteer
Community in Birmingham and is
a member of Birmingham Film Cooperative.
Cooperatives Build
a Better World
(...Continued from page 17)
In the US, Canada and parts of South-
East Asia, student co-operatives are an
important part of campus life, providing
everything from housing to bikerepairs,
stationery and bookstores, and
collective food purchasing. The North
American Students of Co-operation
(NASCO) provide representation,
training and support services for student
co-ops in the US and Canada and their
excellent web-site is well worth a look
– www.nasco.coop Here, an exciting
recent development is the emergence
of a network of student food co-ops
supported by Sustain, the alliance for
better food and farming, working with
People & Planet – see www.sustainweb.
org/foodcoops/students. Hopefully
this might be the beginning of a much
bigger student co-op movement in the
UK.
Co-ops can also be great fun! As well as
the Birmingham Film Co-op, I’m also a
member of the Jemima D Narrowboat
Co-operative, through which the 12
members share the ownership and use
of a canal boat. We get at least 2 weeks
use during the summer and it makes
for relatively cheap and eco-friendly
holidays!
For more information on the Cooperative
Movement come to Manchester
this October - the International Year
of Co-operatives 2012 will culminate
in a free international exhibition and
fringe festival from 29th October – 2nd
November called ‘Co-operatives United’.
www.machester2012.coop. Also see
www.radicalroutes.org.uk (a network of
co-ops working for social change), www.
uk.coop (Co-operatives UK), www.
thenews.coop (the global news hub) and
www.ica.coop (the International Cooperative
Alliance).
Richard Bickle is an SCM Friend based in
Birmingham. He is Secretary of the UK
Society for Co-operative Studies, active
in the Midlands Co-operative Society,
Secretary and co-founder of Birmingham
Film Co-op, co-founder of Revolver Cooperative
and Secretary of the Midlands
(Western Region) Co-operative Party. He
is a graduate of the Universities of East
Anglia and Birmingham, and works as
a freelance co-operative researcher and
development worker. richardbickle@
cooptel.net
Page 20 Movement – Issue 141
Across
8. To lean, bird keeps left (4)
9. Headless excitable investment strategy (5)
10. Discuss losing hospital department –
as a result of this? (4)
11. Partially unelectable Ed sadly suffers (5)
12. A rebel at play and able to be valued (8)
13. Generate English sex (8)
15. Currency collection taken by form of ape (6)
17. Automatic cessation of payments (7)
19. Athens, perhaps, as explored by Marx? (7)
22. A ‘switched on’ entrepreneur? (6)
24. Local Government centre is to pull everybody after
new hospital (4,4)
26. Poor metal – I’m at Hull, unfortunately (8)
28. A double sign? (6)
30. Graduate briefly in chemical compound class (4)
31. Bar made of this alone (5)
32. Break left in a fix (4)
Down
1. Persian currency experiment losing face (4)
2. Basque separatists surround this French Queen
(and the rest) (8)
3. Australian audibly worshipped when forced (6)
4. They lend an unsavoury air to capitalism (7)
5. Nightmarish vision of the future displayed in
somebody’s topiary (8)
6. Slippery slide, swallowing one’s values (6)
7. Famous brother sounds competent (4)
14. In French, surrounded by agreeable gesture infinitely
(2,3)
16. To be behind in route (5)
18. Most tall and thin kites break under middle of plane
(8)
20. At home, person followed by energy but lacking
compassion (8)
21. Keynesian agents? (7)
Cartoon by Raine A. Herbert
A radical message can be read around the edge of the grid.
23. Peace I found in cured meat (6)
25. Conducting is heartless finger-waving (6)
27. Tiller made of hard wood (4)
29. Spinning byproduct made from Nitrogen and black
gold (4)
Crossword Answers, 140
Across
1. Instances
6. Yawns
9. Moo
10. Sternum
11. Until
12. Pal
13. Mishap
14. Lumbago
16. Iffy
17. Ritornello
22. As if
25. Chimera
26. Violin
27. Tis
30. Laicise
31. Ado
32,5. Still Small Voice
33. Navigates
Down
1. Insomniac
2, 15. Seeds of
Liberation
3,20. Annual
Conference
4. Camp
7,6. With All Your
Mind
8. Salvo
18. Offenders
19. Pedestal
21. Nairobi
23. Soloist
24,32. Living It Out
25. Coins
28. Slav

SCM needs
1000 friends!
SCM is thriving. We’re supporting
a growing network of student
groups through visits, resources
and regional study and training
days. Next year we’re planning
the biggest ecumenical student
conference for 40 years, and hoping
to involve students from SCM’s
around the world.
We do all this with the equivalent
of 3 full time staff covering the
whole of England, Scotland and
Wales. We could do a lot more.
To continue our vital work we
need to find 1000 people who will
commit to support us through
regular giving each month over the
next year.
This will help us to:
• Campaign on issues of concern
to SCM members
• Run ‘Seeds of Liberation 2013’
- our biggest conference for 40
years
• Work with international
students in the UK
• Keep in touch with our
members and supporters
through producing Movement
magazine.
• Reach out to more students at
more universities
• Employ an extra member of
staff to support groups and
members
SCM currently has just over 200
Friends who support us through
regular giving. This accounts for
about a third of our income. The rest
comes from membership, charitable
trusts and one off donations – but
it’s not enough to fund everything
we want to achieve.
1000 people isn’t very many. We
know that there are thousands
of people in the UK whose lives
have been changed through their
involvement in SCM, or who
believe that our work to empower
students to explore and live out the
Christian faith is worth supporting.
We know there are lots of good
causes out there, but no one else
is doing what SCM is doing. No
one else is working at a national
level to promote an open, inclusive
and engaged Christian faith to
students. No one else is providing
training to students to enable them
to run thriving ecumenical groups
at universities and colleges. No
other movement is student-led –
nurturing the next generation of
leaders in the church and in society.
Please become a friend of SCM
today - we really need your
support.
To donate, visit www.movement.
org.uk/donate.
Thank you.