Movement 113

the magazine of the student christian movement I issue tl3 | spring 2OO3 

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ovemen 

issue 1-13 | spring 2OO3 

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MOVEMENI is the termly ma{azine 

the Student Christian Movement, 

distributed ftw of char{e to memberc 

and dedicated to an open-mindd 

expl o rati o n of Ch ri sti a n ity. 

Editor: Liam Purcell 

e: editor@movement.org.uk 

Next copy date: 28 February 20O3 

Editorial group: David Anderson, Liam Purcell, 

Elinor Mensingh, Marie Pattison, Kate Powell, 

Rebecca Hawthorne 

SCM staff: Co-ordinator Elinor Mensingh; links 

Worker Marie Pattison; Office Administrator 

Rebecca Hawthorne 

SGM office: University of Birmingham, Weoley 

Park Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6LL 

r (o121) 47t2404 

f. (OL2L) 414 5619 mark faxes 'FAO SCM' 

e: scm@movement.org.uk 

Website: www. movement.org. uk 

Printed by: Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester 

lndividual membership of SCM (includes 

Movement) costs f,15 per year (t1O if unwaged). 

Subscription lo Movement only costs 97 per year. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in Movement 

are those of the particular author and should not 

be taken to be the policy ofthe Student Christian 

Movement. 

tssN o306-980x 

Charity number 24La96 

o 2003 scM 

llevencnt 

movement 

feature: 

introducinE 

christianity 

movement 

reviews 

platform David Anderson 3 

newsfile 4 

on campus 6 

campaigns 7 

diary 8 

a headless chicken? Neil EIIiott 9 

worldview: germany Ulrich Falkenha$en 70 

disarmin$ actions Helen SteYen 72 

celebrity theologian Matt Bullimore 73 

small ritual Steve Collins 74 

evangelism in a $lobalised world Tim Gorrin$e 75 

marketing the gosPel 17 

iourneying together John Vincent 79 

radical discipleship Liam Purcell 2O 

ties and binds Jim Cotter 2I 

life in all its fullness? Niall Cooper 22 

first among equals Claire Connor 24 

if nobody speaks of remarkable things 

by lon McGre$or 25 

the beginning stages of... 

by the PolYPhonic SPree 26 

sweet sixteen directed by Ken Loach 27 

a telling place by Joy Mead 28 

shiP of fools 29 

resources round-up 30 

serpent 31 

Have youl say - join Movement's editorial team 

Movemlent is pui tog-etner by an editorial group including the editor, SCM staff, and student 

representatives. There is a vacancy at the moment for a student representative on the group. 

lf you would like to be involved in deciding the content and themes of Movement, and could 

spare one afternoon a term for meetings, e-mail the editor at editor@movement.orA.uk. 

Wanted! Articles, teviews, artwork 

We want Movement to be as open as possible. All your ideas are welcome. Have you got somethind 

to say? An issue you want explored? Ever fancied yourself as a writer? 

Send your articles and ideas, or just your details if you'd like to write for us in the future, to the editor 

at editor@movement.org.uk. All submissions will be considered by our editorial group.

platform 

just war theory 

ls the West waging a iust war, or iust a war? 

Every time it looks like Western nations 

are going to go to war, you get people - 

often bishops who should know better - 

who tell us that they think it is a just 

war. But they don't often seem to say 

what they think a just war is, other than 

that they personally mean welland think 

something must be done. People 

arguing agaanst wars don't invoke just 

war theory at all. But neither side seems 

to understand what the theory is. 

Just war theory requires that any proposed 

military campaign fulfil seven conditions: 

. There must be a just cause. 

. The campaign must be declared as a 

matter of last resort. 

. The campaign must be declared by the 

appropriate legal authority. 

. The authority must have just intentions. 

. The campaign must have a chance of 

success. 

. The consequences of the campaign must not 

be worse than those of not campaigning. 

. Only just means must be used in the 

campaign. 

We've had two debates in the past 2 years 

over whether to go to war, first with Afghanistan 

and then with lraq. What was worrying about 

both debates was that proponents of the just 

war seemed to believe that because the 

campaign tulfilled the first condition (that there 

was a just cause for war) and because they 

believed it fulfilled the sixth condition 

(something had to be done), it also fulfilled the 

other fwe. Meanwhile, some of those opposing 

the war seemed to believe that the only way to 

deny that the conditions for a just war were 

fumlbd was to deny that the attack on the World 

Trade Centre was a just cause for any sort of 

'action. (Whether it was a just cause for wa$ng 

war on the Taliban is another question.) 

It seems to me that if anything counts as a 

just cause to go to war, then a direct 

intentional attack upon innocent civilians is 

such a cause. 'lnnocent' here means that the 

civilians concerned are not directly engaged in 

violent activity. lt does not matter whether or 

not they are participating in or maintaining a 

system that causes people's deaths: killing 

them does not end the exploitation. lt is true 

that Western policies towards the rest of the 

world could be expected to provoke such an 

attack: my GCSE geography textbook 

predicted a terrorist attack L2 years ago. But 

that is not to say that anybody deserved to die. 

However, this still does not mean that the 

other six conditions were satisfied. lt is not 

clear that all the options for extraditing Bin 

Laden were tried before going to war against 

Afghanistan. lt is still not clear that the 

consequences of the campaign were better 

than inaction would have been: although the 

Taliban were a fairly unpleasant regime and 

Western newspapers were full of pictures of 

women taking off their burqas with relief, it 

seems that Afghans are still being threatened 

by starvation, as well as by unexploded 

bombs. lt is not clear that the campaign had 

a reasonable chance of success: as I write, 

Osama Bin laden is apparently alive and well. 

Furthermore, while civilian casualties are 

inevitable in any military campaign, the use of 

just means requires that one sacrifice military 

effectiveness to minimise civilian casualties. 

But one cannot assess these claims properly 

merely from the incomplete accounts in the 

newspapers. The really troubling criterion is 

that of just intention. 

The requirement that war be waged with a 

just intention is not a requirement that the 

people going to war should mean well. 

Everybody takes themselves to mean well. The 

requirement means that those waging the war 

should have a definite intention with which 

they are going to war, such that once that 

intention is realised they stop. lt was never 

made clear what the intention in bombing 

Afghanistan was. 'Ridding the world of 

terrorism' is a definite end, with the problem 

that it has no chance of success. 'Dismantling 

Al Qaida' is also a definite end, although it's 

not clear how far the campaign has achieved 

it, given that Al Qaida is supposedly spread 

through a large number of countries. As for 

bringing Bin laden to justice, the campaign 

has failed to do so, and no moves have been 

made to establish an international court in 

which he could be seen to be tried fairly. 

Therc arc limits to just war theory, and with any 

approach that applies rules withont refurcnce to 

the people who will be directly aftcted by the 

decisions made. But at least it is a start. 

As I write, internationalweapons inspectors 

are operating in lraq. I hope this means that 

war will not be declared, unpleasant as 

Saddam's regime may be. I 

David Anderson 

while civilian 

casualties are 

inevitable 

in any military 

campaign, 

the use of 

iust means 

requires 

that one 

sacrifice 

military 

effectiveness 

to minimise 

civilian 

casualties 

rnember ot the rltovemert 

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movementl3

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This issue is the first produced by our new editor, Liam Purcell. We thank Julian 

Lewis, now settling into life as a domestic goddess with his baby Melody Sunshine, 

for his hard work as editor last year, and David Anderson for steppin$ nobly into 

the breach as interim editor for issue 112. 

Liam writes... Hi. Some quick 

background: I graduated in 

English Language and Literature 

from Birmingham UniversitY in 

L997, where a Buddhist tutor 

introduced me to forensic handwriting analysis, t'ai chi 

and, most importantly, publishing. I work in my 'day job' 

doing design, production and editing on educational 

websites, books and magazines for the publisher Christian 

Education. But on Fridays, as my alter-ego Space Monkey 

Productions, I do freelance design and editing work for 

various small charities and a web design and music 

company called Silent Space (www.silence.me.uk, if the 

site's up by the time you read this). 

And now I edit Movetnent as well. I already know the 

magazine, as I've handled the design part of the job 

alongside Julian and David for the last four issues. With 

Julian's departure, I worked up the courage to take on the 

whole job, and I'm enjoying the challenge. 

quick guest'ons 

What's your favourite Possession? 

My PowerBook laptop. I like to pretend I'm not a geek because 

Apple computers are for creative people. Honest. 

What are you reading at the moment? 

Doubts and Loves by Richard Holloway, as part of my crash 

course in liberal and radical theolog/ and activism for this job! 

What is your favourite film? 

Clich6d studenty answer, I'm afraid - Withnail and /. And yes' I 

can recite all thqbest lines parrot-fashion. 

How do you relax? 

I do a bit of t'ai chi and yoga, or offer myself as a practice subject 

for my girlfriend, who's training in shiatsu massage. lt's a tough 

job but someone's got to do it. 

What's your favourite iourneY? 

Going away on holiday with a car full of friends, camping 

equipment and silly toys. The destination doesn't really matter. 

What do you like most about yourself? 

I have a calmer and more laid-back approach to life than some 

people I've known. 

I've already introduced a couple of changes: you'll find a 

report on current campaigns that groups can get involved in 

on page 7, and a round-up of recently published resources of 

interest to SCM members on page 30. These will be regular 

features. I want Movement to help SCM's membership around 

the country by offering support for their activities and inspiring 

them to get involved in bringing about changes in the world' 

It needs to be a two-way process - we want your input' 

Elsewhere in these pages you'll read about SCM's revamped 

website. We're hoping that the site can support the 

magazine by offering further resources backing up our 

special features, to help you explore the issues further. And 

we're planning an online discussion forum, which will offer 

themed debates fired off by our features, and the opportunity 

for you to respond to articles that excite or annoy you' 

and discuss them with other SCM members around the 

country. Comment, suggestions, criticisms and (especially) 

new writing are, as ever, very welcome. Send all your 

outpourings to me at editor@movement.org.uk. I 

What do you dislike about yourselfil 

I'm an idle slacker (see my answer to the previous question). 

What's your favourite word? 

It changes every week, usually to one I've invented myself. 

Currently 'pendulumularity', which I'm sure should mean 

something. 

lf you could be someone else, who would it be? 

President of the USA. Not that I really want the job or am qualified' 

but it would be hard to do wome than the present incumbent. 

When did you last cry? 

Embanassin$y, while watching The Full Monty. ln my defence, I 

was very tired and emotional at the time. 

What are you scared of? 

George Dubya Bush. 

What do you never miss on W? 

I like cult Channel 4 comedy like Spaced and Black Books' 

Anything with Bill Bailey in it. 

What music do you listen to most? 

It varies enormously - from the Chemical Brothers and Bentley 

Rhythm Ace to Spiritualized, Pulp, lndigo Girls, Tori Amos. 

What pet hates do You have? 

I'm a cantankerous old sod and witl grumble about anything. 

Particularly advertising, the media and world politics' 

4 | 

movement 

I

stop the war 

As with mct potests, the number of 

demonstratorc on the Stop lhe War 

marcfi in September ditrercd wiHly 

according to $rfio pu listened to 

after the event. Scotland Yard 

estimated ftat 4O,O(n peopb had 

tumed ouq fut inqereed that figUrc 

later to 150,0(n. On Sund4/, fte 

Obsenry quoted tthe orgpnisers' at 

250,000, while the Independent 

quoted presumably different 

organlses at 4(D,OOO. 

To me, as one of those who gathered 

at London's Embankment on 28 

September for the march to Hyde Park, 

one thing was clear - whatever the 

dispute over quantity, the quality of 

demonstrators was very diverse. 

Protesters came from all across Britain 

and included the UK lslamic Mission, 

Socialist Workers, CND, the Scottish 

Socialist Pafi, Saudi Arabia fuainst 

War, lecturers, priests, trade unionists, 

students and families with young 

children. lt emerged that many people 

were marching for the first time - a 

powerful indication of the huge guff 

between the govemment's support for 

US-planned military action against lraq 

and the wishes of people in Britain. 

The message was clear - that an 

attack on Bagfdad is not the way to 

deal with Saddam Hussein's refusal to 

complywith UN resolutions. The govemment's 

dossier of evidence did not show 

that the threat from lraq is any greater 

now than 3 years ago, and those who 

would suffer in the event of a war are 

the lraqi people, who have already 

suffered enough under sanctions and 

dictatorship. There was also consensus 

that American interest in lraqi oil 

reseryes is not entirely coincidental with 

the threat of military action. 

At the time of writing, the UN Security 

Council has just voted in favour of a 

resolution which threatens'serious 

consequences' if Saddam Hussein 

does not disarm. These consequences 

have not been specified, but American 

and British leaders have not left much 

room for doubt. So as time ticks away 

for lraq, we must not let our guard 

down. When the extremists push for 

war, the moderates must be ready to 

shout louder against it. I 

f(ate Powell, Movement editorial glroup 

NEWS 

SGM AGM 

On 16 November I was on a train at 

stupid a.m. to get to Birmingham for 

the AGM. There were those in our 

chaplaincy who were convinced I was 

mad, but 12 hours later I was equally 

convinced they were the mad ones 

for missing out! 

The day started with a fascinating 

address on inter-faith relations by Dr 

David Thomas, an Anglican priest who 

lectures in Christian-Muslim relations. 

The AGM itself opened with reports 

from the chair of General Council and 

the Co-ordinator on the website, the 

staff contracts and handbook, the stall 

at Greenbelt, the Trade Justice 

movement, and the annual conference. 

The accounts were presented, and the 

importance of every member taking an 

interest in SCM was highlighted. Liam 

spoke about Movement, and Silke 

Lechner updated us on the world-wide 

activities of the World Student Christian 

Federation. 

The elections for this year's GC and 

its first meetlng were held, letting us 

new members know what we had let 

ourselves in for. A bit of a challenge 

- let's hope we will rise to it! 

The day finished in very sociable 

style with cheese and wine. Many 

thanks to SCM staff for organising a 

great day - interesting, informatlve 

and useful, but also great fun! I 

Alice Grawford, SGM General Gouncil 

the Cospel demands action 

'Ghristian Aid?'The question was put to me accusingly, two months into my job as Student 

Worker. 'Do you really think you are doing good 'aid' work if you are pushing Ghristianity 

at the same time? Why can't you Ghristians just keep it to yourself.)' 

I was speaking to 

students at a 

careers fair in 

London, trying to dispel some of the 

myths about the work of relief and 

development organisations in 

general, and Christian Aid in particular. 

One look at the 'Christian' in the 

title was all this guy needed to start 

on a rant about how religion was the 

source of all poor people's troubles... 

'Actually, I'm not a Christian.' 

'Oh,' he said. Funny how that 

seems to quieten people. 

'We work with people of lots of 

different taiths. And we don't "push" 

Christianity. lt's an important part of who 

we are, and most of us are practicing our 

taith through Christian Aid's wort. But 

we are here to help end povefi.' 

'So if you're not... then how come 

you're working for...?' 

It's a fair question... but kinda 

obvious if you think about it. Loving 

your neighbour. Respecting diversity. 

Being inclusive. Even striving for 

sustainability. These are values which 

people here hold as central to 

Christianity... and I figure they are 

values that most people take to be 

universal. Given that, how can 

anyone not support Christian Aid? 

To me these values, derived from the 

gospel, require us to act, to speak out 

against the inequality and suffering that 

our neighbours experience. To what 

extent do you agree? Enough, of 

course, and I'm going to try to get you 

to look at www.christian-aid.org/ 

worship and www.christian-aid.orgl 

students, to try and encourage you to 

act. Not enough? Well, hopefully you'll 

give me another chance to explore this 

idea (and persuade you!) in the next 

issue. I 

Patrick Dawes, 

Ghristian Aid Student Worker 

Look out fot Patilck's rcEulat cotumn, 

$artlng In our rext tssue 

movementl5

on campus 

'{)tl gelrI)pLl.i 

news from the universitY world 

united and frghtin$ 

student campai$ners who attended the recent National union 

of Students conference, along with others, includin$ 

supporters of the Gampai$n for Free Education, have come 

together in a new student forum with the aim of developing a 

broad campai$ning alternative in the student movement. 

The Student Campai$n Forum have a website at 

www.studentcamoaignforum.org.uk, where they set out their views and 

goals. They say: 

'We stand for: 

. a campaigning, democratic union; 

. fi€htin€lracism and fascism; 

. solidarity with workers at home and abroad; 

. against the privatisation of public services; 

Wd@me to he Sar&tl C.mF g, Forun rebsile! 

NEw! vistth€ ncw loruhs sedion. 

sd6.#rlldEhn'b:orElG 

d6lre6rdl)saw:ofttdd 

. equality, civil liberties and human rights for all; 

We're sorry that the anarchic black and red colour 

scheme doesn't corne across on the printed page! 

. a clean, safe, sustainable environment.' 

They have discussion forums and details of upcoming events on the site. lf you're concerned about proposed 

changes in the higher education sector, or just want to get involved in campaigning on other issues, it looks like SCF 

could be a good place to start. We'll update you on future developments led by SCF, and other $roups such as People 

and Planet, on the new regular Campai$ns page (see page 7). I 

Uam Purcell, Movement editor 

gfiassoots rcport: univercity of walest banSor 

iUnty people came to hear Bishop John Shelby Spong, tot 24 years Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, 

nunCn the Anglican Ghaplaincy lectures at the University in Bangor on Monday 7 October. 

The God of the Bible is immoral and unbelievable, the brains at the church door?' There are different images in 

Bishop said: a God who chooses some but not others, the Bible that we can use to talk of God: wind, love, rock' 

who drowns his enemies in the sea, who abuses his son The footprints of God are not beyond the sky but in the 

by demanding his sacrifice. This God is not worthy of bias in creation towards life, wholeness and consciousbelief. 

A God who is seen as an invader from outside ness. He is beyond all images. We don't have to think of 

and an examiner of all we do needs re-conceiving. lf him as a person. lf he is the source of life we need to live 

God can interyene to help me why doesn't he interuene fully; if the source of love to love wastefully; if the ground 

to help everybody? A God who does not interuene is of all being we need to make him more visible. 

immoral. A God who cannot is not God. 

!l 

We must get out of the stereotypical images of the past 

We live the other side of Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, not because they were wrong then but because they are 

Einstein and Freud. Faith always changes its form and irrelevant now. Evil is not a condition into which we fell, 

the church needs a wake-up call. Only in 1991 did the but is arrested development. Jesus challenges us to do 

Vatican admit Galileo was rignt - almost 400 years too more than look to our own survival, the survival of our 

late. We can explain miracles without the supernatural. tribe. He challenges our prejudices that exclude people 

lf Jesus,ascended'into heaven we know he would not fromfullcommunitybecauseof their$ender,theircolour' 

have gone anywhere but into orbit! There never was a their sexual orientation, and calls us to a new humanity. 

perfecl creation. lt is evolving. Jesus does not rescue lhe Chaplaincy lectures have been launched in response to 

fallen sinners but empowers a new humanity. 'l don't the events of 11 September 20o1: how can reli$ons and 

want to be washed in ine btooO of anybody!' cuftures live peaceably togethef How can they be creative 

Many reject the story because they reject the way we and credible in the 21st century? 'h was an excellent 

have interpreted it. We need a new Reformation, a new begfnningl, saya the University Chaplain, Revd John Butler' I 

Christianity for a new wortd. 'Do we have to park our 

6lmovement 

Anglican Ghaplaincy to the University of wales' 

Bangor - an SGM'affiliated chaplaincy 

?

campargns 

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faith and social justice cannot be separated 

ln this new feature, we'll be reportingl on campaigns being run by SGM and other organisations: 

campaigns on issues specifically related to student life, and on broader issues that we think concerned 

Christians might feel moved to act on. 

M E 

tuople&Planet 

People and Planet (www.peopleandolanet.org) 

is a student organisation 

running campaigns on a range of environmental and social 

justice issues, often with impressive success. We encourage 

you to get involved in their current campaigns: 

Stop GATS, defend higher education 

P&P is campaigning against the new General Agreement on Trade in 

Services. GATS is being negotiated now in the World Trade Organisation, 

and aims to open up a whole range of seruices to the WTO's free 

trade rules and systems. 

lf education is one of the seruices opened up in this way, public 

funding for higher education could be made illegal as an 'unfair barrier' 

to free trade, 'unprofitable' courses at universities could be shut down, 

tuition fees would rise due to the need to compete, and academics 

would have to rely on private funding, threatening their independence. 

GATS could accelerate and lock in place the already alarming commercialisation 

of education, which will be even more catastrophic in Africa 

and the developing world than it will in the UK. 

What you can do 

P&P have prepared a detailed report on the implications, and now 

aim to persuade the Higher Education Minister Margaret Hodge to 

launch an impact assessment before signing higher education up to 

GATS. You can co-operate with a P&P group or work in your own 

group on the campaign, which has two stages: 

. Get action cards from P&P, and send them to the Minister. 

Pressure your Student Union and your lecturers' unions to get 

involved too. 

. Ask your university's Vice-Chancellor to write to Margaret Hodge. 

All Vice-Chancellors have already received a copy of P&P's report 

on GATS. P&P suggest you apply pressure to your VC by organising 

a petition if necessary. lf that doesn't work, protest! P&P groups 

nationwide will be arranging stunts and demonstrations in the runup 

to ttge WTO's decision on GATS in March. 

Kick the arms dealers off campus! 

Many universities invest in arms companies, allow them to recruit at 

graduate fairs, and even receive funding from them. ln some cases, 

they may be investing in regimes which oppress international students 

studying at those very universities. These are your universities, and 

your tuition fees they're spending. They can be pressured to adopt 

ethical policies in all these areas. 

Trade tustice 

Movement 

SCM is a member of the Trade Justice 

Movement, a group of organisations 

concerned with the harmful impact of current 

international trade rules on the environment, 

democracy and the poorest people in the 

world. The Trade Justice Movement calls for 

fundamental change of the unjust rules and 

institutions governing international trade, so 

that trade is made to work for all. ln June 

2002, the TJM organised the largest ever 

mass lobby of Parliament, which was attended 

by SCM members. 

What can you do? 

. Send a greeting to the new directorgeneral 

of the World Trade Organisation, 

asking him to make it more democratic. 

See 

www.tradejusticemovement.orE. ul

diary 

I 

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5{ Fobrury 

Sodd Rorpondbf,lly of/ln $c iortPrrollt f*cOftor 

Spisska Kapitula, Slovakia 

fhird seminar organised by the Gertral European Sub 

Region ol the World Student Ghristian Federation. Plans 

to establish a lorum for young people lrterested in 

ecumenical, economic and Gertral European issues. 

lf you would like to represert SGM at this evert, see 

rvww. movemert.orq.uUdiarv. 

8 Febntary 

lnioFfrlli lppm*hc to fHcbn 

Ammerdown Gonference and Retreat Gerte 

An irter-faith day on the meaning and aims of mygticism, 

its retevance to toda/s spiritual needs and tte 

techniques and elqeriences of individuals and diflerent 

laith groups. 

t20 lincludes vegetarian lunch and relrcshmentsl 

cr centre@ammetdown.org 

21-Zl Fcblllty 

S[oft.ild SptrlbellU 

SGM's annual conference. 

For details, see page 13 or 

www. movemert,orq.uUAnnualGonf erenco. 

21-2{ Flbrurt 

Soilddild(201lil 

The gathering ol the SPEAI( Network. A weekend of 

ideas, vision, prayer and discussion, tollowed by a day ol 

action: creative prayer and meeting illPs and other 

decision-makerc. 

E O2072494309 

ei soeak@soeak.org,uk 

r www.soeak.org.uk 

rK, pftars for tIre sllmmer y&l 

The Lingua Franca project is looking for voluntary teachers, who 

are willing to: 

. travel to Central or Eastern Europe during the summer; 

. teach language tor 2-3 weeks; 

. tearn and experience the history, religion and everyday life of 

the hosting country. 

The essence of Lingua Franca is that teachers, course organisers 

and students mutually benefit from the language courses. 

Teachers from different countries teach language for students in 

Central and Eastern Europe. ln an ecumenical context, all pafticipants 

share the histories and habits of their countries. As 

'payment" teachers are fully hosted and get a unique insight into 

the everyday life and cultural and religious traditions of the 

hosting country. 

The program was developed to help youth and students from 

throughout the region learn with and from each other... break 

down culturati tinguistic and historical barriers and help empower 

young people to work together. 

Experience a different kind of world! 

Lingua Franca is a program of the World Student Christian 

Federation, one of the otdest ecumenical organisations and one 

of the few world-wide working student organisat,ons. 

For more information and an application form, please contact: 

WSCF Lingua Franca, c/o Evangelikus Egretemi Gyulekezet, 

Maglar Tudosok Korutja 3, H-1118 Budapest, Hungary 

e: wscf_lf@yahoo.com I Zsuzsa Rihay 

LinElua Franca co-ordlnator 

1{-16 ttdr 

Wdkild TtlkWGclild 

A weekend in the Sheffield inner city ashram. El0lore 

some new realities; meet local actMsts and disciples; stay 

with Ashram House memberc, ilo a toumeywalkabout. 

ashram has produced lhe loumeyitrtroductory course to 

radical Ghristianitv (see pages 19-201. 

t40 lincludes accommodationl 

Revd Dr lohn Vincent, Ashram Gommunity Office, 178 

Abbeyfield Road, Sheflield 54 7AV 

t0114 243 6688 

15tfth 

Prcar h Torrlr - llnfrfrhd Bntnll for tie girdt Todry 

Maria Assumpta cedre, 23 Kensington Square' london W8 

Pax Ghristi, the international Gatholic movement lor 

peace, hold their fortieth anniversary conference' 

t10 waged/tS unwaged 

PilOrfttl Stlceplfs,Watfod Wry' llendon, Landon t{W4 4IY 

20tl dt 

Qdd Dryior tont 

Ammerdown Gonference and Retreat Centre 

Wth creative elements, sharing with others and time to 

'be', find new strendh as lesus did in the desert. 

t12 lincludes lunch and refreshmentsl 

cg centre@ammerdown.org 

7-13 lprll 

USGF tttd ttc Ecunolcd llorunent - Dl*ovedlg our 

rlotr ud looldlgto tltc ttttutt 

fuand, Finland 

The European Regional Assembly ol the World Student 

Ghristian Federation. See unu&.EgyruIl9lc,l&Eiery 

lor further details. 

a date with Marie? 

I am scribbling this as the 9.30 Virgin 

train to Birmingham pulls out of 

Edinburgh. I have just spent 3 days in 

lovely Scotland meeting SCM groups at 

Glasgow and Edinburgh. This is mY 

favourite part of my job, not catching 

trains in the freezing November fog that 

is, but actually meeting SCMers. 

So if you are planning your programme 

and would like a visit from SCM it would 

make my day if you were to get in touch. I 

have visited lots of groups and you don't 

have to be in a interesting city with lovely 

art galleries for me to agree to visit. I can 

turn up and chat to a group or bring a 

workshop with me. My box of tricks 

includes thought-provoking stuff on a wide 

range of topics, including social justice, 

body image, the environment, images of 

Christ, mission, and many more. 

Visiting helps me to keep in touch with 

you and also to bring you the latest news 

in what is going in the national movement. 

For more details about my workshops see 

www.movement.org.uldworkshoos or ring 

OL21- 47t 2404 and chat to me about it. 

And read about me in my guest starring 

role in 'First among equals' on page 24. 

8 | movement

headless chicken? 

Where now for the Ghurch of England? 

the church 

As I write this, the Ghurch of England is 

officially headless. Archbishop George 

Carey, who has headed the church 

through the ordination of women and 

the decade of evangelism, retired at the 

end of October, and Archbishop Rowan 

Williams starts in January. Meanwhile, 

the Church of England is wandering 

around twitching like the proverbial 

headless chicken (Proverbs 26:6). 

Reform and the Church Society, along with 

Forward in Faith, the right and left wings of 

the church, are in a flap about Rowan's views 

on homosexuality, among other issues. 

lrrespective of his reassurances to them, they 

are determined to find a liberal plot and are 

in the of excludi themselves from 

the church. A split of some sort seems 

inevitable, then we can just remove the 

entrails and roast the chicken. 

I suspect there are two prime causes of the 

problem - disappointment and (ssshh - are 

the children in bed?) postmodernity. George 

Carey was a big disappointment to the 

evangelicals in the Church of England. They 

hoped that now 'one of them' was in control, 

everything would be OK. The NIV would be on 

every lectern, the ASB would be binned, and 

a revised BCP would bring us back to the 

glories of our reformed foundation. But it all 

went wrong. The decade of evangelism 

promised much and delivered nothing. 

Women got ordained (shock horror). Carey 

disappeared from our TVs, and the future king 

got divorced and wanted to be the Defender 

of Faiths. Society kept turning away from the 

church. 

ln many ways George Carey was the last 

modern arChbishop, and in that he 'fails' 

because society has become a postmodern 

one. The conseruatives in both wings of the 

church see a liberal in Williams, maybe 

because he is a theologian. They are wrong. 

Rowan Williams is the first postmodern 

archbishop of the Church of England. He is a 

poet (even his name is poetic) and a prophet. 

He accepts difference, but stands clearly for 

his own deep understanding of faith. I believe 

he understands the fundamental change that 

has happened to our society. The issues that 

the conservatives have are the issues of the 

modernist with a postmodernist. (See the 

critique of Rowan Williams'theology by Garry 

Williams, tutor at Oak Hill College, London, at 

www. lati mertrust.or9theology:of . htm.)All th is 

makes me sure that Rowan Williams is exactly 

the right person to help the Church of England 

at this time of change. The next few years will 

be very painful in the Church of England. We 

will continue to shrink and lose both prestige 

and finance. Failure will be an increasing part 

of our experience. Major splits will occur. We 

will not just feel like headless chickens but 

trussed and roasted chickens. But out of the 

fire and suffering, we may discover that we 

are not a chicken but a phoenix. I 

Nell Elliott 

society kept 

turning 

away from 

the church 

Rowan Williams, 

fully kifted out 

to lead a beheaded 

chicken into the future 

. Noil Elllott is AnElllcan 

chaplain at the Unlvelalty 

of Gentral England 

movement | 9

worldview 

yv orl -,1 vie yY 

reports from other student Christian movements 

The German student Ghristian 

movement, the ESG, was founded as 

the Deutsche christliche Studentenvereinigung 

(DCSV) in 1895. The DGSV 

became part of the World Student 

Christian Federation (WSCF) in the 

same year. Since the DGSV oPPosed 

the so-called 'force into line' of the 

Third Reich, it was prohibited in 1938 

by the Nazis. The colle$e groups 

sought protection from prosecution 

under the cloak of the institutionalised 

Protestant churches. During this time, 

the name'Evangelische Studentenge' 

meinde' (rouglhly translated, 

'Protestant Student SocietY') 

developed. After the war, the 'Evan$elische 

Studentengemeinden' of 

individual college groups drew to$ether 

as the successor organisation to the 

DCSV, under the name 'Evangelische 

Studentengemeinde in der Bundesre' 

publik Deutschland' (ESG). 

The ESG understands itself as a 

community of lesus Ghrist and lives out 

the liberating message of the Bible 

Secrelary 

Generrl 

Office 

Working 

G 

b* 

E*,tr 

f 

General 

Assembly 

t 

ESG 

Council 

F 

about 150 local SCMs in GermanY 

Society 

GV 

Assembly 

ofKED 

scholarship 

holders 

\ 

I 

Student 

Other 

Regional 

Regional 

* Assemblies 

Assemblies 

Until 1967, this ESG existed as one organasation 

in the two German states. ln 1967' 

the organisational separation of the ESG' 

into one organisation in West Germany and 

one in East Germany, was decided and 

carried out, without giving up the inner unit. 

Up to the year 1989, narrow relationships 

existed between the two organisations' 

which were both members of WSCF. With the 

union of the two German states the prerequisite 

for a union of the two SCMs was 

achieved. 

The ESG fights for iustice' 

peace and Protection of 

Greation. lt works in an 

ecumenical context 

Shaped through German history, until 

1945 the ESG always committed itself in a 

politically progressive and critical wdY, 

working outside the church. The special 

situation in Germany after 1945 caused the 

organisation to develop differently in East 

and West. While the ESG in West Germany 

kept sight of its autonomy outside the 

church in the context of the student 

movement of 1968, the ESG in the East 

looked for critical proximity. However, basic 

democratic elements were preserved in both 

organisations. 

The ESG understands itself as a 

community of Jesus Christ and lives out the 

liberating message of the Bible' lt fights for 

justice, peace and protection of Creation. lt 

works in an ecumenical context. lt is open to 

everybody but not to everYthing. 

Today about 150 groups ('communities') 

are members of the ESG. Each group is 

autonomous. The ESG is supported by group 

members, the EKD (Protestant church of 

Germany), and the government. The ESG is a 

member of many other NGOs and involved in 

a lot of activities, for examPle: > 

10 lmovement

worldview 

. Campaign for Clean Clothing - fair trade 

of textiles and textile production in 

accordance with human rights; 

. Adivasi-Tee-Projekt - supporting a teafarm 

for native lndians; 

. CANAAL - Camerun-Namibia-Allemagne- 

Project; 

. International meetings; 

. Ecumenical meetings and seminars; 

. Seminars and conventions on different 

topics relating to church and society 

(violence in the Bible, development 

politics, Europe, gender-gay issues, and so 

on). I 

Ulrich Falkenhagen 

Secretary General of the Evangelische 

Studentengemelndo in der Bundesrepubllk Deut3chland 

{ 

0 

Jr 

rto 

! 0b wscF ! 

Europe 04 

gt Q'lrl trro' 

SCM and the ESG are 

both members of 

World Student Christian 

Federation Europe 

The red cockerel 

symbol of the ESG 

Some different meanings of the red cockerel are 

. The cockerel is a biblical animal which reminds Peter in the New 

Testament of his betrayal of Jesus. ('Before the cock crows you will 

have denied me three times.') Thus the cockerel warns the church 

of betrayal, and shows it when it is rejecting Christ by its actions. We 

should not talk our way out - neither in small matters ('That's not my 

job', 'The responsible authorities should take care of that') nor in big 

matters, where fear of people leaving the church often blocks the 

solidarity with the poor and oppressed which is demanded by the 

gospel. The cockerel should admonish us, but also we - as a critical 

parish - need to admonish our church. 

. The cockerel is well-known as the weathercock on church 

steeples, where it shifts with the wind. Maybe the church 'trims its 

sails to the wind'. But with the cockerel it is completely different. 

It turns with its head against the wind: it crows always against the 

wind! The cockerel should remind us to be suspicious of opinions 

we are told to be normal and prevailing. We must clearly fight the 

'normal'xenophobia and become active, for example. 

. ln the age of Reformation 'the rapacious gang of peasants' (Martin 

Luther) placed the red cockerel (fire) on the roofs of the lords they 

were oppressed by. Whose side was Jesus on at the time, when 

Luther was on the side of the lords? Whose side is he on today in 

Latin America, in Africa, Asia, in all the issues of our 'two thirds' 

society? ... Whose side are we on? 

An open doo(? Migration in a European context 

What do you think of when you hear the word migration? 

Bnin dnin to the States - Aussie nurses and Indian computer technicians - Vbtnames e boat people - Refugiees 

trn,pped in the Channel Tunnel - Voucherc - Asylum Seekers - Fortness Europe - Green Card - lnter-religious dialogue? 

llout mary of your fan$y tnentets or tien& are 'lIXPlo Bitbtr' (or Webh, or Eglish, whatever) in ttre bt ttree generatiors? 

Did any of your family emigrate abroad? ls Britain 'abroad' for you? 

ls'economic' miglration more ot less important than 'political' migration? 

Why do so many people want to settle in Britain? Why do people want to leave? 

How important is Britain's past as a colonial empire for us today? 

Ibputt**tHslteBiE*l ban ishtd,lrecan be tnrecfiocydontr,tipue leth? ()rdoes itglue us morcresporcllt1B 

Did you know that in the 193Os Britain made it difficult for German Jews to immigrate? 

Do you know how many Brits have grandparents who settled here because of the Second World War? 

\r 

a 

a 

3 

a 

! aca 

Action Reconcfratin Sentice 

for Feace isthe UKbrancfi da 

@rnn l{@ set up b sed( 

rcconciliation with ofter 

\r 

onties afterthe Secod u/ofi 

!a lAhr. ln &itain tt€y hehed to 

tebuf,d Itlo 

Corcnuy Caffedral, fur 

n 

I 

e.amplq and tpir UK otrce b 

Contact: Anne Katrin Schef$uch, ARSP, 7 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 sES 

t: O2476 222 487 . f: O24766:1 14 48 

e: anne_katrin_scheffbuch@compuselve.com 

movement | 11 

rc$/ rpc to the cathedral. 

ARSP annually sends about 150 long-term 

volunteers to countries which were affected by 

Germany in World War !1. Presently our volunteers work 

in Bel$um, Belarus, the Czech Republic, France, 

Germany, lsrael, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, 

Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

The volunteers are mostly aged between 19 and 26 

and work in a wide variety of organisations, where they 

do work such as caring for survivors of the Holocaust 

living and working with people with special needs oi 

with refugees, community work, Holocaust education. 

ln the UK ARSP currently has a group of thirteen 

Polish and German volunteers. 

A weekend seminar 

All these stereotypes, images and questions are important. You have the 

chance to think about the truth behind them. lf these questions interest 

you, come to the seminar on migration organised by Action Reconciliation 

Service for Peace (ARSP). The seminar will take place on 24-27 May next 

year, probably in South Wales. As well as British students, the participants 

will be young people from Germany and Poland who are currently working 

on year-long volunteer projects in the UK. Their work ranges from 

mediation programmes in inner city areas or the minimum wage campaign 

(see page 221, to running the touring exhibition about Anne Frank that you 

might have seen on your campus. Together we can address all aspects of 

migration from our different European conteKs - on this island and on the 

continent as EU members or candidates. 

And even if you can't come to the seminar, all those questions we started 

with should be more than enough for you to run a workshop evening in your 

SCM group...

=-a 

disarming acttons 

disarming actions I 

helen steven 

A challenge too far 

we 

despenmftefiy 

meed fi'trrtrt]F"e 

wild folk 

with 

e hafllemgimg 

lifestyles 

. This is Helen Steven's last 

column, as she is moving 

on fYom the Scottish 

Centre for Non-Violence to 

work with the lona 

Gommunity. We thank her 

for all hev challenging 

witingi in Movenlent, and 

wish her every success itr 

her new role. FYom next 

issue, we will be featudng a 

new column on activism' 

written by Christian Aid's 

Patrick Dawes (s€e page 5). 

Sometimes we take the ProPhets for 

granted and totally underestimate just 

how wild and uncomfortable they really 

were - including Jesus of course. John the 

Baptist confronted the decadence of 

Herod's lifestyle at the cost of his life. Or 

take Jeremiah for example. People don't 

get shoved into miry pits for being polite 

around authority. Nor is one crucified for 

being kind to little children and healing 

the lame. They were all different to the 

point of being not only uncomfortable, but 

an actual threat to the established order. 

Wherr John the Baptist's disciples came to 

ask Jesus whether he was the one John had 

foretold, Jesus asked them what they had all 

gone out into the desert to see. What were 

they expecting? Almost certainly not what 

they got. A wild hairy man, living on an 

unusual diet, who ranted at them all' telling 

tlrem they were a bunch of snakes. 

John the Baptist called people to repent. And 

he was specific in the actual practical lifestyle 

changes that people could make' Repenting 

means turning again, giving up the old ways' 

being radically different: stop cheating on your 

tax returns, stop exploiting the poor, if you have 

two shirts, give one away. So where is the difference 

from our present day demands to drop the 

debt, to scrap the IMF and the World Bank? 

Except perhaps that it is not so much a question 

of shirts any more - rather houses, cars, 

estates, and the GNP of whole countries. A call 

to change our destructive ways, such as was 

made and ignored at Kyoto. 60,000 people are 

flying to the World Summit at Johannesburg' To 

wlrat end? How many of these are representa' 

tives of vested interests determined to hold 

back any change that might save the planet, but 

damage their profits? We desperately need 

more wild folk with challenging lifestyles. 

Jeremiah was an out-and-out traitor to his 

people. At a time of national disaster he got up 

and told folks that they had it coming to them, 

that worse would happen unless they turned to 

the paths of righteousness. lma$ne Jeremiah 

going public to the media on 12 September and 

saying that the chickens were coming home to 

roost for the rich countries of the capitalist 

world; that this was just the beginning of the 

terror they could expect. I suspect it migltt be 

classed as un-American activity, insensitive to 

the point of brutality, and downright treason. 

Our world is being dragged to the brink of one 

of the most dangerous times in its history to 

serve the interests of corporate America, with 

the UK following closely in its wake' What must 

it be like for an lraqi citizen to hear daily a 

discussion as to whether or not her country is 

going to be brought to its knees, bombed to 

oblivion? lt has been su€gested that Britain's 

Trident nuclear submarines be deployed in the 

Gulf, so that should the 'nuclear threshold' be 

crossed, it will be Britain that becomes the prime 

target and not the US. For many years now US 

Strategic Air Command has been talking about 

'full-spectrum dominance' of space, so that 

targets can be pinpointed anywhere in the world 

from space. This programme depends on the 

telecommunications base at Fylingdales in 

Yorkshire for its effectiveness. 

So what are we doing about it? Recently I 

heard of a Puerto Rican woman called Alexandrina 

who protested at her home in Vieques being 

used as a bombing practice range. She was 

sentenced to 35 years in prison for anti- 

American activities. At the present moment the 

nofth coast of Scotland is being used for the 

same purpose. So why are we not filling up the 

jails? Where is our un-American activity? And let 

us not stop at bein$ un-American, it is time we 

were seen as being actively opposed to British 

government policy. We can start with the letters, 

but we cannot let it rest there. We can join the 

Pledge to Resistance should war be declared on 

lraq. We need to oppose injustice and wrong 

until it hurts. 

ln previous articles I have referred to Jesus' 

direct action in the Temple, overturnin$ the 

tables. lt is only in the last week after studying 

with a colleague of Walter Wink that I began to 

realise the tull extent of the Temple Riot. Firstly 

the sheer size of the court of the Gentiles in the 

Temple in Jerusalem was about three quarters of 

a mile long, by half a mile. lt says that Jesus 

stopped anyone from carrying anything across it! 

How on earth did he do it? How did anyone 

notice a few tables being kicked over in a corner 

of such a huge area? How did he make himself 

seen and heard? lt must only have been 

because many other people joined in and it must 

have become a full-scale riot, to the point where 

he couldn't be arrested because of the crowd. 

However, in spite of their challenging 

behaviour, in spite of their uncomfortable words, 

people still flocked to see these prophets. They 

must have been attractive people, fun to be with' 

living the life of God's kingdom to the tull. These 

are the kind of people we are called to follow. 

'Christians should be without fear, happy, and 

always in trouble' (D Steere). I 

L2 | rrovenrent

celebrity theologian 

I 

fr 

1*.,p 

:iG 

.+-, 

2a't 

-rt 

Celebrity 

Theologian 

lohn Milbank 

Who is he, and what does 

he do? 

The Francis Ball Professor of Philosophical Theology at 

the University of Virginia. Previously, he was a Reader in 

Philosophical Theology at the University of Cambridge. 

What has he written? 

He did his doctoral worl< on the ltalian thinl

small ritual 

tr 

small ritual I 

Whose story? 

steve collins 

Whose story 

does the 

music in 

your church 

embody - 

your own, 

or someone 

elsets? 

lf someone 

elsets, 

whose? 

. Steve Collins is a wtiter 

and web designer in 

London, and is involved 

in alternative worship 

Since recorded music was invented a 

century ago, all kinds of music have 

become available to all of us. For the 

first time in human history, we can 

have any music we want, whenever 

and wherever we want. We choose 

from the $reatest varietY of music 

available to any society in history. But 

our choices are lar$ely determined by 

which story we want to Put ourselves 

into. Every genre of music embodies 

and evokes its own story of social and 

personal identity. ln listenin$ we take 

part in those identities, even if only in 

imagination. Rejection of music is 

often about rejecting the identity it 

weaves. 

But if music embodies life-story, what 

about the music in church? Whose story 

does the music in your church embody - 

your own, or somepne else's? lf someone 

else's, whose? Thinking in terms of lifestory 

takes us beyond the usual arguments 

over 'good' and 'bad', 'contemporary' and 

'traditional', and helps us see why musical 

style and change are such fraught issues in 

churches. The music we use in church can 

be a potent representation of our story to 

God. lf the music does not represent us, 

belongs to another story, we could be 

alienated at the point where we most need 

connection. 

The story embodied in our chosen music 

is often an inner story that circumstances 

will not allow to be expressed in any other 

way. lf this is so it's all the more important 

for us to use that music in our dealings with 

God, for honesty and freedom's sake. lf we 

can do this, church becomes a space of 

liberation, where our hidden selves can be 

expressed to God and to one another. We 

can recover our sense of who we are, and 

find strengfh to resist the pressures to be 

otherwise. 

But the musical menu available in most 

churches is very limited by comparison to 

the world outside. The music itself isn't 

necessarily bad, but the chances are it's 

alien both in style and in the way the music 

is used. ln limiting the forms of music that 

are permitted, churches limit the life-stories 

that are permitted expression. Often it has 

been forgotten that every story was 

someone's story at some time in history' 

and churches lapse into essentialism' 

saying this story is the only story for 

Christians, and to be a Christian you must 

walk in it. ln cultures where there are few 

musical stories this may suffice as an 

argument, but in our own culture we are 

aware of a great many musical stories, and 

have already placed ourselves somewhere 

among them as a part of our growing up. 

Story isn't necessarily about following a 

single genre. Mostly we weave several, and 

creatively appropriate music from 

seemingly different storylines into our own. 

Nor is it just about musical style, which is 

why Christian substitutes 'in the style of' 

don't always work. We expect artists to live 

up to the stories embedded in their music - 

in short, credibility. lt's been said that the 

job of the artist is to go through extreme 

states on our behalf, so that we can work 

through these things vicariously and 

survive. lf so it's no wonder that 'Christian' 

exercises in decency and moderation failto 

heal us. 

ln the light of all this, churches need a 

much more complex approach to music 

than they have generally demonstrated. 

Music in this context is a means of 

communication and expression between 

ourselves and God. lf the music we use in 

church represents us, then communion with 

God takes place within our own story. And 

since the music of our own story runs 

throughout our lives, when we discover how 

to make communion with God in it in one 

place it can, potentially, be a vehicle for 

communion with God anywhere, anytime 

else. Church is no longer an event outside 

our storyline, but an event within it. 

I've discussed the issue of life-story in 

terms of music, because music is its most 

potent carrier in our society, and we all 

understand the dynamic. But it's worth 

asking the question of all aspects of 

church, the liturgical, the visual, the 

theological - whose story is this? lf not 

mine, whose? Can I take it for my own' or 

would it be a charade? And what would it 

look like if re-embodied in my story? I 

14 | movement

feature: i ntrod uci ng christian ity 

introducin$, 

christianity 

Our feature this issue explores the various courses currently available which try to 

introduce non-Ghristians to the church or to Ghristian belief. 

The aim of all these courses is essentially to create new Ghristians - although, as 

we'll see, different courses may create different kinds of Ghristian! The idea of 

evangelasm, in this form or any other, can be problematic in our multicultural 

society. So we start with a piece by theologian Tim Gorringe, exploring the deeper 

implications... 

evangettbm in 

a €Iobattbed world 

Can we spread the gospel whilst still respecting difference? 

When delegates met in Edinburgh in 

1910 for the lnternational Missionary 

Conference, they were clear that their 

agenda was 'the evangelisation of the 

world in this generation'. No qualms for 

them: the map was coloured red; the 

sun never set over the British empire; 

humankind was visibly caught up in the 

great leap forwards, and the Christian 

gospel had to leaven that. What 

followed we all know: two world wars, 

the Holocaust, and then the carving up 

of the world for the profit of the multinational 

corporations. As we approach the 

l00th anniversary of that conference, 

we are in a different world. ln this brief 

article I willjust haghlight two points of 

difference. First, though imperialism 

remains a fact of life, there is a greater 

cultural self-confidence on the part of 

all humankind's constituents than there 

was at that earlier time. We recognise 

this in speaking of 'multiculturalism', 

the demand that difference be 

respected, and the insistence that 

there is no Archimedean point from 

which all standpoints can be assessed. 

Does this mean, then, that evangelism 

is just Western arrogance? The question 

is serious, and posed to Christians by 

many critics. 

A sensitive response to this question has 

been developed by the Jesuit Michael Barnes. 

The heart of his proposal is to understand God 

as involved in the experience of otherness. 

We are all familiar from Matthew 25 with the 

idea that we encounter God in our neighbour. 

ln Barnes'terms, God is'the primary Other'. lf 

that is the case, then openness to God means 

openness to others, and this is at the root of 

any Christian theolo$/. The aim of encounter 

cannot be conquest or conversion. lt is simply 

genuine meeting, the situation in which I 

genuinely hear what the other has to say. This 

is always fraught with difficulty, and never 

perfectly realised. ln every kind of meeting we 

always find ourselves in a 'broken middle', a 

relationship which is always under negotiation. 

Thinking of relationship like this, argues 

Barnes, allows us to imagine a situation 

where we can be passive in the face of the 

other without being crushed by them. He 

suggests that this is what we find in the 

famous 'Christ hymn' of Philippians 2 which 

speaks of Christ 'taking the form of a slave', 

but accomplishing redemption precisely by 

doing so. Christian theolory is rooted in the 

story of the God who is Emmanuel, the Word 

spoken in the 'broken middle' of the world, 

who still goes on speaking through the spirit 

which leads the disciples into all the truth. 

What they share is what God can do in and 

through human weakness. This is one form of 

Christian mission in a multicultural world. 

What about the situation of the imperialism of 

the multinational corporation, backed up by the 

might of US firepower? How does that affect our 

concept of evangelism? Another Jesuit, Aloysius 

Pieris ftom Sri Lanka, argues that evangelism ) 

Tim Gorringe 

openness to God means 

openness to others, 

and this is at the root 

of any Ghristian theology 

movementl15

feature: introduci ng christianity 

means quite centrally addressing a society in 

the thrall of materialism, of Mammon. ln Jesus' 

he argues, the irreconcilable antinomy between 

God and Mammon and the irrevocable covenant 

between God and the poor are made flesh. True 

evangelism is to live this out in fellowship with 

the authentic spirituality and liberative 

dimensions of other reli$ons. Note, evangelism 

does not mean in the first instance displacing 

True evangelism is to live in fellowship 

with the authentic spirituality and 

liberative dimensions of other religions 

. Tim GorrinEle has wotked 

in parishos' taught 

theology in south lndia' 

worked a3 a college 

chaplain ln Oxfold' and 

lectuled at St Andrewg 

and Exeter, where he is 

now St Luke's Plofeseor 

of Thoological Studies. He 

was chaptain to SCM ln 

the 1970s. 

other reli$ons. On the contrary, Pieris argues 

that each of the great reli$ons has its own 

version of the Sermon on the Mount, the Truth 

that sets us free from being tied to things that 

cannot $ve us freedom. The Asian churches (but 

why just the Asian churches?) have to experience 

solidarity with non-Christians by witnessing 

to the spirituality common to all reli$ons (by 

practising the Beatitudes); and reveal their 

Christian uniqueness in proclaimingJesus as the 

new covenant by joinin$ the poor against 

Mammon's principalities and powers that create 

poverty and oppression. ln a $obalised world, I 

would argue, that is as true in London, 

Birmingham or Glasgow as in Colombo' 

The attempt to serve Mammon, whether or 

not in the name of God, is the decisive marker 

of what is not of God's Spirit. Whatever frees 

us from Mammon is of the Spirit. We experience 

solidarity with such anti-Mammon forces 

and we proclaim Jesus as the new covenant in 

solidarity with the Poor. 

lf this is a true account of evangelism it 

follows that mission campai$ns which rely on 

huSe quantities of money, or on the strength 

of imperial orders, are confiadictions in 

terms. What it actually means to make 

disciples of nations is to baptise them into a 

spirituality of nonacquisitiveness and 

nonaccumulativeness which guarantees a 

healthy, ecologically balanced sharing of our 

resources. The cross is not, as it is for much 

Protestant preaching, 'the price for sinners 

paid' but the price fixed by the rich who refuse 

to be evangelised by the poor. 'lf one day we 

truly take up this cross as a body and go 

underground and pay that price for the sake 

of our intimidated masses, that day the world 

will see the miracle it is yearning to see' a 

church which has been evangelised by the 

poor, and therefore, a church that has 

become Good News to the poor, as Jesus 

was'. As each religion discovers that in the 

other which liberates from acquisitiveness it 

discovers and renames itself precisely in and 

through encounter. 

Pieris warns that the liberating spirituality of 

the religions is gradually being extinguished 

by the wave of capitalistic techniculture that 

has begun to shake the relisious foundation 

of all cultures. 'The market economy (which 

thrives on the quest for profit) and 

consumerism (which plays to our accumulative 

instinct) have enthroned Mammon where, 

once, the human Person and the human 

community as well as the earth on which we 

live, were the sole beneficiary'. This is, I 

believe, the key perspective in any contemporary 

theoloSl of evangelism. Gospel is good 

news, and this has to be addressed to the 

situation of the day, in our case one where 

the possibility of the continuance of life as we 

know it is threatened by the rapacity of 

present economic practices, as '2,000 

concerned scientists' warned in 1996. 

Reviewing my ATheologr of the Built Environ' 

rnent, which examines these claims, John 

Macquarrie dismissed it as the work of 'an old 

fashioned Christian Socialist'. The question 

we are left with, though, is what the gospel 

can be today, other than a warning and a call 

to repentance in the name of the God of life? 

Evangelism in our context is, as it was for the 

prophets, a sombre business, and it is 

certainly not primarily about getting more 

bums on pews. lt is, as it has always been, a 

callto repentance, but not one which is made 

in competition with other religions. On the 

contrary, its primary concern is obedience to 

the God of life, and engagement with all that 

makes for death. I 

Tim Gorrin$e 

see also,,, 

M Barnes, Theolo$y and the Dialo$ue of 

Retigions, Cambrid$e: Cambrid$e 

University Press, 2002 

Pieris, Fire and Water, Maryknoll: Orbis' 

1996 

'Evangelism is a call to repentanGe, hut not one 

which is made in competition with other religions' 

16 lmovement

{ 

feature: introducing christianity 

marketin$the Sospel 

For years, the Alpha course has been used by many churches and groups as a way of 

introducing'unchurched' people to Ghristianity. But dissatisfaction with the Alpha 

approach has led to the development of several alternative courses. We compare and 

contrast the different courses, and look at people's experiences of Alpha... 

Alpha 

Did you know? 

Accordingj to Stephen 

Hunt's book Anyone 

tor Alpha?, only 

3-4% of participants 

in Alpha courses 

become Christians 

at the end. 

Most 'introductory' 

courses are actually 

attended mainly by 

existing churchgoers. 

Developed at Holy Trinity Brompton over the last 20 years and now headed by Revd Nicky 

Gumbel, Alpha is the longest-established and best-known of the introductory courses. The 

organisers say that thousands of courses are now running in many countries. They also say 

that it's used in secular locations - prisons, businesses and schools. Alpha bills itself as a 

fifteen-session practical introduction to the Christian faith, aimed especially at people who 

don't go to church. At Holy Trinity, Alpha courses are held throughout the year and have 

hundreds of people attending each week. The syllabus for the course is contained in a book 

called Questions of Life. Some courses are held during the day, but most are evening events, 

with a light meal followed by a talk. Then participants break into pre-arranged groups of 

around a dozen people (in which they remain for the entire course) to discuss the talk. A 

team of around three or four 'leaders' or 'helpers' from the host church is attached to each 

group. There is also a weekend away focusing on the subject of the Holy Spirit. 

The problem for many people is that Alpha introduces participants to a very particular kind 

of Christianity. The emphasis is very much on the evangelical, charismatic side of Christian 

faith, and on participants 'accepting the Lord Jesus into their heafts' (or words to that effect). 

Whilst a dissatisfaction with this approach 

has led to the creation of at least one of the 

alternative courses now available, it hasn't 

stopped people adapting Alpha lo work with 

a much more open view of faith. We asked 

some SCM members and groups to reflect 

on their experiences of Alpha, and you can 

see what they thought below. 

tii"Jrot 

""\^Icomers' . -,..^ment with Atohl 

Y: " 

il*";,,' y:::l":t Hi!I"*l: i::r:'ffSi,i#Fl 

,' 

*tr'5fiff{*g*$$g-ffi 

postglraduate 

student 

everyone l".u]ll;,., armosphere. 

a warm and trtetrur] uu"--' 

,ames, 

Gontact 

Alpha lnternational, Holy Trinity Brompton, 

Brompton Road, London SW7 1rA 

: 

t; 020 7581 8255 

f: O2O 7584 8536 

e.' info@alphacourse.org 

w: www.alphacourse.org 

:,t^:o to hetp read an Atpha cot,,, 

;ffi#;lXts:,i"ul #"l:::e 

when 

aso' 

unr€, I was ii:- "t 

;t';",,#3rs 

tendency to rorll? ilfi ;r"J" at the 

;lll',rxn:rxiH;jfi"lf:# 

19." : rn e probtJri",-"j' ]rjls .!n at it e n co urquesttons 

,^, .il is that it "n."], 

;;ffi;#'.;1"T^,"_,f ;;;il;;:'ifr";l 

iiii:,:,?#'ix. e*f:["i:;ffi ? fi :l:l 

fl-'Tl,:",yl 

"; r#"J:u_ aso, €Vonererica 

r 

ffi ff :J:f "" j::"*;.y."*"SiTl?fi ; 

_13:u^y,tn 

"il;;r:"', l]lh..,'ourdn't go 

ffi**;*li',ffi 

Symon, individual SGM rnember 

movement | 17


i;ip,;1*ildt:',i{1:{'$ii"$"ritth"ffi 

:ilt'H:"Tir#i^x::'"iy#l"lTiffi ' 

ft 'i:{,riilffi ffi r*:iliL.ik:iFHl:;'diiffi 

ff*'ffi ffiEi#itr'H*#ff fi $g#gw 

The Holy Spirit weekend supplied a goo( 

:lrtr**l+****{tfft#fi*fff*ffi 

[tili*'i''ffi ,l:*i+$[ifr i:'l*i*q-qri[*'Tiffi 

the kingdom grow 

Emmaus: The Way of Faith, launched in 1996 is 

an introductory course developed principally 

tllllAul within and for the Church of En$and. The 

organisers describe it as an enabling resource, 

aiming to be flexible and suitable for a range of 

r |r ilAus tmditions and using effective educational and 

evangelistic methods. They say their theological 

view of Christian faith and mission is 'otthodox" 

A range of Emmaus books is available from Church House 

Publishing, the 

Church of England's 

publishing company. 

Over 50,000 books 

have been sold. 

Contact 

Sheridan James, Emmaus Co-ordinator 

e o20 7a98 t524 

e; sheridan james@c-of-e.org.uk 

w; www.natsoc.ord.ulr/emmaus 

Alpha, Emmaus and now Journey are the 

best-known introductory courses, backed 

up by publications and support networks, 

but there are other courses, including 

many smaller ones developed at a local 

level. Some you may come into contact 

with include: 

. Essence - just published, again bY 

evangelicals within the Church of England, 

this is apparently aimed specifically at 

people interested in New Age or more 

general spirituality. lt claims to offer a 

'contemporary meditative journey'. 

. Credo - a course written by Lindsay 

Owen, Bishop of Horsham in Sussex, 

aiming 'to bring people to faith in the 

Lord'. 

. A Rou9h Guide to Christianity - a local 

course in Holloway run bY Dave 

Tomlinson. A more open approach, he 

says it's suited for 'Alpha dropouts'. 

JOtrK N€Y 

EaPloulrutt 

Jilo 

hapluniP 

ffi 

JOHN VINCENT 

rest of this feature 

focuses on Joumey, with an overuiew of the 

course on page 19 and an interview with its 

creator on page 20. 

Journey: fuetorations into Discipleship is a new course taking a 

rather different approach from that of Npha or Emmaus. The 

emphasis is on questioning and exploration, and on a practical form 

of Christianity taking its form firstly in social and communal action 

rather than specific belief. lt's being developed and run by the 

Ashram Community, an experimental Christian community in 

Sheffield which has a history of working together with SCM groups. 

Joumey promises to offer an honest and fresh way of introducing 

people to Christianity in a multicultural society, and of helping people 

to think critically 

about faith. The 

Contact 

Ashram Community, 178 Abbeyfield Road, 

Sheffield 54 7AY 

t: OL784 456 474 

e:@or 

linda@petermarshall.cix.co.uk 

God Made 

Simple 

,sa 

resource 

#-." from SCM 

which 

gives a lively and 

accessible synopsis 

of many common 

questions about God 

and theologiical 

responses to them - 

an excellent resource 

for new Christians. 

See page 3O for 

details of how to 

order publications 

from SCM. 

18 | movement

feature: i ntroduci ng ch ristian ity 

1 

journeyins 

af 

toSether 

lohn Vincent is responsible for the radical introductory course lourney: Explorations into 

Discipleship. This article is based on a talk he gave at the Greenbelt festival in 2002. 

Why'Journey'? 

I got groups of people all round the country to 

meet with me and prepare sections of this 

introductory course to radical Christianity. We 

thought of the word 'Journey' fairly early on, 

and said, 'Let's talk first about people's own 

personal journey. Let's assume that faith 

takes place in a person's life, and isn't just 

related to specific "religious" actions.' 

Secondly we tried to look at the journey of 

Jesus and see how far it provides an example 

of what makes sense of existence for people 

today. lf only we could describe the life of 

Jesus Christ in such a way that people say, 

Yeah, that's something worth following', then 

we might have a new version of Christianity 

that was based not upon arguing about 

people's beliefs, but upon people setting their 

own life journey and commitment to God within 

the compass of the obediences that they feel 

called to in a contemporary violent world. 

Thirdly we said, 'This group of people who 

get together, hopefully in each other's homes 

without benefit of clerg/, needs to take a 

journey.' This is not a course where some 

clever (or unclever) person delivers lectures, 

and everybody asks questions about the 

wisdom (or ignorance) that has been 

revealed. This is a course where the leaders 

are fellow pilgrims. They don't have all the 

answers, but they are committed to Jesus 

and to discipleship. 

We encourage groups to find places where 

Christian stuff is going on, and visit them. lt 

could be the local charismatic church where 

they've got a house group, a group of radical 

Ghristians running a coffee bar, a group of 

people related to Greenbelt or a local lona 

Community group. And within this journey that 

the group makes together, we sugg;est that 

the fiesorrrces 

Jou&Ngy 

6 

I 

ltu 

fr&d'A+ 

m 

they go on retreat with a religious community, 

and that they spend a weekend in an inner city 

Christian community, which confronts you with 

visible discipleship to Jesus Christ. 

The nature of Christian discipleship 

ln the gospel of Mark - the guide behind a lot 

of the teachingin Journey - discipleship does 

not begin in your head or your heart, it begins 

with your feet. The first word in discipleship in 

Mark is, 'Follow me'. And the people called 

knew pretty much nothing about the caller. 

The second thing in Mark is your stomach - 

you have meals together. The third thing is 

your hands - 

you engage in mission. Jesus 

sends his disciples out on a mission to teach, 

preach and heal, and cast out demons, when 

what little they know about him is completely 

wrong. And yet he keeps involving them in his 

own mission, which I find rather merciful and 

useful, as my practice should always be 

ahead of my understanding. lf my 

understanding had to come before my 

practice, I would never have been where I 

was as a disciple, and never have made the 

discoveries that I've made through my life. 

So, begin with your feet, move to your 

stomach, move to your hands, and then 

perhaps to your heart. Only in chapter 8 of 

Mark are the disciples asked, 'Who do you 

say I am?', and their answers happen to be 

wrong. lt makes absolutely no difference to 

Jesus - he couldn't care less whether you call 

him Messiah or Son of Man or Saviour or Lord 

or anything else. What really matters is what 

you do with your guts and your hands and 

your feet, and your commitment as a person 

in the modern world. I 

John Vincent 

faith takes 

place in a 

personts 

life, and 

isn't iust 

related to 

specific 

'religious' 

actions 

. John Vlncent lB a former 

Prosldent of the 

Mothodlst Church, 

Dhoctor of the Urban 

Communlty In Sheffleld. 

The book Journey: Explorations rn Discipleshlp is arranged as a workbook, with twelve stages, each 

accompanied by a visual symbol which becomes part of the Joumey programme. lt can be used 

alongside a Journey Diary, so that through the twelve stages of the journey, participants have a 

workbook that they can do their own journey search in. lt's not prescriptive but it's encouraging. Most 

of the questions that we ask are practical ones, like 'Where are we going?', 'Why Jesus?' - what to go 

for in life, who to be with, how to act, how to prophesy, how to find appropriate communities, and so 

on. They're about the journey a person takes on when they become a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

There is also a Group Leader's Guide. The first page which tells you how to be a leader is very helpful, 

because it tells you that you're no good and that you'll do better by allowing the leadership to become, 

as soon as possible, a corporate activity of people who together will find out the way you should go. 

lourney t6 O Diary tJ2 O Guide E! O Postage fI O trom Ashram Press (address on page 18) 

movementl19


radical dtbcipleshiP 

ln this interview, lohn Vincent, the creator ol lourney, talks about its usefulness for 

students, and lays down a challenge for SCM members! 

There needs 

tobea 

recognition 

of the widest 

possible 

number 

of options 

available to 

people. We 

have nothing to 

fear from this 

lnspired by John 

Vincent's ideas of 

community 

discipleship? 

Then contact the 

Ashram CommuniV 

(see page 78). 

And see Common 

People, an SCM 

resource about 

rnodels of Christian 

community, available 

for the special Price 

of f,2.5O (including 

postage) until April 

2O03. See page 30 

for details of how to 

order SCM resources. 

Movement 

20 lmovement 

Does .lourney address the interrelationships 

between Christianity and other faiths? 

We have a section which just asks, 'What was 

Jesus' attitude to other faiths?' He didn't 

obserue some of his own faith's rituals, he 

challenged the Old Testament interpretation of 

the law, he challenged the Jews' monopoly on 

God and called religious leaders hypocrites. He 

went beyond basic moral requirements in his 

attitude to the Samaritan woman and in the 

parable - talking about 'The Good Samaritan' 

then was like talking about 'The Good Muslim' 

now. And the Samaritan leper who comes back 

and says thank you. And the Gentile centurion 

who calls him son of God' These are all people 

who are raised up by Jesus. And the parable 

says that entrance to the kingdom doesn't 

depend on saying, 'Lord'to Jesus. Those things 

are very important. We're in a postmodern time 

and there needs to be a recognition of the 

widest possible number of options available to 

people. We have nothing to fear from this. The 

sooner we get out of a Christendom situation' 

in which people are under oppression by any 

denomination or religion, the better. ln that 

sense, I think people who live in inner cities are 

very privileged, because they can see and 

welcome the pluralistic situation that in the 

end is going to come to all of us. 

lourney is intended to be used by small 

groups outside church institutions, and you 

talk a lot about the future of Christianity 

lying in 'para-communities' outside the 

traditional church. How do you think that 

would affect campai$ning organisations' 

such as Jubilee 2000? Willwe lose some of 

the ability to co-operate on a national level? 

No, I don't think so at all. I think that you would 

have to say, instead of 'Christian Churches 

Together in Britain and lreland', 'Christian 

Communities Together in Britain and lreland'. 

And you've got to find out what the alternative 

Christian communities are in your area. There 

are already many Christian churches - black 

churches, community churches, charismatic 

churches, house churches, and so on - that 

don't belong to the so-called Churches Together. 

So this is all going to happen in the next 10 or 

2O years. What is important is that there should 

be radical Christian communities alongside the 

much more conservative ones that invariably are 

the ori$n of the house church movements. 

Given the pluralism and multiculturalism of 

our society, why should 'outsiders' want to 

explore and $et involved in Christianitf 

I think that Christianity is a viable way of 

confronting the contemporary world with a 

radical challenge to alternative living. And I 

don't see that radical challenge coming from 

any other source. There is great interest in 

other faiths, in New Age, in all kinds of spirituality. 

What I'm interested in is getting a 

hearing for radical Christianity as a challenge 

to the normal waY of living life. 

Do you have anY comments on using 

lourney in a universitY setting? 

It has been used in a number of university 

contexts. I expect it should work there pretty 

well, because university students would 

respond to the practical approach: going round 

visiting places, being exposed to different 

Christian communities and philosophies' 

meeting Christian disciples, with the intention 

of forming some kind of alternative group to 

discover what the discipleship and vocational 

implications are for Christians. I think that this 

element has been missing from the Student 

Christian Movement, actually. There was a time 

in the sixties and seventies when SCM was very 

closely allied to experimental Christian 

communities in inner city areas. The Ashram 

Community in the seventies used to work very 

closely with the university chaplaincies in 

encouraging people to consider a year or 

longer of experiential and vocational 

'testing', if you like, in inner city communities. 

This all bears out what l've said about the 

importance of location, and of experimental 

living with one's life: firstly as a way of discovering 

what wisdom is, what reality's about, but 

secondly as a way of exposinS oneself to 

influences outside of the university academic 

world - which would determine the way that 

people get called into doing significant things' 

I can remember times when I would be 

visiting half a dozen SCM Eroups every year' 

talking about vocation, talking about the 

Urban Theologl Unit's study year, talking 

about the possibilities of people taking a year 

out to do inner city experience. I think that is 

a vital element, and I would hope that we 

could see a return to that kind of interest from 

SCM groups, in practical pieces of community 

disciPleshiP. I 

Lian Purcell

ties and binds 

I 

ties and binds I jim cotter 

innocence and experience 

Crocodile Dundee was an 'innocent 

abroad'. What we mean by the word 

'innocent' in that sentence is that he 

was inexperienced in city life, that he 

wasn't streetwise enough for Los 

Angeles. ln a subsequent film he was, 

what shall we say, 'bushwise' in the 

Australian outback, leading a bunch of 

city roglues a merry dance - merry, 

that is, for Grocodile Dundee. 

(Whoops, I hope I haven't given the 

Republican Party in America a new 

adjective for their President...) 

Back to the word 'innocence'. A baby, an 

infant who is not yet conscious of the 

motives and consequences of human 

behaviour, is innocent in two senses: 

without much experience and without $uilt, 

not yet mature enough to be held to 

account for his or her actions. Of course in 

a court of law we seek to establish 

innocence or guilt in very particular circumstances, 

those of a crime which the 

accused may or may not have committed. 

When both those meanings of innocence' 

are combined in the person of the very 

young, we can see why we are horrified 

when a baby is tossed on the bayonet of an 

enemy soldier. So it is that nearly every 

report of an atrocity, say a bomb which kills 

a dozen people or more in a bus or cafe, 

contains a phrase like, 'innocent people 

were killed'. I know what the reporters 

mean but I am uneasy. They were 

bystanders perhaps, but'innocents'? I can't 

help thinking that there is a subtle implication 

that it might have been all right to blow 

them up if they hadn't been innocent: 

summary execution of those thought to be 

guilty, but without the due processes of law. 

The trouble is that we are so used to think 

only of tlie innocence or guilt of individuats 

in relation to specific acts. We rarely reflect 

that there is no adult who has no share in 

adding to the gonewrongness of things, 

either by actions that harm or by colluding, 

even by silence, with injustices and crimes. 

I can hope that I shall not be caught up in a 

terrorist attack, random in its selection of 

those who are killed, but if I am I wonder in 

what sense I could call myself innocent', a 

reasonably comfortable and well-fed 

westerner who could have done more and 

could still do more to help eradicate the 

causes of such attacks. I am convinced, by 

reference to any mature system of law, that 

those who perpetrate such terrible acts are 

indeed guilty, but so are those retaliators 

who, on the basis of secret information and 

suspicion, can fire a weapon from a 'drone' 

more than 20,000 feet above the ground 

onto a jeep whose number plate has been 

identified from a powerful camera. And if 

such a weapon goes astray and kills a 

farmer and his family, I want to cry out with 

those reporters, 'But they are innocent of 

great offence'. ln the Middle Ages soldiers 

returning from the wars had to confess to a 

priest if they had killed anyone, and the 

more they had killed they greater their 

penance. Even if the conflict had been a 

'just' one, they were still guilty because 

they had killed fellow human beings. How 

much more so if you can kill at such a 

distance by computers and buttons! 

I offer these reflections without any 

solutions, but I do think it important that we 

are as precise as we can be when we 

handle such an ambiguous word as 

'innocence'. And there is one further 

thought. I wonder if the word can apply to 

the attitudes and actions of a few rare 

people, usually elderly, experienced (not 

innocent in that context), those who have 

seen it all, know what is in the human heart 

- including their own - and have become so 

forgiving that it would be impossible for 

them, even for a moment, to contemplate 

harming others ever again. Come to think of 

it, a bit like Jesus of Nazareth, and maybe 

the God he embodied... I 

there is no 

adult who has 

no share in 

adding to the 

gonewrongness 

of things, either 

by actions 

that harm 

or by colluding, 

even by silence, 

with injustices 

and crimes 

. Jim Cotter runs Cairns 

Publishing, an 

independent Christian 

imprini 

movement | 

21

poverly 

Iife in aII its fullness? 

Gan you help challenge debt on your own doorstep? 

CHURCH ACTION 

ON POVERTY 

Church Actlon on Poveltt/t 

vlalt ld4&gbglgts 

I9tgtE4It&I|&r wrlte to 

Church Actlon on Povertyt 

Gentral Bulldlngs, Oldham 

Strc€t, Mancheeter M1 lJT, 

or call 0161 236 9321. 

Throughout the Bible we read how God 

and his prophets railed agaanst 

injustices, inequitable treatment of the 

poor, the vulnerable and the most 

marginalised in society. Jesus called 

the poor 'blessed' while he talked of 

sending the rich away empty. Through 

Jubilee 2OOO, the churches were 

immensely successful in highlighting 

the modern day scandal of international 

debt. But have we Elot what it takes to 

tackle poverty and debt on our own 

doorstep? 

How we fail the poor 

Whilst it's true that the government has made 

a commitment to 'ending child poverty within 

a generation', the reality is so far falling way 

short of the rhetoric. For all the government's 

best intentions, poverty, debt and low wages 

continue to blight the lives of millions of 

people in this country. 

We had a month of living on f,25 per week 

(Child Benefitl because we didn't get paid 

until the end of the month and it took 2 

weeks for the Working Families Tax Gredit 

to be sorted out. By the time things were 

sorted out we already owed money.t 

Penny, mother of two, from the 

In the work that Church Action on Poverty 

has done with people in poverty over recent 

years, one theme which consistently crops up 

is the way in which poor peoPle feel 

'invisible'. People's own direct experiences of 

poverty, and their own attitudes and ideas 

about what can be done to tackle it, are held 

to be of no value whatsoever. 

Debt on our doorstep: time to act 

Mary, a lone mother living on a council estate 

in south London, struggled to make ends 

meet. Her weekly income from child benefit 

and income support was barely enough to 

keep a roof over her family's head. So when 

a neighbour proposed a f-2OO loan to help her 

pay off some bills, and buy a pair of new 

shoes for her child, she jumped at the offer. 

With no job and no bank account, she was in 

no position to apply for a loan from a 

mainstream lender. 

However, Mary ran into difficulties with the 

repayments. The neighbour reassured her by 

offering her another loan of f,,500 to cover the 

outstanding balance. Again, Mary strug$led to 

keep up regular payments. This time she was 

offered a f,,1,000 loan to help 'settle' the 

debt. By last month, what began as a 92OO 

loan to pay for bare essentials had turned 

into a f.1,,L7O debt she had no means of 

paying. 

Mary was charged a rate of interest that 

anyone familiar with the world of credit cards, 

personal loans and overdrafts would consider 

extortionate. The loans she took out were 

charged at between LTOo/o and 330% APR. 

But Mary was not the victim of an illegal loan 

shark. Her neighbour was an agent for 

Provident Financial, a completely legal 

company which, since Victorian times, has 

specialised in offering home credit to people 

living in communities bypassed by the banks. 

Provident Financial is just one of a growing 

number of companies reaping huge returns 

from the financially excluded. 

This is why GAP set up the Debt on our 

Doorstep Network - a coalition of over 150 

organisations committed to campaigning for a 

fair deal for people currently being exploited by 

extortionate lending. Compared to many other 

EU member states, where caps on interest 

rates and tough licensing laws keep check on 

lenders targeting the poor, the UK industry has 

been left to run a devastating course. lt is an 

issue the government is doing little about. >

poverty 

Four ways to make a differcnce 

) Make a difference with your MONEY: 

Join a credit union 

Credit unions are mutually co-operative 

enterprises, through which people can 

save and bonow money at very low rates 

of interest. lt is you saving together with 

your friends, and provides saving and loan 

facilities convenient to you or your 

workplace. Your savings could help to 

provide loans for those who need them at 

a realistic and affordable interest rate. 

To find your nearest credit union, 

contact the Assocration of British Credit 

Unions on O767 832 3694 or visit 

www.abcul.or4. 

t Make ytxrr nxrney WORK FOR fiE POOR 

How much do you $ve to charities that 

make a difference? Forget fluffy 

animals, your money can work for 

change, help tackle social injustice and 

give a chance to people who otherwise 

wouldn't get one. Give by direct debit or 

standing order - it's much more efficient 

than one-off donations. 

+ Help tackle DEBT ON OUR DOORSTEP 

Debt on our Doorstep is a coalition of 

over 150 organisations including CAP, 

Oxfam, Child Poverly Action Group and 

New Economics Foundation, committed 

to campaigning for a fair deal for people 

currently being exploited by extortionate 

lending. Support the campaign to put 

an end to e)dortionate lending! 

Find out more at 

www. debt- o n - o u r- doorste p. co m. 

t Sagn the LIVING WAGE pledge 

Many of us are members of churches or 

have connections with organisations 

(including most universities and 

colleges) where cleaners or caretakers 

are low-paid. Try and get them to sign 

CAP's Living Wage Pledge - a public 

commitment to pay a 'Living Wage' of at 

least f,5.80 an hour. 

Find out more at 

www. ch u rch - povefty.or g. u k. 

'llUhat is 

poYerty? 

Poverty is a 

battle of 

invisibility, 

a lack of 

resources, 

exclusion, 

powerlessness 

... being 

blamed for 

society's 

problems.t 

A Living Wage church? 

While company directors compete to award 

themselves the big$est pay rise, the poor 

struggle to scrape together enough to 

maintain a decent standard of living. With a 

refreshing frankness, the new chairman of 

the Low Pay Commission, Adair Turner - a 

former director-general of the CBI - has 

admitted that he 'couldn't possibly envisage' 

surviving on National Minimum Wage of 

t4.LO an hour. 

The churches themselves have much room 

for improvement. Research carried out for 

Church Action on Poverty in Greater 

Manchester has found that nearly two in 

three people employed by churches are paid 

less than a Living Wage of 95.80 an hour. 

You too can make a difference 

What Bono has said of Third World debt could 

equally apply to poverty close to home: 

'What's on trial here is Christianity itself. 

You cannot walk away from this and call 

yourself a Christian and sit in power. 

Distance does not decide who is your 

brother and who is not. The church is 

going to have to become the conscience 

of the free market ... and stop being its 

apologist.' 

And according to Jim Wallis, activist preacher 

and long time anti-povefi campaigner in the 

States: 'Our vocation is not only to pull people 

out ofthe river, but to go upstream to find out 

what or who is pushing them in.' 

So how can we start to go upstream? What 

practically can we do to enable others to live 

life in all its fullness? Partly this is about being 

attentive to real needs and where people are, 

but it also involves creative thinking and a real 

commitment to sharing. See the box above for 

four ways you can make a difference. 

lf our society, economy and politicians 

continue to fail the poor, we as Christians still 

have the power to make a difference. Let it not 

be said that we have been found wanting. I 

Niall Gooper 

D 

F,cft) 

[orvty 

. l{iall Cooper Is Natlonal 

Co.ordinator of Church 

Actlon on Poverty

first among equals 

first among equals I claire connor 

Lucy Symons' second term as co'ordinator of an SGM 

group begins with a tale of mice and iazzmen'.. 

There's 

an alarming 

amount of 

sherry, not to 

mention the 

green ginger 

wine, but it'll 

make a change 

from Bacardi 

Breezers 

Claire Connor is Catholic 

Lay Chaplain at GKT 

medical schools, King's 

ColleEle London 

January 9th 

3.00pm Happy New Year! 9 days into 2003 

already, and term's about to begin. lt's a bit of a 

hassle coming back early and the committee 

meeting's not until Friday, but as a sign of my new 

economy drive (see new year's resolutions) I 

decided to get the cheaper train ticket and travel 

today. Mum sent me off loaded down with all the 

leftover Christmas cake (why does she do this?) 

but a/so the leftover drinks from the festive 

season, 'in case you have a little party'. There's an 

alarming amount of sherry, not to mention the 

green ginger wine, but it'll make a change from 

Bacardi Breezers. Think Dad must have stolen 

back the whisky when he put my bags in the taxi. 

Humph. Right, not much food in, so off to have a 

bit of cereal and then do some shopping' 

3.75pm Odd. Cereal is almost completely gone' 

I'm sure I left a full box of strawberry crunch... 

8.OOpm Sitting in ftont of the telly with a $ass of 

sherry, watching Corrie. (Slightly worried I may be 

tuming into my nan, actually.) Pretty much ready for 

the meeting tomonow, hoping Jeremy will have 

taken fufther steps on the road back to normality 

over Christmas. We managed to persuade him only 

to do the unbuttoned-shirt-gold-medallions look on 

special occasions, but he still calls me'doll'and has 

taken up the trumpet. lt's a bit ... off-putting. I 

pointedly gave him M&S vouchers for Christmas. 

Anyway, new year's resolutlbns: 

1 I will not shout at Jeremy when he calls me 

'doll' and does the cool-swagger walk. 

2 I will be economical with mY cash. 

3 I will not forbid Kevin from organising SCM 

socials (despite the fireworks pady debacle, 

during which he set fire to most of the rare 

plants in the vicarage garden and created a 

towering inferno instead of a bonfire. Not to 

mention a certain someone who put their foot 

through the greenhouse while trying to swagger. 

Guess who had to explain to the fire brigade 

and replace the plants for Tom's wife...) 

4 I will not get into rows with housemates over 

sharing food or cleaning rota (although I do 

hoover, whatever Jenny says, and I couldn't 

care less about her wretched courgette bake 

that Saturday night). 

Think that's all. Oh, and obviouslY: 

5 Will lose half a stone, get up before 8.O0am 

and go to lectures looking effortlessly stylish 

and not like I've just got out of bed. 

January 10th 

77.30am Am going crazy. More of my cereal is 

gone and I bought a new packet yesterday! 

Cannot be Jenny or Dom as they're not back. 

What is going on? No time to investigate' 

everyone due round in half an hour. 

3.O0pm Planning meeting went brilliantly. Am 

confident that Jeremy is regaining his former self - 

he even ofiered to pick up Marie, the SCM links 

wod

eviews: books 

revleyvs 

J 

cinema... books.,. television... art... music... 

speakinS in remarkable prose 

An impressive first novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002... 

I began to read if nobody 

speaks of remarkable 

thrnds because I had been 

told by people whose opinions I 

trust that it was a good book. 

However, after reading the first 

few pages, I felt that I was being 

made to work quite hard to find 

the plot amongst the artfully 

arranged words. The whole book 

is written in prose in a style that 

is somewhere between Jeanette 

Winterson'sWriften on the Body 

and Simon Armitage's poem 

'About His Person'. Both the 

prose and the characters' 

different perspectives of 

overlapping periods of time 

present difficulties for those 

who like to scan-read books in a 

matter of hours, and also those 

who like to dip into a book at 

irregular intervals over an 

extended period of time. Trying 

to read this book too quickly led 

me to feel frustrated at the lack 

of instant gratification 

regarding the plot - the story 

comes together slowly as you 

put toglether the emotions and 

perspectives of the personalities 

whose lives it describes. 

I deliberated for quite some time 

before writing this review about 

whether or not I should try to give an 

outline of the plot at all, and came to 

the conclusion that it would spoil the 

experience for other people, and that 

I would probably be doing the author 

a disservice by trying to simplifl it in 

any way. Once I stopped trying to 

if nobody speaks of remarkable things 

Jon McGregor I Bloomsbury I 913.95 

rush through the book to see what all 

the fuss was about, I began to really 

enjoy it. Jon McGregor makes the 

ordinary seem beautiful, and is 

startlingly perceptive. Having felt 

that this book might be primarily of 

interest to slightly pretentious arts 

students, I was surprised to find that 

parts of the book made me cry, 

whilst others made me want to read 

it to friends to see if they felt the 

same about it, or to ask them if they 

thought a character reminded them 

of people we knew. 

The whole book shows a series of 

moments, some happy, some not, but 

so acutely observed that they are 

emotionally engaging, and I found 

myself wanting to know what would 

happen to the characters with whom I 

could empathise. Reading about the 

private emotions of the characters 

feels a little voyeuristic at times, but 

the book has been written wellenougfi 

for it to be superior, deeper and 

perhaps darker than the surface 

'reality' presented by reality television 

or fl y-on-the-wall documentaries. 

if nobody speaks of remarkable 

thrngs made me think. lt made me 

wonder how much I see of what is 

going on around me, how well I really 

know the people I'm surrounded by, 

and whether they know and 

understand me as well as I think I 

know them. 2 weeks later, I'm still 

thinking. The only part of the book 

that really disappointed me was the 

ending, because although the main 

story was concluded in the logical 

place, I was left wondering how 

I 

of 

remarkable 

things 

things turned out for many of the 

characters. 

if nobody speaks of remarkable 

thrhgs is worth buying in hardback, 

taking the time to read thoroughly, 

and I'd recommend it to anyone who 

likes their recreational reading to be 

inspiring, and to provoke thought 

about the way they interact with 

those around them. I 

if 

nobody 

speaks 

.l')ll lt)( j.( 

-! -!r)t 

""" *XrttT.1,T 

Jon McGregor will be writing on 

'the importance of story in a 

soundbite culture' in issue 114 

of Movement this April. 

The theme of issue 114 will be 

'Story and Spirituality', following 

on from SCM's annual conference 

in February. Not booked 

your place yet? See page 13. 

movementl25

eviews: music 

happy-clappy hippr-es 

Do you ever wish you'd been 

around in the 1960s hippie era, 

or do you dream about being 

transported back to it? Listening 

to the Polyphonic Spree's new 

album will take you there, with 

its mellow, Beatles-like psychedelic 

sound. However, be 

warned! Although individual 

tracks may be uplifting, listening 

to the whole may make you 

stressed or ratty! Hopefully this 

wasn't the desired effect! 

For those ofyou who haven't heard 

of the 2lz-yeaFold Polyphonic Spree 

(PS), the group was 'discovered'when 

they played at David Bowie's 

Meltdown Festival, and their spectacular 

live performances have resulted 

in an overnight success! lt would be 

difficutt not to make an impact with a 

group of twenty-five (yes, twenty-five 

no less) Texans dressed in white 

robes singing and making music on 

stage. Why the white robes, you ask? 

Tim Delaughter, the lead singer and 

co-ordinator of PS, explains in an 

interview on the Student Direct 

website that the robes express a 

sense of unity. They could have gone 

for uniformity in less attentiongrabbing 

outfits, but the robes have 

provoked some interesting discussion 

The Be$innin$ Stagfes 

of the Polyphonic Spree 

The Polyphonic Spree 

about whether they are making a 

religious statement or not. Some 

references to PS describe them as a 

group of happy-clappy Christians, 

while interviews with Delaughter 

suggest that he sees the music and 

the experience of performing live in 

PS as spiritual in a broader sense. 

Delaughter apparently chose the 

name 'Polyphonic Spree' because it 

summed up the diverse sounds he 

wanted to bring together in the 

music. They have certainly achieved 

this, with instruments ranging from 

harp and tablas to synthesiser and 

French horn. 

The lyrics are 

full of optimism 

(cynics would say nailetyl 

Their album The BeSinnhg Stages 

of... came out in October 2002 and it 

will be interesting to see if it is as 

popular as the live show. A CD 

consisting of ten sections (songs to 

the rest of us), Beginning Stages 

contains a good mix of tracks - 

except for the last one, 'A Long Day', 

which consists of a 35 minute long(!) 

/lilYffrli'ifl' fi,'$,\tr$\\'' l\ 

irritating droning 

noise that makes you get up and 

check that your CD player isn't bust 

or that you're not being pursued by a 

swarm of wasps! 

The repetition of simple lyrics by a 

multitude of voices (in the style of a 

divine mantra) and the intriguing 

mixture of instruments give the 

album a soothing and hypnotic feel. 

The lyrics are full of optimism (cynics 

would say naiVety). Lyrics like 'Hey, 

it's the sun and it makes me want to 

shine... makes me smile' or 'Take 

some time, get away, suicide is a 

shame, soon you'll find your own way, 

hope has come, you are safe' in 'lt's 

the sun', sung by fifteen vocalists 

and accompanied by spontaneous 

celebratory-sounding percussion, 

can't help but make you feel inspired 

and at one with nature! Catchy tunes 

like 'Soldier Girl' imprint themselves 

on your brain and leave you humming 

them for days. 

I thoroughly recommend buying this 

CD if you like to try experimental 

music that's a bit different! Alternatively, 

you could borrow it from a 

friend and copy the tracks you like so 

that you don't have to pay for the 35 

minute long weird track - not that I 

would dream of encouraging students 

to make illegal copies of CDs! I 

Ellie MensinSh 

SCM Co-ordlnatol 

ls it a choit2 ls it some Mormons? 

No, it's the Polyphontc Spree 

in their enormous entireV. 

Not a bunch of religious weirdos, 

apparently. 

26 | 

movement

eviews: film 

srryeet sixteen? 

Ken Loach's latest gritty offering requires a strong stomach - but it's wotth the effort. 

Sr'xteen 

by Ken Loach 

Ken loach's latest film is not 

for the faint-hearted. The story of 

lS-year-old Liam preparing 

against all the odds for the 

release of his ex-heroin addict 

mum Jean from prison does not 

pull any punches. Sometimes 

quite literally. Liam's mum's 

boyfriend Stan and his grandfather 

try to get him to smuggle 

drugs into the prison for Jean to 

sell, and when he refuses, they 

beat him up. Liam wants to help 

his mum get clean and away from 

Stan, and sets his sights on 

buying a caravan for them both to 

live in. But to get it in time for 

Jean's release, he needs to make 

money fast. With his mate 

Pinball, he muscles in on Stan's 

business and starts dealing 

drugs, only to find himself up 

against the local baron. Liam 

starts working for him and at first 

it seems the new life he so 

desperately wants is within easy 

reach, until it becomes clear he 

is being drawn ever deeper into a 

vicious crime world and increasingly 

out of his depth. 

The film is set in Greenock, near 

Glasgow in the shadow of the closeddown 

shipyards, where lives are stifled 

by unemployment, crime, family 

breakdown and lack of opportunity. 

There's an inevitability about Liam's 

decision to Sell drugs - Loach and his 

screenwriter Paul lavefi met many 

kids like him when researching the 

film. The director says: 

'lt's a door into another kind of 

lifestyle ... if you're living in a 

place like that, you don't have a 

snowball's chance in hell of 

affording that lifestyle unless you 

get involved in dealing. For a 16- 

year-old with nothing, it is quite 

attractive.' 

There is an irony in the initial 

success of Liam's drugs 

business. His scheme to get 

locaf pizza delivery boys to 

double up as heroin couriers is 

comically enterprising and a 

pointed inversion of the 

Thatcherite, capitalist forces 

that have crushed his 

community. He is a 

businessman, determined to 

exploit local demand for a 

product, albeit an illegal one, to make 

money. But he is also just a boy - 

when he steals Stan's drugs stash, he 

also pinches his grandfather's false 

teeth in mischievous revenge. This 

prank and others provide welcome 

comic relief from the overall 

downbeat mood of the film, but also 

draw attention to his youth and the 

fact that the responsibility he bears 

for his family is too great for his age. 

Liam is played by Martin Compston, 

a t7-year-old professional footballer in 

the Scottish League who has never 

been in a film before. This is typical of 

Loach and it pays off- Compston plays 

the part with an immediacy and verve 

which makes us care deeply about 

what happens to him even as we are 

shocked in the latter part of the film by 

the choices he makes. This is also 

because they do not always seem like 

conscious choices - Liam is blinkered, 

determined to get what he wants at any 

cost and blind to the effect he is having 

on others. Unable or unwilling to see 

beyond his own situation, he propels 

himself on a collision course with 

disaster. Even so, the end does seem 

rather melodramatic and sentimental, 

thougfr not enough to detract fiom the 

overall impact of the story. 

The sense of progression is very 

strong - perhaps because each scene 

of the film was shot in order. 

Compston comments: 

'We shot it in sequence and it was 

just a great way of working. I've 

just done a W thing and they shot 

the ending first and it just took 

the fun out of it.' 

Loach says he uses simple filming 

techniques deliberately and enjoys 

paring down to the essence of the 

story and the characters: 'The simpler 

you are, the more powerful you are.' 

Take for example the simple juxtaposition 

of two shots - one of the 

smashed-up contents of Liam's 

bedroom strewn across the front lawn 

of his house by Stan and his grandfather, 

followed by a cutaway shot of 

the mountains around Greenock, the 

lake and a rainbow over the town's 

rooftops. The location is centralto the 

film and both the director and screenwriter 

profess great affection for 

Glasgow. Loach says: 

'lt's such a good place to work. 

Everything that's happening in 

Britain, you can see in one form 

or another. The people have spent 

generations struggling and that 

has developed a very tough, funny 

and sharp culture.' 

He makes a feature of the local 

dialect from the outset by putting a 

written statement on screen to say 

that the dialogue will be subtitled for 

the first 15 minutes of the film but 

that after that 'you and Liam are on 

your own'. This is effective on two 

levels. Subtitles help a non-Glaswegian 

audience get accustomed to the 

characters' accent but they also 

highlight the fact that for many 

viewers, Liam's world is foreign 

territory. His story is a real-life story 

of real-life alienation and hopelessness 

and it takes a gritty, political 

director like Loach to tell it. Go and 

be told, but take a strong stomach 

Kate Powell 

with you. I 

Movement odltodal Elroup 

movementl2T

eviews: books 

wild Soose chase? 

A self-confessed liturgy anorak is sorely disappointed..' 

ATellin{, Place 

Joy Mead I Wild Goose Publications 

When A Telling Place arrived in 

the office for review, I leaped on 

it with eaEler anticipation. But 

now, as I sit down to write this 

review, I'm struglglling to explain 

why I don't like it. 

The book is a collection of meditations 

which centre on the women in 

the biblical narratives. The author 

attempts to draw on the experience 

of the biblical women who are on the 

margins of history and telltheir story, 

which has long been ignored. She 

says that the book is 'not a book of 

certainties and answers but of 

explorations and of questions', which 

is the sort of thing we like to hear at 

scM. 

They were women 

who must have 

loved, raged, lusted, 

laughed and relaxed, 

feeling and thinking 

much as I have done, 

but the book did 

not help me 

to relate to them 

One of the stories which inspired the 

author is the story of Jesus and the 

Samaritan woman at the well, which 

has long been one of my favourites. 

The front cover shows a picture of 

some women at a well which, when 

added to the lovely calligraphic titles 

and illustrations, makes the book very 

visually pleasing. lndeed, there are 

many reasons why I thought I would 

like the book: 

. I'm a self-confessed liturgl anorak 

and have quite a collection of 

litur$/ books. 

. I'm inclined to judge a book by its 

cover and this one looks so lovely. 

. l'm a bit of a fan of literature which 

sees biblical stories from the point 

of view of the women in them. 

. I love the stuff Wild Goose publish. 

So I'm left to ask myself why it is, 

when it seems that the book is just 

my kind of thing, that I can't like it. I 

wondered whether it was because I'd 

read too much similar stuff and it was 

like the time of year when you never 

want to see another mince pie as 

you've sickened yourself on them 

over Christmas. 

I looked at the meditations again 

and I realised why it was I didn't like 

them. None of the women felt real to 

me. The author says 'we see how 

emblematic the stories of these bible 

women are - how intimately our own'. 

lronically, that is exactly what I felt 

was missing from the book: a sense 

of identification with the biblical 

women. They were women who must 

have loved, raged, lusted, laughed 

and relaxed, feeling and thinking 

much as I have done, but the book 

did not help me to relate to them. 

The women in the book do things 

which have been stereotyped as 

womanly. They weep for generations 

yet unborn, they await their own 

flowering, they outburst the frames 

described to hold them, they offer 

the sweet womanliness of their free 

flowing hair, and they have lifeblood 

flowing from them. The author likes 

to draw on images of bodiliness and 

blood a little too much for my liking. 

It all feels too much like bad liturgical 

dance. 

The author likes to 

draw on images of 

bodiliness and blood a 

little too much for my 

liking. lt all feels too 

much like bad 

liturgical dance 

I read it aloud to my friend in the 

hope a fresh viewpoint might help 

with the review. We put our finger on 

a problem: who will use this book? I 

couldn't read it aloud with a straight 

face, so that rules it out for corporate 

worship. 'And if you used it for private 

prayer you'd feel like a freak', she 

commented. 

So l'm afraid l'll have to say that if 

you are after some reflections which 

are rooted in reality and still have a 

beautifully poetic quality to them, try 

anything else Wild Goose have 

published, but don't try this. I 

Marie Pattison 

28lmovement

overview: web 

touched by the hand of Ned 

A vidual but vibrant community. 

Ship of Fools 

www.shiooffools.com 

Shrp of Fools: Ned Flanders. He's 

what it's all about. Ned is our 

icon. Ned is our leader, Ned is The 

Man. Ned is also Homer's Godbothering 

nextdoor neiglhbour off 

Ihe Sllmpsons, and according to a 

survey in 2001, the public figure 

most associated with Ghristianity 

on American college campuses. 

Which inspired the editors of Ship 

of Fools (wvuw.shiooffools.com) to 

arrange a very special ni$ht at 

Greenbelt 2OOt, replete with Ned 

lookalikes, sanctified songs, and 

fashion from the House of 

Flanders. lt was so successful 

that they did it again the following 

year. Twice. What kind of 

Ghristian outfit is it that can get 

away with orElanising an event 

celebrating a quite frankly lame 

(and, indeed, yellow) cartoon 

character and get it into the 

national press? 

Shrp of Fools has made a sometimes 

tongue-in-cheek, sometimes passionate 

examination of Christianity its stock-intrade. 

Ori$nally a paper magazine run by 

Simon Jenkins and Steve Goddard 

between L977 and 1983, for the last 4v, 

years Shlp of Fools has had a presence 

on the net. 

The whole ethos of Shrp of Fools is 

tied up in its subtitle, 'The Magazine 

Hedvon 

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O Pu{.tory 

' 6' ,.fur &b.h (e.r n.b) 

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s .t6.tu d.d..rnffid.d 

a) A[ adfi' 

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rb d6dt llfu.d 

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of Christian Unrest'. The Ship, as it's 

affectionately known by its devotees, 

exists to help people make sense of 

the Christian faith - to look at 

Christianity critically and honestly - 

to celebrate the good but to attack 

false religion wherever it's found. I 

think it succeeds in this admirably. 

But then, I'm a contributor to the 

Ship, and I'm biased. 

We have our very own Soul-Saving 

Supersonic Spiritual Celebrity in the 

shape of the Revd Gerald Ambulance, 

and he, with an army of columnists, 

some humorous, some serious, but 

all with offbeat perspectives, 

challenges the preconceptions and 

absurdities of the Christian World. 

ln the Fruitcake Zone you can find 

dozens of links to some of the 

strangest, weirdest, and scariest 

Christian websites out there. And I do 

mean 'out there' - from the Christian 

Naturists' Association through to the 

Christian Guide to Small Arms, and 

the perennial favourite, Rapture 

Ready, where a guy called Todd works 

out the percentage chance of the 

Rapture happening in any given week, 

with an index based on a peculiarly 

right-wing view of world events. 

Gadgets For God shows you exactly 

where you can buy those essential 

WWJD? underpants (with the false fly, 

of course). Urban Myths explodes 

those fictional e-mail forwards we all 

get, while Si$ns and Blunders keeps 

a record of strange Christian notices, 

bumper stickers and typos. 

taa, r.,s 

d kttn*r(d 

at.@2aal1.i3t 

r'de{rdryd

esources 

resources round-up 

Some other publications you may find useful... 

t 

.( 

I 

tuG' 

lrr.nirr( r jtlr ()rrr t l.rrrrlr 

ir;;l! 

rF I 

lr,. 

FAITH 

WORRS 

Jth( wALtts 

e 

t ) 

rt 

I J t 

1 

Faith Without Hostagies 

By Haniet Hanis, SPTCK 

A fresh look at Bible passages relevant to 

Lent and Easter, encouraging thought 

and reflection to link them to the world 

today. lncludes questions for personal 

reflection or group discussion. 87.99 

t; 0845 762 6747 

e: mailorder@sock.org.uk 

Faith Works 

ByJim Wallis, SFCK 

A powerful call by a leading US activist for 

Christians to put their faith into action 

and address issues of poverty and 

injustice. lnspiring stuff. tL2.99 

t: O845 762 6747 

e,' mailorder@sock.orE.uk 

Piltrim Prayer 

Compiled by Jim Cotter, Cairns Publications 

A new collection of prayers by Movement 

columnist Jim Cotter (see page 2L). A 

companion for pilgrimage, with an order 

of prayer for each day of the week. 

Bilingual, in Welsh and English. Hardback 

912; paperback 98 

t: 01766 761 368 

e.' office@cottercairns.co.uk 

Praying with Our Hands 

By Jon M Sweeney, Wild Goose Publications 

A book of reflections with photographs, 

showing how our bodies can give 

meaning to prayer. Covers spiritual 

practices from a broad range of reli$ious 

traditions. A beautiful book for private 

prayer or group worship. t10.99 

t: OL41 3326292 . f: OL4L 332 1090 

w'' wu4&iol!ab99!9,.o0!n 

Who rs My Nei(hbour? 

Churches Together in Britain and lreland 

A report from a delegation to the Middle 

East. Challenges churches to build 

solidarity with Christians in the region, 

and to endorse churches in the Middle 

East's call for lsrael to end the occupation 

of the Palestinian Territories. s5.95 

t;020 7898 1300 ' f;020 7898 1305 

w' www,chbookshoo.co.uk 

have you seen SGM's books? 

I 

si?nificnnt 

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30lmovement 

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A range of publications is available ftom 

SCM, examining Christianity and society 

ftom a radical an$e. lnclusive, aware 

and challen$ng - invaluable resources 

for study, reflection and action, suitable 

for indMduals or groups. 

Titles currently available include: 

Common People - Christian ideas of 

community - currently on special 

offer, f,2.50 including postage! 

God Made Simple - a lively synopsis of 

the questions about God which have 

occupied philosophers and theologians 

Significant Others - a fresh look at 

relationships 

Raging in the Streets - activism and 

ministry in the twenty-first century 

The Dying Game - attitudes to life, 

death and mortality 

The F-word - exploring fundamentalism 

Fleshing out Faith - looking at the 

relationship between Christianity and 

our bodies 

No More Mr Nice Guy - theological, 

personal and political pieces in search 

of a Jesus that bites 

Find out more 

or order books now! 

Ring Ot21, 47t 2404 

or e- mail scm@movement.org. uk 

or write to: 

Student Christian Movement 

University of Birmingham 

Weoley Park Road 

Selly Oak 

Birmingham 

B29 6LL 

or visit www. movement.org. uk/ 

oublications 

q 

(brlttlan

the serpent 

TOO BUSY TO PRAY? 

Then get some earnest 

Christians to do it for you. A 

postcard landed on the 

doormat of my serpently den 

recently, promising that 

Christians from local 

churches would be 

pleased to pray for 

anything I'm concerned 

about if I would just 

return the form to a 

local Prayer Point. 

But do they 

discriminate? Will 

they pray for 

anything? Would 

they put in a word 

for a lowly serpent 

like me? What if the 

fanatic on my street 

sends in a deluge of 

cards praying for a 

plague of 

South 

American tree frogs? 

How irresponsible. 

And does it wort like Nectar 

points? Can I build up 

credit and ask for a 

really big pmyer at 

Christmas? 

I think it's a 

great idea 

that could be 

extended to other 

areas of church activity. You 

could have a Worship Point 

where you hand in cards 

asking someone to speak in 

tongues, or a Prophecy Point 

where you ask someone else 

to do all that troublesome 

frothing at the mouth. You 

could even get fire and 

brimstone called down on 

Methodist Central Hall by 

proxy. 

Everything 

must Eo 

I was 

delithted 

to see that 

all my 

labours 

have paid 

off. Get in 

quick and 

you could 

get some 

perfection 

at rockbottom 

prices. 

I 

t! .[|,,[ 

THE GREAT DEBATE 

Of course, I diligently read all 

the church papers, and it 

seems that everyone wants 

the good Rt 

J 

Revd 

Dr 

Williams 

to endorse 

whatever 

theY 

I 

are 

selling 

these 

days. I'm half 

expecting him to 

turn up on posters 

at the local Tesco's 

advertising cat food. 

But not Remington or Gillette, 

although I imagine he needs 

something to keep that fine 

prophetic facial fungus in 

check. 

ln the run-up to Christmas 

we will, no doubt, be 

hearing the future 

Archbishop's opinion on 

Brussels sprouts. And 

evangelical groups will protest 

at the revelation that he has 

previously commended the 

i 

lr 

ET 

eating of sprouts, which are 

of course an abomination in 

the eyes of the Lord. Then 

there'll have to be a forum on 

vegetation in the church, with 

yet more 'integrities' and 

special bishops catering for 

the break-away broccoli 

brigade. 

HOW WOULD JESUS HANG? 

I was horrified beyond words 

to discover that young 

evangelicals can now 

get some assistance 

with mortifying their 

flesh, in the form of 

'What Would Jesus 

Do?' boxer shorts. 

What's a serpent to 

do? Now young 

nubile types are 

protected from temptation 

by their very undenruear. 

You can picture the 

scene. The young 

Christian couple slips 

from the straight and 

narrow, straying from 

the righteous path of 

keeping one foot on 

the floor and 

touching 

nothing 

above the 

knees or 

below 

the 

neck. Just 

as they slip 

into 

clutches 

my 

and 

^-. 

prepare to make the 

beast with two backs, they 

look down and see those 

words emblazoned in holy 

letters across their 

waistband, and see the error 

of their ways. 

It's not right. And moreover, I 

have it on good authority that 

Our Lord favoured a more 

loincloth-based garment in 

the undenvear department. 

EMERGENCY SERVICES 

The firefighters dispute may 

have ended by the time you 

read this, but you'll soon 

see that it's all part of a 

great plot, to which I myself 

am a party, and Andy 

Gilchrist's promise to bring 

down New Labour is but the 

tip of the iceberg. We've 

already forced the government 

to use Green 

Goddesses - sounds pretty 

pagan to me. And of 

course, Hell doesn't have 

too much call for fire 

protection, so we're sitting 

pretty. Fear a Satanic plot? 

Dial 666. 

A more responsible citizen 

than myself might also point 

out that their behaviour is 

somewhat thoughtless. 

Fancy lighting whacking 

great braziers all around the 

country during a firefighters' 

strike! 

STOP THE STATISTICS 

The Stop the War coalition is 

planning another mass 

protest in February about 

Dubya's antics. ln keeping 

with statistics for previous 

such events, the organisers 

have confidently predicted 

that, oh, zillions of protesters 

will turn up, while the police 

expect two men and a very 

small poodle. 

AND FINALLY... 

You couldn't make it up. 

The Vatican believes that 

the Russian Orthodox 

Church is running a 

'despicable operation' to 

ruin its reputation, 

o 

by accusing 

Franciscan monks 

of setting up a 

brothel in 

Moscow. 

A Russian 

newspaper 

featured 

photos of a 

nun in a habit 

o 31i,",'n'?jil 

oo 

li::*iffi:. ,o 

exptatn now you 

could see the 

undies beneath the habit), 

and claimed that a 

monastery turned out to be 

a 'bordello'.

I 

\ 

ff 

Name: 

Cbri$'nn 

tr Please send me further information about joining the Student 

Ghristian Movement, and tell me where my local group is. 

U I would like to subscribe Io Movement magazine. I enclose a cheque, 

payable to SCM, to the value of f,,7.00 for my first three issues. 

Address: 

Telephone number: 

E-mail address: 

University or college (if applicable): 

Postcode: 

Post to: Student Ghristian Movement, University of Birmingham, 

Weoley Park Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham 829 6LL 

t: OL21, 471-2404 | e; scm@movement.org.uk I w' www.movement.org.uk

Movement 113

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