Movement 123
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termly maflazine of the stude nt christian movement<br />
issue <strong>123</strong><br />
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summer 2006<br />
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IAJCLUSIVE<br />
CFIURCI{<br />
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Ghrist when he was lifted uP did<br />
not say "l draw some PeoPle to<br />
myself." He said 'nl draw all, all,<br />
all."<br />
(Archbishop Desmond Tutu)<br />
. Working for a more inclusive<br />
Anglican Gommunion<br />
. For further information and<br />
to sign up to the Petition..'<br />
visit www. i ncl usivech u rch. net<br />
a<br />
L<br />
is the magazine<br />
of the Sea of Faith Network (UK)<br />
which exploles religion as a human creation.<br />
Sofia does not think rvisdorn is dispensed supernaturally from on<br />
t.tigtt, Lrut that it cau only be sought by huuratrs at home on Earth.<br />
Religions ar€ not supernatural but an important part of the<br />
human treasury of rvisdon-r.<br />
Sofia is both anti-fundamentalist and anti-restrictive- rationalist,<br />
beiieuing in the value of humaniry's poetic genius and<br />
imaginaiion, as well as reason and experience, in its sealch for<br />
rvisdom.<br />
Soy'a seeks a rvorld oljustice atrd peace, promoted by a sane and<br />
kiitdly hr',tt.t.t.tisrn that sees the liberation of humanity as the<br />
chief object oI cultttre.<br />
Sofiais ior diggers and seekers iu its orvn native radical tradition<br />
and eveg'rvhere.<br />
For Subscriptions to magazine €15 p.a. (6 issues<br />
p.a.), Membership of SoF Network f3O p.a. or for<br />
free sample copy write to: The Secretary, Gospel<br />
Hill Cottage, Chapel Lane, Whitfield, Brackley<br />
NN13 5TF . Or email: oliver@essame.clara.net<br />
ffir{rL}n hJcIr Iiiu<br />
25-ZB August<br />
Cheltenham Racecourse<br />
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living life to the tull?<br />
editorial<br />
Life in all its fullness, SCM's theme for this academic year, has certainly guaranteed a<br />
full life for all the students and staff. We've been busy with all kinds of resources and<br />
actions exploring different aspects of the theme, and the special feature in this issue of<br />
movement is just a small taster of a few of them.<br />
lf you'd like to see some of the reflections, worship materials, workshops and Bible studies<br />
we've produced on the theme, check out www.movement.org.uk/life. We've also<br />
had a fantastic conference, which is reviewed on page 4 and has its own section of the<br />
website at www. movement.org. u k/conference.<br />
When we chose the theme, we wanted to look at every aspect of life, think aboutwhat really<br />
makes it worth living or prevents it being lived to the full, and challenge some common preconceptions<br />
in church and society about fullness of life. What are healing and wholeness?<br />
What does our theology say about disability and mental illness? What<br />
kind of spiritual practices contribute to a full life? And what about our<br />
responsibility for the lives of others, and our place in our community?<br />
The articles on pages 14-19look at a few of these things. Elizabeth<br />
Baxter's piece challenges SCM and the wider church to be a genuinely<br />
therapeutic community; Grant White introduces an Eastern Orthodox<br />
vision of life in all its fullness; and Andrew Scott looks towards<br />
a theology that can respond effectively to the HIV pandemic which<br />
denies millions the chance to live a full life. HIV campaigning has<br />
been SCM's main social action this year - find out how you can get<br />
involved on page 7.<br />
Elsewhere in this issue, we have an interview with Peter Owen Jones,<br />
the vicar who strode around in an lndiana Jones hat on BBC2 making<br />
church history sexy. And, sadly, we have the final instalment (for now)<br />
of Gordon Lynch's excellent pop culture review column. l'd like to<br />
thank Cordon for all his contributions to movement; l'm sure many<br />
movement readers will continue to follow his exciting work. I<br />
movement<br />
movement is the termly magazine of the Student Christian<br />
<strong>Movement</strong>, dedicated to an open-minded exploration of<br />
Chrisfianity.<br />
Editor: Liam Purcell (editor@movement.org.uk)<br />
Next copy date: 14 July 2006<br />
Editorial group: David Anderson, Laurence Craig, Liam Purcell, John Probhudan,<br />
Susannah Rudge<br />
SCM staff: Co-ordinator Liam Purcell; Links WorkerJo Merrygold; Office<br />
Admin istrator John Probhudan<br />
SCM office: Unit 30BF The Big Peg, 120 Vyse Street, The Jewellery Quarter,<br />
Birmingham 81B 6NF . 0121 200 3355 . scm@movement.org.uk<br />
www. movement.org.u k<br />
Printed by: Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester<br />
The production of this issue of movement was assisted by a generous grant from<br />
the Women's World Day of Prayer.<br />
lndividual membership of SCM (includes movement) costs f 1 5 per year (f 10 if<br />
unwaged). Subccription lo movement only costs f1 0 per year, or f7 for students.<br />
Disclaimer: The views expressed in movement are those of the particular author and<br />
should not be taken to be the policy of the Student Christian <strong>Movement</strong>.<br />
|SSN0306-980X . Charitynumber 241896 o @2006SCM<br />
Do you have problems reading movement?<br />
If you find it hard to read the printed version of movement,<br />
we will be happy to send it to you in digital form, suitable for<br />
magnification or use with reading programs. Just contact the<br />
editor at editor@movement.org.uk.<br />
The SCM website is also available in a text-only form at<br />
accessi b le. movement.org. u k.<br />
contents<br />
editorial<br />
newsfile<br />
on campus<br />
campaigns<br />
diary<br />
small ritual steve collins<br />
interview: peter owen jones<br />
julian lewis<br />
mind the gap<br />
movement feature: life in all its fullness<br />
church as therapeutic community<br />
elizabeth baxter 14<br />
the AIDS christ andrew scott 16<br />
embodied renunciation grant white 1B<br />
platform: tent people john probhudan<br />
ties and binds/m cotter<br />
worldview: mozaik<br />
peter sajda & rebecca blocksome<br />
investing ethically richard nagle<br />
atlantis and me wood ingham<br />
doctrine for dummies:<br />
negative theology rob telford<br />
media section<br />
the miracle of jesus (robert brunger)<br />
susannah rudge 26<br />
caring for creation (sarah tillett)<br />
rosie telford 27<br />
pop culture review gordon lynch 28<br />
jerry springer the opera tim cobbett 29<br />
3<br />
4<br />
a touching place (john gunstone)<br />
jo merrygold 30<br />
serpent 31<br />
6<br />
7<br />
I<br />
9<br />
10<br />
12<br />
20<br />
21<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24<br />
25<br />
movement<br />
3
7<br />
newsfile<br />
news from<br />
the SGM network<br />
t* Iivin{, Iife to the fuII<br />
angela joyce $ives her impressions of her first scm event: the life<br />
in all its futlness conference on 10-12 march in derbyshire<br />
a<br />
a<br />
3.\4<br />
'.Id \"<br />
\ ..<br />
f<br />
Worship: time<br />
reflection<br />
atf<br />
a<br />
I a<br />
l ṫ<br />
Action:<br />
a HIV petition<br />
s",<br />
}<br />
night Riskathon<br />
Speaker lohn Hull<br />
Entertainment<br />
from singer'<br />
songwriter<br />
Rebecca Worthley<br />
The first thing that struck me at the conference was<br />
an overwhelming sense of welcome. I was quickly<br />
made a part of the SCM family.<br />
After an evening meal, we were introduced to the<br />
team of people leading the weekend' I could tell<br />
that I had a good weekend ahead of me; the pure<br />
buzz of an atmosphere around the place was unmistakeable.<br />
There were cheers and whoops as<br />
each member was introduced; the leaders weren't<br />
like scary teachers, they were as down-to-earth and<br />
approachable as everyone else in the room.<br />
We then kicked off with small-group activities, all<br />
of us mixed up to make it easier to meet as many<br />
new people as possible. During the workshops the<br />
bar was open - which, as a good Catholic girl, I was<br />
more than pleased to see!lThe evening closed with<br />
some prayer and worship, putting us all in the right<br />
frame of mind to hit the sack ready to face the next<br />
day anew (or in some cases playing Rrsk for seven<br />
hours, not hitting the sack - but still facing the next<br />
day anew-ish!)<br />
Saturday was jam-packed with workshops, talks,<br />
group activities, worship, services, music of .and,<br />
iorti", food! ln the morning Professor John Hull<br />
spoke to us about his experience of losing his sight<br />
and how this impacted on his life. He was entertaining,<br />
funny, obviously a very intelligent man' The<br />
talk mide me, and l'm sure many others, reconsider<br />
our preconceptions of what it is to be blind.<br />
There were six workshops in the afternoon and unfortunately<br />
we could only pick two - this made my<br />
decision very difficult as I wanted to make the most<br />
of the weekend. I chose a workshop on lgnatian<br />
spirituality, a topic I previously knew nothing about,<br />
and another on healing and wholeness.<br />
The leaders of the lgnatian sPirituality<br />
workshoP were very<br />
inspiring, their positive outlook<br />
on life and their methods of discernment<br />
were one of the most<br />
positive things I took from the<br />
weekend and I am sure to use<br />
them in the future. The 'therapeutic<br />
journeys' workshoP was<br />
somewhat different, it was verY<br />
interesting, learning about different<br />
therapeutic methods of<br />
healing, but for me it lacked in<br />
any major Christian focus. lt was<br />
still very enjoyable and I learned<br />
a fair few techniques.<br />
We were then given the opportunity to break the<br />
Sabbath, a Jewish tradition. A brilliant opportunity<br />
to get a taster of other religions - although it was<br />
optional, the room was full to the brim.<br />
A few of us were then spiritualised out so we headed<br />
for the pub - unfortunately missing out on a healing<br />
service and discussion, but it was a good time<br />
tolave a chat, finding out about how each others'<br />
chaplaincies work, discovering many differences<br />
but also lots of surprising similarities. On Sunday<br />
we had a few more activities, swapped many an e-<br />
mail address, and prepared for the journey home.<br />
Overall the weekend was a real success. My knowledge<br />
of the workings of chaplaincies across the<br />
country has expanded massively - and also my<br />
knowledge of different types of worship and the<br />
different Christian relationships with God. Having<br />
an open forum to discuss differences and similarities<br />
without the worry of being denigrated for your<br />
beliefs is a fantastic thing that all should have the<br />
chance to experience. The title o! Life in all its fullness<br />
was definitely fulfilled to the max - giving us<br />
insights from many different angles of how we can<br />
live our lives to the full. The only criticisms I have<br />
could also be seen as praise: the group was a bit too<br />
large, making it difficult to be able to talk and get<br />
to kno* eveiyone; and it was very intense - with<br />
things happening every minute of the day. I<br />
Angela Joyce is president of Birmingham Cathsoc - and<br />
now an individual member of SCM!<br />
See www.movement.org.uk/conference for a longer<br />
version of Angela's review, more photos, and<br />
other resources from the conference, including<br />
worship outlines, prayers and more.<br />
4<br />
movement
SGMers take up multi-faith prayer challenge<br />
Southampton SCM started this year. So far it's been<br />
an evolving entity encompassing a lot of diverse<br />
aims and interests, including exploring theology,<br />
other religions, campaigns, prayer, spirituality and<br />
world cuisine!<br />
playing with the body:<br />
southampton scm's gluide to islamic salat<br />
We have had a couple of inter-faith events, including<br />
a multi-faith event with representatives from<br />
other religious societies speaking on the topic<br />
of 'keeping faith in secular society' and a recent<br />
session on Muslim prayer. The inspiration for this<br />
came from a group viewing'of the Morgan Spurlock<br />
30 Days episode 'Muslims in America', where an<br />
evangelical Christian lived in a Muslim community<br />
for one month, experiencing life as a Muslim, studying<br />
the Qur'an and attending mosque.<br />
The programme was not only entertaining but also<br />
enlightened and challenged us. We were all impressed<br />
by the discipline in lslamic prayer and an<br />
animated discussion took place ... the discussion<br />
led to a challenge:<br />
Southampton SCM to pray five times a day for 30<br />
days!<br />
Face Mecca<br />
and stand<br />
straight.<br />
Ruku<br />
Bow<br />
Quiyam<br />
Stand up<br />
with your<br />
hands by<br />
your sides<br />
Sujud<br />
Prostrate<br />
yourself by<br />
kneel i ng,<br />
with your<br />
forehead,<br />
nose/<br />
hands,<br />
knees, and<br />
toes all on<br />
the ground.<br />
Rise to a<br />
kneel ing<br />
position<br />
with your<br />
hands on<br />
your knees.<br />
I<br />
Being unpractised in disciplined prayers, we have<br />
modified this challenge in subsequent discussions<br />
(perhaps to two or three times a day). To equip us<br />
for the challenge, we invited two members of the<br />
lslamic society to talk to us about sa/at lslamic<br />
prayer (the five-a-day compulsory prayers).<br />
We were taught about the importance of prayer<br />
to lslam and also how they pray. This highlighted<br />
some differences and similarities between Muslim<br />
and Christian spirituality. For our challenge we felt<br />
we should try out the movements that accompany<br />
each cycle of Muslim prayer. The basic movements<br />
are shown on the right. For each movement an accompanying<br />
prayer or a passage from scripture is<br />
recited. Our speakers got the whole group to practise<br />
each movement!<br />
We have not yet begun this challenge but it looks<br />
like it may well happen... lt's definitely an interesting<br />
idea - perhaps we should do a national SCM<br />
prayer challenge. What do you think? O<br />
Christdle Evans and Rachel Wakelin study at<br />
Southampton University, where they co-founded a new<br />
SCM group in 2005.<br />
lf you want to take up Southampton's challenge,<br />
or if you'd just like to hear more<br />
about how they manage themselves, contact<br />
fo in the SCM office on 0121 2OO 3355 or<br />
links@movement.org.uk.<br />
lf your local group or chaplaincy has a similarly<br />
exciting idea or project, get in touch - we'd<br />
love to hear about it!We aim to include grassroots<br />
reports from our links in every issue of<br />
movement.<br />
structural review nerrys<br />
As many readers will know, SCM has been going through a process<br />
of structural review for the past year and a bit. During this<br />
review we've looked at all aspects of what SCM does, what we<br />
do well, ways we can do things better, and how we can make<br />
sure that SCM can grow in a sustainable way.<br />
So far we've introduced termly gathering weekends, like the one<br />
we've just had in Birmingham. SCM members will have received a<br />
gathering report in this mailing. Catherings are a chance for SCMers<br />
to get together, have some fun, discuss social justice issues, play<br />
&sk and plan and discuss what SCM should do in the future (what<br />
should goin movement,for example!)The structural review has also<br />
developed the way that Ceneral Council works - half of us now<br />
concentrate on exploring different aspects of theology, socialjustice<br />
and issues affecting students. The other half, including my role as<br />
convenor, focus on the more business side of things, looking at<br />
our finances, strategic planning, staffing, communications, our work<br />
with WSCF and how we operate in the regions and nations.<br />
Since the autumn gathering in November, the structural review<br />
has focused on improving our membership and affiliation structures.<br />
lt is hoped that we'll grow and recruit more members and<br />
links in a way that works for everyone. We've consulted people<br />
with a wide range of experiences of SCM and our counterparts<br />
around the globe, trying to find a way to make sure that we offer<br />
members and links resources and a community that they want<br />
to be a part of.<br />
We've also started the process of writing the next strategic plan,<br />
which will guide SCM's work for the next three years. lf you have<br />
any thoughts, ideas or opinions on what you think SCM should<br />
be doing in the next three years, please let us know You can<br />
e-mail me on convenor@movement.org.uk or leave a message<br />
with the SCM office. This is your movement and we really want<br />
you to feel part of it. O<br />
Chris Stacey is Convenor of SCM's General Council.<br />
B<br />
$<br />
movement<br />
5
on Gampus<br />
fishtinSftes<br />
It's not just students that are alarmed about tuition fees and<br />
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) is<br />
a proud member of Coalition 2010. AUT campaigned<br />
vehemently with students against top-up<br />
fees and our support for the students'fight against<br />
these punitive fees has not wavered one bit.<br />
studies have shown that<br />
debt and the fear of debt<br />
will put students from the most<br />
u nder-lepresented backElrounds<br />
off higher education<br />
We were disappointed to learn that applications to<br />
university have dropped this year, but we weren't surprised.<br />
How anyone thought that introducing a market<br />
into higher education and asking students to pay more<br />
for their course would increase applications is beyond<br />
me, and it's a policy that directly contradicts the government's<br />
own widening participation agenda.<br />
Countless studies have shown that debt and the fear<br />
of debt will put students from the most under-represented<br />
backgrounds off higher education. Having a<br />
market in our universities will lead to students choosing<br />
wh3t and where to study based on what they can<br />
afford, not what is best for them or our economy.<br />
The special bond that lecturers and students enjoy will<br />
be absolutely vital over the next few years as we fight<br />
higlher education<br />
news<br />
top-up fees. We invited lecturers' union AUT to explain why they've<br />
joined the NUS's new anti-fees coalition.<br />
more backglround<br />
Coalition 2010 is backed by teaching unions from the schools,<br />
college and university sectors, and aims to highlight the negative<br />
impact of fees on increasing admissions to higher education.<br />
UCAS figures earlier this year showed the first drop in university<br />
applicationsin eight years, despite government plans to get 50<br />
per cent of 1B-30-year-olds into higher education by 2010.<br />
Members of the coalition will jointly lobby MPs as they consider<br />
whether to raise the cap on variable fees. NUS will also be encouraging<br />
students' unions to form coalitions in their local area. The<br />
cap currently prevents universities from charging above f3,000 a<br />
year for undergraduate and some postgraduate courses.<br />
An Early Day Motion has been put to %rliament which states that<br />
the 'removal of the cap will serve to extend further the market in<br />
our education system, and will serve to deter students from poorer<br />
and less traditional backgrounds from going to university.'<br />
for what is best for the higher education sector. This<br />
is largely because we actually understand what students<br />
and staff want - namely a first class education for<br />
students, delivered by contented and fairly paid staff.<br />
We must not allow the proponents of higher fees and<br />
poorer staff salaries to ever break that special bond.<br />
There are tough times ahead; the pay dispute and assessment<br />
boycott this year has made life difficult for<br />
students. Sadly, lecturers had no option but to resort<br />
to strike action after the employers broke promises<br />
about using new funding to sort their pay out.<br />
Damaging the work of students is the very last thing<br />
lecturers want to do. The majority could find betterpaid<br />
work outside of higher education, but remain<br />
in the sector because of a love of their subject and<br />
imparting expert knowledge to their students.<br />
As we head towards a review of top-up fees in the<br />
next couple of years we must really apply, and keep<br />
up, the pressure to ensure our universities do not<br />
become 'degree supermarkets', where the affluent<br />
can purchase whatever they like and the rest are left<br />
scrabbling for the scraps.l<br />
Sally Hunt is AUT general secretary (www.aut.org.uk).<br />
what can you do?<br />
. Coalition 2010<br />
is looking for<br />
more signatures<br />
on its online<br />
petition at www.<br />
coalition20l O.<br />
org. You could also<br />
lobby your MP to support the coalition.<br />
. NUS is running a campaign on top-up fees<br />
and other issues called 'On course ... for a<br />
fair future? They're also planning an antifees<br />
march this November. Find out how<br />
you can get involved at www.nusonline.<br />
co.uk<br />
. Cet involved in any actions on this issue<br />
being planned by your own students'<br />
union. And if they're not planning any<br />
actions, ask them why not!<br />
. Check out SCM patron Peter Selby's book<br />
Crace and Mortgage (DLT, 1 997) for a<br />
theological critique of our debt culture,<br />
including its impact on students.<br />
6<br />
movement
glttr$"Ts#trGam t<br />
Gampaigns, anferenes, paperc<br />
- a busytime!!<br />
The 'policy and research group' consists of the three members of SCM's General Council<br />
responsible for 'thematic' work - social justice, church and theology, and higher<br />
education - plus any other interested members of the movement. We do research on<br />
these areas, communicate our ideas, and guide the movement's social action work.<br />
At SCM's Life in all its fullness conference in March, we set up an 'action stall' with three<br />
actions related to this year's HIV campaign. For the 'Lamentations' action, people were<br />
asked to write a lamentation on the subject of HIV on a piece of red ribbon, card or material.<br />
lt could be a short prayer, poem, or thoughtful verse, and people were invited to pin<br />
it up so others could share the thought. For the second action, 'Make a pledge', people<br />
were invited to take pledge cards and promise to go back home and make changes in<br />
their individual daily life, church or community - promises such as becoming involved in<br />
AIDS hospices, ensuring people do not have incorrect ideas about how HIV is spread, and<br />
praying for people in parts of the world heavily affected by HlV. There was also an HIV<br />
quiz to test your awareness of the issues. The third activity, 'The world is watching', was a<br />
petition with a difference. Conference-goers were invited to sign a red AIDS ribbon, and<br />
stick it onto a giant petition, asking the government to honour its GB<br />
promises. The petition will be sent to Alan Simpson, a Labour MP who<br />
is involved in the fight against HlV.<br />
We're also busy writing a discussion paper on HIV/AIDS. The aims of<br />
the paper are: to give students correct information on HIV infection and<br />
transmission; to look at the often-neglected issue of 'living with it'; to<br />
look at antiretroviral drugs and CB promises; to discuss churches' attitudes<br />
towards HIV; and there's a section which examines the metaphor<br />
of 'Christ with AIDS' and forms the basis of Andrew Scott's article on<br />
page 16. Check out our section of the SCM forums at www.movement.<br />
org.uk/forum to find out more, and watch out for the document going<br />
online at www.movement.org.uk/think any day now!<br />
Members of our group have also been asked to support SCM's campaigning<br />
by representing SCM on the Student StopAlDS policy group<br />
(www.stopaidscampaign.org.uk). The aim of the group is to set policy<br />
on AIDS issues which specifically affect young people (e.g. abstinence-only<br />
and HIV prevention) and respond with a youth voice in<br />
the public arena.<br />
They recently held a Training and Planning Day at Birmingham University,<br />
attended by some SCM members. The aim of the day was to<br />
share ideas between Student StopAlDS societies in the UK and plan<br />
the next stage of the campaign. They discussed successful campaigns,<br />
new ways of working and successful fundraising events and went on<br />
to examine the challenges of running StopAlDS groups on campus.<br />
The next stage of the campaign is to target the drug company Cilead<br />
and Abbott to provide second-line drugs to people in poorer countries.<br />
People who have become resistant to initial treatment have to move on<br />
to second-line drugs, but these are not available in the parts of Africa<br />
where they are needed. Student StopAlDS plans to target Gilead and<br />
Abbott through creative, non-violent direct actions and letter writing.<br />
Their aim for the latter part of 20O6 is to target the UK Department<br />
of Trading and lndustry and the EU. The US is stopping generic drugs<br />
from being produced for universal access to treatment, and the EU is<br />
the only body big enough to make a difference. StopAlDS'focus will<br />
be on lobbying the Department of Trade and Industry and EU to support<br />
generic drugs. Watch here for more info soon! I<br />
Rachel Campbell is a student in Clasgow and a member of SCMb Ceneral<br />
Council.<br />
-9,<br />
rve're helpin$ to set policy on<br />
AIDS issues which specifically<br />
affect young people, like<br />
abstinence-only and HIV<br />
prevention<br />
a<br />
1 I<br />
MAKE POVERTYHISTORY<br />
Now that 2006 has arrived, what happens to<br />
the MakePovertyHistory campaign?<br />
ln the UK, 2005 was a year for anti-poverty<br />
campaigners to focus on a series of international<br />
events - the CB summit, UN meetings,<br />
world trade talks - that were unique opportunities<br />
to achieve change. ln 2006, the<br />
challenge will be different. We have to ensure<br />
that promises half pledged are kept fully. We<br />
also have to keep the pressure up - to ensure<br />
that money is delivered effectively and that<br />
damaging policies are altered.<br />
lnternationally this will happen through the global<br />
coalition, the Global Call to Action Against<br />
Poverty (C-CAP). ln the UK MakePovertyHistory<br />
will become its component parts: three coalitions<br />
on aid (UKAN), debt (Jubilee) and trade<br />
(Trade Justice <strong>Movement</strong>), and the hundreds of<br />
individual organisations that made up MPH. See<br />
www.makepovertyhistory.org or wwwwhiteband.org<br />
for more information, or contact your<br />
local anti-poverty coalition if you have one. I<br />
Matt Criffith works in PR at CAFOD.<br />
movement<br />
7
diary<br />
upcoming events of interest:<br />
conferences, meetin$s, retreats...<br />
for a<br />
fuller list<br />
of events<br />
and more<br />
detailsn<br />
see oul<br />
online<br />
diary<br />
(www.<br />
movement,<br />
olg.uld<br />
diary)<br />
Radical Christianity<br />
Saturday 20 Nlay<br />
Rochdale<br />
First in a series ofconferences<br />
led by Revd Dr John Vincent.<br />
Ashram Community, 178<br />
Abbeyfield Road, Sheffielcl 54 7AY<br />
www.ashram.org.uk<br />
as h r am co m m u n i ty@ h otnt a i l. co m<br />
Pre-exam relaxation weekend<br />
Thursday 25 - Saturday 27 May<br />
Holy Rood House,lhirsk<br />
A chance to chill out, revise and have<br />
some fun before the exams.<br />
fB5 all inclusive<br />
Holy Rood House, l0 Sowerby<br />
Road, Thirsk, North Yorks YO7 I HX<br />
01845 522 580<br />
www.h oly rood h ou se. org. u k<br />
angharadparryjones@<br />
holy roocl hou se.o rg. u k<br />
Jesus for the non-religious<br />
Weclnesclay 7 - Friclay 9 June<br />
H ayes Co nfe re n ce Ce ntre<br />
National conference of Free to Believe,<br />
led by lohn Shelby Spong.<br />
f90 - fl 30<br />
Stanley Dean, 2 Burrswood Place,<br />
Heybridge Basin, Maldon, Fssex<br />
CM9 4UQ<br />
How (not) to speak of God<br />
Fridayg-Sunday 1l June<br />
Othon a Co m m u n i ty, Dorset<br />
A weekend based on the book bY<br />
Pete Rollins of lkon.<br />
f.9O or f73 concessions<br />
01308 9871 30<br />
m ai l@otho n a- bb. org. u k<br />
SCM summer gathering and AGM<br />
Friday 9 - Sunday l1 lune<br />
St Peter's House, Manchester<br />
End-of year party and election of a<br />
new Ceneral Council! See the gathering<br />
report in your mailing for more<br />
information.<br />
Radical Christianity in the City<br />
Saturday l0 lune, Sheffield<br />
Radical Christianity and Radical<br />
Ministry<br />
Saturday 17 June, Leecls<br />
Radical Christianity<br />
Sunday 2 July, Lincoln<br />
People & Planet gathering<br />
Sunday 2 - Thursctay 6 July<br />
www. peoplean cl pl an et. o r g<br />
Passion for fustice<br />
Tuesday 11 - Friclay l4 July<br />
See below.<br />
ldentity and health<br />
Tuesday I I - Friday l4 luly<br />
Holy Rood House,Thirsk<br />
A summer school exploring the interface<br />
between psychology, the arts,<br />
economics, politics and theologY.<br />
Waged f 170, unwagecl f 120<br />
Holy Rood House, I0 SowerbY<br />
Roacl, Thirsk, NorthYorksY)T lHX<br />
01845 522580<br />
angharacl.csth@<br />
holyroodhouse.org.uk<br />
Radical Christianity and Radical<br />
Spirituality<br />
Saturday 15 July, Milton Keynes<br />
[et's talk about freedom<br />
Sunday 30 luly - Saturday 5 August<br />
Cermany<br />
See page 22<br />
Do it together: SCM training event<br />
Friday B - Sunday l0 September<br />
Crossways, N orth am Pton<br />
Training for committees, leaders,<br />
new groups and chaplaincy assistants.<br />
See the flyer in your mailing.<br />
C@A<br />
for<br />
c/<br />
2<br />
Slon<br />
tice<br />
{Iobal and faithful<br />
perspectt-ves on<br />
human sexuality<br />
LL-L4 July 2006<br />
High Leigh Conference Gentre,<br />
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire<br />
The Modern Churchpeople's Union conference for 2006 is<br />
being supported and co-organised by SCM and the Centre<br />
for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality. tt will provide<br />
new resources and opportunities for a wide'ranging debate<br />
on the challenges facing Christian sexual ethics in today's<br />
globalised world.<br />
o How can the biblical tradition be retrieved from<br />
fundamentalism?<br />
o How can the institutional church be more inclusive?<br />
. What are the implications of the commercialisation<br />
of sex?<br />
o How should relationships be forged in the 21st<br />
century?<br />
o What of the global context and the HIV pandemic?<br />
There are a limited number of<br />
discount places available at the<br />
conference for SCM members, at<br />
the very special price of f50.<br />
To find out more or book your Place,<br />
contact Liam in the SCM office:<br />
0121 200 3355<br />
co@movement.org.uk<br />
€,ffi<br />
8<br />
movement<br />
j
steve collins on<br />
alternative worship<br />
and emerging church<br />
reinventin{, the rules<br />
small ritual<br />
I mentioned last time that some emerging church communities, including my own,<br />
are looking at monastic forms - which is to say, intentional communities with a 'rule'<br />
of life and spiritual formation. Such a 'rule' might be a way of sustaining Christian<br />
life and community in the face of all the obstacles and temptations that beset us. We<br />
can do this better together. Of course, as good postmoderns we don't like the idea of<br />
rules, especially someone else's. There is a suspicion of authority ingrained in us, and<br />
rule-breaking or deconstruction is our natural response. So what is a postmodern rule?<br />
How do you find the 'rule'that is authentic for you?<br />
Part of our difficulty is that we imagine a rule as a preordained set of instructions from<br />
another time and place. How will that help us live the lives we have<br />
to lead here and now? Most of us have neither the desire nor the<br />
possibility to do the traditional monk/nun thing. But in some Celtic<br />
traditions, a rule emerges out of the ethos of an existing community,<br />
from an analysis of what you are already doing (and not doing), to<br />
strengthen and challenge it. lt's descriptive as well as prescriptive,<br />
chosen not imposed.<br />
So what is the particular gift of your community (in any sense), what<br />
are its particular values? What rhythm of life, what things can you<br />
do together that would sustain it? lf you wrote all these things down,<br />
what flag would it hoist? Would other people say 'Me too'?<br />
The danger of developing your own rule is missing out things that<br />
are hard, or that challenge the limitations of your own value system.<br />
At this point tradition and the Bible come in handy - how does your<br />
shiny new rule compare to previous attempts, to the life of Christ<br />
itself? How does it disciple you - form you as Christ-followers? After<br />
all, the ultimate purpose of any Christian path is to make us more<br />
Christ-like, to rehearse in us the way of Christ. At this point tradition<br />
becomes a guide, not an answer, because that way, for us, will not be<br />
the same as in the sixth century.<br />
Somebody described the rule of Saint Benedict as a grid, and I like that. One could say<br />
that'rule' implies a line you have to follow, an obligatory sequence of actions; while<br />
'grid' implies a frame of reference, like a map grid, within which one can move in many<br />
directions but which gives measure and orientation.<br />
Perhaps the duties of regular prayer in the old monastic rules, which look like such an<br />
impossible chore to us, are best understood/updated in this way - as a grid, a headsup<br />
at periodic intervals to check compass and direction, squirting the bird if you like<br />
(definition: to transmit a signal up to a satellite. 'Crew and talent are ready, what time<br />
do we squirt the bird?')<br />
For me this aligns with ideas of the Sabbath, and the discipline of idleness in Chinese<br />
thought, as creating space for awareness of the Cod who is here anyhow. One of our<br />
problems with 'rules', or with any kind of spiritual discipline, is that our over-busy lives<br />
need times to not be'disciplined'. The danger of a rule is it becomes another form of<br />
workload. Peiversely, we need to be disciplined about taking time out.<br />
For those who are curious l'd recommend taking a look at the Rule of Saint Benedict<br />
- which of course is still in contemporary use. lt's countercultural enough in matters of<br />
possessions, behaviour and punishment to be provocative, and its apparent severity is<br />
subtly leavened. Anyone who writes'keeping in view the needs of the weak, we believe<br />
that a half-bottle of wine a day is sufficient for each' can't be all bad. My own community's<br />
rule prescribes Belgian beer, which is of course brewed by monks. I<br />
Steve Collins is an architect and member of Crace alternative worship group in Ealing, west ,<br />
London. He has written extensively about alternative worship and was one of the design team<br />
for the Labyrinth, www.labyrinth.org.uk. He runs the websites wvwv.alternativeworship.org, www.<br />
sm al lfi re.org, and www. s m al I ritu al.org.<br />
in some traditionsn a<br />
rule emerges from an<br />
analysis of what you are<br />
already doing (and not<br />
doing), to strentfihen<br />
and challenge it. lt's<br />
descriptive as well as<br />
prescriptive, chosen not<br />
imposed<br />
Want to ask Steve<br />
a question, or<br />
comment on the<br />
column?<br />
Go to www.<br />
movement. org.uk/<br />
forum.<br />
movement<br />
9
I , m avicat,<br />
get me out of here!<br />
iulian lewis interviews an unlikely TV star<br />
Meek? Mild? As if.<br />
Peter's vision of<br />
Christ as Che.<br />
Looking like an extra from a spaghetti western, the<br />
mysterious, hatted figure strides across the countryside,<br />
flowing coat billowing around his tall,<br />
sparse frame. He's on his way to a showdown. ln a<br />
rlcent BBC series, The Battle for Britain's Soul, he<br />
recounted the history of Christianity in the British<br />
lsles. ln case you missed it, it went roughly like<br />
this. Series one: paganism trumped, the church<br />
ascendant. Series two: the church trumped, secularism<br />
ascendant.<br />
This is Peter Owen-Jones, sometime farmer, DJ, global<br />
traveller, ad man. All the time grappling with an<br />
incipient calling to ministry. This is the Revd Peter<br />
OwenJones. As l'm welcomed into his rural vicarage<br />
I note that it's only the battered Akubra bush hat<br />
thlt gives him an inch on me: it must have been the<br />
clever camera angles. He paces restlessly around<br />
rustling up tea and sorting a space for the interview.<br />
There's a demo playing of a local band that Peter<br />
was asked to check out in case they're worth signing.<br />
Apparently they're a cross between The Thrills<br />
and Barclay James Harvest. I wouldn't know. But<br />
I do know l've just been cooled out by a vicar 15<br />
years my senior. His cigarette rolled, the interview<br />
begins.<br />
all the church does is enforce<br />
its own version of the truth.<br />
but nowadays it isn't<br />
doing it very well<br />
Where does this wandering chameleon belong? 'l<br />
am a child of the world. The idea that we are something<br />
because we have our own piece of land is<br />
ridiculous and dehumanising. lt enables areas to be<br />
managed and governed and is a concept.we need<br />
to look beyond.' Het set his stall out early, for refusal<br />
to be impressed by traditional boundaries is<br />
his theme.<br />
Restlessness set in early for Peter. He dropped out of<br />
school. Didn't complete art college. While he was<br />
working as a shepherd, a friend suggested he go into<br />
advertising, opining that in the future we would buy<br />
and sell identities like any other product. A prescient<br />
friend, then. So in 1981 Peter swapped bucolic idyll<br />
for image management in the metropolis: a wrench<br />
both shocking and exciting. The beauty of creation,<br />
he suggests, is precisely that we are not stranded on<br />
solid giound but that it is in a constant state of flux,<br />
physically, spiritually and emotionally.<br />
ln time Peter rose to become a creative director, on<br />
the way working on products ranging from Swissair<br />
to the Creen Party, including the campaign culminating<br />
in the latter's unprecedented turnout at the<br />
1989 European elections. What did he learn? 'lt is a<br />
job that pays the way. lt teaches discipline, strategic<br />
and creative thinking. To realise that there are many<br />
influences on success/ what the whole picture is<br />
and where what you have to say sits in that picture.'<br />
Ordination in 1993 didn't sever his ties with the<br />
advertising world, as he helped found the Christian<br />
Advertising Network, responsible for the Jesus/Che<br />
Cuevara poster (see left).<br />
What then of the church's image and message in the<br />
modern world? 'The church is suspicious of media<br />
culture. lt hasn't been bold enough to take a stand,<br />
but moans from the sidelines. Yet communication<br />
is central to Christianity,' says Peter. 'Historically<br />
the church has perceived itself as owning the truth<br />
and has shown its hand in its battles with evolutionary<br />
science, homosexuality and women. All the<br />
church does is, like everyone else, enforce its own<br />
version of the truth. But nowadays it isn't doing it<br />
very well.<br />
'Does the identity of the church really communicate<br />
its purpose: love? What people say they see isbigotry,'addiction<br />
to systems and tradition, a lot of<br />
ugliness. Why? We attempt to control the present,<br />
ou, sslf-psrception, by controlling the story<br />
"id of the past. A media audit of the church would<br />
be shocking - more denominations than you can<br />
10<br />
movement
shake a schism at and multiple messages that are<br />
not merely mixed but often antithetical.'<br />
And the medicine for the ailing body of Christ? Relaxation.<br />
Balance. There are many ways to show<br />
God's love or speak to the modern setting, such<br />
as through the Arbory Trust, providing woodland<br />
burial in the Christian tradition (all comers are welcome),<br />
which Peter helped establish. Yet the church<br />
still clings to archaic liturgy, the King James Bible<br />
and credal ossifications.<br />
Peter denounces archaisms but is unafraid to use<br />
English to its demanding full. Hands up how many<br />
of you know what 'ossification' means? Hands up<br />
again if you have actually used it in the last five<br />
years? Be truthful.<br />
Peter re-creates a dozen psalms in his latest book,<br />
Psalm, in an attempt to reclaim our words as a<br />
medium for God's word and hear what it sounds<br />
like. 'The Jewish hymn book is full of alien imagery<br />
that creates a wall barring our access to the garden<br />
of delights within. I wanted to tear that wall down,<br />
to see if the ardour with which they were written, the<br />
truths of their messages, can be reproduced today.<br />
lf anything they become more intensely ordinary,<br />
shocking and resonant, challenging the evangelical<br />
notion of The Word. It is fluid, not preserved in<br />
1662lor all time.'<br />
Peter is leaning over now half clutching his knee,<br />
like a little child rushing to explain a new discovery.<br />
Earnest. He continues, 'What is the Word of God? ls<br />
it constrained in the Bible, in some Star Wars Yoda<br />
speak?' Certainly not, it is. The words we need to articulate<br />
our own experience are perfectly ordinary<br />
- look, ask, explore, search. 'But we do not let people<br />
use them. We want them to explore the church,<br />
or my church in particular. But will they find the<br />
pathway to the divine? ln exploring the relationship<br />
between the human and divine we see that to be<br />
fully human is to immerse yourself in that which is<br />
fully divine. Rather than reinforcing old doctrines,<br />
like atonement, we reach new understandings.'<br />
lf the historically grounded tools of his trade have<br />
become so inadequate, I wonder what Peter's services<br />
look like? He retreats behind his bandana.<br />
Lights another cigarette. Apparently, prayer is the<br />
central focus, a slavish adherence to one hour is<br />
avoided, discussion and exploration are entertained.<br />
l've noted an affinity for the organic in Peter's life.<br />
Muddy spades propped up by the back door. A vegetable<br />
patch, scrappy in winter but clearly well in<br />
hand. And the.constant roll-ups. Finally, he asks me<br />
why we should lose sleep over what we do. l'm a<br />
Methodist so I push him on sermons. 'l give them.'<br />
I ask how a vicar can play so fast and loose with<br />
the faith that he has chosen to represent. Peter<br />
suggests there is a great tension between belonging<br />
and freedom, both of which have value. ln 100<br />
years'time the church will look exactly the same as<br />
it does now unless we grasp why de-Christianisation<br />
has taken place. There is a need for a balance<br />
of approaches within the church, and sometimes<br />
quickfire guestions<br />
What is your favourite possession?<br />
My bird table. lt gives me endless fascination and pleasure,<br />
although it probably frustrates my cat.<br />
What are you reading at the moment?<br />
Collapse by Jared Diamond.<br />
What is your favourite film?<br />
B reakfast at Tiffany's.<br />
How do you relax?<br />
Walking.<br />
What is your favourite journey?<br />
Not made it yet.<br />
What do you most like about yourself?<br />
My fingernails.<br />
What do you dislike about yourself?<br />
A propensity for vanity.<br />
What's your favourite word?<br />
Halcyon.<br />
lf you could be someone else, who would you be?<br />
My cat, Dusty.<br />
When did you last cry?<br />
On Sunday.<br />
What are you scared of?<br />
The darkest truths.<br />
What do you never miss on TV?<br />
I don't watch a lot of TV. There's nothing I would have to see.<br />
What music do you listen to most?<br />
The Doors. Cillian Welch. Deep Purple. The Waterboys. Stone<br />
Roses.<br />
What pet hates do you have?<br />
Dress codes. Processed foods.<br />
books and links<br />
. Bed of Nails (1 998)<br />
. Small Boat, Big Sea: OneYear's<br />
Journey as a Parish Priesf (2000)<br />
. Psalm (2005)<br />
. www.arborytrust.org<br />
things move on. Using spring suspension<br />
in cars was once foolishly novel, yet no<br />
one questions its validity or persists with<br />
old methods now.<br />
So what next for Peter? l'm afraid I forgot<br />
to ask the question. ln 20 minutes' time<br />
there's a funeral to be taken, but otherwise<br />
l'm in the dark. That's probably<br />
how he would like it. ltt not where you<br />
end up, because the destination is forever<br />
ahead. lt's how you don't get there that counts.<br />
For the immediate future at least I know where l'm<br />
going. As I wait for my bus I ponder a man who<br />
hates dress codes and systems, and a vicar in robes<br />
leading funeral liturgy. I<br />
Julian Lewis<br />
is a former editor<br />
o/ movement and<br />
of the Methodist<br />
Student Link<br />
newsletter The<br />
Word.<br />
movement<br />
LL
mind the gap<br />
Taking a gap year or a year out is an excellent way of seeing the world, $ainin$<br />
useful skills and experience, and maybe making a difference in people's lives. We<br />
invited some or$anisations to tell us what they have to offer for gappers'<br />
oO, ts:vu. chan$e someone's lifen<br />
6'|rX',JiIJ""'{t it might be your own<br />
Volunteering with JVC means a chance to work with people on<br />
the marginstf society while living in community and reflecting<br />
on the important things in life.<br />
Through a placement working with the homeless, refugees, children<br />
o"r those with learning difficulties, JVC Volunteers make a<br />
difference in the lives of others.<br />
Living in community with other volunteers means sharing ideas<br />
and iupport with voiunteers from difficult countries and cultures.<br />
Through this, and engaging in a developme.nt programme of retreats<br />
ind residentials, iVCvolunteers are challenged to make a<br />
difference in their own lives.<br />
Live a simple<br />
Explore spirituality ' Practise social justice '<br />
lifestyle . Experience communitY<br />
'l learn something everY daY.'<br />
(lnhara, JVC volunteer 2005-06)<br />
Contact us for details of our year programme and<br />
four-week summer programme: JVC:Britain, 23<br />
New Mount Street, Manchester M4 4DE<br />
0161 832 6888 ' www.jesuitvolunteers-uk.org<br />
adm i n @ jesu itvol u nteers-u k.org<br />
S}]W<br />
gsq<br />
r,A+ire "<br />
nalennre<br />
be<br />
save lives, make a difference<br />
Student Partnerships Worldwide is an international<br />
development charity working in lndia, Nepal,<br />
South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda. We<br />
need 1B-28-year-ol ds to volunteer on our Health<br />
Education and CommunitY Resou rce Programmes, working in<br />
partnership with local volunteers and using non-formal education<br />
tech niques to inform rural Youth about health and environmental<br />
issues. A large focus of the programmes is on HIViAIDS educaoccurring<br />
in people<br />
tion, and with 60% of all new HIV infections<br />
aged 1 5-24, this is vital and life-saving work<br />
Volunteers are placed in rural areas for long-term. placements<br />
and given intensive training and full support to make a sustainable"and<br />
lasting difference in the community. You may be placed<br />
in an area'with-no electricity or running water and only a paraffin<br />
stove to cook on, but this is an opportunity for young people<br />
to make a real difference in the world'<br />
You must have 4-B months available, a spirit of adventure and<br />
a sense of global responsibility' See wwwspw'org or e-mail<br />
spwuk@gn.apc.org for more information.<br />
'lt is such a change from being a tourist in the developing world<br />
to actually live aid work somewhere for a few months. This will<br />
be an experience that will teach me many things, and it has<br />
opened up many doors for possibly further careers'' (Natasha<br />
Zappone, tndia Health Education programme 2006)<br />
challen$e and $ifts Yiif/<br />
Wbuld you like to exPlore .n" \#<br />
challenges and rewards that life as LARCHE<br />
a llArche Assistant has to offer?<br />
ln llArche Communities, typically Assistants<br />
share life with up to a dozen people in<br />
a house, half of them people with learning<br />
disabilities. Everyone supports and cares for<br />
eaph other, and Assistants are involved in all<br />
aspects of life in the Community and.in the<br />
home, from washing and dressing to leisure<br />
activities, holidays and fun. They help to plan<br />
the personal development of the people living<br />
in the Community. They receive a regular<br />
wage and social security cover and have their<br />
o*i toot with board and lodging included'<br />
Many Assistants find that people with learning<br />
disabilities may bring a great capacity to love,<br />
grow and share. Assistants are offered the<br />
Ihun.u to develop their own gifts and talents,<br />
and can take responsibility and leadership'<br />
Training and qualifications are available, and<br />
Assistants are encouraged to work towards appropriate<br />
formal qual ifications.<br />
Members with learning disabilities are mostly<br />
'locals'. Family ties are maintained and fostered.<br />
Assistants often become part of an<br />
extended family. llArche has a Christian basis,<br />
though we welcome people of any denomination<br />
or faith, or none.<br />
Eulah, an Assistant at UArche Lambeth, says,<br />
'Being able to share my life with people who<br />
havelearning disabilities is a special gift to<br />
me. lt's more than just a job - it's something<br />
that needs commitment but can change your<br />
life. lf you feel you'd like to experience something<br />
new and different, why not try llArche?<br />
t've not regretted it.'<br />
lf you want to know more, see www.larche'<br />
org.uk, e-mail info@larche.org.uk or phone<br />
0800 91 7 1337<br />
sge also...<br />
Student Volunteering: www.studentvol.org'u k<br />
Year Out Group: www.yearoutgroup.org<br />
lona CommunitY: www.iona.org.uk<br />
I<br />
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movement
ll<br />
live at laiz6<br />
Many people spend a week in the French<br />
village which is home to an ecumenical monastic<br />
community. lt is also possible, however,<br />
for 1B-3O-year-olds to stay longer, to help run<br />
the weekly international meetings and to experience<br />
community life in greater depth.<br />
Longer-term volunteers are assigned practical<br />
tasks each week - cooking, gardenirrg, working<br />
in the shop, welcoming new arrivals and<br />
many other jobs. They join in the three daily<br />
community prayers, and in Bible studies and<br />
group discussions. Each individual is also assigned<br />
a 'contact' Brother or Sister who will<br />
meet with them once a week and talk with<br />
them about their experiences. There is free<br />
time too, to think, have fun and take in the<br />
beautifu I cou ntryside.<br />
Different people firrd the experience valuable<br />
for different reasons-the daily rhythm of work<br />
and prayer, the simple lifestyle, the chance to<br />
share life with people from other parts of the<br />
world, the opportunity to take time out from<br />
life at home ancl reflect.<br />
For more information, visit the Taiz6 website<br />
- www.taize.fr - or e-mail one of the Brothers<br />
- community@taize.fr.<br />
push for justice<br />
Ghristian Aid<br />
A Christian Aid gap year is different from many others because<br />
for most of the year you're based here in the UK. Your job is<br />
to encourage young people and students to campaign, reflect<br />
and fundraise about issues like trade justice and HlV. You run<br />
workshops, give talks and organise events that will get people<br />
pressuring our government to make the world a fairer place.<br />
'Gap year volunteers also go on a two-week overseas trip. I<br />
travelled to Sierra Leone to meet Christian Aid partner organisations.<br />
lt was inspiring to meet people living in the world's<br />
poorest country who were working for better rights for workers,<br />
demancling that money from diamond sales go back into community<br />
projects and telling younB people about HlV.<br />
'Back in the UK, it was a privilege to work with local campaigners. I<br />
had the opportunity to speak to many people about how their beliefs<br />
informed their lives, challenging and strengthening my own faith.<br />
'Everyone will tell you their gap year gave them confidence and a<br />
new way of looking at the world. Mine did too, but it also gave me<br />
the direction I was looking for. l'm working full-time for Christian<br />
Aid now and I know that I want to build a career in development.'<br />
(Eileen Hayes, intern for Christian Aid's higher education unit)<br />
The Christian Aid Cap Year costs fB00<br />
and runs from late August to June. Volunteers<br />
must be UK residents aged 1B-25.<br />
www. pressu reworks.orglgap<br />
gapyear@christian-aid.org<br />
0207 523 2246<br />
Christian Aid/Jenny Ayres<br />
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God ?<br />
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'The Three<br />
Craces'(artwork<br />
by Laurence<br />
Craig, member<br />
of SCM Ceneral<br />
Council)<br />
church as<br />
/<br />
thetapeutic<br />
\ communitY<br />
how safe are our christian communities for those in need of healin$?<br />
'This is the first place where I have felt safe enough<br />
to feel unsafe'bave whispered as we said goodbve.<br />
He'd spent some time at Holy Rood Housel<br />
working wiitr difficult issues in his life, and it is<br />
from my experience of working there that I engage<br />
in ideas of ihurch as therapeutic community'<br />
So how may churches become therapeutic communities?<br />
The move towards new ways of being church<br />
or fresh expressions is taken from the writings of<br />
Leonardo tiofP, who referred to new ways of being<br />
church and argued for the church as 'an event<br />
..."(which) "t"tgei,<br />
is born, and is continually reshaped...<br />
The principle characteristic of this way of<br />
being church is communitY...'<br />
The church, as a community of storytelling, has not<br />
been a safe space for many Sroups of people.whose<br />
itori"s are not told, not heird and not celebrated'<br />
A therapeutic community, on the other hand, is<br />
built upon mutual storytelling, listening and acceptance,<br />
which in turn reshapes the community'<br />
W'hen stories are listened to, the listeners become<br />
more sensitive to issues of language and symbol'<br />
architecture, use of space, group sharin$, confidentiality<br />
and the way in which people are able to<br />
identify with one another in areas of grief and loss'<br />
celebration and hope' At the heart of Christian faith<br />
'rs<br />
the therapeutic lourney of the Holy Week and<br />
Easter story, which, rather than a set of doctrines<br />
creating gritt fear, becomes one of hope and<br />
"na<br />
liberatiin] as it forms a therapeutic backdrop for all<br />
human experience. The Easter Saturday experience<br />
particularly is key to the human journey of waiting'<br />
isolation, itruggle and process from hopelessness to<br />
new hope uni"n"* beginnings' lt.is also an ecological<br />
stoiy of justice, forming the heart of a holistic<br />
therapeutic approach to being churc.h in this day<br />
and on this pianet. What a wonderful message the<br />
church as therapeutic community has to share as<br />
it becomes a witnessing community through its<br />
witness to the vulnerable stories out of which the<br />
community is formed.<br />
ln 2OO3 Brian Thorne3 made valuable connections<br />
between his therapeutic work and the church with<br />
his clarion call:<br />
'To the church in whose arms I have been held<br />
and by whose sacraments I have been nourished<br />
since childhood, I saY:<br />
. Reveal to humankind the Cod whose nurture<br />
is infinite love.<br />
. Cease to speak of the God of judgement for<br />
the justice of God is part of his (sic).infinite<br />
love and incomprehensible to humankind'<br />
. Proclaim to men and women that they are<br />
infinitely beloved and show them that they<br />
have the capacity to love as Cod loves'<br />
. Cease any<br />
'effori to occupy the moral. high<br />
ground for there lies the terrain of the hypocrites<br />
and the accusers.<br />
. Embrace and cherish the uniqueness of<br />
persons but never forget the mystery of<br />
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movement
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our membership one of another and the<br />
interconnectedness of all things.<br />
. Honour the mystics and make known their<br />
passionate intensity so that praying becomes<br />
a love affair.<br />
. Cherish those of other faiths and of none and<br />
join with them in the search for that which<br />
offers life in abundance.<br />
. Celebrate the gift of sexuality and let it permeate<br />
the offering of unconditional love in<br />
all its forms.<br />
.. Be at home in the invisible world so that the<br />
whole company of transcendent beings can<br />
accompany us in this mortal life.<br />
. Become a school of love where laughter is<br />
heard and intelligence is honoured.'a<br />
Through story-telling and therapeutic engagement,<br />
we are encouraged to work towards justice in the<br />
churches, helping to reshape them into therapeutic<br />
communities.<br />
We reflect on the way Jesus accompanied people<br />
on their journeys, and his own need for therapeutic<br />
community, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus<br />
at Bethany where he felt welcomed, fed, and rested,<br />
conversed with friends and even enjoyed foot massage!<br />
We draw on inspiration from people like the<br />
.l2th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen, who referred<br />
to God as Counsellor of Souls5. We build on<br />
the continuity of the churches' healing ministry and<br />
recognise the interconnectedness of all things, helping<br />
us to learn what it means to be wounded healers6<br />
for a wounded world in the 21st century as we work<br />
within the therapeutic frameworks of today.<br />
Celebrating the therapeutic authority of all people,<br />
the church draws on gifts of relational mutuality,<br />
whilst living within the forgiveness and healing of<br />
Christ. Cod the counsellor who identifies with our<br />
human processes towards health and wellbeing,<br />
the abundant life Jesus spoke of, is in process too,<br />
accompanying our journeys as we accompany the<br />
be-coming of Cod through our own wisdom, Christ<br />
the wisdom of Cod, Sophia, present at the crossroads<br />
of our lives.T She is witnessed through our embodied<br />
lives, as she was in Christ, the Word made flesh, our<br />
bodyselves become the ground upon which Cod<br />
moves through, with, and among us...8<br />
Lisa lsherwood argues that 'divinity is found lying<br />
in the heart's fragility; we are vulnerable... as Jesus<br />
was, broken-hearted healers. The only way to heal<br />
both others and ourselves is in and through our<br />
redeeming vuJnerability.' The inter-relation of our<br />
own therapeutic process and divine process empowers<br />
therapeutic community. The working out of<br />
love through mutual power relations sustains and<br />
inspires the divine.<br />
So how may SCM become a therapeutic community<br />
and offer this as a witness, a way forward for the<br />
churches? We begin with a vulnerable Cod, a baby<br />
in a manger, a young man tortured on a cross. We<br />
identify with God's vulnerability and God identifies<br />
with ours. We see ourselves and others as wounded<br />
healers drawing on Sophia within us, Christ the<br />
Wisdom of Cod,e and using inclusive language and<br />
symbolwe create ritualthat brings healing and empowerment<br />
to ourselves, to the earth and thus to<br />
our wounded Cod. To do this we need each other<br />
- we need therapeutic community, finding courage<br />
to take the risk of goddingr0 in the world, for as the<br />
body of Christ, we f lesh out Jesus the healer offering<br />
gifts of hospitality, welcome, acceptance and creativity.<br />
As co-creators with the divine, we discover<br />
the power of our creative selves, getting in touch<br />
with our imagination and intuition, helping to rekindle<br />
the living flame within us at times of loss<br />
and pain. Beauty and the arts are essential to this<br />
process. Therapeutic community will be prepared<br />
to be involved in the arts at a messy level, to enable<br />
people to touch de-integration before moving to a<br />
re-integration of their fragmented selves.<br />
as the body of Ghrist, we flesh out Jesus<br />
the healer offering gifts of hospitality,<br />
welcome, acceptance and creativity<br />
Returning to Dave's comment about feeling safe<br />
enough to become unsafe, we ask ourselves if SCM<br />
helps us to be communities of wounded healers in<br />
this way. lf we form communities of hospitality we<br />
hold the key, opening doors, homes, and hearth to<br />
others; with bread on the table we shall once again<br />
be able to tell our stories, break the bread and bear<br />
one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.rl<br />
I hope you enjoy the challenge and the freedom of<br />
therapeutic community as I do - for being part of such<br />
a community we are able to receive as much as we<br />
ever give. I<br />
Elizabeth Baxter<br />
lives and works<br />
at Holy Rood<br />
House.<br />
notes<br />
1 Holy Rood House, Centre for Health and Pastoral Care, is situated in<br />
Thirsk, North Yorkshire. As a residential therapeutic centre, people<br />
are welcomed at a time of need.<br />
2 Leonardo Boff, liberation theologian who challenged the hierarchies<br />
of his day in the Catholic church during the 1980s and early nineties<br />
from his experience of the developing base ecclesial communities in<br />
Latin America: Church: Charism & Power: Liberation Theology and<br />
the lnstitutional Church (Crossroad, 1990), pages 127 and 130.<br />
3/4Brian Thorne is Emeritus Professor of Counselling at the University<br />
of East Anglia, Norwich, and Professor of Education in the College<br />
of Teachers, London. He is fellow of the British Association for<br />
Counselling and Psychotherapy. Renowned for his emphasis on<br />
person-centred counselling, Thorne has contributed widely to the<br />
counselling profession through his books. Thorne is a consultant to<br />
Holy Rood House.<br />
5 Cited in June Boyce-Tillman's Creative Spflt: Opening antiphon ('O<br />
pastor animarum') by Hildegard of Bingen<br />
6 Henri J Nouwen, The Wounded Healer (Dlf , 1979)<br />
7 Proverbs B:1-2<br />
B Carter Heyward, Touching our Strength:The Erotic as Power and the<br />
Love of Cod (HarperSanFrancisco, 1989), page 33<br />
9 1 Corinthians 1'.24<br />
10 Carter Heyward uses this term as another term for loving in her<br />
book Touching our Strength.<br />
11 Calatians 6:2<br />
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the AIDS Ghrist<br />
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andrew scott offers some ideas towards a theology of HIV<br />
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,My soul chooses strangling, and death<br />
rather than my lifer' mourned fob. As a<br />
contextual Bible study for people living with<br />
HIV/AIDS considered this passage, a man stood<br />
equally and genuinely distraught, explaining that<br />
this was just what he felt. Suddenly the Bible<br />
became real in raw human life as he asked immediately<br />
why he should not kill himself. He was<br />
19 ily turn aside; one is a blemish on the holiness of<br />
the community and eventually one's own body will<br />
GOdtS f,-'<br />
- hang heavy and curse. of course it is not always<br />
Ola{Ue so, but for those imprisoned in the remnants of<br />
r---rE'-- - life, and for us if we are to be candid, this is more<br />
he haS than an echo of an unavoidable challenge: how do<br />
r r we talk of God in the midst of the HIV pandemic?<br />
bad<br />
A theology of HIV/AIDS must begin here if it is not to<br />
aim<br />
16<br />
relativise suffering and if it is to sincerely make way<br />
for hope. The book of Job has often been neglected<br />
or subsumed into the type of theology it intends to<br />
challenge but, like HIV/AIDS, this, probably the most<br />
ancient text in the Bible, challenges what we mean<br />
by saying Cod or his world are good' So ravaged<br />
by misfortune<br />
'Man of Sorrows: Christ with AIDS' by W Maxwell Lawton and disease<br />
(permission sought) that neither he<br />
nor his friends<br />
speak for three<br />
but<br />
..t;..1<br />
days<br />
whenJobopens<br />
his mouth it<br />
is to curse<br />
the day of his<br />
birth. Cod has<br />
brought him<br />
into a world of<br />
light and life<br />
only so that he<br />
may see misery.<br />
To his friends,<br />
if Ar Ds il:,T;iJ*'1";llilffi:f,'iittTil"T:"i:ni:T;<br />
!^ cut short and ambitions negated; friends and fam-<br />
the answer<br />
immedi-<br />
is<br />
ate. Job must<br />
have sinned,<br />
for Cod is just<br />
- and good; Job's<br />
suffering is a<br />
punishment to<br />
lead to repentance.<br />
Neither of<br />
these are unusual<br />
responses<br />
to HIV/AIDS.<br />
Of course we have heard too many times of the virus<br />
as the gay plague. 'Satan has entered the world<br />
today', marking all sorts of immorality for destruction.<br />
The logic is simple: Cod's good intention must<br />
have been transgressed and now the sinners are being<br />
purged. Though Job protests his innocence he<br />
cannot just dismiss such a notion. The force of suffering<br />
is absolute, disclosing the nature of things,<br />
and is it bears down on all that he is, it is personal.<br />
'God, why me, why me?' Some challenge Cod like<br />
Job but many fall into a cycle of despair as life appears<br />
to collapse.<br />
Of course, if AIDS is God's plague he has bad aim;<br />
it attacks innocent partners and crushes children<br />
from the womb. But what of Cod's mercy? Consider<br />
a young man who has always controlled his<br />
sexuality only to be seduced during a period of depression,<br />
or another possessed by drink and then<br />
drugs rehabilitated years later only to find he has<br />
ntOS. Should not a Cod worthy of the name show<br />
mercy? But this begs the question. The world is not<br />
an obviously merciful place.<br />
Job's friends make a caricature of God as they<br />
limit him to the irrational world and the cares of<br />
religion. Likewise homosexuality and the 'sins' associated<br />
with HIViAIDS do much to, at the least,<br />
undermine some communities' mores and sense of<br />
purity. ln order to restore security the group mentality<br />
reneges all responsibility and sense of common<br />
humanity, and expels and gives up to AIDS its<br />
apparent deviants as a sacrifice for its own self-justification.<br />
Less worse, maybe, we absorb ourselves<br />
in our own lives, assured that the god of economics<br />
or politics or medicine reigns. HIV and poverty<br />
are unfortunate but the economy will correct itself.<br />
Little wonder patients at an AIDS hospice bitingly<br />
reject the trainee minister who makes it his cause.<br />
The church has already abrogated her mission; she<br />
is too self-absorbed, sold out to a comfortable life<br />
and impervious moral ity.<br />
When he speaks from the whirlwind in the book<br />
of Job, Cod rejects anything to do with all of this<br />
and the blasphemous theodicy that assures it. Job is<br />
directed to the inscrutability of the divine wisdom<br />
running through all things, in which what is really<br />
bad is integral to what is really good, beautiful and<br />
happy in the mysterious reality of all that is, mysterious<br />
because none of us have a Cod's-eye view.<br />
Stepping back from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there<br />
is a fearful sense of its inseparability from all that<br />
we value in life. Love implies risk; of course there<br />
is responsible risk, but free love between persons is<br />
inescapably vul nerabi I ity.<br />
Scientifically too, viruses are essential to life, as we<br />
know it. Without them our DNA would not adapt to<br />
movement<br />
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new environments and ecologies - but the modes by<br />
which viruses need to work make them potentially<br />
dangerous just where they are so useful. Neither Job<br />
nor we can take it all in or see where it is destined to<br />
lead. Cod's goodness and justice is in tension with<br />
evil and waste in the creation. Job can only acknowledge<br />
his smallness, his mortality, but it is just this<br />
that reconciles with the infinite; each beautiful thing<br />
or tender moment, each person becomes of great<br />
worth; our securities open up to be inclusive.<br />
This is all central to the Bible's challenging humanism.<br />
There is no suggestion that Adam would not<br />
die if it were not for the Fall. lt is the inability of<br />
human beings to live with good and evil, their forlorn<br />
desire to master it rather than themselves, that<br />
God fears in the eating of the forbidden fruit. Sin<br />
arises when we resent our mortality and grasp at<br />
immortality, when we resent that doing good to our<br />
brother sacrifices our own. We want to feast forgetting<br />
those we leave impoverished. The young want<br />
to let loose their lust, forgetting their vulnerability<br />
or the dignity of the one they ought to love. The<br />
religious want to believe they are sinless and so expunge<br />
themselves, giving reign to unholy violence.<br />
The world is an ambivalent place and it is hard to<br />
believe it is good when things like HIV/AIDS devastate<br />
persons and countries. God and the meaning<br />
of it all are veiled. Not until the last day shall Job<br />
see Cod, his redeemer, standing upon the earth.<br />
Not until then can we understand the meaning of it<br />
all. Till then we can only live bravely in the reality<br />
of our mortality, lamenting suffering and choosing<br />
courageous acts of mercy and faithfulness.<br />
Along the way there are hints. Such is Jesus' inclusive<br />
love with the Father. By healing on the seventh day<br />
he revealed the Father's will to forget no one, and<br />
to bring creation to fullness. He showed the Father's<br />
mercy through reconciliation and forgiveness. The<br />
story of HIV/AIDS is full of hints that point to Christ.<br />
The world takes on a new value as life and children,<br />
especially, become precious. Their responsiveness<br />
and hopes reveal depths; their love and laughter are<br />
starkly genuine. There is a remarkable ability to let go<br />
and be honest and to acknowledge limitations, and<br />
so too to lament and not resent the fears of those who<br />
recoil. Bravely, men and women pick up and selflessly<br />
care for one another, reaching out to awaken<br />
dignity, relieve pain and in the face of an uncertain<br />
future hope for a better world, a more caring society.<br />
Like Jesus, we are closest to God when we are most<br />
human. ln Jesus the divine image was clearest when<br />
he was obedient unto death. ln it Cod revealed not<br />
his sovereignty nor his judgement, but passion, and<br />
he suffered hopelessness with us. ln Jesus the divine<br />
glory, which is humanity, man fully at home,<br />
appeared. ln this generation the many living with<br />
HIV/AIDS through their deep tenderness as well as<br />
their profound cries realise love and are images of<br />
the divine, one with Christ as a new Adam. Thusly<br />
Cod displays his good pleasure and the world<br />
awakens to joy and life. I<br />
Andrew Scott studies theology at Clasgow IJniversity<br />
and is a member of SCM's Ceneral Council.<br />
easter<br />
seryi,Ge<br />
a creative response<br />
to our life in all its<br />
fullness theme from<br />
SCM General Council<br />
member laurence<br />
Graig<br />
I<br />
leading Marv<br />
from thc Tomb,<br />
Easter Service<br />
'l'm up to my neck<br />
decapitated<br />
put a dockleaf on it<br />
... no need for surgery<br />
it'll heal itself<br />
you'll grow a new head<br />
good as ever, strong and fine'<br />
(Comanesca)<br />
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L7
embodied<br />
renunciation<br />
an Eastern Orthodox perspective on fullness of life<br />
'l came that they might have life, and have it to the<br />
full.' (fohn 10:10, translated by Raymond Brown).<br />
ln not a few ways the Eastern Orthodox tradition<br />
engages human life in its variety and its very<br />
tactile, material reality. Orthodox liturgical life<br />
engages all the senses, and involves us in a very<br />
embodied approach to Cod. Kissing icons, kissing<br />
each other, bowing, prostrating, making the sign<br />
of the Cross, being showered with blessed water,<br />
plunging infants into the baptismal waters, blessing<br />
and eating grain, breaking bread, anointing us with<br />
oil ... this is a tradition that takes the body (and<br />
therefore its life) with absolute seriousness. This is<br />
a seriousness based on believing that God created<br />
the world and called it 'very good' (Genesis 1:31),<br />
and that the goodness of this created world was<br />
confirmed by Cod in God's becoming flesh for our<br />
salvation. Thus Orthodox consider marriage, sex,<br />
family life, and human relationship as good gifts of<br />
God. Orthodox Christians have begun to address<br />
the problems facing the environment, led by the<br />
current Ecumenical Patriarch.<br />
And yet, there is another side to how Orthodox<br />
Christians see the world and life in it. Not only is<br />
there feasting, but there is fasting. There is ascetic<br />
struggle (in Creek, askesrs). More than half of the<br />
days of the year are fasting days of one degree of<br />
intensity or another. The existence of monasticism<br />
is a living sign of the importance of the choice to<br />
live a 'single' life - literally and metaphorically.<br />
Monasticism embodies the renunciation of life in<br />
the world in favour of the world that transcends this<br />
one. One could say that ascetic life in general embodies<br />
the same idea.<br />
,1" world is not<br />
worthless, not<br />
secondary, not simPlY<br />
to be overcome or<br />
transcended, but<br />
penultimate<br />
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an illustration<br />
from the Life of<br />
Saint Alexander<br />
of Svir<br />
It may sound strange to say that renunciation can be<br />
'embodied', that it can be made visible in a human<br />
body. But here is a key to understanding an Eastern<br />
Orthodox view of what it means to have fullness<br />
of life. We say yes to the created world and to our<br />
lives in it. But at the same time, we live in such a<br />
way that makes visible the fact that this beautiful<br />
world, and our life in it, is penultimate. The world<br />
is not worthless, not secondary, not simply to be<br />
overcome or transcended, but penultimate. Even as<br />
we live our lives here and now we also watch and<br />
wait in hope for Cod's fulfilment of his loving will<br />
for the world.<br />
Another way to say this is to suggest that fullness of<br />
life, for Orthodox Christians, means living in such<br />
a way that we see all things in their eschatological<br />
potential, and that we act thereby in love.<br />
The desire to acquire the kind of heart that can see<br />
in such a way, to see with the eyes of love: this is<br />
the motivation behind askesrs. We believe that fullness<br />
of life is found in freedom from what keeps our<br />
deepest self from being able to love as Cod loves.<br />
When we are freed by Cod from that which hinders<br />
our ability to love, we experience light: the light of<br />
the Mount of Transfiguration, the light of the Resurrection.<br />
We see more and more of the firstfruits of<br />
what Cod has begun to bring about in raising Christ<br />
18 movement
from the dead. This is the point of Hesychasm:<br />
that God allows us to see with our very eyes the<br />
uncreated Light of Mount Tabor. We are given a<br />
foretaste of what Cod has in store for the world.<br />
Thus our participation i n I iturgical I ife isn't about getting<br />
an aesthetic high from the beauty of Orthodox<br />
worship. lcons and incense are not about aesthetics<br />
(the Russian Primary Chronicle aside!) - they are<br />
about seeing and venerating the image of Cod in<br />
the homeless person you meet, about discovering<br />
in the smell of wet leaves a sign of the Kingdom of<br />
God. The bride and groom are crowned in the wedding<br />
liturgy, making them signs not only of our first<br />
parents, but also of the return to Paradise that is our<br />
goal in Christ. Cod has made our return to Paradise<br />
possible. Freedom from what hinders us from loving<br />
as Cod loves opens the gates of Paradise. In the<br />
tradition of the desert fathers and mothers, this idea<br />
is brought home most forcefully in the stories of<br />
the wild beasts of the desert befriending the desert<br />
ascetics. They have returned to Paradise, to the harmony<br />
that existed before Adam's sin.<br />
when the 'wide-open<br />
prairies' of our heart<br />
are freed from all<br />
that makes them<br />
uninhabitable,<br />
we become free<br />
to bear fruit<br />
Such a life will be deeply marked by self-giving, for<br />
Orthodox live in the paradox that we find fullness<br />
of life through self-emptying, by having the mind<br />
of Christ who emptied himself and took the form<br />
of a servant (Philippians 2). However, self-emptying<br />
doesn't lead to emptiness, but to life most full.<br />
When the 'wide-open prairies' of our heart (to borrow<br />
a phrase from the pseudo-Macarius) are freed<br />
from all that makes them uninhabitable, then there<br />
comes an openness, a creative fallowness, in which<br />
we become free to bear fruit.<br />
The great Russian spiritual elder St Seraphim of Sarov<br />
(1759-1833) is said to have greeted visitors with the<br />
salutation, 'My joy'. This joy is our goal: the joy of<br />
seeing the world in love, through God's eyes, and<br />
living accordingly. This is joy born of the light of<br />
the Resurrectibn, and sustained in hope. Thus, even<br />
when living in the tension between feast and fast,<br />
we are called to live fully in this world that God has<br />
given. ln Christ, Cod frees us to embrace the world<br />
in joy and self-giving, in fullness of life. I<br />
CrantWhite is Principal of the lnstitute for Orthodox<br />
Christian Studies, Cambridge. A native of the United<br />
States, he was educated at Harvard, Oxford, and the<br />
tJniversity of Notre Dame. He has taught church history,<br />
history of Christian-Jewish relations, history of liturgy, and<br />
history of spirituality in the lJnited States, Finland, and<br />
the lJnited Kingdom. He is an Eastern Orthodox layman.<br />
W<br />
€asy,Cotksy<br />
W<br />
A.<br />
c hec,sh ed<br />
aoo srdered Itvrn<br />
to n L,ro Led<br />
ffi<br />
L<br />
hqsh<br />
cp.lim au seli- Pc':s<br />
platform<br />
tent people<br />
a personal viewpoint<br />
from an SCM member<br />
.---<br />
SCM has a presence at Creenbelt each<br />
year, and alwaYs needs volunteers<br />
to staff the stall. Contact the office<br />
(scm@movement.org.uk) if youd like to<br />
come this yeat, or see www.greenbelt.<br />
org,.uk to find out more.<br />
Got a response? Got<br />
some thougffi of Your<br />
own, or a rant? Platfiorm<br />
is open to all SCM<br />
membeFi - contact<br />
ed itor@movement.ortl uk<br />
John Probhudan is SCM's Office<br />
Administrator. He's previously worked<br />
for Bangladesh SCM and<br />
been a member of the Asia-Pacific<br />
'Regional Committee of the World<br />
Student Christian Federation'<br />
Enlarge the site of Your tent,<br />
and let the curtains of Your<br />
habitations be stretched out;<br />
do not hold back; lengthen your cords<br />
and strengthen your stakes.<br />
(lsaiah 54:2' NRSV)<br />
Just weeks after I had arrived in the UK, I had the opportunity to go to.the Creenbelt<br />
festival. From the very first moment I heard about the festival I was excited - not because<br />
it was just another festival, but because I was advised by a friend th.at it was a festival for<br />
people who found church was 'not their cup of tea!' I found the idea very intriguing.<br />
Having grown up as a Bengali in Bangladesh, lam used to festivals. Bengalis would<br />
make i iestival on any<br />
"*..it".<br />
So growing up in a Hindu quarter of a predominantly<br />
Muslim country in a Christian family meant I had festivals all round the year' Two big<br />
Puja festivals, two big Eid fests, a Bengali New Year's festival, and then there is Mother<br />
tongue Day. That's tii Uig festivals<br />
"^ilrding<br />
the minor ones, in just a yearl Creenbelt<br />
*uidiff"runt to them all, not only in terms of the festival being thousands of miles away<br />
from home, in a different country or culture, but because it is a Christian festival!<br />
So what did I find? Like all other festivals, there were people!Yes, they were young, old,<br />
male, female, singles, couples, babies and elderly all. They came.from everywhere from-<br />
Leeds to Southarn'pton, Cardiff to Cambridge. I also saw tents! There were hundreds of<br />
tents of different sizes, shapes, colours and even traditions. As those of you who have<br />
been there might have seen, there were a few teepees standing around. I assume that's<br />
not unusual for festivals, whatt unusual was that they had people living in them! They<br />
worshipped in them and shared food! Both bread and thoughts! We too shared breakfast<br />
in the morning around the tents. Having never camped in my whole life before, I had to<br />
set up a tent t;o. I managed, with help. lt was not so easy, even-with the help of modern<br />
camping tools. God knJws how hard it was for the people of lsrael when they set up<br />
theii tents in the wilderness when they Were on the move from Egypt!<br />
Anyway, for the days I was there, the more I saw the tents the more amazed I was' As I<br />
stood afar and looked at it, with the hills and blue sky on the horizon, it became more<br />
and more like an image from the Old Testament. It resembled an image of lsraelites living<br />
in the wilderness moving towards the Promised Land.<br />
ln the story of Exodus, when the lsraelites were led out of Egypt to freedom from the evi I<br />
slavery of Pharaoh, they were living in tents. Despite the daily hurdles of living in tents<br />
there was a great sense of .ottrnity, excitement, despair, even maybe tears, but above<br />
all there *ui hop" and aspirations for freedom!The lsraelites were marching as a community,<br />
and as tirey marched and moved they lived in tents. Even many years later after<br />
they hid found the Promised Land, after the fall of Jerusalem when they were being led<br />
into captivity, they were living in tents.<br />
So the image of the tent has a very strong and significant place in the Bible, particularly<br />
in the Old lurtarunt. The powerful image of the tent implies people who are in temporary<br />
shelter or inhabiting a place temporarily, people who are on a journey, who are on<br />
the move; on the movelowards achieving freedom and a promised land. An ordinary<br />
collection of tents would mean nothing! But at Creenbelt it becomes special with the<br />
combination of the tents and people. lt is this unique combination and the collective<br />
picture which makes a striking impression. As the core idea of Creenbelt is to seek<br />
alternative ways to today's world of unfair trade, injustice, and market-driven lifestyles.<br />
People at Creenbelt attempt to seek justice and freedom. lt could be freedom from<br />
the slavery of consumerism of unethital products, or from mindsets or conventional<br />
rituals or, say, traditional ways of worship or even preconceptions. That's why I think<br />
Creenbelt becomes more than another festival. lt reflects its core theme symbolically'<br />
Maybe somewhat abstract but not obscure!<br />
This year I can't wait till I become one of the tent people again! I<br />
movement
jim cotter on<br />
language, stories,<br />
relationships, belief<br />
and spirituality<br />
more than enough?<br />
ties and<br />
binds<br />
It was a dubious argument. Even then I could see through it. Those gallons of wine<br />
at the wedding feast in Cana. fesus knew what he was doing, you see, because it was<br />
really grape juice. So ran the ancient PowerPoint presentation for total abstinence in<br />
the local Methodist church of my youth. Ah well, excess has always been troubling to<br />
the Puritan soul.<br />
Life in abundance, maybe. But surely not that abundant?<br />
What a waste. All that food could be sent to<br />
stave off starvation. What a waste. All that perfumed<br />
oil for massaging feet and anointing heads:<br />
the money could have been given to the poor. Cenerous<br />
of her, no doubt, but over the top and, well,<br />
l've seen her in hysterical mood before.<br />
And where on earth - or perhaps where in heaven's<br />
name - did those twelve basketfuls of leftovers<br />
come from? And who carried them away?<br />
when in doubt,<br />
err on the side of<br />
generosity<br />
Do such extravagances startle you into asking, 'How generous am l?'As I write this l'm<br />
about to go to Australia and New Zealand for a couple of months (speaking tour or a<br />
series of gigs depending on who asks) and the community in Ceelong with whom l'm<br />
to be based say: when in doubt, err on the side of generosity.<br />
There's that deadline to meet. So spend twice as much time as you can afford with that<br />
friend in need. There's that charity to support. Double the amount you first thought of.<br />
And no, I don't always. Prudence clocks in. But I reckon it's a good direction for a spirited<br />
life. (Better than 'spiritual', don't you think?)<br />
Of course it's embarrassing to receive, with all this excess. I don't deserve it. You can't<br />
afford it. I must repay you sometime.<br />
But we're in the domain of gifts and graces. lt's more 'Pour mercy upon us' than 'Have<br />
mercy upon us.' And 'mercy' has the same roots as 'mercantile' and 'merci'. lt's best<br />
understood as an exchange of gifts from which both parties benefit.<br />
It's the sheer exuberance and fertility of the universe that is so amazing. There's that damson<br />
tree that nearly snapped one year under the weight of an exceptionally abundant<br />
crop of fruit. There's that outpouring of compassion and money after an earthquake. I<br />
could go on. Easy to get carried away once you see the point.<br />
The Spirit is a life-giving, love-making presence connecting us.The unpredictable happens,<br />
something we can't make happen and something we don't understand. And it has<br />
nothing to do with virtue and deserts. But without it we are but a tenth alive. Dance your<br />
gratitude in the communion of the Holy Spirit. Jump for joy and make the Millennium<br />
Bridge wobble again.<br />
Slightly more formally to end with, from two of my life's mentors. The first is from JohnV<br />
Taylor: 'You cpnnot be alive towards Cod unless you are alive towards everything else,<br />
all the glory and all the pain and all the people.'<br />
And from a Sister of the Love of God, a contemplative community in Oxford, beloved<br />
Jane who died some years ago, writing to a friend, and perhaps hinting in dark times at<br />
a reality that is not far away but which you can't quite touch at the moment: '...1 have<br />
found something that can't "come and go" with my feelings. And that is the fact of<br />
having glimpsed the mind-blowing love of Cod as shown in Jesus Christ. The glimpse<br />
is "mine to keep". lt may be delusion; it may not do me a shred of good; but it's worth<br />
dying and even living for, I think.'I<br />
.h..-<br />
,s,<br />
d<br />
Want to ask Jim a<br />
question, or comment<br />
on the column? Go to<br />
www.movement.<br />
org.ulvforum<br />
Jim Cotter runs Cairns Publications,<br />
an independent Christian imprint<br />
publishing collections of poems,<br />
ptayers and reflections. He has also<br />
set up Small Pilgrim Places, a small<br />
but growing network across the<br />
UK.They seek to turn small chapels<br />
and churches, as well as crypts and<br />
chapels in larger churches, into<br />
'small pilgrim places' - spaces for<br />
ret reat, reflecti on a nd pi I gr i mage,<br />
held together by common values.<br />
They will be places for prayer,<br />
quiet and conversation, providing<br />
a welcome for searchers, seekers<br />
and those rejected or marginalised<br />
by the churches.You can join the<br />
network and receive updates on<br />
their activities at the website:<br />
www. cottercai r n s.co. u k<br />
movement<br />
2t
.to" \<br />
{ wscF E<br />
9 Eu.ott ,8<br />
tt to a.rroo<br />
The World<br />
Student Christian<br />
Federation<br />
links together<br />
student Christian<br />
movements all<br />
over the world.<br />
The IJK SCM has<br />
funding available<br />
for members to<br />
attend WSCF<br />
events and<br />
conferences - see<br />
www-movement.<br />
org,.uk/wscf<br />
worldview<br />
a biSIer picture<br />
Mozaik= a literary platform for dialo€ue between scMs<br />
Mozaik is the ecumenical iournal of WSCF's Europe<br />
region. lt was established in 1992 and since<br />
then 16 issues have been published. Currently<br />
Mozaikispublished twice a year in Budapest, Hungary,<br />
and each issue focuses on a specific topic.<br />
ihese topics are connected to the thematic conferences<br />
organised by WSCF-Europe, and concentrate<br />
on four main fields of interest: theology, solidarity,<br />
gender, and culture and higher education.<br />
At the European level, there are four interest<br />
groups, one for each field of interest, which are<br />
responsible for organising the conferences. A considerable<br />
number of articles published in Mozaik<br />
are directly connected to the presentations made<br />
at the conferences; the journal follows the thematic<br />
line produced by the interest Eroups, and for each<br />
issue we invite onto the editorial board a thematic<br />
editor suggested by the interest group. This makes<br />
Mozaik an important leadership-training tool, as it<br />
offers SCMers the unique experience of co-editing<br />
an international ecumenical journal on a topic that<br />
is dear to their hearts.<br />
Mozaik broadens and deepens the thematic work<br />
of WSCF-Europe, starting from the 60 or so people<br />
involved in the conference and taking it beyond<br />
to an audience of more than 1,000 readers and<br />
contributors. The articles appearing in Mozaik are<br />
mostly essays written by students or Senior Friends<br />
(older supporters of WSCF), but the journal also<br />
publishes poems, interviews, liturgies, Bible studies<br />
and mini-biographies of important ecumenical<br />
leaders.<br />
Mozaik aims to refleit the wide variety of opinions<br />
and viewpoints present among the different SCMs<br />
in dialogue. The contributors come from various<br />
Christian denominations: Anglican, Orthodox,<br />
Iet's talk about freedom<br />
t$ esc<br />
lrl!#afrl,@<br />
h&c--"i"rss,o:gl3<br />
30 fuly - 5 August . Waldsieversdorf, Germany<br />
'The German SCM's annual lnternational Ecumenical<br />
Student Meeting takes place at a youth hostel 10<br />
metres from a very beautiful lake. This year's topic<br />
is freedom: how do we understand the political,<br />
religious and personal dimensions of this abstract<br />
term? What does freedom mean in our daily life?<br />
The UK SCM can send up to four delegates - if you'd<br />
like to be one of them, contact scm@movement.org'<br />
uk or 0121 200 3355 by 26 May. You'll need to be<br />
aged 26 or under, have an interest in the theme, and<br />
write a short essay to accompany your application'<br />
news from SCMs<br />
around the world<br />
Protestant and Roman Catholic. A considerable<br />
number of contributors come from outside Europe,<br />
as we deem it our vocation to reflect also the issues<br />
important to SCMs outside the 'old continent'.<br />
ln this way Mozaik functions as a communication<br />
channel between WSCF-Europe and other regions<br />
of the Federation. lt serves as a literary discussion<br />
platform for all those who feel that they would like<br />
to draw the attention of SCMs to a particular issue<br />
or simply share their opinions and experience<br />
within the discussed field.<br />
During our term of office, we have had the pleasure<br />
of co-bperating with two UK SCMers - Angharad<br />
Jones and Dan Criffiths - who worked with us as<br />
thematic editors. We hope that the co-operation between<br />
SCM UK and Mozaik will continue, and we<br />
thank movem ent for creating this space for a brief<br />
presentation of who we are and what we do. I<br />
Peter Sajda, is editorin-chief of Mozaik Rebecca<br />
Blocksome is WSCF-Europe's publications intern.<br />
MO 7NIK<br />
Copies of the /afest issue of Mozaik are available free to<br />
SCM memhers, on request from the SCM office: contact<br />
scm@movement.org.uk or 0121 200 3355. Supp/ies are<br />
Iimited so it's first come, first served!<br />
You can find Mozaik on the web at www.koed.hu/mozaik,htm<br />
. all content in English - no need to speak<br />
Cerman!<br />
. lectures and working groups<br />
. country reports presented by participants<br />
r trip to Berlin with visits to interesting<br />
organ isations and places<br />
. ecumenical exchange and common prayer<br />
o intercultural evenings with campfire, swimming<br />
and lots of fun!<br />
Fee: 5O€ (includes accommodation, food and programme).<br />
ESC will reimburse 50% of your travel<br />
costs, and SCM has bursaries available too.<br />
22<br />
movement
investing ethically<br />
can you apply christian principles in a capitalist system?<br />
Margaret Thatcher once famously remarked that<br />
the Good Samaritan not only had good intentions<br />
but he also had money. While that is hardly the<br />
main message that that particular parable has to<br />
convey, it does force the reader to ask what should<br />
be done with any wealth that might be accumulated,<br />
which in turn forces you to ask how that wealth<br />
may be accumulated. The parable of the ten talents<br />
also makes us question the role of money, how we<br />
get it, and what we do with it.<br />
The fact that you are reading this magazine would<br />
indicate that you have a Christian ethic, but I also<br />
appreciate that a number of you might object to<br />
the injustices (apparent or real) of the capitalist system.<br />
However, whether you agree with it or not,<br />
the United Kingdom is a capitalist economy, and<br />
wherever you put your money, it is in one way or<br />
another involved in that global system of international<br />
finance. That is a fact of life which not even<br />
keeping your money under the bed can detach you<br />
from. From a purely ethical point of view, there<br />
is no difference at all between putting money in<br />
a bank, and putting money into the stock market.<br />
With both, the money could well end up financing<br />
a company you would rather not support, or be lent<br />
to a government whose policies you are actively<br />
fighting against.<br />
Therefore, when deciding where to put your money,<br />
it is essential to ask whether that money will be<br />
used in accordance with your principles.<br />
Many articles have been written about consuming<br />
ethically - fairtrade goods being sold in church;<br />
boycotting companies such as McDonalds, etc.<br />
- but less has been written about the ethics of investing.<br />
The very first question to ask is actually nothing at<br />
all to do with ethics. Rather, it is connected with 'attitude<br />
to risk'. The amount of risk you are prepared<br />
to take will determine in which particular 'asset<br />
class' you put your money. (Risk can essentially be<br />
described as how much you are willing to see the<br />
value of your money go down in the short term in<br />
the hope that it will go up by a greater amount in<br />
the long term - the more risk, the greater the potential<br />
reward, though this is not guaranteed.)<br />
The lowest-risk 'asset' would be cash held in the<br />
bank, but over a long period of time, the money<br />
would barely hold its value against inflation. The<br />
higher risk 'assets', such as bonds, property or<br />
shares, might give a greater return over the long<br />
term, but in the short term the value of your investment<br />
might go down.<br />
lf you give your money to a bank or investment manager,<br />
he or she will then invest in other companies.<br />
Through this, it is possible for you to benefit from<br />
the growth of the company. Of course, you may not<br />
want to invest in certain types of companies, such<br />
as oil stocks, or you may wish to proactively support<br />
companies with a good record with regard to<br />
the environment or so on.<br />
a fund manager very often will<br />
have far more influence over a<br />
company than a protester<br />
The fund managers, because they own a significant<br />
share holding in the company, can and do advocate<br />
changes to business practice which end up being<br />
good for the business, good for the environment,<br />
and good for the investor. By talking to the chief<br />
executive officer at an annual general meeting, a<br />
fund manager very often will have far more influence<br />
over a company than a protester outside that<br />
meeting. The more investors in a unit trust which is<br />
operating along ethical lines, the greater that influence<br />
will be.<br />
Within the current UK investment market, it is relatively<br />
easy to do this. There are over 50 retail 'unit<br />
trusts' such as the ones offered by fund manager<br />
F&C, and several banks, such as Smile, in which<br />
you could invest and relax in the knowledge that<br />
your money is working for you while also making a<br />
difference to the world. Also, the 'FTSE4Good' index<br />
gives a good yardstick as to which companies<br />
meet certain agreed ethical standards.<br />
One of the beauties of ethical investing is that it can<br />
still make you money (which, of course you can<br />
then, like the Cood Samaritan, use to help those<br />
without). For example, over the year to 1 March<br />
2005, the average performing ethical fund would<br />
have made you 11.05%, while the best one would<br />
have made you nearly 20"h. Financial advice is important<br />
in choosing the fund though, as the worst<br />
performing fund would have made 1ust2.13oh.<br />
It must not be forgotten that any investment is<br />
just that - an investment - and you could lose<br />
your money. lt is therefore essential that you<br />
speak to an independent financial adviser<br />
(lFA) about your needs and the risks involved,<br />
and also that you make sure your<br />
IFA is aware of the ethical requirements<br />
you have.<br />
Christianity's view towards money is that<br />
it is morally neutral - how you get it, and<br />
what you do with it once you have got<br />
it, is what determines where you stand<br />
on the scale of Christian morality. I<br />
This article<br />
is published<br />
posthumously<br />
as Richard<br />
Nagle tragically<br />
died on 16<br />
October 2005<br />
aged 30.<br />
Richard was<br />
at the time of<br />
writing this<br />
article an<br />
lndependent<br />
Financial<br />
Advisor with<br />
The Annuity<br />
Bureau, and a<br />
member of the<br />
Stewardship<br />
Committee<br />
at Southwark<br />
Cathedral.<br />
movement
a.<br />
L .*.<br />
the<br />
speaker<br />
guilttripped<br />
everyone<br />
into<br />
steppin$<br />
forward<br />
and<br />
$iving<br />
Stuart<br />
what was<br />
in their<br />
pockets<br />
Got a<br />
comment on<br />
the column?<br />
Talk to Wood<br />
at www.<br />
movement.<br />
org.ulV<br />
forum<br />
Wood is a<br />
freelance<br />
writer, living in<br />
Swansea.<br />
ln previous columns, l've talked<br />
about people's stories. l've changed<br />
the names. And, like a lot of columnists<br />
in the confessional game, l've not been<br />
averse to slipping one or two of my own stories in.<br />
You just do that. The important thing is that this<br />
particular story is not about me. I got it secondhand<br />
from the individual in question. This is my<br />
- probably slightly hazy - interpretation of a story<br />
he told me, and so the facts may well be distorted.<br />
Or rather, I really hope they are.<br />
had been attending<br />
a church for some years, which styled itself as a<br />
'NewTestament' church. Charismatic, upbeat, hands<br />
in the air, people speaking in tongues, dancing, that<br />
sort of thing. I make no judgement on that. lf it floats<br />
your boat on the old Sea of Faith, it's fine by me.<br />
My friend - let's call him Stuart -<br />
atlantis<br />
and me<br />
Every so often they'd say how you've 'got to be blessed<br />
to be a blessing,' - they appeared to believe that<br />
you were only able to do good work for the Kingdom<br />
if you were rolling in it and happy and stuff. Stuart<br />
wasn't really happy with that. After one guest speaker<br />
had talked on the whole prosperity kick, Stuart sent a<br />
brief e-mail to the leaders of the church with his concerns.<br />
lnevitably, the reply came that Stuart didn't<br />
understand what the man was saying, and that he<br />
should think about it and pray about it a bit more.<br />
One time Stuart turned up, and it was his birthday.<br />
The sermon was about giving. The speaker got him<br />
to stand out the front, holding a collection basket,<br />
and said something like, 'ls Stuart here your<br />
Christian Brother? Do you love him? Well, it's his<br />
birthday. Come out and give him what's in your<br />
pockets.' And the speaker guilt+ripped the congregation<br />
into stepping forward and giving Stuart what<br />
was in their pockets, one by one. Stuart stood, helpless<br />
like a bunny in the headlights, as five-, ten- and<br />
twenty-pound notes rained into his pot.<br />
He couldn't give it back. He'd been given so much<br />
money that he had no idea who had given him what,<br />
and it was pointless trying to give it back. I must admit<br />
that had I been in this position, it would have<br />
been drinks on me at the pub that night, but Stuart<br />
felt really bad about having been used to guilt-trip a<br />
congregation, and so he gave the money to charity.<br />
And he started thinking about leaving the church.<br />
This is the part of the column where I break from<br />
Stuart's story for a minute to explain about 'love<br />
bombing'. That's when someone new joins up and the<br />
group makes them very welcome. They shower the<br />
newbie with affection and support, both emotional<br />
wood ingham's tales<br />
from the world of<br />
the stran$e and the<br />
christian student<br />
the new testament love bomb<br />
and material. You turn up and within a few weeks,<br />
they've offered you a membership card, and everybody<br />
at church has invited you to dinner. Which<br />
doesn't sound so bad, except that when a member of<br />
the group ceases to toe the party line in any way, they<br />
take away all that affection and support in one stroke'<br />
You get it back if you come back into the light, but if<br />
you don't, they'll never talk to you again.<br />
It was the Moonies that came up with this, but an<br />
awful lot of churches do it. They don't necessarily<br />
mean to do it - it comes naturally. Stuart's church<br />
had a lot of people who were like that. This didn't actually<br />
include the ministers, but it included enough<br />
prominent members of the congregation to make<br />
Stuart feel really uncomfortable about leaving. He'd<br />
heard a whole load of bitching directed against people<br />
who'd left the church and against the churches<br />
they'd gone to, and he began to feel it was a really<br />
big deal. The church had a big deal about authority,<br />
too. You were supposed to listen to their ministers,<br />
prophets and apostles, and if you were a member<br />
- and you had to be a signed-up member to get involved<br />
in church activities - the importance of tithing<br />
your income to the church was hammered home.<br />
So it wasn't just a question of skipping out and going<br />
somewhere else. lt was a really big deal. He spent<br />
a long time wondering whether he could go through<br />
with it. And he couldn't go quietly. People had noticed<br />
that he was edging towards the periphery. He was assigned<br />
to a housegroup. The Bible group leader turned<br />
up at Stuart's place a few times, trying to get him to<br />
attend. The group was called 'Men Sharpening Men'<br />
(no, I honestly don't think that they even realised).<br />
He decided to give the place one last chance. So he<br />
turned up one Sunday and kept a low profile, sitting<br />
right at the back. During this service, one of the<br />
church's 'prophets' stood up between songs and said<br />
that he felt Cod wanted him to encourage everyone to<br />
demonstrate their love for one another. He got down<br />
off the platform and gave the wife of one of the elders<br />
a massive hug. One of the ministers stood up and said,<br />
maybe they should all show their love for one another<br />
while the band played the next couple of songs. And if<br />
there's someone looking lonely or isolated, well, they<br />
should especially give those people hugs. Stuart, not<br />
the physically demonstrative sort at the best of times,<br />
stood, transfixed in horror, as the band began to play,<br />
and everybody in the church started to give each other<br />
warm embraces. He bolted, running a gauntlet of a<br />
half-dozen people who all wanted to hug him. A few<br />
days later, he wrote them a letter resigning his membership,<br />
and he hasn't been back since. I<br />
24 movement
not sure what you<br />
believe? we look at<br />
the background to<br />
aspects of christian<br />
thought, doctrine and<br />
belief<br />
neglative theolo€y<br />
Negative theology ... as opposed to what?<br />
Positive theology, of course! StThomas Aquinas had a<br />
lot to say about both positive and negative theology.<br />
But Aquinas was a Roman Catholic Christian. lsn't<br />
negative theology just another term for atheism?<br />
No. Aquinas thought that negative theology (or<br />
sometimes apophatic theology) had a role to play in<br />
the discourses of Christianity. He thought that Cod<br />
could be explained positively by analogy, but that<br />
these descriptions (i.e. 'God is...') were inadequate<br />
in some ways. Hence, negative theology.<br />
So what is it?<br />
The practice of understanding Cod by what Cod<br />
is not. ln other words, when you say 'God is not a<br />
tree', you're saying what God is by stating what God<br />
is not. This method of theologising has long been<br />
used in mystical writings from across the Christian<br />
traditions, but perhaps most notably in the Eastern<br />
Orthodox church.<br />
But what's the point of it? Surely there are some<br />
things we can state positively about Cod without<br />
needing to go that far.<br />
It's likely that there are ... and that they can be understood<br />
by this approach! The Vra Negativa (Latin<br />
for 'negative way') sheds a lot of light on our assumptions<br />
about how much we can know about<br />
Cod. As the theologian Denys Turner says, 'Negative<br />
theology does not mean that we are short of<br />
things to say about Cod; it means just that everything<br />
we say of Cod falls short of him.'<br />
How so?<br />
ln this line of thinking, there's no necessity that ties<br />
us to describing Cod's essence, like you might find<br />
in a number of theological approaches that are quite<br />
prevalent today. I mean, when was the last time you<br />
heard a sermon in which the preacher refrained from<br />
making an explicit positive statement about God?<br />
Hang on a sec though ... what about Cod's revelation<br />
throughout history? lf we take that as read, then the<br />
universe must'be loaded with positive affirmations<br />
of what Cod is really like - Cod's essence.<br />
Negative theology sees our knowledge of Cod as limited<br />
to what Cod has revealed. Does Cod's historical<br />
revelation really show us Cod, or merely reveal something<br />
of Cod's purposes? lt's worth pondering.<br />
So what kinds of conclusions have these negative<br />
theologians come to?<br />
Often they address some of humanity's biggest<br />
questions in an unconventional but, some might<br />
argue, particularly profound way. The Cappadocian<br />
doctrine fior<br />
I<br />
I<br />
Fathers, who lived in the fourth century, claimed to<br />
believe in God, but did not believe that Cod existed.<br />
Similarly, the twentieth century French mystic<br />
Simone Weil decided, by using the apophatic way,<br />
that God was neither existent nor non-existent.<br />
there's no difference between<br />
God's existence and God's [onexistence<br />
in any empirical sense<br />
whv?<br />
Because she wanted to show that Cod is not a being<br />
within the world in any ordinary sense - Cod<br />
doesn't exist in any tangible way to our sense experience,<br />
as a chair or an iPod might:'To believe in<br />
God is not a decision we can make'. On the other<br />
hand, she is often defined as a Christian mystic and<br />
philosopher with no qualms about seeking Cod's<br />
presence within each one of us.<br />
But surely that's illogical! Cod must either exist or<br />
not exist.<br />
It could be suggested that there's no difference between<br />
Cod's existence and God's non-existence in<br />
any empirical sense. Meister Eckharl again, says that<br />
'Cod is a "being transcending being and a transcending<br />
nothingness"'. Besides, it's not like there are any<br />
knock-down arguments, right? People are still arguing<br />
and thinking about all this after centuries of debate.<br />
I suppose ... but if we can't grasp God's essence or<br />
nature, how can we experience God at all?<br />
Through Cod's immanence, of course! lt is precisely<br />
because of the absoluteness of the divine<br />
transcendence that Augustine can speak of Cod as<br />
more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.<br />
What particular opportunities can negative theology<br />
afford then in our culture?<br />
There are strong mystical and apophatic traditions<br />
that run throughout Christianity's history, from the<br />
gospels and letters, through such works as The<br />
Cloud of Unknowing, right up to the present day<br />
with spiritual writers such as Thomas Merton and<br />
theologians like Karl Rahner. As a result, negative<br />
theology can perhaps still act as a necessary<br />
counter-balance to theologies that may seem to<br />
over-stretch into the realms of mystery. EM Forster<br />
called the faith 'poor little talkative Christianity';<br />
perhaps it's time to be humble and remember that<br />
that which we cannot say is sometimes more meaningful<br />
than that which we can... I<br />
Rob Telford is<br />
an ex-Theology<br />
student from<br />
Cardiff.<br />
movement 25
$q$r<br />
$' media<br />
a novel<br />
christ<br />
writing about culture (popular<br />
and otherwise), and reviews of<br />
books, CDs, films and websites<br />
will the real jesus<br />
please step forward?<br />
The<br />
Nliracle of<br />
Jesus<br />
Iiq /&lx'rt llnttttl
can a new book persuade<br />
evangelical christians to care<br />
more about the environment?<br />
evo-friendly?<br />
Ecology and theology have been uncomfortable bedfellows in recent church history.<br />
Christians have shown antagonism towards environmentalists, branding them 'New<br />
Agers', and Christianity has been held by many environmentalists to be responsible for<br />
and unconcerned about the current ecological crisis. This book aims to address this<br />
troubled relationship through contributions by high-profile Christian leaders and academics.<br />
Caring for Creation targets evangelical Christians, a group that will be suspicious of working<br />
towards anything unless given a clear 'biblical' motivation. John Stott's foreword says that<br />
creation is a much-neglected biblical topic, and caring for creation an equally neglected<br />
responsibility. Essays by prominent evangelicals explain how care of the environment is<br />
an inseparable part of God's plan for humanity, covering the biblical themes of creation,<br />
fall, redemption and resurrection. These are interspersed with brief commentaries on the<br />
work of international Christian environmental organisation A Rocha.<br />
ln the opening essay, Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) rambles happily about<br />
the rhythm of creation and how by living in this rhythm, Christians care for creation. His<br />
suggested method for participating in this rhythm appears to be going to church. Subsequent<br />
chapters continue in the same vein, citing the fall as the problem and redemption<br />
as the solution, and asserting that science and religion do not contradict each other<br />
(although one essay dismisses the scientific worldview).<br />
This doesn't really bring any new insights. Too often, 'biblical' arguments for caring for<br />
the earth are based either on simplistic quoting from Genesis, where man is made steward<br />
of creation, or on the flimsy basis that Jesus often used analogies from farming or<br />
the animal kingdom in his teaching. But having a degree of control over and knowledge<br />
about the natural world is a far cry from knowing how to engage with the complicated<br />
systems of global government and economics that Christians find ourselves part of.<br />
Thankfully, things finally get interesting when the discussion comes to Cod's covenant<br />
with lsrael and the Old Testament concepts of the Sabbath and the year of Jubilee. I am<br />
skeptical of how much the Bible can contribute to general environmental debate, but<br />
a pattern of community living that constantly redistributes resources fairly is vital for a<br />
just society. Chris Wright describes this with clarity, and James Houston builds on it by<br />
attributing environment degradation to the breakdown in relationships that leads to individualisation<br />
and consumerism, concluding that'secular environmental concerns are<br />
far too shallow a prognosis of human relations to our environment'.<br />
The final few chapters deal with resurrection and redemption. These concepts can be difficult<br />
to reconcile with environmentalism. The inevitable destruction of the world before<br />
God puts everything right seems to make it pointless to mend anything. Tillett takes the<br />
conventional line: that the resurrection and re-creation of the earth is something to draw<br />
hope from as we obey and worship Cod against a tide of human and natural disasters.<br />
For me, David Bookless' discussion of what is meant by 'a new heaven and a new earth'<br />
is more satisfying. His take on Cod as divine environmentalist, recycling the broken<br />
earth, by analogy with Noah's flood, relates much more closely to what we see around<br />
us in the world - new life springing from the barren wasteland caused by ecological<br />
disaster. lt gave me hope that Christians and environmentalists together can herald this<br />
new life, by living the model of Cod's kingdom on earth.<br />
The A Rocha contributions bring a welcome dose of realism, describing the difficulties<br />
and triumphs of the struggle between human needs and the care of wildlife habitats<br />
around the world. Reading about the competition for space between elephants and<br />
people in lndia and 'crop-destroying elephants and baboons' in Kenya brings a fresh<br />
realisation that conservationism is not abstract nature-loving, but requires serious involvement<br />
with the communities and wildlife who share resources.<br />
Although the first few chapters were disappointing, as a whole the book hangs together<br />
well. There is a set of discussion questions for each chapter, which would work well in<br />
Bible study groups. The book is definitely aimed at an evangelical readership, but the<br />
wealth of different perspectives gives much scope for new thinking. I hope that, by establishing<br />
for Christians how much theology has to do with environmentalism, this book<br />
might help us to address the difficult issues that face the world today. I<br />
foraord by jOHN SfOn<br />
CARING<br />
FOR CREATION<br />
Bil)liril and rheologir al perspective(<br />
. ,<br />
ri, .,rr-:,rL.L:.<br />
caring for creation<br />
edited by Sarah Tillett, BRD €8.99<br />
I am skeptical<br />
of how much<br />
the Bible can<br />
contribute<br />
to $eneral<br />
environmental<br />
debate, but<br />
a pattern of<br />
community<br />
living that<br />
constantly<br />
redistributes<br />
lesoutces fairly<br />
is vital for a<br />
just society<br />
Rosie Telford is a student member<br />
of Christian Ecology Link (www.<br />
ch r i sti a n -eco I ogy. o r g. u k )<br />
l. ";|-rr<br />
B<br />
movement 27
,i. r{1<br />
:D<br />
rFr J<br />
pop<br />
I<br />
$ordon lynch<br />
on theolots and<br />
spirituality<br />
in popular culture<br />
H<br />
the media and<br />
popular culture<br />
run throu$h<br />
our veins<br />
gordon's top ten<br />
#1 Sigur Ros, untitled O (Fat Cat Records, 2002). Turn the lights down,<br />
light a candle or two, and meditate, pray or just let it wash over you.<br />
With their lyrics in an invented language, and their wash of sound,<br />
Sigur Ros sound the mystical potential of pop music.<br />
#2 Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in LasVegas (HarperCollins,<br />
2005). Disturbing and very funny (and often both at the same time),<br />
Thompson's classic novel offers a twisted view of American life, only<br />
to show how our everyday assumptions are themselves more distorted<br />
than we choose to recognise.<br />
#3 Riclcy Cervais, The Office (BBC, 2002) and Extras (BBC, 2005).<br />
Aside from the humour, Cervais' work is an astute and painful study<br />
of the insecurities and humiliations of everyday life - and of the role of<br />
love and friendship in overcoming these.<br />
i4 Lost in Translation (directed by Sofia Coppola, 2003). The Japanese<br />
setting is not incidental as the film offers a Zen-like study of the transience<br />
of our passions and despair. A beautiful study of the love and<br />
loneliness often missed by a superficial society.<br />
#5 www.theonion.com. lt can be easy to despair at the world's injustices<br />
- satire can help us to carry on, and remember what's important<br />
for us. Get clicking...<br />
#6 The Aphex Twin, drukgs (Warp Records, 2001). At times unsettling<br />
with his banging drum'n'bass, the Aphex Twin shows how electronic<br />
music can touch so many different moods. At their best, his piano pieces<br />
make you feel like you're touching the face of Cod.<br />
#7 Annie Hall and Crimes and Misdemeanors (both directed by Woody<br />
Allen, 1977 and 1989). Allen at his very best. Exploring his usual<br />
,themes - love, death and the search for meaning in a meaningless universe<br />
- these two films show Allen's range in exploring love, happiness<br />
and the absuldities of life.<br />
#8 Banksy, Wall and Piece (Century,2OO5) - and various sites across the<br />
world. Surely Britain's foremost anarchist graffiti artist - Banksy's books<br />
are thought-provoking, and often just downright funny.<br />
2A<br />
#9 Pulp, Different C/ass (lsland Records, 1999). Sheffield's finest don't<br />
take their eyes off the ball when singing about the grittiness of life.<br />
Dark, ironic, atmospheric, romantic - very British - and worth listening<br />
to for 'Common People' alone.<br />
#10 Super Size Me (directed by Morgan Spurlock, 2004). Documentary<br />
film at its transformative best, Spurlock's film has helped to open eyes<br />
to the system that thrives on feeding people rubbish for the pursuit of<br />
profit. This year, McDonald's shut 25 'restaurants' in the UK...<br />
Various life pressures mean that this will be the last pop culture review that I write for<br />
a while. l'm very grateful to Liam for coming up with the idea for this column, and for<br />
giving me space to indulge my various thoughts and concerns in it.<br />
Thinking back even over the fairly short time l've been writing these reviews, I can see<br />
real changes in the area of religion and popular culture. There is a coming generation<br />
of theologians and religious scholars who know deep in their bones that exploring the<br />
religious dimension of life today inevitably means engaging with different forms of media<br />
and with the content of our everyday lives. Cinema, books, TV, cyberspace have all<br />
become essential means for the contemporary exploration of both the sacred and the<br />
nature of evil - both in terms of offering us images and ideas to play and wrestle with,<br />
and in offering us a space for the spiritual search.<br />
Media and popular culture are no longer trivial subjects,<br />
but the means through which so many of the<br />
pressing questions of our time will be pursued. A<br />
new generation of academics are starting the difficult<br />
process of unpacking this relationship between<br />
the sacred and the everyday, and it will be some<br />
years before we can see whether this new academic<br />
project proves to be fruitful or not.<br />
Even if we're uninterested in such academic developments,<br />
the media and popular culture still run<br />
through our veins, shaping the environments in<br />
which we live, providing us with the language and<br />
symbols with which we think and communicate,<br />
and giving us ways of seeing and feeling how life can<br />
(and in a better world, could) be. One of the unhelpful<br />
notions of Cod that I previously acquired, and<br />
have since dispensed with, is the idea that Cod is<br />
wholly separate, far above and beyond our everyday<br />
worlds. Yet, in fact, the divine is inseparable from life<br />
itself. A question that always stands above us is how<br />
our everyday cultural practices relate to this divine<br />
life. Does our cultural practice - what we do, watch,<br />
create, consume - draw us more deeply into a rich<br />
awareness of the divine life in which we already live?<br />
Does it rest on a healthy relationship with ourselves<br />
and others? Does it deepen our imagination and desire<br />
for the most just and sustainable world, to which<br />
the divine life calls us?<br />
All these are hard questions - a life's work to answer<br />
them. But in signing off for now, I wanted to offer<br />
you a quick top ten of bits of pop culture that have<br />
given me glimpses of the excitement, pleasure/ complexity<br />
and sheer mystery of that divine life in which<br />
we all have a stake.<br />
Well, that's me. Here's to fun, creativity, richness,<br />
honesty and justice in our everyday lives, and all that<br />
fills them. I<br />
Cordon Lynch teaches practical theology at the<br />
tJ niversity of Bi rmingham.<br />
movement
who would have<br />
thou€lht opera could<br />
be so controversial?<br />
the<br />
comes t GTTGUS<br />
o town<br />
It is pretty hard to review Jerry Springer the Opera. Do you talk about the new audience<br />
brought to opera, do you talk about the offence caused to some Christians?<br />
Perhaps you discuss the religious hatred bill or you make comparisons with the Danish<br />
cartoons. Maybe it's best to look at the content, but even then you have to choose<br />
between the actual content and the allegations about the content by those who won't<br />
go and see it, but still wish to comment.<br />
l've seen it three times now. When I first saw it, in London's West End, it was a fun night<br />
out at the theatre, a birthday treat. I was aware that there was some fuss around it, and<br />
that I probably shouldn't invite people who describe themselves as born-again to accompany<br />
me on this venture. I was not amazed by it, inasmuch as I have seen films<br />
and stand-up comedians that have engaged me more, but I was amused, and I certainly<br />
wasn't offended, though I am not easily offended. I got the impression that I wasn't the<br />
only person there who wouldn't usually be at the opera, and this is probably no bad<br />
thing for opera, providing they can find a way of following up on this new market.<br />
It is certainly a spectacle. Opera actually works well as a medium for making a point<br />
and making it accessible. The plot in brief: Jerry interviews a load of misfits the way he<br />
does, he is idolised by the audience, people fight and scream, and occasionally Jerry<br />
takes a swipe at himself. lt is not unlike a trumped-up version of the actual show. Except<br />
for the fact that a choir sing swear-words, and juxtapose this street language with the<br />
grand theatre and classical accompaniment of the music. I don't think the volume of<br />
swearing increases its effect - if anything it lessens it - but for the record there are 174<br />
swear-words, not the 8,000 advertised by some.<br />
The whole thing is satire. Deliberately you are left guessing about what is being satirised,<br />
you are, quite brilliantly, left to make up your own mind. Yes, Jesus and Satan<br />
feature heavily, but arguably they are there to comment on Springer's self-importance<br />
rather than it being an attack on religion. Likewise the joke could be on the audience of<br />
the programme, or even the audience in the theatre, you just don't know.<br />
What we certainly do know is the strength of feeling the show has generated in the<br />
Christian right. lt is the first time that groups such as Christian Voice have been able to<br />
gather such a large opposing coalition in the UK, and it was reminiscent, though on a<br />
smaller scale, of some of the protests their US equivalents have been doing for years.<br />
The TV screening by the BBC in January 2005 was unique for a variety of reasons. Not<br />
least for the attempt made by Christian Voice to raise f 75,000 for a private prosecution<br />
against the BBC, after the public legal body wouldn't take it forward.<br />
Then we began to see a co-ordinated local campaign with collections of conservative<br />
and evangelical groups trying to prevent showings at local venues. Some venues cancelled,<br />
ticket sales were hit in others, and the production team responsible for the show<br />
had to cut costs. When I went to see it while on holiday in Plymouth, authorities were<br />
ready for trouble; none came that night, but it did subsequently.<br />
While the ability to see a funny opera may seem like a minor freedom of expression issue,<br />
the danger behind it is polarisation of opinion. SCMers as much as anyone would<br />
hope we avoid a stark argument between religious and secular worldviews, with no<br />
room for the frey areas in between.<br />
There will be middle-of-the-road Christians offended by the play, even if they may not<br />
view it as an affront to a desire to see the whole world share all their views. But those<br />
who make such protests must be careful about their targets. This is not the same as<br />
the cartoons of Mohammed in the Danish newspaper. Stuart Lee, the comedian<br />
involved in writing the play, puts it well: 'Everyone's anxious to draw parallels,<br />
but the Danish cartoonists wandered into a world of protected religious symbols<br />
they didn't understand. We have used a set of icons whose implications<br />
we appreciate, within a tradition of imagery.'The old argument holds, if you<br />
don't want swearing and controversy set to music, go and watch something<br />
else, but if you fancy it, then you could do worse. I<br />
movement<br />
ierry springer<br />
the opera<br />
directed by Kate Moore, seen by<br />
Tim at Cambridge Theatre London<br />
and on tour in Plymouth. see www.<br />
jerryspringertheopera.com.<br />
the whole<br />
thing is satire.<br />
deliberately<br />
you are left<br />
$uessin€ about<br />
what is bein$<br />
satirised, you<br />
afe, quite<br />
brilliantly, left<br />
to make up<br />
yout own mind<br />
Tim Cobbett is Vice President<br />
(Academic Affairs) at the students'<br />
union of Edinburgh University,<br />
and a former member of SCM's<br />
Ceneral Council.
out of<br />
touch?<br />
a resource on healing services<br />
fails to hit the spot<br />
oll (:<br />
ot iEA(rN6<br />
^ ?t^cIrc^!<br />
lrin,1 ''Pla'e<br />
HArotooK<br />
i1r: r,1 \:!l(liii<br />
a touchin(, place<br />
fohn Gunstone, Canterbury Press,<br />
the best thing<br />
about the book<br />
was that it<br />
encoura$ed<br />
me to<br />
consider other<br />
resources in my<br />
quest for more<br />
information<br />
ln his book ln the beginning there was darkness, fohn Hull talks of a healing service<br />
he attended as a teenager. lt sounds horrible, complete with the hoaxed attempts to<br />
claim that healing has happened. As this is the style of healing services most of us<br />
tend to hear about, I was interested to spend time learning more about some other<br />
approaches, not only in the style of services available but also the approaches people<br />
take towards them. When planning for the SCM conference this year, the suggestion<br />
of a healing service was met with fear and concern by some, and with enthusiasm by<br />
others. ln the end, with the help of Holy Rood House, a centre for health and pastoral<br />
care, the healing service went off very well. I was also very glad to be in a position of<br />
inviting people whose knowledge and experience in this field is excellent.<br />
ln my attempt to learn more about healing services I read A Touching P/ace by John<br />
Cunstone. The subtitle of the book is A ministry of healing in the local church: a practical<br />
handbook' so I thought this would be a good starting point. The book is set out<br />
in nice gentle chunks with questions at the end of each section. lt would be a good<br />
resource for groups involved in healing services in a local (Anglican)church. It is good<br />
at referring people on to other resources but, at 85 pages, can hardly be described as<br />
the most comprehensive guide. That, in itself, is no bad thing, as the stages it takes you<br />
through are certainly manageable.<br />
John Gunstone admits to beingAnglican-centred in the book but hopes that it will still<br />
prove to be a useful resource for people from other denominations. However, the majority<br />
of sources it refers the reader to are either Common Worship, other Anglican-specific<br />
resources or John Cunstone's other book on healing ministry. The lack of ecumenical<br />
consideration makes it a hard resource to develop into something of use. A quick<br />
internet search made this all the more irritating, as apparently he used to be a diocesan<br />
ecumenical officer - but at the end of the day he is supposed to be talking about a ministry<br />
of healing, not of ecumenism.<br />
The book presents a number of different aspects of healing ministry that I had not previously<br />
been aware of and it was certainly interesting to explore - especially through his<br />
charismatic, evangelical point of view. lt also primarily places expression of the healing<br />
ministry in the context of a eucharistic service. ln some ways the most interesting<br />
section was that on 'confidentiality and boundaries'. The emphasis was far more on<br />
appropriate relationships between male and female members of healing teams, rather<br />
than on what to do with situations that are challenging for those involved in the ministry.<br />
He also offers little guidance on the considerations that need to be made for those who<br />
have been hurt by, or are scared of, healing services. The situations presented were really<br />
quite alien to me.<br />
The best thing about the book was that it encouraged me to consider other resources<br />
in my quest for more information. Even the brief mentions of a ministry of healing in<br />
John Hull's book provided a better context than the work of John Cunstone in A Touching<br />
Place. John Hull spends time addressing the concerns of a fellow blind person who<br />
longs for a successful healing ministry while being sceptical - a conclusion confirmed<br />
by his own negative experience.<br />
To broaden my search for information I attended several healing services and spent time<br />
in discussion with many people, including those preparing for their first healing service<br />
and those who have been involved for many years. I learned a huge amount from all<br />
these people and it provided me with a lot of useful background. I would encourage<br />
people looking into this field to talk to as wide a selection of people as possible and I<br />
found the folk at Holy Rood House particularly noteworthy. As ATouching Place was the<br />
catalyst for this, I am immensely grateful to John Cunstone for his work. I<br />
Jo Merrygold is SCM's Links Worker.<br />
30 movement
towards a theologt of<br />
facial hair<br />
Archbish Rowan gave a rare interview<br />
recently in the Cuardian,<br />
sparking a wave of astonishment<br />
that anyone working at the<br />
Crauniad actually knew the<br />
names of any religious figures.<br />
(The religious correspondent<br />
there, who seems to think Shrp<br />
of Fools is a serious website<br />
selling religious paraphernalia,<br />
could really do with some professional<br />
advice. Or maybe just<br />
a CCSE Religious Education textbook.)<br />
I particularly enjoyed the insight<br />
into Rowan's character that he<br />
dreads facing press photographers<br />
because of 'the eyebrows'.<br />
My efforts to stir up some trouble<br />
by highlighting the Church of<br />
England's facial hair issues<br />
in previous columns are<br />
finally paying off! Perhaps<br />
the whole liberal/conservative<br />
split will run a very<br />
different course if Nasir-Ali suddenly<br />
notices the sideburns.<br />
creative education<br />
ln the same interview, Rowan<br />
generated headline news by<br />
arguing that Christian schools<br />
shouldn't teach creationism as<br />
science. Whatever next? Surely<br />
it's their right to use the Bible and<br />
only the Bible as their textbook,<br />
and what's more, they should expand<br />
the practice into the rest of<br />
the curriculum.<br />
You could have very interesting<br />
maths lessons based on the last<br />
being first. Physics teachers could<br />
explain all about the sphere that<br />
separates the waters above from<br />
the waters below. PE could involve<br />
killing lions with asses'<br />
jawbones. And teachers could<br />
use PSHE, or PSE, or whatever the<br />
kids are calling it nowadays, to<br />
show pupils the best techniques<br />
for stoning adulterers to death.<br />
iBody<br />
Techno-pundits are keen these<br />
days on the idea that we're becoming<br />
cyborgs. They would<br />
have us believe that by the middle<br />
of next week, everyone will<br />
have chips implanted in their<br />
brain allowing them to download<br />
ringtones at will, and everYthing<br />
electrical in your house, includ-<br />
I<br />
J<br />
ing nose hair clippers and the<br />
hoover, will have an internet<br />
connection that you can access<br />
from wherever you happen to<br />
be on the global superinfonethighwayathon.<br />
Techno-pundits do so bore me.<br />
So [ar, all cyborgification means<br />
is that every second person I pass<br />
on the street has those tiresome<br />
iPod earphones glued to the sides<br />
of their head. A recent news story,<br />
though, suggests that Apple have<br />
started to practise the process in<br />
reverse. A family received the<br />
new iPod they'd ordered - or at<br />
least, they received the 'coolerthan-cool,<br />
more street-cred than<br />
the product inside' Apple packaging<br />
- only to discover that the<br />
box was filled with raw meat.<br />
Maybe this is some new cuttingedge<br />
venture, years ahead of its<br />
time. Maybe Applet new slogan<br />
will be 'Pink, different'. lt got me<br />
thinking about what music you'd<br />
play on your fleshy iPod, though.<br />
Meatloaf? Captain Beefheart? Send<br />
me your suggestions on a postcard,<br />
preferably not accompanied<br />
by a box of unidentified flesh.<br />
good cheese, man<br />
l'm told that illegal drugs are often<br />
'cut' with other substances. I<br />
suppose green herbs and white<br />
powders are all much of a muchness<br />
until you start putting them<br />
up your nose or using them intravenously<br />
or what have<br />
you. But drug dealers<br />
who use such tricks are<br />
obviously underestimating<br />
the gullibility<br />
of some people. A<br />
girl in Tennessee<br />
mistook a block of<br />
crumbly Mexican<br />
cheese for a monumental<br />
quantity<br />
of cocaine, and hired a<br />
hitman to take out the<br />
owners of said cheese<br />
so that she could have<br />
it all to herself.<br />
Now, itseemsclearthat<br />
this individual can't<br />
have been the sharpest<br />
cheeseknife in<br />
the drawer -<br />
maybe shed<br />
a I ready<br />
over-indulged in<br />
some gouda that she'd<br />
mistaken for LSD - so it<br />
comes as no surprise that<br />
the hitman she engaged turned<br />
out to be an undercover officer of<br />
the law, and she was duly arrested.<br />
All's well that ends well, but it<br />
makes me feel a bit strange about<br />
the lethal cocktail of camembert<br />
and gorgonzola that I put into my<br />
unsuspecting body over Christmas.<br />
winnie the who?<br />
Many right-minded folk feel that<br />
Disney's sacchari ne bastardisation<br />
of Winnie the Pooh is an abomination<br />
in the eyes of Milne, and<br />
the latest news just confirms this<br />
horrified repulsion. Christopher<br />
Robin is to be replaced by a sixyear-old<br />
girl on rollerblades. ln an<br />
astonishing 'you couldn't make<br />
this stuff up' moment, a Disney PR<br />
robot said: 'these timeless characters<br />
really needed a breath of<br />
fresh air'. There is obviously some<br />
alternative meaning of the word<br />
'timeless' only available to those<br />
living in the mediasphere. I<br />
maybe<br />
she'd<br />
already<br />
OVGIindulged<br />
in some<br />
$ouda<br />
that<br />
she'd<br />
mistaken<br />
for LSD<br />
movement 31<br />
t<br />
^-.<br />
O<br />
o<br />
o'<br />
fi
try out all the o<br />
I<br />
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