Movement 102

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areas has shown me many a youth project' luncheon club, advice centre or homeless project founded, funded or run bY evangelicals. During late 1997 I took sabbatical leave from my post as vicar in a Nottingham UPA church to look at what I perceived to be the growing social conscience of charismatic evangelicals. Two particular churches caught my attention. The first was lchthus Christian Fellowship, stretched across South London - led by Roger Forster, and home for musician Graham Kendrick. The second was Revelation Christian Fellowship on the South Coast, led by Roger Ellis, and loosely connected to the Pioneer network of Gerald Coates. ln both these churches you can see a well developed and holistic Christian Gospel being both proclaimed and lived. ln preaching, worship, newsletters etc there is regular appearance of evangelism alongside various forms of social action' The attempts of both fellowships to be 'salt and light' in their local communities has led to a variety of projects (and failures too!) lchthus are involved in, for example, nurseries for low-income families, projects for the young homeless, and Grandma's, a service for children affected by HIV/Aids. Notable is their involvement in PECAN' an ecumenical project for the long term unemployed. Even the local Southwark Council recognises its success in reaching Theologica and training vulnerable and isolated people - PECAN have a recruitingforce who visit some 20 000 homes in Peckham each year. The Guardian ran a double page spread on the project, recognising'the scepticism that the mixture of evangelical Christianity and social action can bring' but also the care not to prose,ytise, and the 'biblical sense of selfesteem' that was being given to people. ln Revelation Christian Fellowship one Woutd evangeticats stitt rather hand out HaPPY Meals with a free tract hidden inside? aim is to prevent these issues being seen as the prerogative of 'The Social Activists" Each of the fellowship's cell groups is encouraged to be involved, and has a social action representative. At the time that I visited, they were particularly working to encourage every member's involvement in the local communities where they live, in their professional careers, or as members of voluntary groups such as neighbourhood watch, parents and school groups. The making of connections between your daily work, your neighbourhood and your faith is a long overdue emphasis that could not be taken of by many churches. Clare Elkington, the co-ordinator of the church's communitY develoPment programme, holds regular Saturday morning gatherings for those involved in various The turnin$ point in evan$elical theological circles came during the mid seventies. A major internitional conference of evangelicals in 1974 agireed that'evangelism and sociepolitical involvement are part of our christian duty'(part of the Lausanne Covenant). Some theological wran$lin$ went on for several years, but a new consensus emerged. Thls was an aeceptance that serving the world had to be an equal partner in missiin with preachlng indivldual conversion. MaJor evangelical figures such as Join Stott threw their welght behind this. Evan$elical youth work in the UK also played its part in the redlscoveiy of a social conscience, as people wrestled with why lt seemed much harder to 'convert' kids from Gouncil estates and the inner cltles' Dear old Scripture Union spawned an urban guerrilla wing with a stlong heart for the issues of lustice (Frontier Vouth Trust), and the late Jim Punton and Bisttop Davld Sheppard influenced a whole generation of evangelicals. Thls fed stron$y lnto the early hlstory of the Greenbelt Festival, whose seminar programme soon became the place where thlnklng radical evangelicals found a home. TwJmajor theological contributions in the past fifteen years have come from Graham Criy,tormer Greenbelt chairman and now Principal of Ridley Hall, CambridEle' an.d Rogier iorster leader of the lar$e and radical lchthus Christian Fellowship whlch stretches across South London. Both provided key inputfrom the UK at internatlonal conferences on.charlsmatic renewal and social actlon' Ro$er Forster talks of Words' Works and Woniers (delightful triple alliteration!) This emphasises three overlapping facets of mission: words is proclaiming the gospel, works is practlcal service - incarnational and loving; wonders is recovering a New Testament emphasis on healing' signs and wonders. 'lt is unfortunate that at tines in church history these three have se-parated and set against one another'. Graham Cray draws togethq two sometlmes opposing evangelical uses of the word 'Kin$dom' flom the New Testament, suggesting that the Klngdom is a holistic term covering both individual and social transformation' There is hardly room to do justice to the internatlonal writlngs by evan$elicals on social Justice, but Ronatd Sider ('Rich Chlistians in an AEe of Hunger') and Jim Wallls (,The iadical Evangelical' and 'The Soul of Polltics') have made huge contributlons. The journal Transformition is well worth a read if you have access to a theolo$cal library; and Thirel way is an excellent monthly magazine for any thinking christlan, providing a broad-based, open and intellectually stimulating evangelical lesponse to society and culture. I Heroes movement 10 forms of community service, whether parttime, paid, or voluntary. So youth workers, community volunteers, social workers etc who once felt themselves on the fringes of the fellowship (often because of working patterns) are now affirmed and supported. Revelation have a well-develoPed 'Community Referral Programme', known by local agencies as a reference point for all sorts of assistance - shopping for the housebound, decorating, desperate needs for furniture etc. Working with a wider remit is CRED, a campaigning group committed to education and challenge on the global issues of poverty and injustice. Txenr AnE FURTHER Slolls llllt charismatic evangelicals are beginning to take the initiative as social activists. ln Nottingham there is a growing social action network called Nottingham Community Action Network. lts home? The large Pentecostal church in town, and their community worker. Nationally, Oasis trust and its director Steve Chalke are the model which many young evangelicals look to for imaginative blends of evangelism and social action. Where evan$elicals are not involved in social action - or are involved but still hoping that conversions will be the main fruit - | think the problem is more to do with the middle class captivity of much of the church in this country, evangelical or not. We're often too comfortable to want to get involved in the pain of the world. You have to open yourself up to experience the suffering of the world before you get fired up for this sort of service, and evangelicals have not been the only couch potatoes. My personal belief is that an openness to learn from other parts of the world, especially the poorest, and from other spiritual traditions' can produce a new conversion in Christians from all traditions that could mirror what is happening in evangelicalism. This is not a success story: perhaps that why it is not yet proclaimed loudly by evangelical leaders who are usually swift to trumpet'success'. lt is a Personal observation of change. The next step will be to develop a spirituality that resources those in the front line of social action, and although I see the seeds of that' I think no one tradition of spirituality has all the answers. ,{O- John Bentham is Anglican Chaplain at the University of Nottingham, and formally a Vicar in Nottingham's inner city' He was involved in Greenbelt's seminar programme for some years, and now runs the seminar programme for the Soul Survivor youth festival. i
Itw HuoH WHrreroRo sAPREtOXmOili f! rsnouro nave reao rne srgns. I I Arriving to survey the debris of a friend's broken Big Romance, I tripped over the last remnants of a beautiful friendship - lying on the bedroom floor was - a Banana Republic carrier bag containing a The present EU arrangement gives consumers a choic€, in this case between big, tasteless, potiticatty-incorrect bananas or smatt, sweet, right-on bananas. Take your pick. gorgeous and ever-setrendy cash mere sweater. Uncle Sigmund tells me (and for once I believe him) that dear departed loverboy had probably abandoned it accidentallyon-purpose as a deposit, or maybe a relic, in his rush for the relational equivalent of the emergency exit. But I won't delve deeper into the complex nuances of sexual etiquette among gay men in Manhattan and their impenetrable vanities. ln any case, cashmere and Banana republics have taken{n wider connotations in recent weeks. Perhaps I didn't see this particular break-up coming, but I certainly couldn't have predicted the demise of the Special Relationship between the UK and the USA over these same unassuming commodities - bananas and cashmere. A few years back a number of our most respected fair trade and international development organisations sta rted informing us that most of the bananas on our supermarket shelves were produced under the most appaling conditions, by a grossly underpaid and exploited workforce suffering dreadful medical side-effects from Banana drama dangerous pesticides sprayed on the fruit. Now, I'm quite partial to mashed banana sandwiches, banana muffins,banana milk shakes and, best of all, bananas carmelised in butter and sugar and served hot with icecream. Mmm. So, understandably, I was perturbed at the news and very relieved to discover that the smaller, sweeter, curvier bananas from the Winward lsles were produced under slightly less adverse conditions which saw a fairer portion of the profits returned to the producers themselves. Ever since then I have satisfied my banana cravings with a cleanish conscience. But what has all this to do with the present secalled 'banana war'? Basically, the European Union has had its fingers rapped by the World Trade Organisation for operating a preferential import regime for bananas from certain former European colonies (presumably in a belated attempt to atone for centuries of colonialism). This means, for example, that small independent producers in the Winward lsles, can compete against the might ofthe USowned banana corporations of Central America who pay their workers a pittance and cream the profits. The present EU arrangement gives certain producers in'developing' countries preferential access to European markets, and also gives European consumers a choice, in this case between big, tasteless, politica I ly-i ncorrect ba nanas or small, sweet, right-on bananas. Take your pick. But according to the WTO, this arrangement is illegal; it contravenes the sacred mantra of free trade. Europe has movement 11 tried to get round the problem - that, incidentally, is what the 'Europe's bent bananas'fuss a few years ago was all about - but the EU is under increasing pressure to comply with international free-trade agreements. Following the devastation in Central America caused by Hurricane Mitch, the US banana companies have seen their profits go through the floor and have turned up the heat on the WTO and the US Government to force a European climbdown. Unfortunately, the cashmere producers in the Scottish Borders have become unlikely and innocent pawns in this international wrangle. The US has imposed ridiculous tariffs on various European products in retaliation for the EU banana policy and cashmere is one of those prod ucts ta rgeted The already fragile Borders' textile industry will simply not survive a long-term embargo. .Jobs will be lost and long-established indigenous companies face ruin. What lfail to understand and refuse to accept is why the dogma of free-trade is allowed to over-rule all other ethical and historical considerations in our contemporary economic and political climate? Surely there is an urgent need for an new ethic of investment in international trade so that cashmere producers in the Borders and banana producers in St. Lucia alike can produce and exchange goods fairly without compromising basic health, environmental and living standards. ls that really too much to demand? But back to the Banana Republic bag on the bedroom floor. lfailed to warn my pal that his romance was heading for the rocks, but now I can predict with confidence that cashmere - and those wearing it - will be out of fashion in New York next year. Accordingly, I have advised my friend to forge new alliances with those of greater political, as well as sartorial, sophistication. I am consoling him with the humble but astute reflection that in one swift genetic modification, bananas could all too easily become sour grapes.
Page 1 and 2: _ "s/
Page 3 and 4: Morag Foster explains her retuctanc
Page 5 and 6: Go away! l: SClvt's annual retreat
Page 7 and 8: 7 I $l l;,ml:n; RurH Hnnvrv WERE TW
Page 9 and 10: course, will mean radically rethink
Page 11: SCMer certainly doesn't want to. An
Page 15 and 16: \rt .,: ...) ' l:,f ,l . '1. l The
Page 17 and 18: trade Eo wHAT oro I nlo BEHtltD mE
Page 19 and 20: Iternatlue ut o rl d's The weakness
Page 21 and 22: I ,, ', "Friends, every day do some
Page 23 and 24: Malcolm Brown speaks to Simon Hughe
Page 25 and 26: I ,l A comedy about the Hotocaust?
Page 27 and 28: '.{ijiffiE Wates is the new Manches
Page 29 and 30: Txr Nw RurcroH or Ltrr tru EvERvunY
Page 31 and 32: CC ne of the best ways f knout to e

Movement 102

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