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"I was told to think havitrg a
dishwasher was the best thinq in
the world...rrntil I found SCM"
a not-quite-true story
ere I was, your typical 1960's Home Improvements Catalogue
model, thinking I had all I could want and then I joined SCM,
and discovered a place where I could ask questions and debate
issues, and explore my beliefs in a community that was totally open-minded'
+,l
Now I'm enjoying all the friendships I have, and I'm too busy
discussing the relationship of Hegel to the minor prophets,
reading Mouentent and the many resources on subjects ranging
from fuudamentalism to death, and going to Taiz6 lVorships
andJubilee 2000 demos to want to returu to the shallow,
exploited lifestyle Western advertising wanted me to have. Now
if you'll excuse nte, I'nt off to go change the world.
r iI
f-"''
t,
Ask Ouestions . Share lnsights o Make Friends . Work For Change
Join the Student Christian Movement
For further information, write SCM, Westhill College, Selly Oak Birmingham 829 6LL
0121 471 2404 scm@charis.co.uk
http : //www. charis. co. u k/SCM
JOIN US FOR THE NEXT
1OO ISSUES
For almost three decades, Movemenf has tackled
issues of theology, politics, the arts and popular
culture in a lively, accessible manner. Topical and
thoroughly eclectic, Movemenf is on the cutting
edge, with incisive commentary by the next
generation of Christian thinkers.
Movemenf is now available by subscription for f 15 for
2 years. To subscribe, send a cheque (payable to SCM)
to Movement subscriptions, c/o SCM, Westhill College,
Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6LL

Wow! One hundred issues and almost three decades of continuous publication. Not bad for a
student magazine. craeme Burk gets us in a party mood...
Confessions Of A
Movement Fan
I promise-this is the only article
I you'll get about our lOOth issue in
tf'u body of the magazine proper.
I Honest and truly. We (the editorial
"we", that is) wanted to keep the
retrospecting to the special section in
the middle and devote the slightlyreduced
contents of the "regular" issue
to continuing what the magazine has
done well for 26 years. Still, we
thought we'd break this rule-and the
longstanding rule against having an
editorial in Movement-just this once.
First, a personal confession: l've
always been something of a fan of
Movement. I became hooked on the
magazine the first time I read it as a
fledgling SCMer in Canada at the start
of this decade. I loved the intelligent
commentary on Christianity and political
issues, the gentle sense of (British)
humour that pervaded everything, the
depth of analysis and the clarity of prose.
At the time I was editing the
Canadian SCM's magazine, All Things
New and I decided I wanted to make it
"more like Movement". And so I learned
desktop publishing, I regularly filched
ideas and graphics, and I started
corresponding with a succession of
editors, eventually writing for the
magazine and co-proucing a resource by
both SCMs, (Raging ln The Streetswhich
is still available from SCM).
I was thrilled when, last year, I was
asked to ediL Movement. lt was like
getting the call to join a premiership
division team. Unfortunately, due to the
exigencies of lifb and the Home Office,
l've only able to do it for a year. But I'm
proud of the three per cent of the first
10O issues I got to do. And l've learned,
from both editing the magazine and
having the dubious honour of reading
the full, unabridged "canon" for this
issue, that we (the Movement-supporting
"we") have so much to be proud of.
It's not often that a magazine makes it
to its 100th issue; even less often that a
student magazine lasts over a quarter of a
century-even less a student magazine
for an organisation that has been through
as many changes as SCM. But
Movement has managed to achieve this,
and that achievement should be lauded.
The saying is true-only by comprehending
where we have come from will
we understand where we are headed.
Movement has been, over the past 26
years, a newsletter. a
radical theological
magazine, a current
affairs journal, an inhouse
student
publication, an arts
magazine and,
sometimes, all of
the above! While
the manner of
student involvement
has
changed,
Movement has
always provided
a space for
students
-
reflecting the
journeys of a
group of
students who
have evolved
and changed
over what
has been
perhaps the most significant
three decades in this century. lt has
shown how they have reflected on the
world around them, and the Christianity
they believe in.
Of course l'm a fan of Movement.
Most editors are.(Given the limited
scope for remuneration, we have to do
it because we love the magazine!) And I
know from my conversations (and from
SCM's recent survey of readers) that
many of you, the readers, are fans of
Movement as well. You care about this
magazine and have supported it through
thick and thin. And this issue is as
much a celebration of your support for
the magazine over the years as it is for
the magazine itself .
Movement has survived two serious
threats on its continued existence, but
movcfncnt 1
it may not always be this way. As
budgetary resources recede, projects like
Movement -which technically constitute
a "loss" in SCM's budget (as most
evangelism tends to)-will become
threatened again. The SCM is working
hard to prevent that from happening, by
finding new ways to distribute Movement
among its primary readership, students,
and asking alumnae and
friends who
enjoy reading
the magazine
FIII to subscribe
to it. You, as
readers, can do
your part by
helping us build
effective distribution
networks
for the magazine,
and by continuing
to give us
feedback-as you
always haveabout
how you
feel about
Movement.
Movement has
long been a symbol of
SCM at its finest. lt is
perhaps one of the
best publications
produced by an SCM
worldwide. Movement's ability to inspire
loyalty from people like me-who live
thousands of miles away from Britain-and
from those of you who have had it as a
regular part of your university career (and
onwards), is proof of Movement's value as
a talking point on issues, and as a space
to question beliefs, values and so-called
cultural norms in an open-minded way.
I hope people will indulge us if we
engage a bit of a party in print. lt's likely
the only opportunity we'll use until the
200th issue which. God willing, will
come out in 2Q32. l'm looking forward to
it already; but then again, l'm a fan. fil
Graeme Burk has been editor of
Movement for 1998.

.:
movefnent
no 100
Autumn 1998
movement is the termly
magazine of the
Student Christian
Movement, distributed
free of charge to members
and dedicated to
an open-minded exploration
of Christianity
new editorial address
22 Dowanside Road
Hillhead
Glasgow G12 gDA
0141 334 7169
e-mail: pending
SCM central office
Westhill College
'l
4/15 Weoley Park Rd
Selly Oak
Birmingham 829 6LL
tel: 0121 471 2404
fax: 01 21 414 1251
SCM@charis. co.uk
editor
Graeme Burk
editor {as of Septi98)
Tim Woodcock
editorial assistant
Carrie O'Grady
editorial board
Tim Woodcock
Kate Wilson
Carolyn Clayton
Stephen Matthews
disclaimer
The views expressed in
movement are those of
the particular author
and should not be taken
to be the policy of the
Student Christian
Movement
. SCM staff
Coordinator
Carolyn Clay.ton
Project Worker - Groups
Craig Cooling
Project Worker -
M em b ersh ip Danelopm e nt
Stephen Matthews
membership fees
f 15 (waged)
f 10 (unwaged/students)
next copydate
15 November 1998
tssN 0306-980x
Deviance Rules OKI
SCM Annual Conference to explore issues of displacement and deviance
or
Deviant? - A
"Displaced
Normal Way of
Life" is this year's SCM
Annual Conference.
which will be held 20-22
November in Leeds.
The conference will
look at perspectives on
displacement and the
deviance with which it is
often associated. We will be
looking at strategies for coping
with unsought displacement
and ask how far what others
see as deviance is simply an
expression of ourselves as
who we are.
The weekend will be a
combination of
speakers and studentled
workshops. The
speakers will include
the Rev Richard Kircker
(General Secretary of
the Lesbian and Gay
Christian Movement)
and Richard Burden MP
(for Birmingham
Northfield), who will
speak on Arab/lsraeli relations
For further information
contact Craig Cooling at SCM
on 0'121 471 2404.
Changes Afoot In Movement
welcome to wider-vision..
I-l
ecently a survey regarding Movement was
L(commissioned by SCM. Many thanks to
I lthose who took part.
One of the results of the survey is to
produce the newsletter Wider-Visron termly for
all SCM Friends, Senior Friends and Supporters
of SCM. This newsletter will be sent in place of
the complementary copies of Movement
Wider-Vision will report on the recent SCM
conferences, groups, retreats and other events.
There will also be a cloumn that will visit
moments in SCM's history, and information
concerning the different ways of supporting
SCM. Wider-Vision aims to complement
Movement and provide opportunities for you to
involved in future activities in SCM
Movement will now be available by subscription
for Friends, Senior Friends and Supporters.
A two year subscription is f 15. For further
information please see the inside front cover.
...and Welcome to Tim!
I t's all change in the Movemenf editorial office
tinOeeO the office itself is moving againl)
I Graeme Burk, who edited the magazine for
1998 is returning to Canada, having completed
his two-year Visa in the UK.
Taking over Movemenf is Tim Woodcock, a
name known to many readers for his incisive
reviews in Movement (including one on page 14
of this issue!). Tim is the editor of the WSCF
European Regional Magazine. Moziak, and will
be editing Movement from Glasgow. where he
recently graduated from university.
We asked Tim if he would do the "Ouickies"
we give to our interview subjects, and he
furnished us with this list:
What is your favourite possession? Do dogs
count?
What are you reading at the moment? Cause
Celeb - Helen Fielding's first novel; lots of
books on DTP; l'm laking Don Quixote travelling
with me-whether or not I finish it is another
matter.
What's your favourite film/play? Casablanca
(for the mythology as much
as the film itselll; King Lear
How do you relax? Walking
aimlessly around a city...or.
if l'm at my folks', in the
woods with the dog.
What's your favourite
journey?
To my bed after a long day.
What do you most like
about yourself? Bursts of creativity
What do you most dislike about yourself? Not
expressing myself
-
keeping it all in
What's your favourite word?
Serendipity
lf you could be someone else who would you
be? Mark Twain
When did you last cry? ln the middle of exams
when it was all getting a bit much?
What are you scared of? Getting stuck in a rut.
What do you never miss on TV? I can never
remember what day anything is on.
What music do you listen to most? Very little
contemporary stuff excites me-but I adore
Kenicke, The Delgados and Belle and Sebastian.
Norman Cook has a Midas touch. However, to
answer the question, if I'm working it's usually
something funky or jazzy.
What pet hates do you have?
A shirt and tie worn with jeans; people who
only ever listen to one radio station
What would your motto lor living be? There's a
marvellous one Alasdair Gray uses: "Work as if
you were in the early days of a better nation"
PLEASE NOTE: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE
MOVEMENT EDITORIAL ADDRESS HAS
CHANGED TO THAT WHICH APPEARS ABOVE.
movgfnent 2
tl

a
Kirche Uberfiilltl
Alan Yearsley gives us a flavour of the Kirchentag-a biennial Church assembly in cermanV which is happening
again next summer
rFowards the end of last
I lun" I attendecl the
I Kirchentag. Literally
translated this means church
assembly or congress, and it
is a large event held every
two years in a different major
German city. This time the
venue was Leipzig, which
made it the first pan-German
Kirchentag to be held in
eastern Germany since the
re-unification of 1 990.
The Kirchentag organisation
is independent of, but
supported by, the German
Lutheran church, and aims to
link the Christian faith to
aspects of the modern-day
world. Although it is
nominally a Protestant organisation,
the Kirchentag has
become an ecumenical event
which many Catholics attend
as well. Each Kirchentag is
guided by a different theme,
taken from a Bible text. This
time the theme was "Auf
dem Weg der Gerechtigkeit
ist Leben" (Along the way of
justice there is life" Proverbs
12:281 Hence one of the
aims of this Kirchentag was
to look at ways of achieving
justice in today's world. This
was particularly appropriate
given the injustices of
unemployment and poverty
suffered by many people in
the former East Germany and
all over eastern Europe since
the collapse of communism.
Over 1OO,O00 people
attend the Kirchentag, and
this generally includes a
few hundred from Britain.
The participants are
accommodated with families
and in school buildings all
over the host city and the
surrounding area. All manner
of events are organised
during the four days,
including Bible studies,
lectures, workshops,
concerts, theatrical shows,
etc. These are held in a
variety of venues. You receive
a detailed programme book
and have to decide for
yourself what to go to. lt
often pays to arrive at the
venue at least an hour
beforehand, or you may be
turned away by a steward
holding up a sign saying
"Kirche Uberfrlllt" (Church full)l
lmportant too is the
"Market of Possibilities".This
consists of three or four vast
exhibition halls full of
information stands from
church, political, environmental
and Third World
organisations wishing to
promote their cause. Any
person or organisation is
welcome to hold an event at
the Kirchentag or to set up
stall in the Market of
Possibilities provided that
they fit in with the theme.
This means that the
Kirchentag is largely an event
organised from below rather
than from above, and paves
the way for "alternative"
viewpoints to be aired. One
day I saw a banner from a
German vegetarian organisation
outside one of the
churches in central Leipzig.
which read "Das 5. Gebot:
Du sollst nicht tciten: Weder
Mensch noch Tier." ("The Sth
commandment: Thou shalt
not kill: Neither person nor
animal.") My favourite event
at the previous Kirchentag in
Hamburg in 1995 was a
march and rally for "gteener"
forms of transport.
One evening there was a
special communion service to
celebrate the "Meissen
Agreement" which enables
clergy of the German
Lutheran church to serve in
the Anglican church, and
vice versa.The highest point
of the Kirchentag, however,
is the closing service in the
stadium on the last day. At
this gathering the crowds
cheer the preacher like
football fans, and the service
booklets are waved from side
to side during the hymns.
The closing service is thus
something of a cross
between a church service, a
football match, and the last
night of the Proms! Shortly
before the end, the venue of
the next Kirchentag is
announced.
The next Kirchentag will
be held in Stuttgart, southwest
Germany, from 16th to
2Oth June 1 999, and
preparations are already
starting to be made for it. For
f irst-year undergraduates, the
dates may well co-incide with
exams, but for those in their
second or final year they
should be fine, barring 'vivas'.
A fairly good knowledge
of German would be an
advantage, but not essential,
since a few of the events are
conducted in English. and
personal interpreters are
always available for hire from
the lnternational Visitors'
Centre.
lnterested? Then contact
Mrs Shiela Brain, British
Kirchentag Committee, 1B
Friend Street, London EC1V.
Be sure to do this by early
1999 in order to register by
the mid-March deadline. You
can look up the Kirchentag
website on http://www.
kirchentag.de
SGl'lers Enjoy Summer Retreat
"Just where is this place exactly?'
was the question on the minds of 2O
brave SCMers who disappeared last
June into a part of the world known
by some as "The West Country
liiangle" and by others as "The middle
of nowhere somewhere between
Frome and Bath".
Which was just fine for the participants,
because scenic Downside
Abbey provided just the right bucholic
touch for a group of students who
wanted to chill out after exams.
Activities, accordingly, were light and
included a round of "Ulitimate" frisbee,
lots of walks, impromptu worships,
talking with friends and just a wee bit
of imbibing. All in all, a very enjoyable
time. Next year's retreat will be in
early June. Book early!
movemcnt 3

))
For many young people, volunteering is directlv linked with the image of being middle class
and middle aged. christina Hyland looks at wavs of getting bevond this "Victorian" vision
Volunteeringts lmage Problem
hen you think of a
volunteer, what
image comes to
mind? One of the most
widely used definitions of
volunteering is "the investment
of time and energy,
without financial gain and
for the benefit of others in
the community" which could
encompass all sorts of activities
and involvementranging
from action for social
change to peer education;
from self help grouPs to
traditional fund raising activities.
However, the PoPulist
image of a volunteer is still
derived from its Victorian
roots, leading to associations
with the apparentlY
"privileged" helping the
"needy". This is an image
which has varying degrees of
relevance for different
communities but which is
particularly Euro-centric.
Research undertaken bY
Birmingham Volunteer Bureau
suggests that for manY
young peoPle, volunteering is
directly linked with the
image of a middle class,
middle age, white woman
who works in a charitY
shop or in a caring role.
Not surprisinglY. some
young people would
therefore ask what
relevance volunteering
has for them. lnterestinglY,
the research also showed
that many of those asking
the question werg indeed
volunteers themselves- but
they were reluctant to take
on that identitY. Preferring to
be seen as "helPing out" or
"getting involved".
ln recent years there has
been much debate about
how, or if, volunteering can
play a part in suPPorting
young people in to greater
participation and involvement
in their local communities.
Political agendas seem to
focus on develoPment of
citizenship, enhancing social
responsibility or creating
greater community spirit'
Against this backdroP, there
have been recent headlines
in the media proclaiming that
young people are not
interested in getting
involved-even going so far
as to say-as a result of a
national surveY Published at
the beginning of 1998- that
volunteering by young PeoPle
is "collapsing".
lf the definition of
volunteering is limited to that
of the stereotyped activitY,
then it is hardly surPrising
that statistics might indicate
less involvement, but what
would the Picture be if we
dared to
broaden our
def inition?
What
about
activities
such as
peer
education initiatives. environmental
projects, communitY
action grouPs, Performing
arts, sporting events, global
development initiatives and
much more. Embracing the
involvement of Young PeoPle
in these activities would
provide real evidence to
challenge claims of anY
"collapse".
Undeniably, Young PeoPle
do face barriers to involvement
in voluntarY activity,
not least of which is the
outdated image. Young
people in Birmingham identified
increasing demands on
their time as a serious Point
to consider- ParticularlY
true amongst students who
face longer assessment
periods and the need to earn
money to survive each
semester. A common theme
was also the attitudes of
others (sPecificallY
in more
traditional
settings) with
judgements
being made
about
young
imnage
movelnent 4
people purelY on the basis of
their age rather than abilitY and
commitment -examPles
included being Put in to
undemanding roles with little
challenge or reward-whilst
access to information about
what opportunities are available
seemed to be a real issue
However, these barriers
can be overcome if we
commit to an aPProach
which engages Young
people, and are PrePared to
redefine the long held view
of volunteering. lf we could
design an image of
volunteering which was
based on inclusiveness,
accessibility, relevance and
even enjoyment what would
the implications be? lf we
could acknowledge that
volunteering not onlY
benefits the wider
community, but also that
valid motivations include
benefits to the individual,
would we begin to shift the
emphasis away from the
Victorian image? Volunteering
covers a range of different
activities, in different
settings. and Presents an
array of opportunities for
personal and career develoPment.
and to have fun. lts a
way to get involved in local
activities and have a saY in
what"s going on. At its best
it can be a real force for
social change. The Possibilities
are endless.
I would suggest that
despite the barriers. there is
a lot of volunteering
undertaken bY Young PeoPle'
but that it is largelY
"invisible" (and therefore
often undervalued) because
it does not necessarilY fit in
to the traditional and widelY
accepted model. A
volunteer? lt could be You!@
Christina Hyland works with
the Birmingham Volunteer
Bureau

We recently spoke with four people who have either left or drifted away from the Church and
asked them to tell their stories of how they came to leave the church-and how thev've
thought about spirituality since that time.
Stories Ol
Leaving Home
STEPHEN'S STORY
was born into the Church, as it
were- my family were quite
involved. I was baptised into the
Catholic Church and when I was old
enough, I became an Altar Server and
stayed long enough to become head Altar
Server. My mum was the person who ran
the confirmation programmg and I was
confirmed with 13 other people.
During that confirmation programme,
we visited a youth centre in Derbyshire
which was attached to the diocese. My
mum decided she was going to carry on
with this group of young people who
were involved in this youth club, so I
stayed attached to it, and got involved at
a diocesan level, and then a national level
representing young people. At the same
time, I was also invited by the Parish
Priest to become a Minister of the Holy
Communion, so I did that for a while.
Through my youth contacts, I
became involved in a lay community
and on a practical level it meant I
prayed every day and said the Rosary,
and went to Mass more than once a
week. I even considered becoming a
priest at one point.
The key influence in being involved
in the Church was my mum, and the
relationship I had with her. When I moved
to university, that was therefore more
distant. I was stridying theology and I
became introduced to different ways of
thinking than just the Catholic religion. I
learned to understand the stories and the
way religion is put together-and the
difference between religion, practice and
a way of faith.
I went back home to my parish
Church I had grown up in and I saw
more political bickering and power
struggles in that church than any socalled
community of God, and so that
disillusioned me- that was the key
thing for me to decide it wasn't for me.
I opted out of going to Church after
my first year. I was still involved in a
college group. which was similar to an
SCM group, but
there came a
point during
that term
where I
decided
praying
wasn't for
me as well.
We were all
taught to
pray to
this God,
but in
actual
fact it
didn't
feel
like a
relationship at all. That was
another point along the way where
I thought 'hang on, what are all
these stories about?' You've got
to be faithful to yourself before
you can be faithful to anybody
else, let alone to a God
who doesn't
show himself
particularly much.
ln terms of my own spirituality,
perhaps I could explain it this way
went to Dillon's the other day and
looked in their religion section and they
had a witchcraft section and a new age
movsmgnt 5
section. I was looking through all these
books because I have maintained an
interest in spirituality. And I was looking
through them and I thought'l don't want
to pick up a whole load of new rituals
that I have to practice.'
As far as I
see it, if
you can
be truthful
to yourself,
that's far
simpler than
taking on a
whole load
of rituals. lt
means
downshifting a
lot of things in
your life and a
lot of your way
of thinking. ln
terms of relationships
it means
being able to say
what you mean
instead of hiding
things that get all
muddled. lt's more, I
guess a sense of
purity-that's what I
see spirituality being.
I would go back
though. I have in fact
been back to Church a
few times recently. lt's
a totally different
situation though. When I
go back, it's as though I
go back almost as a
voyeur-l stand at the
back and watch. And it's
nice to watch-it's attractively
done, there's lots of
pretty pictures but it's the meaning of itas
if every word has meaning-and I
know more of what every word is
supposed to mean than a lot of people.

I don't actually think that's the kind
of community I want to be part of . But I
could see someday finding a community
I do want to be a Part of, and if that
happens to be a Church then so be it.
TOM'S STORY
was brought uP in a Roman Catholic
background. I had quite an oPenminded
upbringing. MY familY was
quite laid back about it-l don't
have Catholic Guilt or anything. I used
to go to Church on SundaY and serve.
I don't really think I actually left
anything-it was more an 'opening up'
to everything else. l've not closed
myself to Christianity, but l've been
through a broadening. I don't feel
Christianity is the only way, as it were.
There were certain events that led to
this, but it's mostly confined to a sixmonth
period when I was in mY earlY
twenties when I made huge leaps in my
ideas personally, and religion was a part
of that. I had been lapsed for a few
years by then.
I did a lot of travelling- I went to
Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, lsrael.
Ethiopia, Tanzania and lndia' I looked at
a great deal and read quite a lot before
I went and I was aware these ideas had
a great deal in common. I suPPose
that's my interest in religion-finding
something which ties together
everything.
I don't reallY have a sPiritualitY
that's ritual-based, but I feel that the
whole of life, every minute of life is
part of my religious Practice as it
were. I don't have to go to that place
over there, or this building over here,
to take part in my spiritual life. lt's
something wherever I am, whatever I
am doing.
KATE'S STORY
was brought uP as a Methodist,
although quite liberal. My parents
were missionaries in NePal, and I
went to school in lndia. While I was
there, I came across some very
evangelical teachers and during
that time I had great difficultY
with their ChristianitY because,
while I had been living in NePal
as a child I learned a lot about
spirituality from mY Hindu and
Buddhist friends. lt seemed
strange for suPPosed Christians
to be so against other religions
when Hindus and Buddhists
were so sharing, so I found that
narrow-mindedness reallY hard
to take.
I read a book called Ihe
Bible and People of Other
Faiths by a Sri Lankan
Methodist minister called WesleY
Ariarajah and it challenged the notion
that Christ is the onlY way to
salvation and challenged other
aspects of ChristianitY-like
using the Bible bY quoting
different verses out of context
that reinforce the view that Christ
is the only waY. This was around
the time I went to universitY in
London. and it was around that time
that I drifted awaY from Church.
At the time I was interested in
other environmental movements. I
found the Church really frustrating
because I still felt a connection to it,
but the social message of the Gospel,
or what I understood as the message
of the Gospel, was being ignored bY
the Churches. As a result of that I
became attracted to Ouaker spirituality,
which seemed to take social
5'IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO GO
BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE
BECAUSE IT YYAS A SMATL WAY OF
THIHKIHG, AHD I CAN'T GO BACK
TO THAT.''
.TOM
Perhaps I might go back to the
Christian Church, but not in the same
sense that I did before-certainly not in
terms of going regularly every Sunday
as I did before. I see Christianity as
being one of many paths' lt's the one I
started out with, but it comes to a
point where I don't need that so definitively
as before. lt would be impossible
to go back to the way it was before
because it was a small way of thinking'
and I can't go back to that.
responsibility more seriously, and had a
very open-minded view of different faith
communities.
I went to lona after university and at
the time that gave me some kind of
hope-l was impressed by the recognition
of God in the everYdaY and the
spirituality found in nature. I loved their
reading of the Gospels and their
understanding that God's hands are our
hands, and that it's uP to us to Put the
world's problems to rights, and we
movsment 6
can't sit around waiting for God to
intervene.
After l'd been in the lona
Community. I started getting interested
in Don Cuppitt's ideas about non-realist
theology-l had read some of Sea of
Faith's literature
which followed his ideas-and it was
around that time that I started to lose
faith in a personal God. I think that was
because I was frustrated by the idea of
an interventionist God. as found in the
traditional understanding of prayer. lt
seemed unfair that some PeoPle
suffered injustice in the world while
God could supposedlY Put things to
rights. The non-realist philosophy that
religion is a human creation and that
God is a metaphor made sense. lt
implied that we need to access the God
in us-meaning our values and highest
will-to take responsibility in society
and acknowledge our part in creating
injustice, instead of sitting back and
waiting for God to intervene.
My spirituality is taking another turn
now though, because l've become warY
of non-realist theology. To say that
religion and God are human creations
seems quite arrogant and anthrocentric
to me. lt uses a Western emPirical
understanding-as if everything can be
proven and explained-and it puts human
minds at the centre of human

understanding and denies mystery. At
least that's my reading of it; for other
people it may be different.
So l've started seeking a spirituality
which, unlike what I found previously,
acknowledges the Other in creation and
in our lives, and allows a space for
mystery. But I've lost my sense of
urgency to find an answer-to find a
spiritual place to settle in, or something
to label myself with-because l've become
more comfortable with uncertainty.
Through my faith struggles, l've
recognised that spirituality is a journey.
When things seem to start getting black
and white, it's a moment where I feel like
l'm closing my mind to unexpected gifts of
grace and understanding.
At the moment, in terms of actual
spiritual practices, I attend the local
Quaker meeting. I'm trying to gain
some kind of discipline from meditation
and contemplation, but finding the time
for that is always a struggle.
I don't think l've ever left the Church
in some ways. ln a sort-of practical way
I can't see myself going back to Sunday
services regularly. But I still acknowledge
my Christian roots and my heritage
and I don't think l'd be in the place I am
and have found my spirituality without
that original background.
When I do go back to Church with
my family, I still appreciate the ritualbecause
I think rituals bring people
together into a community, and that's
one thing that I'm lacking-having a
regular faith community.
CEORGE'S STORY
I
was born into a C of E family, but I
I became a fundamentalist as a
t""n"g"r, much to my embarrassment
I now. I initially moved from that into
more evangelical circles at first, but I
came out of all that eventually, largely due
to SCM, which helped me centre myself.
Along with getting involved in SCM,
I became involved in a local C of E
parish and started to revisit my roots in
Anglicanism. I really liked what
Anglicanism had to offer, and still do. I
loved the said liturgy-although I am
not'tied to any one prayer book or
rite-which I found it very poetic and
deeply moving. i tited the symbols and
smells. I was initially in an Anglo-
Catholic parish and there was incense
and santus bells and the experience of
worship was very vivid, which I loved.
Through SCM and the courses I was
taking at university, I went through a
considerable political evolution. I started
reading a lot of feminist writers and
became very interested in gender
studies, which politicised me and made
me very conscious of gender and power
dynamics. ln my work with SCM and
my study of theology, I began to be
exposed to the influence of feminist
theologians. which had a profound
influence on me. I began to see from all
this that language about God is
metaphorical at best, and the
metaphors we use about God say
something about ourselves and our
power dynamics with others.
From that I began to feel that the
liturgy-as it is expressed in Anglical
worship-was very male-dominated and
male-centred. lt used the same
metaphors for God as has been used for
the past 2000 years. There was no
effort to use different symbols for God
other than as the traditional father-figure.
I began to chafe against that, and
enjoyed being in other communities.
including SCM. where I could use
inclusive language and employ a variety
of metaphors-male. female and neutralfor
God. I enjoyed those liturgies because
it was very much a dynamic processthe
liturgy was not seen as something
parish was about as good as I was going
to find in my tradition.
I felt as if I was butting my head
against a wall. I began to feel trapped
in a liturgical service that didn't meet
my needs-it used standard metaphors
for God; in fact it used standard
everything. And in order to get through
it l'd have to distance myself from it.
And the more I distanced myself, the
less real it became to me-to a point
where I was distancing myself out of
believing in God. Since I didn't want
that to happen, I left.
Leaving was a very painful choice to
make. I had been actively involved in
one Church community or another
pretty much continuously since I was
14 years old. At first I was overwhelmed
by the emptiness of it. You suddenly
find yourself bereft of all these ties and
commitments, which is hard.
l've been doing very little really. I
was trying to do some Bible study and
(.I'VE IOST MY SEHSE OF URGENCY
TO FIND AH ANSWER-TO FIND A
SPIRITUAL PLACE TO SETTLE lN,
OR SOI'IETHING TO LABEL MYSELF
WITH-BECAUSE I'VE BECOME
MORE COMFORTABLE YVITH
UNCERTAINTY.)'
-KATE
fixed, but rather something that could be
critiqued, revised and brought back- a
dynamic process. I came from this hoping
that this was a vision of what the Church
could be like.
I became involved in a parish with a
strong commitment to social justice. They
were very streets ahead of so many
parish churches in the C of E, but they
had a very traditional liturgy-and an
even more traditional hymnody- which
seemed to be completely divorced from
the political issues the congregation
claimed to support.
I found myself uncomfortable with
this, and, in fairness, I was encouraged
by the pastoral team there to try and be
proactive, to try and change things. I
became involved in the liturgy and
worship committee and other aspects
of the parish, but for all the work I was
doing I just seemed to burn myself out.
Part of this was that people didn't see
the liturgy as something dynamic. that
could be critiqued and changed. At the
end of the day, people really didn't want
things to be changed, because they liked
it that way. This depressed me, because I
saw that this very progressive, intelligent.
rnovernsnt 7
other things to maintain some sort of
spiritual discipline, but largely I'm just
letting it ride, because I felt I needed
the space to mourn the loss of that part
of my life.
I don't really know what spirituality I
have. I suppose there is some degree of
prayer in my life-an ongoing conversation
with God, if you like. I still have a
fairly conventional Christian spirituality,
and I still feel the need for that in my life.
I would go back, but it would need to
be a place that met my needs. l'd want
to be in a place where I didn't have to
distance myself. I see my Christianity as
the root of my activism and I would
want to belong to a Church that enabled
me to engage that side of me. That
would by necessity entail the Church
becoming a more inclusive placeinclusive
in terms of the people that are
welcomed, but also inclusive in terms of
how they approach God, and what
metaphors and language they use for
God, and how their liturgy expresses
humanity's relationship with God. I'm
not holding my breath that can really
happen in Britain right now, but you
never know. fil

Dark Night Of The Seoul
I t tant to hear my latest gripe? I
t t\ t am sick to death of the year
V V 2ooo, two years oefore it even
has a chance to haul its tired, brittle
bones across the starting line.
Hypocritically enough, I am participating
in a number of 2OO0 events. although
none of them are in celebration of any
mystic appreciation for this particular
milestone.
What is the big deal with this date?!
What is there to celebrate? Watching
the IMF "rescue" more bankrupt
countries? Watching more smart-bombs
destroy hospitals? Watching more royal
children crying at their mother's
funeral? Welcoming a millennium just
doesn't make a lot of sense to me... lt's
as though existing to a point in history
is an accomplishment, just because this
point ends with a sequence of zeros...
Hey, my first literary tantrum! You'll
have to forgive me. I am feeling somewhat
cynical lately. I just came from the
Executive Committee meeting of the World
Student Christian Federation. lt was held
in Seoul, Korea. We were hosted with
great hospitality by the Korean Student
Christian Federation (the Korean SCM),
their Senior Friends and other church,
university and government officials.
We saw a lot of the country and the
culture. We saw a lot of American
soldiers. We argued. We drank Korean
beer and watched World Cup until 5
am. But mostly, we worked. We worked
and struggled to continue being this
thing called WSCF. And some of the
toughest questions came up when we
tried to talk about vision. The question
rick gorlond
ties ond binds
began as "What is our vision in the
WSCF?" Soon, however, it was "Can
the WSCF claim to have a vision that
works for the entire Federation?" ls the
WSCF just a tired project that has failed
to renew itself and simply gotten old?
Does it function in a way that responds
to the real needs of students and others
in 1 998 or is it a dinosaur that doesn't
know how to die?
Well, don't expect me to answer
that! I struggled enough with it in Seoul
and am still grappling with it today. As
a person of faith, I recommit myself to
this movement, simply out of loyalty for
what it has done for me in my life. lt has
given me eyes that see clearly, hands
and feet to act in an apathetic world, a
heart that cares beyond my own limited
scope, a nose for suspicion and doubt,
and yes, even permission to become
sexually aroused and not die from guilt.
Perhaps most importantly, it has
given me comrades to share these
things both in and beYond mY SCM
experience. I have found house-mates,
best friends, work-mates and lovers in
the SCM community who all share in
the same conundrum of being a
community tied to a past but straining
to deal with the present and future. I
don't know if this is part of the SCM's
or WSCF's vision, but I know that it has
revolutionized my world. lt has made me
aware that I am not alone in this world.
entering a new millennium without my
shit necessarily together, but still
holding on to my ideals and goals.
So what? (One of my favorite
questions...) Well, I know from all this that
I like SCM. I like SCMers, even the ones
with whom I disagree. And honestly, I like
myself more for being an SCMer than I
would have otherwise. And perhaps not a
lot else needs to be said beyond that.
Because wisdom is contextual as far as
I'm concerned and so whatever you need
to do to justify your continued participation
in the SCM works for me. What really
helps me to enter the 21 st century feeling
more confident? Knowing that many of
you are reading this and understand the
struggle. That helps a lot. E!
Rick Garland is National Coordinator of
the Canadian SCM
I
i
Big Brother Online
t all started from humble beginnings.
It was the dream of every research
student-was there a way to check
from the comfort of your computer if
the coffee in the machine was already
prepared?. What began as an internal
gimmick in the Cambridge coffee
room-see for yourself at
http://www. cl . cam. ac. u k/cof f eelcof f ee.
html-has had serious ramifications.
Since that "real time" life live on the
net has become reality. You may have
heard of other infamous web-cams.
These are small cameras linked to a
server and they broadcast everything in
front of their lens to everybody who
cares and wants to see. From the top of
the Scotsman building in Edinburgh
(http://www.scotsman.com/livecam/) to
the private home of a courageous
woman in Washington, D.C.
(http://www.jennicam.org/). With
Jennicam, you can see what's
happening with Jenni 24 hours a dayat
least within the confines of one room
of her home.
But is it all that funny or interesting?
Okay. you can discuss with Jenni online
the latest problems of sexuality at the
end of the 2Oth century, but even after
that, you may still wonder if it is ethical
NX
dirk griitzmocher
the @ column
to be online all day and night? ls it right
that people could see you snogging
your friend, or changing your clothes?
Where does this all end? Forgive me, I
have been brought up with George
Orwell's 1984-lt was compulsory and
compulsive reading. (Find out more
about Orwell at http://www.ucl.ac.uk
/Library/special-coll/orwell. htm)
This just the beginning, though. Are
you travelling a lot and would you like
to know where your friends are and let
them know where you are? Nothing is
easier. "lCQ" ("1 Seek You")
(http://www.icq.com/icqhomepage.
movemgnt I
html)
is a program that lets you find your
friends and associates online in real
time. You can create a Contact List
containing only people you want to
have there, you can send them
messages. chat with them, send files,
and so on, no matter where they are.
Though I can see how this could
enhance our networking possibilities, it
also gives me the shivers. I know that
even today my lnternet Service Provider
can find out where and what I am surfing
and the owners of the sites I am visiting
potentially can know who has come and
visited them. This is all potentially
dangerous information. However this is
part of the deal, it would seem.
The current globalisation moves
faster every day and we are caught in
the web, even if we would like to stay in
some control. But where do we go from
here? Let me know your thoughts. @
Dirk Grtitzmacher is a Ph.D. student in
Edinburgh. You can reach him at his
website at http://www.ed.ac.uk/ - dig

. SPECIAL SECIION .
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Eilidh Whiteford examines the distinctive strands of thought, action and concern that have run through
the pages ol Movement for over a quarter of a century.
F
I
V
you remember your first time? My lirst copy of
^n
Movenentwas picked up from a stall during
Fresher's Week way back in 1987. I picked up a
veritable rain forest of bumf that week from a
plethora of student societies, but it was Movenent that made
the biggest impression on me. I kept it under my narrow hallof-residence
bed in a box marked 'Memorabilia'which moved
with me, nomad-style, between student flats, I would rake that
dog-eared copy (and subsequent editions) out from the pile
lrom time to time, whenever I encountered an idea I was sure
I'd come across already between its covers, and I would
remind myself of those halcyon days of undergraduate bliss.
I'm sure that first copy is still lurking somewhere.
l'm also sure l'm not the only Movementreader who has
hoarded precious copies of the magazine and who shares a
tendency towards nostalgic reminiscence. As the song says,
ihe purpose of Memorabilia is, at least partly, to "show you
I've been there". Yei what might be considered a slightly selfindulgent
concern with the past becomes a rather convenient
virtue when trying to prelace Movemends l00th celebratory
issue. Even so, it's no easy assignment to attempt to chart'where
Movementhas been' over the years, 'Here, there and everywhere'
might seem close to the all-encompassing truth, but nevertheless,
it is possible to identify a number of distinctive strands of thought,
action and concern running through the pages of the magazine
and the life of the SCM in recent decades.
There can be little doubt lhal Movementdocuments a
decisive period in the Student Christian Movements of the
British lsles. However, it would be a mistake to divorce these
experiences from those of the SCMs in other parts of the
world, and particularly those of Western Europe. ln Seeking
and Serving the Truth: The First Hundred Years of the World
Student Christian Federation, Philip Potter and Thomas Wieser
point out that the social and political upheavals of the late
sixties through to the early eighties made this period "the
most turbulent in the 100 year history of the WSCE" SCMs
around the world were changed forever by the developments
of these years.
lf the wave of radical idealism which swept across Europe
at this time needs a historical reference point, 1 968 is the
date most usually cited. Across Europe, students were
demanding drastic changes in every area of cultural, social,
economic and political life. They wanted a better reality. ln
Prague, students and intellectuals made up the front line
which faced the brutal suppression of the Soviet government'
ln France, students led protests which rocked their government
and sent reverberations to universities around the world. The
seeds of 'second wave'feminism began to germinate,
movsmGnt 100 2
I

4,'f
:r'*frf'ttt t:: ti ::r t
t
\a
,!r
i.r
rnovernent
t J
i
I
'Liberation', in a
myriad of guises,
Although the'revolution'may not have transpired in
quite the way youthful radicals of that era anticipated, the
spirit of the late-sixties infuses the pages of Movenent's
early editions. We see there a generation of students finding
political voices and carving out new identities. ln those first
few issues we see on display a hunger for justice and striving
after wholeness, characteristics which have remained a
constant feature of Movement right up to the present day,
even when the issues, tenor and style of the magazine have
been translormed time and again.
'Liberation', in a myriad of guises, probably comes as
close as we are likely to get to naming Movement's defining
concept. lt is a recurring theme which repeatedly informs
articles and debategon issues as apparently unconnected as
environmental destruction and the lrish question, gay rights
and Apariheid, feminism and nuclear proliferation.
And where is God in all this? Right in the thick of things,
amidst all these conflicts, controversies and man-made
messes, according to the SCMers who have presented their
views in Movenenf's pages one hundred times over. A God
who opts for the poor and marginalised over the rich and
powerful challenges the very foundations of Western culture;
such a God rocks many of our most deeply held assumptions
about the world and our place in it. The explosion of politically
engaged theologies-feminist, socialist, environmentalist,
amongst others-found an outlet of expression in
Movementwhich has been accompanied by a renewed search
for spiritual meaning. Movement's hundred issues chart an
exploration of new avenues of spiritual expression and the
rediscovery of others,
Yet so far, I think I have failed to capture in ihis alltoopotted
assessmenl ol Movenent the enormous energy,
commitment and sense of fun generated at the heart of the
SCM and transmitted through the magazine's accounts of its
events, activities and reflections. Throughout the joys and
tribulations of the SCM's turbulent history, the measured
successes and struggles, and the deep-seated insecurities,
there has been an irrepressible optimism present and a
sense that there will be no revolution of any sort until we can
all dance to its music.
ln its readiness to address issues no-one else wanted to
touch with a barge pole, Movenenthas lurched between
humane intelligence, revolutionary belligerence, far-sighted
radicalism, incorrigible self-righteousness, incisive critique
and downright daftness. Like others before and after me, I've
valued it for all these lhings. Movenent is unique in having
provided a space where the rich diversity of Student
Christendom can let its polyphonic voice, its hopes and fears
and dreams, be heard. As a chronicle of the SCM over the
last thirty years it is irreplaceable.
Enjoy the dance down memory lane as you peruse this
special commemorative issue. To borrow Chaucer's description
of his Canterbury lales, "Here is God's Plenty". E
Eilidh Whiteford is the chair of the WSCF European REion.
She has been a columnist for Movement sincr, 1995.
probably comes
as close as we
are likely to get to
naming
Movement's
defining concept.
movement 100 3

novemsnt 100 4
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Graeme Burk traces the genealogy ol Movenenf back to its revolutionary beginnings
The Ma
Former
as B'i I
gazlne
o
ly Known
bo
rFhe histories of oublications in SCMs around the world
I ur. u.ru mucir ihe same. A new publication is almost
uU.y, Lrought into being, phoenix-like, out of the
I detritus of the old.
During the 1960s, SCM had a stalwart publication known
as Breakthrough, a magazine produced by 0xford SCM that
had been latterly adopted (and funded) by the national
movement as its own iournal. Breakthroughwas cancelled,
ostensibly due to the cost of production, in 1 969. Over the
next two years, the matter of Breakthrough's replacement
was discussed in various meetings, with little success.
The early I 970s are a curious period in SCM history. The
movement seemed to be a political animal, in every sense of
the term. SCM was a movement influenced by Ihe zeitgeist of
revolution, liberation and radical activism, and saw itself at the
foreiront of any activity that would bring any of the three
about. At the same iime (while the movement had budgetary
and staff resources that would be enviable by modern
standards) SCM also seemed to be a very fractious place as
well, split by various political and doctrinal lines-

\n1974, Movement asked: "What is the attraction of Taiz6 and why does it entice thousands to make
the long pilgrimage there? ls this a new spiritual revival or the final carrot coughed up by a dying
church?" During that Easter, Movement sent John Gareswell for this personal report
The Phenomenon
of Ta'i ze
c0uer me
BEAUTIFUT
fir"st published in Movement 16 0974)
T'
h. past fifteen years has finally seen the demise of
the Church as a major instrument
I
of social control,
particularly in relation to the upbringing of children.
I Even the Catholic church, because of the diminishing
emphasis on a weekly confessional, has lost its grip on the
minds of catholic youth, Where children once learned to
equate the Church with parents, teachers and policemen as
representing a source of control and authority, our
secularised society has found it can safely dispense with
religion as an agent of the conditioning process, hence the
Church, by default-and sometimes by design has lost its
pre-eminent position as a socialising force.
Yet the student-aged population, far from rejoicing in
their,freedom from the stranglehold of the Christian religious
establlshment, are flocking in large numbers to attach
themselves to one ol the many new religious groups
emerging in society. The Church as an outmoded social institution,
peddling meaningless notions of God and irrelevant
patterns of worship, has quite definitely been rejected. But
belief as such, and the ritualisation of belief into some form
of worship, still seems to find favour. From the Christian Union
on the one side, through a spectrum that includes Billy
Graham, Children of God, Divine Light lvlission,
Transcendental Meditation, Zen and ranges out to the occult,
there is a distinct craving to assert religion as a central
feature of life.
Somewhere within this new religious spectrum the
monastic community at Taiz6 is placed; a community which is
exerting such an incredible pull on the imaginaiion of young
people throughout western Europe that several thousand of
them pass through Taiz6 each week of the summer, and at
Easter nearly 20,000 come together to celebrate the
Resurrection of Christ.
The motivaiing force which has driven the Taiz6
Community since its inception in 1949 is a Catholic Workertype
spirit of social and political activism, grounded in a deep
belief in the unifying power of the Body of Christ. The
brothers themselves have three basic commitments: celibacy,
a sharing of all possessions, and acceptance of the Prior's
authority. The Prior, Roger Shultz, first persuaded some
friends to join him in setting up the Community as an attempt
to revive monasticism within the Protestant Churches.
Nowadays brothers join from all denominations and Taize is
closely connected to the Catholic Church and the World
Council of Churches, The broihers engage in a variety of
practical services in the local community and are also
involved in some imaginative cooperative schemes.
Throughout the 1 960s more and more people, particularly
from the younger generation, started arriving at Taiz6 to
share for a short period the spiritual discipline of the
brothers. The Prior has always placed great importance on
prayer as an integral part of a committed Christian life-style.
Three offices are said: early morning, noon and evening.
This pattern remains unchanged, irrespective of the
numbers at Taiz6.
The brothers, possibly promoted by the Prior's enthusiasm
about'the intuitions of youth', intervened ai a crucial
stage in the growth of this spontaneous pilgrimage to Taiz6,
The Letter from Taize was started, circulating amongst
Christian youth throughout the world, and an elaborate
Typically for the
Christian npvements of
the late 60's and early
70's, Jesus was prominently
featured on the
cover of the first 20
issues of lllovarcnt,
racking up a'lmost half
of his 10 cover appearances
overall during
this period.
Not that these were
Sunday School depictions
by any flEans. The cover
of No. 4 (below) with
silhouetted nodern
so1diers standing in for
the Centurions makes its
Vjetnam-era point in a
moving way. The striking
cover of llo. 16 (above),
w'ith its 'intricate
Gustav Dore-like
drawings conprising
Jesus' face was the best
of them, and indeed the
best of lAovarcnt's early
covers.
fnovsfnent 100 5

-
I guess I had my
Taiz6 too, except
we called it
'Vietnam' and
'student power'.
We marched, we
sat in; and
looking back I'll
admit that we
didn't change
much-but at
least we changed
ourselves.
movement t00 6
system of discussion groups (called Youth Meetings) were
arranged at Taiz6. The indefinable Council of Youth was
announced in I970, and two years later the date for the
opening of the Council was fixed.
As the climax of the Council itself draws nearer (August
1 974) certain aspects of the Taize phenomena have taken
on the dimension of an hysterical cult. Whilst Taiz6 T-shirts
have yet to appear, the flood of literature, records, posters
and media, publicity prompt a cynical view of ihe official
Taiz6 line about itself: 'We are not a movement'. ln Britain
the highly respectable Society lor the Propagation of
Christian Knowledge and the establishment-minded British
Council of Churches Youth Department have jointly acted as
a well-oiled public relations machine for Taiz6, issuing
detailed instructions on travel to Taiz6 and broadsheets for
preparing groups to participate in the Youth Meetings. ln the
autumn of 1 972 Brother Roger was flown in to lead a Taize
jamboree in Notting Hill. The expansion of Taiz6 cells in
Britain stems lrom that event.
The irony that throws a cloak of suspicion over the
entire Taiz6 thing is the glaring difference between' on the
one hand, what the Taize Community itself represents and
talks about, and on ihe other hand, what the majority of
visitors to Taiz6 actually do and say. The original message
from Taiz6 was uncompromisingly radical and explicit lt
followed the 1 968 Medellin Conference appeal of Latin
American Bishops: 'The urgent necessity of a Church that is
more and more paschal, refuses all the means of power,
witnesses faithfully to a Gospel that sets man free'. Six years
later Taize still seems to be at the talking and analysing
stage, and the radicalism which pervaded their original
message seems blunted in favour of an 'all things to all men'
approach which places great emphasis on a church unity
style or ecumenism and renewal. Your average Taiz6 discussion
group or cell back home goes no further, in political
terms, than the Lambeth Conference or Uppsala. To be fair
the various documents which emanate from Taiz6 today in
cells abroad which demonstrate a high level of political
understanding and involvement, but ihe vision and commitment
of these small groups soon gets lost amidst the
euphoric evangelism which is strongly in evidence at Taize.
0f course there is a need for a concentrated dose of liberal
education for each new wave of young people passing
through Taiz6 (the cosmopolitan mix-up in the food queues
and discussion groups ensure that) but at some stage the
precise nature of the kind of politics which are needed to
fulfill Taiz6's message will have to be spelt out
ln one interview he gave Brother Roger talked about
'living out the challenge
*f:fir:,[jjT'J" ((
need to 'commit one's
whole life in the service
of man', but he then
went to declare: 'l have
always thought it important
to distinguish
between opting for
greater justice and
belonging to a political
party'. The call for
greater iustice and the
concern for justice
which Roger feels
motivates young people
is reflected in the topics U
which have emerged as
the major themes of
f you had said'nowwhat do
you think has died [in SCM] bY
nov?' I'd have said 'Movement
for sure', because I 'anuld
have
assumed the transitions the SCM have
been through would have ldl Movement
behind, I'm delighted that it hasn't,
because it says to me that some ol ttre
more creative aspects of SCM that were
there in'73 haven't died, and there's
some seed ol it in tre fact that
Movement has continued to ftis day",."
-Richard Zipfel, co-editor 1973-7 4
the Council of Youth: 1 ) living against the stream,
2) contemplation: a renewed way of looking, 3) struggling
alongside the victims of exploitation, 4) becoming men and
women of communion. Like the much repeated phrase'that
man be no longer victim of man' from the original Joyful
News of Taiz6 the words themselves sound very grand, but
as one looks around at Taiz6 one wonders how much of the
full meaning of these grand words gets across. There is no
sense of urgency about the place and the young people at
Taize seem much like young people everpvhere. There are
the remnants of Flower Power's army, sitiing around strumming
their guitars incessantly, and the rest buzz around in
their sparkling Renaults, or busily snap everything in sight
with their swanky cameras, The overall ethos of Taiz6, to the
passing observer, is one of comlort and casualness
lf I sound unnecessarily critical I ought to declare my
interest. I guess I had my Taiz6 too, except we called it 'Vietnam'
and 'student power', We marched, we sat in; and looklng back
I'll admit that we didn't change much-but at least we changed
ourselves. Having your head kicked in by the fuzz in Grosvenor
Square or being evicted from the Vice-Chancellor's office does
wonders for awakening the political animal within you l wonder
how many people are changed at Taiz6?
Finally a few comments on the physical side of things at
Taize, which is probably where the so-called 'spirit of Taiz6'
is seen at its best, There is a beautifully efficient scheme of
volunteer participation in catering for the needs of the
thousands who turn up. Tents are pitched, toilets are
cleaned out, meals provided. Maybe one or two of the
brothers devote some of their time to maintaininq the continuity
of this system, but in the main it is the visitors
themselves who come along and take up the ropes where
others have left 0ff. lt is a splendid example of something
approaching anarchy in action, although I sensed that as in
other thlngs the spontaneity of earlier days at Taiz6 is now
missing. Posters expressing criticism about certain aspects
of over-organisation-particularly about the dreaded
'acceuil' (welcome committee) appeared several times, but
they were hastily removed.
lf I were asked to give a quick comment on what I
thought about Taiz6 as a whole I think I would advise
Brother Roger to tell the Council of Youth what Gandhi told
the lndian Congress Party when the British left lndia. He
pleaded with the party to disband itself and go back to the
villages of lndia. The final instalment of the 'Joyful News'
should be an appeal for everyone to leave Taiz6. Foreverl
That would be an act of faith and trust in keeping with the
desire for a Church devoid of means of power' fit
the new theologians and so on. I
think that's really what SCM should be
doing: bringing together the cutting
edge of theology and politics and
new thought and putting them
together with this new generation that
are coming up through universities. I
think that's part of what SCM should
always do, So we saw it absolutetY
within the tradition ol SCM, that it
wasn't ever a case of trYing to lead
all these students in some doctrinaire
direction, but simply to Put them
altogether in circumstances in which
they could come to their own conclu-
e tried to bring in the sions of what they thought."
best of the new minds
W and the new thinking and -Viv Broughton, edilor 1 97 2-7 4
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The Fi rst Edi tori al
1A ome of our new populists might argue that the whole
\ concept of an editorial is too elitist for the journal of
J tf'. SiM. Certainly if an editorial implies an editorial
policy, excluding some lines and favouring others, then this is
not an editorial. The columns of BILBO are open to anyone
with something to say to the SCM, subject only to a limitation
on length (not more than seven or eight hundred words).and
our peculiar laws of libel and obscenity.
BILBO is a free advertising medium for anyone organising
a conference, a study-group or even a party (of
whatever kind). lt is a place to offer and seek information, lt
could also be a means by which
ihe very diverse activities of the
SCM find some kind of uniiy-or
at least it might be a sea in which
all fishes can swim.
But that depends on
you first, on your willingness to
become readers (without whom,
as Newman said of the laity, we
should look rather silly), and
second, on whether you see the
point of having a national SCM at
all. What does it matter (does it matter, in fact) to SCM local
groups and other contacts that the Standing Committee is
now seriously asking whether we need a General Secretary ...
hands up all those who think we need a'theological expert'
on the staff ... and what about an international secretary (we
used io have one) ... how many people would like to know
what the ltalian SCM thinks about communes, or what the
Singapore SCM is doing about worship ... or how the
Aberdeen SCM raises its money?
There is a column further on of letters to the editor
some people who won't write articles will write letters. But
ihe whole of BILBO is an open forum for anyone who knows
of its existence-and we're doing our best to see that as
many people as possible find out.
Finally, BILBO will be a place where original thought,
however tentative, will not be out of place, Don't expect a
responsive audlence for this-it's rather out of fashion.
But at least the chance is there-and the challenge of
saying what you have to in under 800 words concentrates
the mind wonderfully.
At the moment the Tolkein cult seems to many people to
be our most obvious unifying force (maybe it's a religion you
know you don't have io believe in?) lt has even given its
name to this journal, at least until someone comes up with a
better one. lf BILBO is going to be a success, it will have to
rely on some more immediate unifying forces. With your help,
it mqy even manage to create some of them.
From Bilbo 1 (1972)
Seeds of Li berat'ion:
A Mani festo about
S'i ngi ng and Danci ng
In A Fog
T he most beautiful word (l think) at Huddersfield came
I tro. (l think) the most beautitul person at
I HuOOerstietO. Thi, *u, an announcement which interrupted
the first talk, lt said simply 'Will everybody please
move along so that everybody can get in'.
I
i
I
Moving to adjust. Moving to accept. Moving to change
'everybody' into 'everybody'. This is what gospel and spirituality
and church are about. This was deflnitely what the
conference was about.
Huddersfield was certainly the best thing that I have
been involved in since I left South Africa, A lot of other people
seemed to think it was pretty good too, ln fact, anything
needs to be taken rather seriously that can draw 350 people
together in the coldest time of year, to sleep 50 in a room on
wooden floors and stone staircases, in a town which is
probably not high on Clarkson's list of resorts.
I kept on recalling a poem which Adrian Mitchell read on
the box a few weeks ago (l don't suppose I've got its structure
right):
Dear Sir
I read your manifesto
with great interest
but it doesn't say anything
about singing.
Daniel Berrigan was encouraging us to see the Book of
Revelation as a kind of Christian manifesto, Revelation is
about singing. Huddersfield found itself full of singing- noi
just the two meeting places we were using, but also the
streets around and between, Much of this was lrish- the
lrish were easily the strongest identifiable group present. A
good ration also was Zulu. Much of this song just generated
out of the eucharists, which happened from time to time. lt
was only when I got home that I realised another aspect of
the blessed poverty of this gathering there was no reproduced
music from start to finish. This is not a matter of artificiality,
it's a matter of authority. The imported music dictates
its own terms.
The process and style were noi just the most positive
and memorable aspects, they were in fact the most important
elements in the actual designated 'business' of the conference,
The sub{itle was 'spiritual dimensions to political
struggle'. The whole gospel of Jesus makes it plain that any
spiritual dimension is primarily a matter of events and experiences
rather than intellectual constructs and propositions. I
think that this conviction was one of ihe main uniiing forces.
My impression was that many of us were pretty 'conventional'
adherents to the propositions of our belief-groups, Roman
Catholics, Evangelicals, atheists, liberals, Children of God and
so on. What drew these people together was a conviction that
none of these belief-groups is showing any sign of being able
to rid the world of injustice, destructiveness and inhumanity,
and that we need spiritual resources of imagination and poverty
to enable us to carry on in the struggle. This is not to say that
there were not plenty of argumenis about theological propositions
and about innumerable other things, but there was
little of the hardline radical theology which is mainly
concerned wiih an either/or error hunting intellectualism.
What happens next, who knows? One thing is clear, A
whole lot of very varied people are looking for a star to set
their course by in the confusion of the British political and
religious scene and they see the existing institutions as, at
best, structures to tunnel into, to be'in' but not'of'. Many
would be more directly hostile. But they are discovering that
to oppose the political (including the religious institution) with
the political is uncreative and that the political needs the criticism
of the spiritual. The exisiing religious institutions may
agree but their involvement with the existing line-up of power
can make that agreement inaudible or pointless to people
who are passionately wanting change, in a world where the
few ride on the backs of the many. Such people may well
have some new hope that the SCM can help. I hope so. Truly
John Davies in Movement / (19/3)
( Excerpted )
GREAT
m0ments
SOME INFORMATION
FOR DISCOI{TENTED
SOLDIEFFi
5i_!-i'"t'.-:.'i-
Issue 17 t.las to reprint
*Some Information For
Di scontented Soldiers",
a ]eaflet intended to
encourage d'i scontented
British soldiers in
Northern Ireland to
break ranks.
The British fuvernment,
however, invoked the
Incitement To
Disaffect'ion Act (1934)
in dn attenpt to make
possession of the
leaf]et a crininal
offence. "This would
have the effect of
making every reader of
llovqrnt liable for
crimina'l charges and
implicate SCll 'in a
criminal conspiracy"
wrote the editors. The
editors were fu]ly
prepared to 'publish and
be damned", but strong
objections fron other
SCH staff 'led them to
pu1'l the leaflet and
instead state their
reasons for doing so in
a page with the heading
"Why this page has been
censored".
The letters pages in
subsequent issues were
white hot with uproar,
although, curiously, for
all the seeming furore,
neither of the editors
who were involved now
renember the incident!
movcment 100 7

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It was an era when the SCM moved to an intentional community near Bristol, and Movenent
moved to lreland and became one of the better known radical Christian journals of that time.
Michael Feakes looks at one of the most prodigious phases in Movenent's history
0f Outrageous
Experiments
I
I
n the summer of 1974 SCM left its long-standing
headquarters, Annandale, in Noith London, and moved
to Wict< Court, a rural manor house in the West Country.
I Before the move IoWick, Movementwas edited jointly
by Viv Broughton and Richard Zipfel, an American who had
worked with draft resisters and the Jesuits. Zipfel moved to a
new role in SCM, and Broughton was joined as co-editor by
Mary Condren, a former nun who became involved in SCM
while studying at the University of Hull. Whereas Broughton
had never been to university, Condren joined the SCM staff
directly after completing her degree, and over the next few
years she became the dominant intellectual and strategic
force behind the magazine.
Wick was a ferment of ideas and ideals. For many in the
movement, it embodied the communal, agrarian, hazily
Christian way of life to which they aspired, The staff and
their families all lived there (although the distinction
between staff and non-staff residents was never great),
and conferences and evenis were held throughout the
year on almost every weekend. Wick had a constant
stream of visitors: students and other SCM members,
South African exiles, peace activists, draft resisters, social
drop outs, various radicals from within and without the
Church. Goats would wander in from the garden and
surprise visiting representatives of the SCM trustees,
down from London to be horrified by how the movement's
resources were being spent.
From within the Wick melting-pot Movenent reflecled
many of the concerns of the socially active, left-leaning
Christian of the time. With Viv Broughton involved there
would always be a fair dose of humour (later manifested in
his own back-page column 'An Ear to the Ground"), but in
general the magazine reflected the seriousness with which
the issues were taken by the Wick community. While the tone
was sometimes irreverent, the political creed was strongly
anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, and
ultimately anti-Church. There were numerous reports on
right-wing governments in Latin America, apartheid in South
Africa, radical priests in Asia, and dissidents from around the
world. This was the era of student protests and sit-inssuch
as the one at Lancaster University demanding better
conditions for cleaning staff-which were faithfully reported
by Movement, SCM was on the side of prisoners, workers,
and minorities every'rrhere.
ln late 1975 Mary Condren became sole editor and took
the magazine to Dublin, from where she produced it until
1979. This gave the movement (still then the SCM of Britain
and lreland) a presence in lreland at a time when there was
no radical Christian voice there and the seriousness of the
sectarian conflict was becoming apparent. Whilst the move
gave Condren some breathing space away from the maledominated
hot-house of Wick, it also gave Movement a
separate identity as one of the better-known radical Christian
journals of the time, The magazine was also insulated from
direct involvement in the on-going turmoil over SCM's direction
after the move to Wick. (Even so, the magazine was nearly
forced to become a self-sustaining project of its own, but
succeeded in remaining a part of SCM).
Condren now brought a change Io Movenent.Ihe
articles became longer and more contemplative. There was
still passion, but a more intellectual tone. Thanks to Condren's
own connections and Movemenls participation in the
Underground Press Syndicate, writers as erudite as Rosemary
Reuther and Gustavo Guttierez were turning up within its
pages. As a theology graduate (a surprisingly rare breed in
SCM) Condren was able to introduce more theological reflections
on the themes until then covered in a form of reportage.
Throughout the mid to late 1970s SCM's publications
outpui was prodigious. There were up to seven editions of
the magazine a year, and, more impressively still, standalone
pamphlets were also produced to be included free with
the magazine and sold separately. The pamphlets drew
writings from disparate sources around the world, although
much of the material was original, produced by SCM
members and staff. Many of these were among the first
publications on their particular subjects, and the topics give
a good indication of SCM's interests at the time: the militant
Church around the world; "signs of the kingdom" in Casiro's
Cuba; lreland; liberation theology; gender politics; Latin
America; male clericalism and so on.
Two pamphlets in particular stand out: For the Banished
Children of Eve, an introduction to feminist theology one of
the first widely-published treatments of the topic, and
perhaps Mary Condren's finest legacy to SCM; and Towards
a Theology of Gay Liberation-a piece which saw SCM draw
the wrath of the Church, and which led directly to the
founding of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.
Another often-visited topic in the magazine was the life
and work of communities, which were perhaps the overriding
interest ol Movement aI the time, whether the base
communities of South America or communal houses in South
Wales. After all, SCM had consciously tried to model itself on
communities such as lona and Taiz6, with Wick as the focal
point and community houses around the country.
But in doing so SCM had lost touch with many of its
core supporters. lt was being pulled in too many different
directions, and eventually the movement came to a halt. The
gyre had widened loo far. Movenenf came back to Britain
under a new editor, Wick was sold, and SCM moved into
humbler accommodation in Birmingham, The end had come
to an outrageous experiment, and a glorious adventure. El
Michael Feakes was editor of Movenent trom 1 993-1 994.
He is now a solicitor in London,
movemGnt 100 8

One of the most popular pamphlets printed in Movement during the 1970s was "Why Men Priests". ln
this pamphlet's introduction, Mary Condren explains why this question should be considered.
Why Men Pr-i ests?
from a pamphi et publ i shed wj th Movement 34 0978)
his pamphlet 'Why Men Priests'will come as a
f
welcome change to many for whom the question 'Why
Women Priests' or'Women Priests, Yes' or'Women
I Priests, No', insofar as these do not take account of
the wider questions of minisiry in the church and are simply
means of avoiding the crisis facing the churches regardlng
ministry in general. The way in which the question is posed
very often determines the answer. By asking 'Why Women
Priests?' one assumes that women are the problem, The
assumption in this pamphlet is that the clericalised male
dominated forms of ministry in the churches today represent
a far greater apostasy from the teaching of Jesus than any
number of women priests could hope to achieve in their
lifetimes. As such, this is the problem which has to be faced
and so long as the debate centres around women priests,
this merely serves as a
distraction from the issue.
This is not to say that the
question of women priests is
irrelevant; in fact it is our
contention that the clericalism
of the churches today and the
forms of power and hierarchies
are the logical consequences
following on the
exclusion of women.
This pamphlet then, is not
about the case of women
priests. lt is taken for granted
that the recognition and
validation of women's
ministries is an urgent necessity,
by ordination and other
means. Howeve,r the debate which has surrounded the
question of women priests raises serious problems which the
church will have to face if it is to have any integrity in this
matter. These are not merely questions of theological scholarship
(although this is relevant); more serious is the
question of the deep-seated male prejudice against women
which prevails in the church and which needs to be exposed
for the sake of the qhurch and its future.
{HHhg {HBu, flppnsn
flHrnns flrdimratinn
1l Erceura man't plnr+ la in thE arfiy
2l Ecc*ugr no rerlly murlv msfi $rafit8
to r.lfite dbputia oth.rwl3e thqn
by llght|ng €borrt lt.
3l womEn *Truhl not re8fiftct man
drc{aed ln rklrtr.
4l Eocaus* mEn arc too efirofffid lc
bd pdeit!. Th€lr Gonduat at tofftb.l
m.tch6-, lh the rrmy. at FdlltlcEl
lnnrta tendarcy to rpparl to forc€
snd violcncc rrndsrc them unfit to
rsprrs€nt J€sua.
6l Eecgrtso aomE lrrsl e?u Eo hffrdg'(El&
thEy vlill ditlraEt womon
*o|rfilpFstN.
Gl If th. Church 19 th6 Erld| of qhrlst,
EHd blrhopr tre Er hurbEndr to ihe
Church, rll grle.tr ahould hG{em!la.
There seems to be a marked correlation between
advanced clericalism, 'other worldly' forms of religion,
authoritarianism, domineering personalities and the fear of
women. This correlation has been particularly remarked on in
Sweden where they have had women priests now for twenty
years and is worthy of further examination in this context,
Recently moves have been made to abolish the clause which
grants male priests who do not agree with women priests the
right to refuse to officiate or participate in services or other
occasions in their company. This has provoked a widespread
debate on the issue of women priests again at all levels of
the population. Twenty years ago the attiiude towards these
people was one of respect for their right to hold diverse
views. Now they are clearly seen as oddities deserving
special sociological and psychiatric study. A recent psychiairic
report suggested that these men had what was called a
'pairiarchal mentality' derived from problems they may have
had of authority with their fathers or moihers. A remarkable
feature of this new debate has been the number of young
male ordinands refusing to be ordained alongside women,
The study suggested that these particular people have naive
infantile personalities; that they did not trust themselves and
needed to make laws for their own security For this purpose
they constructed very safe theological and sexual universes
from which they were intent on keeping out every form of
threat. A national poll which was conducted showed that
whereas ninety per cent of the general population was in
favour of women priests, about forty six per cent of male
priests were still against women.
It is remarkable that after twenty years little has changed
in the theological debates on the question of women priests
but popular opinion has swung solidly behind the women to
such as extent that the formal relationship between the State
and the State Church which was to have been severed in the
next few years has now been delayed because people have
reallsed that a likely consequence of this separation would be
serious threats to the position of women in the church.
People are unwilling to give much authority to people who
could use the kind of irrational and academically dishonest
arguments against women priests coupled usually with pathological
behaviour patterns. For instance some believe if a
woman conducts a funeral while menstruating the service
does not'take'. A writer in Nya Vaktaren, a High Church
journal, claimed that some male priests who met women
priests died soon afterwards as a result. Recently there were
deadly serious discussions about the ordination of a
pregnant woman in Uppsala. Those who did noi feel that the
ordination was valid in the first place were nevertheless
disturbed that should the foetus be male then the Apostolic
Succession would automatically be conferred on the child.
The ordination went ahead. There are still several 'clean'
Gouer me
BEAUTIFUT
lfiilovE:tiJltEhlrr
Re?cnEret
AdcAtstuu
RM* Itrgt),
.IFT.E
A FFESI{W)
hrt.'Cbr6,
lt€jwffi
GK,EffiS'
SEITIIreUP
ACOMMI'IVE
t{a,rarrtrlnt
hsilA
kcn thelbol
pr6
trith the rove to Dublin,
l,'lovqBnt changed its
format to become a
glossy magazine (apparently
because 'it was
cheaper!) The covers
were m:ch improved and
featured better
'integrated photos and an
explosion of fonts.
The best of these has to
be No. 30 (above), which
in an article during
lbvarcnt' s 25th anniversary
Y{as voted all-time
best cover because of
its loopy photo of llarty
Feldman in episcopa'l
garb, drinking a pint
and smoking a fag. l,le
would concur with this
assessnnt vttpl dpartedly.
Also notenrorthy is No.
27 (below). The fashions
of the protest marchers,
and its shocking fuchsia
hue is L003 pure 1970s.
movement 100 e

Jnovemont I00 10
By asking 'Why
Women Priests?'
one assumes that
women are the
problem...the
clericalised male
dominated forms
of ministry in the
churches today
represent a far
greater apostasy
from the teaching
of lesus than any
number of women
priests could
hope to achieve
in their lifetimes.
dioceses in Sweden, ie. a diocese in which a woman has not
yet been appointed. ln other areas there are 'clean'
parishes, whereas some are reduced to having 'clean'
vestments, ie. vestments never worn by a woman. I recently
had the unwitting honour of defiling one such set of
vestments while preaching in Stockholm Cathedrall A
member of the SCM writing in their newspaper questioned
the continued viability of the nuclear family. For this she was
accused of 'clearly having Satanic influence'. She will be
ordained this year. ln one diocese a bishop promised to
resign rather than have a women priest in his diocese. When
one women did manage to get an appointment in the State
Church (by a legal technicality) the bishop remained in his
post, lt is now virtually impossible in Sweden to be appointed
a bishop if one is opposed to the ordination of women.
P
erhaps the key to the irrational behaviour lies in the
long recognised but seldom explored connections
between sexual and religious feelings. For much of
its history Christianity has depended on the exclu-
sion of the sexual from the religious sphere, seeing sexuality
as a direct threat to or counter to religious experience' So
long as the church is ruled by the predominani sex in
society this has not presented any serious ecclesiastical
problem (the fact that it presented many problems for
women is somehow beside the point).
Now however with the advent or threat of women ministers
the problem is very much to the lore, One woman
minister reports that she had often noticed an old man in
her congregation when she was preaching. One day he came
to her and said that he liked to come and hear her
preaching but now he liked her too much and therefore he
would not come any more. The intimacy of some aspects of
ministry has, according to some women priests, led many
young men to fall in love with or become attracted to women
priests. This is not a new situation since many male priests
experience this with women. What is new however is that a
rejection of a man by a women priest brings about a far
greater sense of humiliation and threat than vice versa since
males are accustomed to taking the initiative in sexual
behaviour whereas women
are less likely to act on
these feelings to the
same extent.
The stringent precautions
taken by the church,
for instance in only
allowing priests to hear
women's confessions
from behind a grille,
testify to the fact ihat
these elements of
sexuality have always
been recognised in
religious experience. So
long however as the
dominant sex was also in
control of the generaiion
of religious experiences
there was no great
problem (for men). Now
however women priests
threaten to make blatant
the subliminal undercurrents.
The advent of
women priests is as
threatening to some men
as women taking the
hud graduated.,artth a dEree in
J a I
- - I ttreotogy, socblogy and social
I anthropology and I had come in
touch wi*r dre radkal liberalion theological
morement during tlrat time. I didn't
continue my dodoral unrk at that stag
bcause there was novhere in England
basically where I could have continued
working on liberation theology lfett
diilng Movenentwas the best way of
bringing liberation theology to the
British and lrish situation.
Put of rny thinking was that we
should advertise it widely so it became
the radical Christian journal of Britain
and lreland and ttrat with each issue
we'd produce a pamphht which would
have ongoing sales and wer the long
hauluouldn't date as quickly Now in its
hqf,ay, vre lvere producing, maybe,
2,000 copies the full issue and an
additional 3,000 cop'es of the
pamphlet. \rVe had distrihnion all over
the r,rrorld.
[n putting Movement and lhe
pamphlets togetherl the question
initiative in sexual behaviour. For the first time perhaps some
men are being told that they rather than women have to
exercise sell-conirol, and the prospect is frightening'
The other side of this is that once these relationships are
explored and exposed they also lead to the logical conclusion
that one form of the legitimisation of sexual dominance in
society comes through male clericalism. The image of the pure,
dispassionate, logical, wise, rational male, who always knows
what is best for everyone, is a necessary part of the ideological
superstruciure which holds society together, in the form of
patriarchal government as we know it. The fact that the State
rather than the Church in Sweden is most firmly behind women
priests does not contradict this fact. The greatest threat to this
superstructure for the State in Sweden comes in ihe possibility
that the church might be exposed as being led by the kind of
men who object to women priests who in the view of the
governing authorities have long since lost touch with reality,
The position of women in Sweden in general is exceptional.
One cannot expect the same conclusions to be reached by
the governments of Britain and lreland given the present stage
of women's liberation, lt is interesting however to look at
Sweden to provide the kind of historical perspective twenty
years hence on the present debate in Britain' Just what will
psychiatrists make of a Cardinal who proclaims that he has yet
to hear the case for women priests as though women were
some kind of sub human species to which the normal
standards of justice and equity did not apply except in exceptional
circumstances? What will philosophers make of the logic
of those in the Church of England or the Orthodox Church in
Greece who refuse to ordain women, claiming it would harm
relationships with Rome, at the same time as they cling onto
their lawful wives and are indifferent to Rome's ruling on
celibacy? A Roman Catholic bishop once wrote to me that
women who are pioneers in the movement for women priests
are called to suffer as Jesus did when he was preaching
against the old traditions of the Jewish religion. What will the
sociologists make of a church founded on Jesus Christ which
so quickly developed the equivalents of Scribes and
Pharisees, contemporary clericalism, against whom .lesus
fought and died? fit
would be "what were the hot toPics
theologically" and what was not getting
into the publk arena in Britain or keland
and hor,v could we redress that balance'
ln lreland bdore nry time thry tri.ed to
set up a radical &rlstian magazine and
theArchbishop had quashed it and
wouldn't alloriv it to be sold anywhere.
One of the great $ings we had wittthe
SCM was economic independence, so
that we could produce things vrithout
ever hing beholden to the bishops and
to what thry would say or not say For
instance I sold hundreds of copies of
ForThe Banbhd Otildren of Eve in
lreland and there would have been no
other way that would have been
produced in ftristian or associated
circks. Certainty not in tre 70's. The
questbn was horl can we break through
and make liberation theologbal trinking
available in Britain and keland to address
fe major social and religious concerns
that nere there."
-l'fary Cordrcn, edibt 197 +7 9
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Star Wars: Cruel
Fantasy?
I
I
tracked Star llars across couniry, trying to lind out what
the hullabaloo was about. Outside Detroit the lines were
I as long as Halley's Comet's tail. Yes, we could get
tickets-tomorrow. We settled, as I recall, for Altman's lhree
Women, a disaster with all six of its flat feet on terra firma.
I was due in Omaha. There I was told you could get to
see Sfar Wars only at the kiddies' 2 p.m. matinee. I was
accompanied by a nun and a young Jesuit, both of whom
confessed to
three
previous
viewings. I
was astonished,
wondering
what had
kept them
coming
back. lt
seems they
loved everything about the film, but especially an episode in
which a space rocket breaks the light barrier, That, they
assured me, was it. ln 0maha, I reflected, not much is
happening,
The ffew Yorker calls Star Wars good clean fun. Another
critic points to the ironic use of western frontier themes,
including violence straight from the hip, dualism amid the
planets, etc.
Something else struck me. Sfar Warsis a clever adaptation
of the flattened, quasi-human luture first envisioned by
Buck Rogers comics years ago; i.e., science (understood as
research and production of hard and soft ware, invariably
military and paramilitary in character) is in charge of the
imagination and the universe. See your tomorrow today.
Peace is war, as to method and goal. Also, computerised
humanoids, looking like anything from old sanctus bells to
ourselves, prove more interesting, witty, and domineering
than the recessive humans, who trail along learning from
their betters.
I wish I could be lighlhearted about all this. lt would be
funny indeed if a film like Star Wars had been shot by a race
of peaceable folk, exploring the dark side of their blonde
psyche. We would have to imagine their technology, in
comparison with ours, at the toothbrush and eggbeater
stage; also that they are in touch with firm roots, symbols,
community. What fun and terror such a film would evoke, like
one ol Grimm's Fairy Tales seen through the wide eyes of a
Montessori kindergartener. You mean such things are
happening out there? (A delicious shiver.) But children have
other business, toyX explorings; besides, their attention span
with regard io terror is mercifully brief,
Alas for us; we are not children. We are star warriors. The
joke is sour, For its sweetness, that joke depended by a featherweight
on the oppositions, ironies, and clear lines it could draw
and maintain. lt would take seven-day wonders in a garden of
Eden to view Star Wars as a joke. (0r cynics in a different sort
of place-but that's Dante's story, not mine.) Unless the critics
mean to call it a cruel joke-something else again.
I think the lilm is cruel. I'm not sure it's a joke at all,
But even granting the joke, I think the film's cruelty all
but cancels the joke. l'd even be willing to suggest a
principle: if cruelty is substantial, pervasive, in a film, novel,
poem, dance, any art form, it seems to me the joke goes
sour. The hangman gets hanged; the joke, so to speak, is on
him. This is what occurred to me, during and after Star Wars.
The cruelty is like the hardware; it's the simple extension of
what many of us, for much of our lives, in various brutal and
subtle ways, hold in our hands, hold to the heads of others.
The attitude is both callous and carefree. And it affects our
very biology, body, and soul.
I was reading somewhere someone's prediction that in
some millions of years, we'll all be flying; our morphology
seems to be going that way, But that's hardly the point of
Star Wars, which is presented on the assumption called
Omnivorous Hardware. ln some millions of years, the film
implies, straight-faced as hell, our hands will end in guns.
lndeed, our morphology seems to be going that way. And
who wants to be the handicapped in the kingdom of the
handy?
I think the joke of Sfar Wars is so cruel because for all
the gimmicks-iniergalactic distances, light speeds, laser
guns-there really isn't any distance at all between here and
ihen, them and us, ancestor and progeny, good guys and evil.
The film is therefore a most sombre and cynical exercise in
Necessity; a guided tour of the Kingdom of Necessity This is
how things will be, a simple extrapolation from the way things
are; at both ends, an unexorcised curse.
Dani el Berri gan j n lulovement 32 (1977 )
The Punk Vi car
( Excerpted )
I I f hat a deliohtlul exoerience it was to meet the Rev
lllf
nuurond'Plrmm.r. who has been dubbecl the Punk
U U Vi*l, for his outreach to alienated youth in the Kings
Road. I had been invited down to his partially desiroyed
church to take part in one of his experimental services that
feature several Christian punk rock bands and a drama group
who specialise in cat lynching as a creative learning experience.
I must admit I was a little taken aback when I first
encountered Rev Plummer, whose surplice was held together
with large nappy pins and who seemed to have great difficulty
speaking with a mouth full of razor blades. Why, I asked him
before the service began, did he feel he had a particular
mission to the punk fraternity of Chelsea. He gripped me
warmly by the throat and said, "These youngsters may
appear on the surface to have a nihilistic contempt for the
values of contemporary society but beneath the rough and
ready facade there is a warm human being struggling for
recognition, I dress like this in an attempt to win their confidence
as I believe our Lord would have done in a similar New
Wave situation." Nutting me affectionately, he led me inside
where three girls in fetching outfits of bin liners were leading
the congregation in community vandalism. We made it safely
to the vestry for the customary sniff of glue and a prayer just
before the service, though once inside we were accosted by
the seventeen year old verger, Terry Filth, who demanded
"Who's this old ponce, Ray?" Rev Plummer explained that
he'd read my column and reckoned that I had all the right
qualifications to give the lesson, though he agreed wlth Filth
that I didn't really look the part. The verger advanced
purposefully, "'Old on a minute cock, while I fii this meat
skewer through yer nose." lt was indeed unfortunate that I
had a deadline to meet and had to leave at that point, though
it was a rare privilege to have encountered such deeply held
convictions. I fought my way back up the aisle with the words
of the opening hymn ringing in my ears: "Roll over Jehovah
and tell Cliff Richard the news".
Viv Broughton in the column "An Ear to
the Ground". Movement 30 (1977)
GREAT
m0ments
\
\
Perhaps flovarent's
greatest rcnent ever was
with the publlcation of
the pamph'let "Towards A
Theology of Gay
Liberation-, which
appeared as an insert in
issue 22 (1975).
The impact of this
pamphlet, published
within a decade after
the 1egalisation of
homosexual acts between
ttvo people over the age
of 2L in Eng'land (it was
then still i1]egal in
Scotland and Ireland) 'is
undimin'ished. Guest
editor I'lalcolm Macourt
put together a stirring
docunent which combined
scholarly analysis on
Bib'lical and Christian
h'istory with personal
testimony of being
Christian and gay, and
in doing so brought the
church face to face with
the then-obscure tern
"homophobi a".
Reactjon was phenomenal.
It was completely sold
out (SCM don't even have
a copy in the'ir archive!)
l.lhile the church and
the church press greeted
it with outright
hostility it nobi'lsed
others-the publ ication
of th'is, and the subsequent
SCl4 Press book,
led to the eventual
formation of the Lesbian
and Gay Christian
Movement, an activ.ist
organisation whose work
continues today.
movcment 100 11
!
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The early 1g80's: the dawning of Thatcherism. Meanwhile, Movement ushers in a new era of
responsibility, credibility and relevance, and maybe a touch of earnestness as well. Martin Davies
casts a critical eye 0n the decade fashion forgot...
Bleak Decade
Rev'i si ted
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rnovemgnt I00 tz
t's the'80s- the decade that fashion forgot. ln music,
the fading glory of punk gives way to electronic
modernism, the 'New Wave', android-chic and robotdancing.
The high street is awash with leg warmers,
deely-boppers, shoulder-pads and snow-washed denim. ln
politics, Labour's calamitous 'winter of discontent' is still
fresh in the public memory. An unsuspecting electorate has
voted in Margaret Thatcher as a'new broom' in Downing
Street with promises of economic renewal, privatisations,
tough law and order policies, greater defence spending and
a brand new house-owning, share-owning democracy.
'Thatcherism' is born and with it a new spirit of individualism,
competition and ambition: a zeitgeist personi{ied
neatly by an outrageous new American pop star, the original
'material girl', called, of all things, Madonna.
True to form, SCM is also in the midst o{ fundamental transition.
The Wick generation has moved out and on but the legacy of
their work will take the whole of the '80s to fully work through.
What had happened in the'70s that had brought SCM
nearer to extinction than ever before. ln a decade where
Aquarian idealism gave way to the nihilism of punk' is it
possible that SCM-like Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Janis loplin'
Jimi Hendrix and the resi-was iust one more strung-out,
disillusioned, self-destructing hippy? Whatever the reasons,
the Wick experiment disintegrated and a fresh constituency
of students inherited an exhausted, burnt-out movement. lf
the '70s are to go down in SCM folklore as an incredible trip,
the early eighties will certainly be seen as the hangover, the
inevitable detox before the cold turkey of recovery.
Sifting through the issues ol Movenent of this period
it's easy io discern a strong reaction to the recent past. The
students of the early eighties gave themselves the job of
rebuilding the SCM, reconstructing ihe bridges burnt or neglected
by the previous dispensation; reviving connections with the
mainstream churches, renewing debate about traditional Christian
themes, refocusing on the needs of current students and
ushering in a new era of responsibil$ credibility and relevance'
The magazine was brought back to England from its
Dublin base and a new editor, Peter Gee, was installed (later
to be assisted, and succeeded, by Reinier Holst). His first
front cover (No. 39) carried the slogan 'Nuclear lnsanity'
beneath a phoio of a Polaris missile' His editorial began with
the prophetic words, "The prospects for the 1980s are
bleak indeed".
And there is someihing rather bleak about the magazine
itself. The much sought-after respectability is undoubtedly
achieved but, in the process, some of the verve and wit of
the previous decade is lost. One need look no further than
the froni covers of this time to see that a tonal change has
occurred. Gone is the zaniness and overt provocation of
previous issues and in its place is a new found earnestness
I
style photos of current political issues or
-newspaper
traditional depictions of Christian subjects, ln general one
senses a more cautious, less daring, hand on the tiller.
lnside, the layout remains static and uninviting but the
content is stronger with emphasis firmly placed on
'relevance'. Much of the magazine is given over to in-depth
discussion of current political and social issues: homelessness,
racism, education, the onset of Thatcherism, the
spectre of nuclear war. Perhaps more than at any other time
in its history the magazines of this period are truly'current
affairs'journals dealing with the specifics of government
policies in a well-researched, authoritative-if a touch
Saharan-style.
The bid to restore good relations with the churches is
taken seriously too. Church news is reported uncynically;
indeed, mainstream clergy are often interviewed and there is
a return to articles on traditional Christian themes like
mission, lesus, peace and prophesy. After Ann Summers
became editor in ihe mid-'80s the 'Christian' content
strengthened further: Bible studies are commonplace and the
theological book review section is often vast and scholarly.
There is a professionalism and credibility in these issues
Ihal Movement deeply required. lt was these issues that reestablished
SCM as a truly student-centred movement. The
long-running '0n Campus'feature and the many detailed
conference previews and reviews give the impression of a
magazine eagerly reconnecting with a nationwide
constituency searching for a radical Christian alternative.
Those who worked on Movement between 1 980-86 had
an unenviable task, Their quest to rebuild SCM as a
respected and credible organisation inevitably meant a less
indulgent approach lo Movement. Following the expressionism
and vivacity of the seventies was always going to be hard.
Peter Gee was right when he headed his first editorial Bleak
Decade? The early '80s were bleak times-the grim threat
of holocaust, the depressing reality of Thatcherism, the
sense of a movement scrabbling for purpose. Movenent, as
always, simply reflected them.
ln issue 46 Elaine Graham reporied from a European
student conference, quoting a few lines {rom a spoof song,
written and delivered by the British SCM delegation. lt seems
to me a poignant summary of the period: Where has all the
politics gone / long time ago? / Gone to grassroots every
one / When will they ever learn? / '58 will not return
'68 would never return and the writers and workers of
the early 1980s had no choice but to create something new
out of the void. Their task was tougher than any since and ii
would not be until 1 989 and SCM's successful Centenary
that the determination and vision of those rebuilders was
finally, joyously realised. Eil
Martin Davies was editor of Movement from 1 995-1 997' He
has just completed his teacher training.
n

By the early 1980s, there was a plethora of books on sexuality by Evangelical publishers who even
went s0 far as to publish sex manuals of their own. But how healthy is what they prescribed for two
adults? Heather Walton reported her findings
No Sex Pl ease
We're Chri st-i ans
,
Gouer me
BEAUTIFUT
rnovement
S.Drenhc' oiob.'
}!€i
fi rst publ i shed i n Movement 51 Q9B2)
M
y conversion to Christianity occurred shortly
before I left home for university, Until that time my
sexual development had included the normal
series of traumas, discoveries, explorations and
private agonies which make early adolescence such a misery
and such fun.
Then it all stopped; or, more accurately, it went underground.
I assiduously cultivated the fashionable appearance
of the evangelical Christian woman (floral prlnt, soft colours,
long hair, virginal smile) and tried hard to forget my past
'unredeemed'behaviour.
I became obsessed with other people's
sexual behaviour and can recall sleepless nights listening to the
jolul sounds of cohabitation next doo6 wondering whether or noi
I should interrupt and save my friends from their sinful pleasures.
I smile now to think of the printed motto, 'Never do anything
which you cannot do before God'Which I unconsciously had
placed at the head of my very narrow, unshared Christian bed.
I mention these things because they indicate how huge
the issue of sex looms in the lives of many Christian
students and what an ordeal of heart searching, guilt and
embarrassment many endure, A lot of water has passed
underneaih my particular bridge since I experienced these
turmoils, but the memory is vivid still. Perhaps I was trying to
exorcise a ghost when I decided to look ai four books giving
conservative evangelical advice on sex and the like which are
the bed time companions of many students.
"With Jesus you can go all the way", reads the final
paragraph of Walter Trobisch's pamphlet, Love is a Feeling to
be Learned. But only with Jesus. Going 'all the way' with
anybody else is something which all the books
firmly prohibit outside the marriage relationship.
How far you can go is a sticky problem.
Trobisch advises the avoidance of any situations
which involve lying down and the removal
of clothes, whereas John White (Eros Defiled)
says holding hands should be shunned if it
'turns you on', There might be physical reasons
too why petting should be avoided, 'Through
petting, a glrl (sic) gets used to the superficial
way only, Later on in marriage she might have
a hard time trying to progress to the deep and
rewarding experience." Any exploitation of
sexual urges through masturbation is also a
road fraught with danger and disillusionment,
White likens it to being marooned ",..your
ears ache for the music of human speech.
Masturbation is to be alone on an island. lt
frustrates the very instinct it graiifies."
Trobisch calls it 'a cry for help',
What kind of advice is this? Everyone
knows that the more sex is driven under the
carpet, the more erotic significance is attached
to otherwise mundane occurrences; the
Victorian ankle syndrome. Lowering the
threshold of contact does not quench the
libido. I felt just as 'turned on' when a guy I
fancied asked me to be his prayer partner as I
did in the hot clinch of Fifth Form romance, To
avoid contact because it might be stimulating is
advice that simply cannot be carried out to its
logical conclusion. Similarly all this talk about the physical and
psychological dangers of petting and masturbation is pious
dribble, Such experiences can be the way that people learn to
cope with their sexuality: sexual training of a gradual nature
without the dreadful pressure of an all-or-nothing decision. I
am afraid that many Christians, seeking false safety, hide
behind the sexual norms of a previous generation as captured
in the Scriptures; or could it be that they have stopped the
sap from rising for so long that the plant has withered?
However, I would hate to give the wrong impression. Not
all the writers of these books are total prudes. ln fact, once
One of the best designed
covers in the magazine's
history is No. 47
(above), which nakes the
two-co]our limitat'ion of
covers of that era a
positive strength tlith
the jigsaw pieces, black
and white photos of
contemporary figures and
events (apropos of the
nagazine's move towards
"relevancy") against a
gold-screened cruci -
fix'ion scene in the
background.
The same artistic flair
cannot be said of No. 66
(below). The crude
design is not enhanced
by the fact that everything
is printed 'in a
singularly hideous shade
of brown. Many agree
that this 'is the ugliest
cover of l1ovqBnt ever
produced, with good
reason.
movement 100 13

(novement 100 14
-il
Lowering the
threshold of
contact does not
quench the libido.
I felt just as
'turned on' when
a guy I fancied
asked me to be
his prayer partner
as I did in the hot
clinch of Fifth
Form romance.
ihe ring is on the finger, there is a whole world of sexual
experience the Christian can enjoy legitimately "providing
they do so prayerfully". As conservative evangelical manuals
on sexual relationships go, John Noble's Hlde and Sex is
one of the better books on the subject of 'married love',
and gives quite a handy introduction to sexual techniques;
invaluable if you have spent all your time avoiding sexual
stimulation and find yoursell at a loss where to siart! Noble
recommends an imaginative approach: "lt has come to my
notice that a number of Christians have the idea that the
face to face or 'missionary position' as some call it is the
only one permissible. There is no Scripture to support this
theory. ln fact the Scripture is silent on this matter." Wiih no
specific scriptural guidance, "we can safely accept that we
are left to our own consciences and to the inner guidance
from the Holy Spirit," he concludes. Noble sticks to his guns
even when it comes to the tricky subject of oral sex. '1t4any
have found complete freedom in this kind of sexual variation,
and I can find no authority io deny them this pleasure. To do
seems to me to go beyond our mandate as teachers in the
Word of God." We would, he asserts, be surprised to
discover what many admirable Christians do in the intimacy
of marriagel White, however, is more ambivalent about this
issue. While he can find no scripiural basis for condemning
the pleasures of oral and rectal stimulation, they should not
go beyond the foreplay stage; for "in the matter of erotic
pleasure a penis was designed for the stimulation of a
vagina and a vagina for that of a penis ... Orogenital
'climaxes' and penile-rectal'climaxes' are subnormal sexual
practices." lt seems that when the Bible is silent (and White
admits thai it is sirangely reticent about what is to take
place in the bedroom) the resourceful Christian teacher can
always draw on God's design specilications for the human
body during the creation Process!
The Bible's silence on matters sexual, or rather, on
sexual techniques, is quiie a problem for the authors of all
the books in my survey as evangelical ethical teaching
usually heavily depends on the support of texts. A few exist,
however. Noble defends manual stimulation of the clitoris
with help from the Song of Songs: '0 that his left hand was
under me and his right hand embraced me...", manual
stimulation is biblically justified for the right handed' you may
be relieved to learn. ln case of doubt, sexual questions can
still be handled by comparing the union of lovers to the
union of Christ with the
Church (never mind
that it was the other
way around in the
Bible, I believe). The
foundation of a sexual
ethic lies in the
teaching of Christ and
his relationship with
his bride, the Church,
says White. "Can
anyone doubt the
permanence of the
relationship or the
importance of the
fidelity of both
parties? Therefore I
hold that only the
sexual activity that
takes place between a
husband and wile for
their mutual comfort
and as the purpose o1
which they learn
J I I ** appointed to the job in
- - I
Muy '79 just a couPle of
I weeks after the [General
Eleclion where Margaret Thatcher first
came into powerl. 0f course what's
not remembered now is PerhaPs the
strength of opposition that there was
to Thatcherism. And the Falklands
issue which happened during that
time--*le took a very strong line on
thalin Movement one which I'd still
defend today as absolutely right!---of
course transformed the Political
arena, Before '82, Thatcher was
incredibly unpopular and there were
these huge popular Protests.
Certainly there was a strategY-we
were trying to follow mainstream
issues and reflect on them. The task
was to see whether our Christian
perspective had anything=-

The Fal kl ands Cr.i si s
T he loss of life in the Falklands has been tragic
Argentinian conscripts, sacrificed by a junta in desperate
I internal political difficulties, British 'volunteers', often
from the dole queues. lt has been a depressing further
reminder of how big a task faces the growing peace
movement in this country. lf jingoistic war fever worthy of the
British Empire at its height can be generated by such a small
incident, what hope is there of containing, let alone resolving
all the much more serious threats to world peace?
The whole
sorry story is
riddled with
hypocrisy Britain
has ignored the
truth about the
Argentinian
regime for
years- the
thousands of
disappearances,
the torture, the
continuing
repression of
trade unionists,
and has
coniinued to
supply the junta
with weapons and
lo train its military
personnel!
Successive British governments have been progressively
severing British links with the islands, forcing the residents to
become ever more dependent on Argentina, against their will.
And only last year the government passed a Nationality Act
which deprived many Falklanders of their UK citizenship. An
observer could be forgiven for suspecting that the rhetoric
that has flowed out of the House of Commons during the
course of the crisis serves more as a camouflage to mask
political embarrassment and offended national pride than as a
genuine expression of concern for the future of the Falklands.
What does the Christian community have to add to the
debate about the Falklands? Though they haven't been given
prominence in the media there have been many voices of
protest from responsible church people, though the remarks
of some church leaders have been distinguished by ambiguity
and equivocation.
The Falklands crisis further underlines the lack of influence
of the Churches in the taking of polltical decisions in
our society. How much of the media coverage of the crisis
has looked at Christian attitudes? But even if a stronger
Christian voice had been more clearly heard, would it have
been heeded?
That's impossible to answer, but I suspect that a Christian
community that consistently defends the cause of peace and
condemns the ever growing arms trade which helps to
sustain many oppressive regimes throughout the world might
be taken more seriously in the long term than a church that
is largely unwilling to risk the charge of being 'unpatriotic',
The loss of life has been senseless, on both sides. There
is a better way of resolving disputes, though it may be less
politically popular in the short term, and unless we take it
there can be no hope for peace.
Peter Gee i n an Edi tori al i n lulovement 51
(1982) (Excerpted)
Wri t'i ng off "Ri ght
0n" Rel 'i gi on
ou know SCM - thai open ecumenical Christian
Ymovement with the accent on freedom, where you can
do anything, say anything ... well unless of course it
violates one of our sacred taboos. Sacred taboos? What
sacred taboos? This is SCM for God's sake, you
know we're open, we're ecumenical ... we have no doctrinal
formulations, no creed, no statements of religious conviction,
ln fact we're rather "anti" that sort of thing. lf we do have
one strong belief, it is the belief that:-
TH0U SHALT NOT BELIEVE lN ANYTHING T00 MUCH: 0f
course, this really means anything religious. You can believe
articles of political dogma as fervently as you like. But woe
betide you if you passionately believe in justification by Faith,
or the Real Presence, or the Second Coming.
THOU SHALT ABHOR THE CHURCH: No respect or honour
whatever is given to the notion of the Church. lf we have to
use an expression to explain the community of belief, we use
phrases like "the people of God." But "people" in this
instance would be better expressed by the word "person" as
the implication is of a collection of like-minded individuals, a
sort of club, rather than of a body called together by the
Holy Spirit,
One gets the impression that all these various "persons"
share is a common hobby such as stamp collecting, rather
than constituting God's chosen instrument for the salvation of
humanity.
lf any notion of "church" is believed in it is as the
community of the elect, the ideologically sound, safe from the
contaminating presence of the Prayer Book enthusiast and
the SDP voter, By its very nature, such a group will be selfselecting,
lt will be a collection of ethically superior individuals.
This ideology of the "Small Group" is a particular
feature of the SCM, exposed in the endless quest for the
perfect human community, Longing for a community which
fulfills all our needs and in terms of which we can define
ourselves as we engage is an illusory search. Such "flight
from history" is a typical mark of the western bourgeois
idealist mindset. The material, historical church is rejected in
favour of a private "church" into which we can retreat and
act as if problems did not exist. lf SCM is to have any value,
it must be more than just a safe haven from the storms of
repressive religion.
THOU SHALT NOT SAY THY PRAYERS: The hymn 'Bright the
vision that delighted" contains the line "thus conspire we to
adore Him", a line which has taken on a new meaning for me
since I started working for SCM a few SCM dissidents sneak
off behind a bike shed for a few furtive "Gloria in Excelsis..."
When is SCM going to undertake an examination of our
embarrassment with prayer? Personally I feel that it has its
roots in the fact that so many of us are ex-evangelical charismatic
fundamentalists. Many of us, at a young age, expended
a not inconsiderable amount of religion. We trusted God with
our most tender feelings, and now it feels as if God has
walked all over them. But instead of feeling hurt and slighted,
shouldn't we offer that damaged part of ourselves to
God-for it is exactly those parts of ourselves that God
wants to redeem?
C1 ane Seal y j n l'4ovement 66 ( 198/ )
( Excerpted )
GREAT
m0ments
In 1.985, Editor Anne
Surmers gave over the
majority of issue 63 to
d'iscussion about
feninism and h,omen's
issues. The purple cover
proudly proclaired this
was an issue of "The
h{omen's lbvqent".
Sunrners stated the
premise behind the
special issue in her
editorial: 'It often
seems as if the basic
a'ims of the mmen's
movement get confused
and misconceived by
campaigns and details
within it unti],
possibly, you can lose
sight of what it's about
in the first p'lace."
l,lritten entire'ly by
wonen, the issue
featured articles on the
history of the tromen's
novement (which was
surprisingly global in
'its outlook), feminist
theology and personal
storytel I i ng.
And, proving that
feminism does have a
sense of humour, there
was also "The Verity Ann
Column", a h'ilarious cod
women's column, complete
with recipe for chunky
spring broth and a I'lills
and Boon parody.
It was a worthy experi -
ment, and more's the
shame something like
this hasn't been done
si nce.
movement 100 15

EE'
O
-lo
-
The late 1980s and early 1990s brought the Desktop Publishing revolution lo Movenent, along with
a switch to "people-centred" politics and a focus on student life. Graeme Burk reflects on a time
when Movement truly became "The Student Christian Magazine"
The Pri nt
Chapl a'i ncy
-{ r
J.
lrl
G)
=t
u)
u)
=t o
-{u)
IT
d
CC'
@ I
J
co
CO
t\)
M;ffi.#**[ffiftt*i*i.'ff5
Pontius Puddle cartoons and full of lively and intelligent
commentary on Christianity you wouldn't find anywhere else.
Re-reading these issues, and reconstructing the history
behind them, this impression still holds to be true, but there
is so much more to be said about it.
ln the 1 980s SCM saw its work in reconnecting with
students at a grassroots level and developing local units. By the
end of the decade, SCM had rebuilt itself and was on its way
toward a glorious celebration of its centenary in 1989, full of
confidence from the substantial (although still fragile) growth that
had occurred. The "radical" '70's were written off (somewhat
disingenuously) by then-General Secretary Tim McClure as mostly
unchristian "Loony Years". McClure had further stated in a
Movement arlicle in 1 989 that "The SCM's agenda (has) shifted
from being issue-centred lo being people-centred'.
As ever, it was a shift that was reflected in Movement.
Andreas Havinga (then Andreas Mtiller), having taken on
editorial duties in I 987, continued an evolution that had
begun with previous editor Anne Taylor (then Summers),
toward a "people-centred" rather than "issue-centred"
magazine. While issues like sexuality, international solidarity,
and the continued devastation of the Thatcher era feature,
they do seem to follow McClure's notion that these issues
arose out of the interesis and experience of students.
Havinga felt that the magazine's primary readership
would be students who were actually part of, or could potentially
be involved with, the local SCM groups and geared the
magazine accordingly. Probably for the first time in the
magazine's history the magazine "felt" like a publication for
students. There were articles for freshers, increased content
by students and collages of creative feedback from SCM
conferences. lt was full of twee but "challenging" clip art,
such as Joel Kaufmann's Pontius Puddle (what one person
described as"Zggy for the politically and religiously
correct") or the grim satirical cartoons of R Cobb. The
magazine had changed from a radical magazine published
under ihe SCM's auspices, to a current affairs journal of
interest to SCMers, to an actual in-house student magazine.
Perhaps the most far-reaching change brought about by
Havinga lay in the purchase of an Atari computer for SCM
Central 0ffice in Balsall Heath, The brand name now attracts
sniggers, and yet at the time it provided a cost-effective
system with What-You-See-ls-What-You-Get software. With this
purchase, Movementenlered the age of Deskiop Publishing.
The late '80s Movenent came out of a liberal vision of
stimulating debate and dialogue. What other era of
Movement's history would generate lengthy debate in ihe
letter columns over homosexuality and Christianity? And yet,
this is precisely what transpired over four issues in what has
been an otherwise pedestrian feature in the magazine. What
other era of Movement's history would feature the by-line:
"by Margaret Thatche/'? And yet, this is precisely what
happened in issue 70 when it published the text of Thatcher's
speech to the Church of Scotland's General ksembly, and
then followed it up with commentary about her speech.
ln many ways, Movenent was one of ihe family, if you
will-a print version of a peer chaplaincy, a prose version of
an SCM unit-offering regular talking points for students and
space for their creative expression (this was the only period
in the magazine's history where creative writing has
featured). When lan Harvey-Pittaway-a theological student
at the time studying for the Baptist Ministry-succeeded
Havinga as editor in 1 991, this process continued even
furiher. Harvey-Pittaway significantly advanced the concept of
"cover themes" in MovemenL where on the back page of
every issue the next issue's cover subject, or theme, would be
announced and students would be encouraged to write about it.
The concept got a surprising amount of mileage (in fact,
the idea was nicked wholesale Irom Movement by the author
of this piece for the Canadian SCM's magazine, where it still
is in use!), Cover themes during this time included
Homelessness, Science and Ethics, and "Being a Student in
the University of Life". The best of these remains to be issue
8 ! 's 'A Bible For Our Times" which asked students what iexts
they would include in their own personal sacred canon.
Harvey-Pittaway felt that the magazine should not
simply cater to the "right on" tendencies of students in the
early 1 990s, and sought to challenge them with issues that
many students did not have experience of. lssue 80's examination
of Science and Ethics-taken from the I992 SCM
Congress theme-is one such example of a successful
attempt to stretch students beyond their cosy liberal artsbased
experiences, At the same time, the magazine felt like
a throwback to a previous bygone age. Harvey-Pittaway
increasingly used graphics lrom MovemenE of the 1970s,
and even began to use writers like the late Norman Leachwhose
radical posturings featuredin Movemenls first issue. And
while the magazine seems more homogeneous in its approach
to Christianity, it was a Christianity that was intellectualty
challenging and emotionally engaging.
Nonetheless, the level of student involvement in
Movement was higher than any period of the magazine to
date. The late'80s and early'90s were perhaps the most
"student-friendly" period of Movement, and the magazine
had that peculiar blend of tweeness, liberal activism and
rigourous discussion that you expect of any good student
chaplaincy. lt's a period I look back on with an enormous
degree of fondness and delight. @
Graeme Burk has been editor of Movenent lor 1998
movement 100 16

Mark Pryce revisits Matthew's Passion
And He Ki ssed
H
o
I
m
Gouer me
BEAUTIFUT
first published jn Movement 68 (1988)
And he Game up to lesus at once and said. "Hail
Master!" And he kissed him
l. I remember the garden very well. This night garden
which hid him in its shadows, Why him? Why should he
return? Why him particularly, to be shuttled between self-pity
and the apportioning of blame? This friend, coming like a
stranger in the dark to me then. He lit his own light and I saw
his mouth, lt did not smile. lt was a line across his chin. lt
would open for the cigarette, then close. He breathed smoke
gently. When he came to me, I could smell the
smoke and the leather of his jacket and the
cold of the night, I could feel the hardness of
his body. His lips were strange. All the way
through I was conscious of his lips, I keep
wondering if it was his losses that betrayed me,
Then an the distiples forsook him and
lled
ll. When I first began to get tired, I was very
angry. I was so angry my energy must have
been wasted in fuelling the rage, I would get
ready to go to a club and be exhausted by the
time I was dressed. I would take my clothes off
and go to bed. Sometimes I would sit in a chair
and think of the times when I had danced until
morning. I would sit and think rampant sex
thoughts. As if sex was a weapon, some
defence. I wanted to escape into more and
more sex. I was alone and afraid.
Some days I would battle to the office. I
would be so drained ihat I had to get a taxi
back home straight away, They wrote to me and
asked me not to come. I stayed home. There
was no one to touch, No one to be close to.
Nobody phoned almost as if they could catch
something down the wires.
' One night I had a dream. I remember this
dream very well. I dreamt that they came down
and painted a big ?ed cross on my door and it
feels as if the cross is daubed down my body
now. All down my body I remember that when the kissing was
over, I realised how empty the garden was,
"l do not know the mantt
lll, lt has always been a struggle facing up to who I am.
There has always been a battle to gain some sense of
identity that was not hateful to myself. lt took me years to
believe I was a man. That sounds silly, but it did. Other guys
in school would boast about all the changes happening to
them, They were crazy about becoming men. When they used
to show themselves in the changing rooms, I looked away in
disgust. At least, I told myself it was disgust. Now I know it
was self-loathing. Funny, years on now I thought I had myself
worked out. I thought I was at peace with myself. I was glad
to be a man with other men. I was gay. I went to workshops
and learned to shout it, 'G.A,Y|" Self-acceptance and all that.
When I read about the gay plague, all the self-loathing
returned, Strange, how when one hates oneself, one believes
every untruth they tell,
My brother came to see me. We were never very close.
He sat by my bed, gave me a paper and some grapes. He
was very awkward. When I told him, he did not look at me. He
just got up and walked out. I saw the nursing sister speak to
him. 'Ah, Mr. Smith-about your brother..." He stared at her.
amazed. "My brother? There must be some mistake. I do not
know the man."
And they bound him and led him away and delivered
him
lV I got pneumonia first. I became very ill and hot. I wanted
to get some air. I was wandering around the corridor outside
the flat, not knowing who I was. So they tell me. One of the
neighbours met me. She called the ambulance.
The cover of No 70
(above) dealt with the
thene of symbols and
featured some obvious
ones, such as the cross,
but some more esoteric
ones, such as the clown
holding the brolly.
(Inc'idental ly, clowns
wou'ld appear again on
the cover a few issues
later). The artwork and
the pastel -bIue
background makes it the
one cover which shows
its roots 'in the late
1980s more than any
other.
The cover for No. 79
(below) is a typical one
for the early '90s but
the photograph of
students at a denp is
particu] arly stri king.
l,le also th'ink the slogan
"Protest and Revise"
sums up the ethos of
this period perfectly.
MOVEMENT
Protesl and ltevise
movement 100 17

l
None of this is part of my world. Not the bed, nor ihe
room, nor the ambulance. They carried me from my flat like I
was dead. I looked about me and saw the house from that
strange angle and suddenly became so afraid, Everything is
slipping away and I am falling into a great void. I have no
control, I lie on a bed and am carried through my life and I
watch it seep away. Everything familiar is falling away, I do
not set the clock. I do not dial the phone or open doors, I
do not cook my food. I do not clean myself. Other people do
everything for me. I just lie here day after day, becoming less
and less.
"Are you the King of the lews?tt lesus said. "You
have said so.tt
V I remember all those days of tests. One test after
another. Shoving and pushing and jabbing and extracting.
And all the questions. The morning after I had been brought
in, a doctor came to see me. I felt rather sorry for her,
though really I should have been feeling sorry for mysell
Before she spoke. she read the charts at the bottom of my
bed. She asked me straight out: 'Are you a homosexual?"
Strange. lt felt as though my life hung on my answer to
that question. I wasn't sure how to make a reply, I was lying
on the bed flat out, helpless, She only wanted me to say yes
I hate the people who come to nurse me. I hate them
because they can do for me what I would do for myself. I
hate myself because of the way I am. Somebody else should
be lying here, noi me.
"Vtlhy, what evil has he done?tt
Vll. Yesterday. I sat in the chair by my window. I do not look
out much. The curtains are drawn and it is light. Then it is
dark and the curtains are drawn again. This happens every
day, Every day the same, with a little bit more struggle.
I sat in the chair and looked at the floor. I looked at a
tile for a long time. lt is a pale blue and there is a dark blue
blot running across it, like marble. I followed the line of the
blot for a long while. lt is the line of a beach I was once on
in Greece. lt is the line of the blue sea lapping at the shore.
I run to the line in my mind and feel the warmih ol the sea
creep up my legs and round my waist and I remember that
once I was happy and free. I believed that everything was
working for me. lf there is a God like ihey say there is, then
God must have made that blue line in Greece. He must have
put me here to watch it now. Here in this room. He must
hate me. My father hated me, when he realised who I am
God hates me too for that perhaps. But what did I ever do
for them to hate me, except to be myself?
Everything is
slipping away and
I am falling into a
great void. I have
no control. I lie
on a bed and am
carried through
my life and I
watch it seep
away.
or no. But I had no power over that word 'homosexual.' I
have no power to deline myself. I am all the names that
people pin on me: Queer. Bender. Bandit. Bummer, Child
molester. Poof. Fag. Nancy. Pervert. Deviant, Sick. Abnormal.
Homosexual. "lf that's how you'd like to think of me." I said.
She put the charts back and walked away.
ln the paper I read a couple of reports on 'homosexuals.'One
said ihat we should be locked away. We are a
danger to civilised society, The other was from a churchman
He said that I deserve to die because of who I am.
"Whom do you want me to release lor you?tt
Vl. When I was waiiing for the results of the tests, it never
seriously occurred to me that they might be positive. lt had
never occurred that one day it might be ME. Nobody
imagines ihat they will die. Not really. Not young people. Not
someone like me. I sat on the bed imagining what they might
be doing, putting little bits of me in tubes and shaking them
up, smearing them about.
No way could it be me. Somebody else perhaps.
Somebody sordid and stupid, but not me. I had always been
so clean and fit and well. ln the gym. I would pump the
machines like the other. So
strongl At the pool, racing
up and down the water,
pushing my way through the
water. Forcing it away from
my face, surging toward the
wall, heaving a turn. Then
on, on as if there was no
end to my power.
Sometimes I am so tired
I can barely reach for my
cup. li spills all over me, I
find it hard to grip now. Hard
to direct my limbs where I
want them to be. Sometimes
my body does not obey me.
Nothing happens like it used
to. Nothing works like it
should. Except fear. Fear
comes just the same,
When I think of how it
used to be, I feel very angry.
(( f memory serves me right, I
intentionally added the label
"the student Christian
magazine" beneath the name on
the title-page-l also added the
"fist" logo and then promptly wrote
a discussion paper in favour of
replacing it with a new logo. The
label has since remained, albeit in
altered forms, whereas the fist has
given way to the [current'dancing
woman'logol. My line of argument
was that, being part of the SCM,
the magazine's primary readershiP
should be students who were
actually or could potentially be
involved in the local member
groups. Anyone else interested in
reading the magazine was a
He took water and washed his hands before the
crowd
Vlll. They took what they needed and found out what they
wanted to know. They knew well before they told me
anything, They left me to lie in ignorance. When I asked the
nurses, ihey glibly said that everything would be alright and
that I should rest, Eventually a doctor came and told me that
I had pneumonia. He was very young, sincere and full of the
confidence of his science. But he found it hard to look into
my eyes for long.
He took some more blood from my arm, He was very
careful about injecting me. He put on plastic gloves before
he picked up the syringe. He ripped them off very quickly
afterwards and slung them in the bin which the nurse took
away. I watched him scrubbing his hands at the sink, working
so hard to wash someihing away. As if my blood was on his
hands. My blood is living death. Nobody wants to touch my
blood for fear of becoming me - this wasting, shrinking,
mangled stretch of flesh that is me. Some people will not
touch me. Porters refused to move me once, even to touch
my bed. Some nurses will not deal with my room. Some
welcome bonus. lf the intention
had been to set out to reach other
readers--either non-Christians
and/or non-students--'then this
should have been a separate
project under a different banner.
To my understanding, the basic
purpose of SCM in the 1980s was
to provide students with a unique
space in which they could explore
issues of laith in relation to church
and society. The concept of
"questioning faith" was a crucial
one--embracing the possibility to
hold strong convictions as well as
express doubts and pose questions.
-Andreas Havinga (nee Miiller)
editor, 1988-1990
t+ II-
=' J
A
-
=' J
ctrt
E
C?
I
/\
fnovemgnt 100 18

doctors wear masks. Being near me is dangerous.
There is no one near me. No one to touch and be gentle
with. No one to kiss. I am slowly ceasing to be human. I am
alone, rotting on the edge of the world.
He had lews flogged, and handed him over to be
crucified!
lX. They have not told me I am going to die, but I know that
I will. Quite soon. They treat each new illness as best they
can, but I am dying, There is no cure and therefore no hope.
I know I am dying.
I struggle every day to do what I can, but they do most
of it for me now. My body has unlearned every process that
was taught it, I wake up in the siench of my own waste, like a
baby. Sometimes I cry and cry, because I am so frustrated
and ashamed. There is nothing heroic or holy about it.
I am helpless. I am alone. I smell. I ache, I can do
nothing. This is what dying is,
Before, when I was on a ward, men used to die. We were
not allowed to see them dead. Nothing was said about them
dying. lt was as though they had never been there.
There was always the same procedure. The men came
from the morgue. They drew the curtains round all of us and
put screens across the aisle of the ward. I heard them wheel
the trolley in and heave the one two three body to its top.
They brought him down with a thud, sighed and then wheeled
him away. They pulled the curtains back and the sick in the
beds looked across at each other, Then they carried on
reading their papets.
I have listened to that thud time and tlme again in my
mind. I know that when I make that thud, I shall be dead.
Then this will be over,
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon
him
X. They moved me to a special ward. When I got there, I
knew ihat there was no future, I watched a man come
through the door. He was a tall man in a dressing gown and
slippers. He wheeled a drip beside him as he shuffled along.
Sometimes he would lean on the stand and catch his breath. I
imagined him as he had been-taut and full of vitality. I could
see this man as he had been in the pubs. I saw him through
imagined crowds, singularly sexual. Such vigour seemed like a
mockery of him now, as he struggled to his bed. His muscles
had waned. Skin sagged on his face. At his bedside, he took
off his robe. All across his body were patches of scarletpurple
skin.
this man they compelled to carry his cross
Xl. l'm not sure how Simon heard that I was ill, He came to
see me. He brought me some flowers. When he came inio my
room, he kissed me. He
came over to the bed and
pulled me up from the
sheet and put his arm
around my shoulder and
kissed my head. I felt like
me again. He did not stay
very long. When he was
gone. I knew I was me
and that there was some
good in me. Though my
body has gone bad, I am
good,
Sometimes I lie here
and I wish I could get up
and begin again. I wish I
could get out where
Simon is and live again. lf
I could have all my
chances once again, it
would be different. There
would be no hurt or lies
or pain this time. No
dishonesty, no abuse.
When I think like that I feel
such pain inside, lt drives
out tears that sting, There is nothing I can do now. There are
no means of amends.
Simon brought me daffodils, I watched them for hours
and hours, until their yellow heads turned brown and dry. As
a child, I would pick daffodils out in the garden for my mother.
When I gave them to her she would smile. She would put them
in a vase and admire them. I was happy then, to have made
her smile with my daffodils. lf only I could pick her daffodils
again. That would ease the years of silence and of crying.
"lrly God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?tt
Xll. When they give me the injections, I look into their eyes
to see if it is something different. Something that will bring on
the end. I used to want that, when I realised that the end was
going to come. I didn't know what it would be like. I didn't
realise it would be this dribbling away, this half-life, this
grinding down,
What I cannot bear is my mind raking over the rubbish of
my life, hauling up scraps from the past, releasing the stench
of deep buried sores. Then the anguish of being alone is the
worst pain. Sorting the unspeakable debris alone.
They do everything for me, but they do not clear this
refuse from my head. No space to cherish what has been
beautiful and fun,
There are red painted lines along my body. From the
roots of my hair to my toes. From one hand to the other. A
great red cross that is in me. All over me, lf there is a God,
then he must be like my father. like the headmaster, like the
politician, the churchman. God must be like them to let me lie
in such squalor alone. To let me stumble through ihe
unresolved like this. To let the bad get better of the good. lf
God is there, he sees the worsi, like they did. He doesn't
accept any part of me. Basically, God just isn't on my side. E
GREAT
m0ments
Beyond Christian
0f all the people interviewed
in Movqent over
the years, none has
evoked the response that
Post-Chri stian Fem'i ni st
Theolog'ian Daphne
Hampson did. Hampson was
interviewed by Penny
Dapp and Ian Harvey-
Pittaway 'in issue 79
(1991), entitled "Beyond
Christian Feminism".
Hampson explained why
she felt Christianity
was no longer vjable,
saying: "I don't think
humanity is going to
nove on religious'ly
until we leave
Christianity behind us."
She also said of
Christ'ian feminists:'I
don't really know why
one should, 'if one is a
feminist, want to go on
trying to reconcile
one's feminism lJith th'is
rel ig'ion. "
The resulting hue and
cry-$rhich featured in
the letters pages and
one published
response-seercd to come
from al'l sides:
Christians, theologues
and feninists. Even
Hampson apparently fe'lt
the intervien m'isrepresented
her views.
All this said, her many
subsequent books,
horever, have been
reviewed tn lbvgBnt
without incident.
movement 100 19

p
l- tb
lrl
ct)
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-O
Martin Davies gives a personalmemoir of Movenent during the 1990s
Not so much a
magazt ne
pi quant
o
asa
and
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movsmont t00 20
ecl ect'i c
T
h. first time I saw Movement was in the late 80's at
a Hunger Lunch in the semi-detached house that
I
served as an Anglican chaplaincy on Salmon Grove,
I Hull. lssue 68 was passed to me as I guiltily sipped
my iomato soup. The magazine had a rootless, artistic feel
to it, I was intrigued by its writers, by its exotic sounding
editor (Mr E Andreas Miiller) and by its editorial address.
Where was this publishing citadel in which young people got
paid to churn out alternative theology? And more to the
point, why was I wasting time writing poorly-structured
essays about Beowulf when I could be there instead?
A personal quest had begun and to cut a boring{oanyone-but-me
story short I became co-editor ol Movement
with Caroline Bailey in 1994. Michael Feakes, from whom we
took over, had polished Movenentinlo a modern, professional
publication "not so much a magazine as a piquant
and eclectic blend of radical current affairs comment and
postmodern chic, a journalistic bridge between Rolling Stone
hip and Economrsl savoir-faire," as I'm sure Michael would
have unpretentiously put it.
By the time myself and Caroline Bailey took over in
1993, Movenenfhad been contracted out and we were
working as freelancers in the downstairs toilet of a church in
Manchester. We called the office Hitler's Bunker and, aside
from one or two intrepid visitors, it was just us and ihe U-
bend. There were bars on the windows and a family of rats
lived in the bushes outside (they occasionally helped with
proof-reading). There was no heating and we had eight
electrical devices running off one plug extension board. We
tapped away on our keyboards, argued cattily and regularly
bunked off for "essential editorial meetings" in cafes and
bars around town. When the building surveyors came to
inspect the building in 1996, they declared our office 'unfit for
business'. "l've spent three years here", I told them proudly.
Our vision for the magazine was, at first, unclear. We
needed help and gathered together a small group of
students and 'critical friends'to form a think{ank cum
editorial board, The flip-chart buzz-words at our first
meeting were 'popular culture', 'confessional stories', 'interviews
with unusual subjects', 'regular columnists', 'distinctive
house-design' and'humour'.
The resulting product was thinner (24 pages) and
glossier than ever. There was a clear bias towards shorter,
argumentative pieces and features included an internet
column (which was never actually about the internet), three
'staff'columnists, an SCM history page called 'Salad Days',
bl end.
oo
and regular film, music and TV reviews. The anonymous and
scurrilous Serpent column that had been developed during
Feakes'time was maintained and continued to provoke
earnest essay-letters on the waylvardness oJ the modern
movement. Interviewees ranged from the relatively famous
(Richard Coles of the Communardsl) to the definitely
unfamous (Dave Tomlinson?) and our finest(?) editorial hour
came with the Nine 0'Clock Service scandal of 1995.
We had admired the innovation of NOS from afar for
some time so Caroline Bailey came up with the idea of
writing an eye-witness report from one of the famous
Sheffield services. ln issue 90, under the headline "Urban
Ambient", Movementproudly declared NOS to be the
"hippest church in the world" and we reported the remarks
of one high-ranking churchman who enthused that NOS was
the "most important thing happening in the Church of
England today". Three weeks later Chris Brain's systematic
exploitation of NOS members was national headline news
and we and presumably the churchman concerned-were
blushing into our pints/cassock.
ln more general terms, our feeling was that most
students, like us, were excited but confused about the possibilities
for Christianity. We enjoyed asking questions, debating
issues and feeling the vibes but we were less at ease with
the more dogmatically committed tone of earlier issues of
Movement. We subtitled the magazine "Questioning
Christianity" and proceeded to do just that.
ln 1995 Caroline Bailey left and Alison Webster took on
the joint editorship, bringing theological clout, a sharp eye
for a well-worked argument and a well-aimed satirical wit to
proceedings. lt's important to say that the magazine was fun
to work on at this time, I felt the unapologetic concentration
on accessible theology and popular culture made the
magazine more readable than ever and I'm excited to see that
the provocative, postmodern outlook that we aspired to has
continued to flourish and deepen under the current editor.
I still think of Movenent as a fantastically unique and
exciting magazine despite- or maybe because of- its
bumpy history. lt offers a largely uncensored glimpse of the
fast-moving world of student life and continues to invite a
free-spirited and uncompromising response to religion.
It was certainly a swell party while it lasted and my
infatuation wilh Movenent remains as raw as it did a decade
ago over that tomato soup in Hull, @
Martin Davies dited Movementfrom 1995-1997

The Church t,'li I I Eat
Itsel f
J J I
r J here?" the leader asked. "His Spirit is with us," I
felt like responding, wondering if this was all part of
I tn. nip lingo. lt turned out he was just asking after
the saxophone player.
I don't know quite what I expected to find at the "Rave in
the Nave" bui I went with an open mind and a genuine
interest to see for myself what it was all about.
"Think about it," said a member of N,0.S. whom I met on
retreat in a Franciscan house, "Where do people celebrate in
Britain in the
'90's? ln pubs,
at football
matches and in
night clubs. And
if worship
should be a
celebration
then this is our
cultural
weaponry, "
Young people
tend to know
how to enjoy
themselves in
clubs and don't
tend to enjoy
themselves in
church. The
logic is
obvious...
So is rave worship a contextualising of liturgy into the
sub{ext of modern youth culture, meeting people where they
are, or is it another embarrassing attempt to be 'with it'?
A key issue is the use of the body in worship which has
been ignored for so long in the anti-body western tradition. ln
contrast the almost totally dance-centred rave worship
breaks down the body/spirit dualism-praying through the
motion of the body. Having said that, I can't see ihis lorm of
worship ever becoming mainstream-l mean i'ts bad enough
going to your average Anglican church and enduring white
people irying to clap in time, let alone shaking their groovy
thang to the Lordl
As it got underway someone turned to me and said,
"This is called liturgics-it's a cross between liturgy and
aerobics." I must admit, it did remind me of the keep fit
programme in the film The Pope Must Die: "Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John. Work that fat until it's gone," Like most things
relQious, it's easy to mock.
So how did it actually feel to be there? I was somewhat
self-conscious to start with, which took me back to school
discos where we all used to stand around the edge of the
hall until enough people were dancing. After that it felt quite
natural, rather like dancing in a night club, except without the
benefit of narcotics...
By way of introduction the leader said, "The difference
between this and the sort of rave you may be more
familiar with is that thls one won't go all night and this is a
drink and drug free zone, Though we may be getting high
on the Spirit."
To me this seems rather like calling an alcohol-free lager
a real ale.
My main objection is that there was no space for stillness
and reflection, the things I value most in worship. What if you
don't feel like celebrating? Putting it in perspective, it's
another product in the free-market of religion and diversity is
no bad thing. Somehow I can'i see it happening in 20 years,
but I guess that's been said about Christianity from the start.
Peter Babi nqton i n l'4ovement 83 ( 1993 )
Sugar and Spi ce
The Girlv Show is so well known, and so much talked
about in pubs, that I'm not going to review its contents.
I
I I'm assuming that, unlike me, you have a TV and have
actually heard about it, Watching The Girly Showwas my first
experience of TV for almost a year, apart from a six hour
orgy of videotaped Pride and Prejudice at Christmas (the
contrast could hardly be greater). lnsiead, I want to discuss it
from a feminlst perspective and look at the implications of
The Girly Showlor feminism.
The Girly Showis apparently part of a response to the
'new lad' culture
epitomised by
programmes like
Fantasy Football
and magazines like
loaded lt shows
that'ladettes' (a
perfect word for
defining yourself in
relation to men who
are, of course, the
norm...) can behave
badly and enjoy
themseves doing
so. lt is asserted as 'feminism for the nineties' women
having a good time, being loud, brash, rude, talking about
sex and generally acting contrary to traditional notions of
quiet, well-behaved, considerate 'ladies'. Ihe Girly Show
certainly demonstrates all these things. However I do not find
that this provides a viable alternative to future to feminism.
Especially I find it lacks any critical edge, There seems to be
no perception that there is anything wrong with society the
way it is. Everything is either fine or funny. Lacking this critical
edge, I don't see how it can be transformative, and working
to change things integral to my understanding of what
feminism is.
Whilst it is full of images of (fairly traditional) feminity,
The Girly Show does not provide women's space. I was very
struck with the number of men in the audience, and in particular
by ihe dominance of men's voices in the audience
catcalls. The only woman's voice I heard in the audience in
one episode was the quiet, embarrassed voice of a woman
who got to speak only because her bofriend had sent in
photos of himself for the 'reader's husbands' bit.
Whilst the presenters are all women, their role does noi
seem to me to be about women having power and control,
but about perpetuating tired old ideas about what makes an
attractive woman (apart from anything else, they are all so
thin, so young, so skimpily dressed), I was also very strongly
struck by the relentless heterosexuality of it all, despite the
presence of Rachel Williams, who is bisexual, I'm iold that an
episode I didn't see 'addressed' lesbianism by asking women
in the 'toilet talk' section whether they would ever sleep with
another woman. Curiously enough, they all said or screamed
'no'. I wonder how they chose their interviewees? I don't lind
constani references to heterosexual sex an adequate alternative
to the feminist critique of compulsory heterosexuality.
The Girly Show does assert that women can be loud,
rude, noisy and talk about sex without a romantic haze
Gover me
BEAUTIFUT
l.lith its best-ever
masthead 1ogo, fronted
by Lucy Sm'ith's nowubiqu'itous
"dancing
woman" graphic (later
adopted by SCM as the'ir
own logo) , l,lovarcnt
achieved a zen'ith of
hjgh-street quality
slickness. Photos, such
as l,lo. 90' s (above)
taken from the poster of
the film Priest, were
used for dramatic effect
(And while it may not be
'PC" to admit this, lve
think Linus Roache is
the magazine's sexiest
cover subject, barring
I'larty Feldman, of
course! )
As the magaz'ine heads
toward the milleniun,
ilovement is stil'l using
covers to inventively
challenge peoble, as I'lo.
98's t'larholian take on
l{other Teresa {be'low)
demnstrates.
movgment
movement 100 21

ehind the
SCENES
EDITORS OF MOVEMENT
1972-1998
1972
Maggi tlhyte (B'ilbo 1&2)
t972-7975
Viv Broughton (3-21)
w/Richard Zipfel (11-17)
1974-1979
llary Condren (17-38)
w/Tim 0'Neil'l (19-32)
w/Gareth Byrne (35-38)
1980 - 1984
Peter Gee (39-54)
Reinier Holst (41-56)
1984
Neil Hclllwraith (57)
19&4-1987
Anne Surncrs (58.67)
1988-1990
Andreas lliiller (68-75)
1990- 1.992
Ian Harvey Pittarvay (n-A)
1993-1994
Michael Feakes (83-88)
1995- 1997
Martin Davies (89-97)
Caroline Bailey $9-92)
Alison l,lebster $2-961
1998
Graeme Burk (98-100)
movcmcnt 100 22
(unlike Mills and Boon), This seems to me to be something
that is worth saying, but surely it could be said in a less
heterosexist, men-centred way by presenters who are less
traditionally flirtatious and attractive, And at least by presenters
who do not look disbelieving when one of them asserts
that women 'are the way forward', ll The Girly Show epitomises
feminism for the nineties, roll on the next millenium!
Rebecca Jones rn l"lovement 93 (1996)
The Breath of God
( Excerpted )
i /| v roots are in Sikhism. I was born into a deeply
r..rigiorr Sikh family. I was brought up in an area of
lVl
I I Kenya where people of such various backgrounds
as Hinduism, Sikhism, lslam, and people of African traditional
religions lived side by side as brothers and sisters. Members
of my family have such a depth of awareness of God and
such a depth of spirituality that in Kenya our house was
never far away from the temple. lYembers of my family
shared in the leading of worship, my grandfather read in the
temple and so did my mother, as she does to this day. I
spent hours in the temple for worship, worship that is
centred on the word of God, and where the mixture of the
reading of scriptures and the smell of incense combine in
such a way that the very atmosphere is like the breath of
God. ln this Sikh context my own experience of God developed
into a relationship of love and of trust. And all this
without ever having encountered Christ, or the Church,
Nobody is going to tell me, therefore, that outside
Christianity, apart from Christ, there is no experience of God
or a relationship of love and trust with God.
ln 1 964 Kenya became a free and independent country.
We had British passports, so we had to leave. We came to
Britain. My faiher took up employment and established
accommodation for us in Dudley, in the Midlands, and for the
first time in my life I experienced hostility and ridicule simply
because of the colour of my skin, an experience I had not
had in Kenya. I was the only person wearing a turban in the
whole of that town in those days, and it was regularly
knocked off my head.Once boys even tied me up with it.
Within a month or so of my arrival in Dudley I started
attending a midweek Bible class, at Vicar Street Methodist
Church, There was no Sikh Temple nearby. lt was a meeting
attended by other young Sikh boys. The warmth and the
friendship there was truly welcoming and I was glad to be in
a centre of worship again. The knowledge that God was
honoured in this place made me feel at home. The friendship
was welcoming in contrast to the hostility I experienced in
school. I joined members of the Bible class on summer
holidays, on pilgrimage to Scotland, climbing mountains. lt
was like being in Kenya again. I listened to people talking
about Christ in the meetings. I joined in prayers and in the
worship, I became an avid reader of the New Testament, and
became captivated-l can't think of a betier word- by
Christ, who is at the centre of it, and his teaching. I began to
share my reflections about Christ in the Bible class. And all
this as a Sikh. Gradually the relationship with God that was
mine in Kenya as a Sikh was revived by the worship, by the
reading of the New Testament, and by the person and the
teaching of Jesus Christ.
I remember kneeling down one day during a prayer
meeting in Glasgow while we were on holiday and making my
commitment to be a servant of God in the church.
There followed then a time when I was confused and
frightened by all that was happening to me spiritually. Why
was I getting so deeply involved in the church? By this time
I was also attending a Sikh temple in nearby Smethwick.
Should I not now just attend the temple? Why had I made
this personal decision of discipleship to Christ? My own
family became concerned and condemned my developing
commitment to Christ. 'Why have you become a Christian?'
they asked. 'You do not need to be a Christian to know God,
You know thai. 0ur knowledge of God, our relationship to
God is not inferior to that of Christians.' I shared those sentiments.
All this caused me great pain and confusion, Why
then, if I did know God as a Sikh did I have to go and make
my commitment to Christ? This was an experience that
chilled me to the bones. Then one day I happened to be
sitting in the garden, reading the New Testament. I came to
lohn Chapter l 5 and verse 1 6. And the words there give me
strength to this day:'You did not choose me, I chose you',
It is one thing to trust and to love God, lt is quite
another thing to know that God loves you, that God trusts
you, that God calls you, that God chooses you, ihat God is
for you, on your side. I began to see the decision I had
made as actually a response, a response to the choice God
had made to choose me. This is the gospel, is it not? This
is the good news, is it not? lt is in this good news that God
comes to us, chooses us, that my response, and my
strength, and my vision lie. This discovery of the good news
and its challenge to me was chilling. lt made my hair stand
on end. I have often had that experience, whenever I have
been inspired in fact; I have that trembling, chilling experience.
I find it difficult to describe it as a warming experience.
It is as if the breath of God is blowing on you,
My special moment was when I realised that God had
chosen me, even me. The Methodist church gave me a note
to preach, and I conducted worship. And I preached in
churches with my turban as my head covering. ln my development
as a disciple of Christ, far from abandoning my past
or my Sikh culture, I have actually learned to affirm it and to
be proud of it. ln fact, my understanding of Sikhism has
grown as a result of my dlscipleship to Christ and I am a
keen though critical student of Sikh siudies. I have seen a
continuiiy between my upbringing as a Sikh and my Chrisiian
discipleship as important.
Jesus' first disciples followed him as Jews all their lives.
Paul, after his Damascus road experience, did not cease to
be a Hebrew but remained proud of his culture, although he
questioned some parts of it, such as the emphasis on law.
So I try to follow Christ, within the Sikh culture. I have never
described myself as a former Sikh, Culturally, I remain a Sikh,
I am able to attend worship in Sikh temples, for God is there,
and I can share in the communal meals with my family and
others in the Sikh temple, for it is to me the sacrament of
God. And I wear the bracelet, the MRA. For this is a symbol
of God's truth and justice in Sikhism. I wear it as a sign of my
respect for Sikhism, for my family, and to remind me that these
hands must always seek the truth and the justice of God.
I ndej j t Bhogal i rt l'4ovement 95 ( 1997 )
( Excerpled )

lnterviews with Dorothy Day. Rants about Spandau Ballet. Journalism about Billy Graham.
Campaigns against the Archbishop of Canterbury. Prophetic placements of Tony Blair on the cover.
Find out what great moments in Movenent's history didn't make it into this retrospective...
The Cutti ng
Fl oor
t I I illililffi:iT3:i:i;Tffi;:lji;fliil:
ll It songs came rrom, rn srmtar iasnron, you neeo to
U U go to your campus torary an' crg out Ine musrysmelling
back issues and (carefully) leaf through them to really
get a sense ol whal Movenenfwas like in the past.
The task we set out to do-reprint a sampling of
Movenenls output over the past 26 years and tell its history
in greater detail-was never going to be easy. The discussion
volume that Editorial Board members were given to
select articles from (sifted from a judicious, if sanity{axing,
reading of the previous 99 issues) was over 200 pages long.
There were less than 20 pages available in this section.
Right off the mark, space constraints meant that the
retrospective would focus on written reflections and
reportage as opposed to interviews. Which is a shame, as
the list of people Movementhas interviewed over the years
is very impressive, beginning with Catholic Worker movement
founder Dorothy Day and later including feminist theologian
Mary Daly, then-Bishop of Durham David Jenkins, Post-
Christian Feminist Theologian Daphne Hampson, Scottish
Episcopal Bishop and author Richard Holloway, former SDP
leader Shirley Williams and, recently, 0bserver columnist
Kathryn Flett. 0f these, David Jenkins and Mary Daly's interviews
are well worth looking up.
Movementnol only had an impressive list of interviewees,
but in the 1970's it had an enviable list of contributors as well,
including Rosemary Radford Reuther, Kenneth Leech, Daniel
Berrigan and others. Most of these articles were reprints
themselves, but often the appearance in Movenent conslituted
the first British and lrish publication. As our intention
was to republish original material, we chose not to re-publish
any work we knew to be first printed elsewhere. There were
exceptions: Dan Berrigan's piece on StarWarsis one such
example, and had the space limitations not been so great, we
would have included Rosemary Reuther's "ls God A Wife
Beater?", one of the best articles in Movenentin the'70s.
One of the inequities of this edition is that while it made
sense for aestheticand historical reasons to put 1 980-1 987
under one umbrella, it meant that one of the longest
stretches of its history-7 years and 30 issues-would
have to be compressed into 4 pages, During this time
Movenentfeatured more journalism than ever, reporting on
events ranging from Billy Graham's Crusade in 0xford (issue
40) to government cuts io Lothian Housing Estates (issue
48). 0f particular note is lssue 50's review of the South
East region's "Sex and Food" conference which discussed
issues of self-image, anorexia/bulimia and media power well
before the rest of society had heard of eating disorders.
The arts reviews section of that era makes fascinating
reading today too, especially Derek Whyte's eccentric and
scholarly Music Column, which stands out as the 'mustread'
feature of the time. The high-octane writing style, the barbed
I
Room
reviews and the muso ramblings are classic Movement.
Whyte's trawl through the contemporary releases of the time
provide amusing reading now Gary Numan's lirzing
)rnanents album is written off as "last year's stale aromas"
and Whyte is particularly unimpressed with an emerging New
Romantic band called Spandau Ballet: "Futurist mumbojumbo...the
same old brand of bass-heavy bastardised disco
that has been around for years". Likewise, a new band called
The Cure also stir the Whyte spleen: "The sound of chartered
accountanis set to music, the new Grammar school angst...
preientiousness dressed up as earnest insight. l've had
deeper spiritual insights walking the dog", While quite possibly
the best review column Movemenf has ever produced, it's a
column that's far easier to quote than actually excerpt.
It was decided to seleci pieces with a minimal amouni of
context to explain, This wrote off a number of articles from
the 1 980s, which by virtue of being relevant current affairs
pieces then, have now dated considerably. lt also precluded
many articles about SCM itsell as the details would now be
inconsequential (if not incomprehensible) to modern
readers. (Even so, we did make one exception and represented
John Davies' report on "Seeds of Liberation").
More disappointingly, it prevented us from reprinting
some of Viv Broughton's best "Ear To the Ground" columns
where he demanded the resignation of then-Archbishop of
Canterbury Donald Coggan on grounds that border on the Monty
Python-esque: "l had been prepared to give the elderly egocentric
the benefil of the doubt over his early bunglings," wrote an
enraged Broughton, "but I don't see how we can continue to
cover up his embarrassing double life as Primate of England by
day and part{ime publicist for the Danish Film lndustry by night".
After this point, it began to get realy oblique,..
With back issues of editions from the 1990's still available
from SCM Central Office, our selections from that period
have been minimal. This kept a number of pieces from
reemerging, including Michael Feakes' far-sighted analysis of
Labour's struggle to find a religious high ground in the wake
of the disastrous 1 992 General Election (Tony Blai6
described then as "a man who has to come up with a snappy
phrase to encapuslate his philosophy" was featured on the
front coverl). Also missing are examples of the high-quality
columns which have been a feature of the magazine for
almost five years, and controversial pieces such as the recent
scatalogical review of the W series This LIfe.
While none of these pieces were included in this retrospective,
most libraries in universities and theological
colleges will have a (probably somewhat incomplete) set of
Movenentinthe stacks, (Some discriminating chaplaincies
may hold a treasure trove of back numbers too). Leafing
though them can prove to be a great way to procrastinate
researching an essay. Who knows, you may discover from
reading the original material that you dispute our choicesand
move even closer to becoming atrue Movemenf anorak.
fnovefnent
r00
a speci a1
retnospective of the
past 100 issues of
Movenent, the termly
magazine of the Student
Chrsti an Movement
Ed'itor
Graeme Burk
Editorial Assistant
Carrje 0'Grady
Selection Committee
Tim Woodcock
Kate Wi I son
Irfan Merchant
Craig Cool i ng
Stephen Matthews
Graeme Bunk
Special Thanks To:
fhe "Movement Anorak
Reference Group":
l"la rti n Dav i es
and l"1i chael Feakes
for all thein insight,
advice and hard work.
and all the formen
editors who grac.iously
gave of their time to
be interviewed:
Viv Broughton, Mary
Condren, Richard
Zipfel, Peter Gee
and Andreas Havinga
(and our apologies to
the edi tors we were
unable to get jn touch
with due to time
constrai nts )
SCM
l^Jesthill College
Sel ly Oak
Birmingham 829 6lL
tel: 0121 471. 2404
fax: 0121 4I4 I25I
SCI'4[dcharis.co.uk
http : //www. chari s . co. uk
/SCl"l
01998 Student Christian
l'4ovement
movemont 100 23

il
FEAR, EMffiNESS, DESPAIR: AtilEEK
Wftl llM, llM stands for lesus ln Me.
Tines and is unwell. Take him to cat
vomitorium. Long queue of cats with
Kent County H, the governing body of
all Kent football (don't laugh). The
It's not that I don't think our nation is
morally unwell, it's just that I've got no
SID stands for Sin ls Death. Any cryptic
bits of magazines between teeth, Sleep
league chairman, Richard Hayton said,
intention of placing a serious illness in
signs saying'- 2 *' mean 'Minus to
happily and dream of editing P000ML
"There are several matters of faith over
the hands of quacks. (1997)
Plus'. And P000ML stands for Plss Orf
Tines, (1994)
which we differ but the main one is
Out A My Life. The first three belong to
probably that we disagree with the
OJPIII v 0ASIS Rock music and
JlM, the evangelistic advertising
MELID0VilN 0R TIIAW? How I laughed at
Mormons on who we believe Jesus was."
Christianity are such unhappy bed-
campaign that's sweeping the nation.
the news that the Methodist Church is
This is where the Serpent can help.
fellows. Noel Gallaghel the cocky, song-
The last one is my own. Not very good,
facing 'meltdown'.
I am happy io inform Mr Hayton that
writing bit of 0asis and not a theologian
but accurate and comforting. A quick
Meltdown implies overheating, a
Jesus was a creative left winger with
of note, amply proves my point. He was
diary:
Monday. Gambolling downstairs for my
surfeit of feverish activity But there's
not been much that's hot about
superb vision and an ability to please
the crowds. After beginning his career
asked recently if he was religious at all:
"l don't wear a crucifix for nothing you
breakfast Pop-Tarts, what should come
hurtling through my lefter box but a
Methodism since the turn of the
century-the eighteenth century-
with lowly Galilee Wanderers, he went on
to form his own team-the legendary
know..l don't know what it symbolises,
but I believe in a higher power I don't
copy of The llM l/mes Once past the
when the people in Scunthorpe and
lerusalem Left Footers-who enjoyed
believe that on a Monday morning some
dental ad on the front cove[ I discover
Skegness used to fall down in ecstasy at
three years of enormous success
white-bearded geezer with fucking
an article headed Gay Signer Changes
meetings, frothing at the mouth. I don't
before their inspirational player-
nothing to do created the planets.
His Tune aboul Simon foster; a gay pop
hear much ecstasy at my local church,
manager died strugging to get his head
Bollocls to that."
singer who has discovered God (yawn).
unless you count the faint smiles that
on to the end of a nasty cross, (1 995)
You will have spotted by now that
The article finishes thus: And now 9
flicker across the faces of the faithful at
deari young, expressive Noel is telling us
years later, a committed Christian and
the sight of Jammy Dodgers rather than
HERRING, RED During the media
that he is no literalist when it comes to
training for the ministry, Simon has a
Rich Tea biscuits at the post-service
ballyhoo surrounding the 0rdination of
Genesis. lt's easy to mock isn't it? But I
beautiful girlfriend and they hope to
coffee. And did you hear the er(cuses as
Women debate, much mention was
suspect some theologians would do well
marry soon'. Dash off to the vomitorium
to why young people don't go to church
made by the anti-ordination lobby of the
to take a leaf out of Noel's slim dictio-
cheered only by the unintentionally
anymore? Get this. lt's because of
potential blows to Anglican/ Catholic
nary, I mean, when Don Cupitt says:
homoerotic subtitle: 'Jim really worked
divorce. Yes. lt seems that so many
ecumenical dialogue were a'yes'vote to
"0utsidelessly there is only the solar
for Simon'.
young people have to pay weekend
result. Well, now we have a 'yes'. I know
flux of creation and the destrudion, the
Tuesday: Ganbolling downstairs, blah,
visits to the parent that they don't live
you will all join me in hoping that these
outpouring seff-renewing stream of
blah, blah.,. a copy of Rheinhard
with, that theyjust can't get to church. I
two great churches continue apace with
dancing and scattering energies+ead-
Bonnke's pamphlet From Minus to Plus
suspect there are plenty more basic
their passionate, high-profi le,
as-signs" doesn't he really mean to say:
hits the doormat...Read the first page,
things that make Methodist churches
pioneering, seltsacrificial and all-
"Life's fuckin' smart innit?"
renew my subscription at the vomitorium
unattractive: entrance halls decorated
consuming ecumenical activity. lt would
Likewise--pu'll pardon me
and proceed with lining of cat's tray.
like hospitals; Sunday School rooms with
be such a shame if this Synod decision
ramming my point home-when Liam
Wednesday:Cal brings in JIM Timesl
dreary pictures of Jesus knocking on
were to in any way slow down the trail-
Gallagher sings 'l\nd after all, pu're my
lined his tray with. This is one discerning
the door holding a Victorian gasJamp,
blazing process which we know was so
Wonderwall" l, for one, am pleased he is
puss. Read article called 'Stars for JIM'
or Boys Brigade shields that make you
close to resolution. ( I 993)
not singing 'At this particular point in
about born-again sportsmen: Bernhard
feel you've unwittingly enrolled into a
time, pu are promoting beneficial
Langer (putting Christ first), Kriss
public school; insipid tea and coffee
ARE MBOONS PRIMAIES? lf we are to
responses in my central nervous system".
Akabusi (running in chcles for Christ),
served in berylware, and endless
have a fat, balding man called George
lf it comes down to a choice
Cyrille Regis (know Christ, no goals)
sandwiches with potted meat in them;
running our nation's spiritual affairs,
between theology and rock music
and, stunningly, Ad Vatanen (on the
but worst of all, those noticeboards
why can't it be Boy George?
(unlikely, I admit) then I'd take rock
Christian rally circuit), Q,reue at the
outside, with posters printed on neon
I'm getting weary of George the
music and verbose, little Noel. Cos, after
vomitorium.
paper carrying unfunny slogans that
Balder's fortnightly proclamations of
all, life rssmart innit? (1995)
Thursday:BusIo work is held up in
scream, 'We live in a time-warp'. (1996)
'Moral Panic'. His latest'panic-bite'
traffic and man starts to read out bits
concerns the possibil'rty of Prince
ER, TllANlG May I say a wholly insin-
from the Bible and preaches a little
lfs ONLY A GAME lnternecine disputes
Charles re-marrying-which is hardly
cere thank you to the rather angry
sermon about he used to get frustrated
don't come any more sad and futile than
going to send us spiralling into a value-
reader from Cumbria who sent me an
by traffic but doesn't now that he's a
the current furore raging in the Medway
less dystopia. I think he sees it as a
unpleasant letter recentty pointing out,
Christian. He invites us fellow travellers
lnter-Church football League. The
marketing tool. lf he can get the nation
in the most hostile way imaginable, that
to a JIM service at a local mad-house
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day
feeling 'morally unwell'then he is in a
SERPENT is an anagram of REPENTS. I
church. Man at front of bus loses his
Saints (Mormons to ignorami) in
good position from which to proscribe
would simply like to point out that it is
rag and tells the guy to 'P000Ml- good
Gillingham has been banned from
Christian'rty as the 'moral remedy'. The
also an anagram of TSEPENR, a
and fast. Argument begins, fther
playing in the local church league, The
problem is, as marking tactics go, it's
Russian word meaning'Please don't
passengers distindty uncomfortable.
Mormon eleven are justifiably furious at
Ratneresque, The more he attempts to
write to me anymore'. (1995)
Friday:Spend morning thinking of new
this rank display of religious intolerance
induce moral panic, the more he proves
acronyms for.llM. Cat has ealen llM
and have lodged an appeal with the
that the only botty leaking is his own.
THE SERPENT
movefnent 100 24

ln lndia, the Dalits are, according to a World Council of Churches report, "the poorest of the
poori the most exploited'. Alwyn Jones discusses the oppression-and violence-suffered bV
these people, and the solidaritv work being done with them.
Untouchable
Solidarity
LONDON TO MADRAS
WffiHtii,*i,,'*,:':*"
crowd of people, silently watching. Not
hostile, not friendly, just so many
watching eyes. Walking through the
narrow gap in the crowd was an eerie
experience. Behind them were the
rickshaw drivers and the hotel touts.
Beyond them were three unforgettable
weeks in South lndia.
From Madras we travelled to
Bangalore, to drink hot. sweet coffee
with staff members of the lndian
Student Christian Movement. lndian
SCM kindly gave us their jeep for a day
to visit a local art ashram. There, we
met Catholic artist Jyoti Sahi, whose
work blends Christian ideas with
traditional lndian images. Jyoti Sahi's
work is controversial in a postmissionary
church where "Christian"
often equals "Western". While
celebrating lndian culture in his art,
Jyoti Sahi also challenges it. He often
puts women at the centre, in a culture
where they are often marginalized.
After a rest in the cool climate of
Kodai hill station, we arrived in the city
of Madurai to visit Tamilnadu
Theological Seminary. There. we met
students training to work in the Church
of South lndia, into which the
Protestant churches of South lndia
united fifty years ago. We also visited a
Dalit Resource Centre. to learn about
lndia's Dalit movement.
Who are the Dalits? ln the words of
the World Council of Churches, "the
Dalits are the poorest of the poor, the
most exploited...we must express our
solidarity with them and extend our
support in their struggle." What is the
meaning of the word Dalit? The root
word "dal," comes from Sanskrit,
meaning broken, torn asunder or
trampled. ln Hebrew the root word is
also "dal" meaning low, weak, poor.
Why Dalit? Because the millions of
people on the margins of lndia's caste
system, called by others "untouchable,"
"pariah" or "outcast" have given
themselves a name to reflect their
identity as an oppressed people.
Being born into a Dalit family puts
people on the margins of lndian society.
Touching a Dalit is seen as a polluting
act. They are expected to conform to
movement s
cultural expectations of inferiority. They
suffer poverty, discrimination, debt
bondage and the loss of their land. Dalit
women are doubly downtrodden. As
women and Dalits, they are seen as the
possessions of men, facing exploitation
and discrimination.
When Dalits protest, they face
violence. ln the village of Laxmanpur Bath
in Bihar state, local Dalits, hungry and
desperately poor, tried to harvest a piece
of disputed land. On the night of Monday,
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1 December 1997, more than 2OO armed
upper-caste men surrounded the village.
Some Dalit men nearby fled, believing
that the gunmen would not attack their
sleeping families. They were wrong.
During the next two and a half hours. the
gunmen killed 61 people, including 26
women and 19 children under the age of
10.
The Dalits have responded to this
situation by forming a united
movement, bringing together Sikh,
Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and
secular Dalits to work for their liberation.
This movement has called for
Westerners to show solidarity by
putting pressure on the lndian authorities
to protect the human rights of
Dalits. ln response, Khalsa Human
Rights, an interfaith group working for
human rights in lndia, is running a Dalit
Solidarity Campaign.
MADRAS TO LONDON
showed how his status as a Dalit and a
Bishop has caused controversy within
the church. Visiting one parish, he
found the words "Paraiyar Bishop Go
Home" daubed on the church wall. Our
word "pariah"' comes from this word
"Paraiyar" that non-Dalits use to
information. Henry's Dalit Liberation
Education Trust works with Dalits,
especially young people and women, for
the three Rs of Dalit liberation
education: self-realisation, self-reliance
and self-respect. The Trust are
establishing a residential centre, the
ishop Azariah, the Bishop of
Madras, and Henry Thiagaraj, of
the Dalit Liberation Education
Trust of lndia arrived at London
Heathrow Airport at 12.40 pm, UK
Time. They had just spent an intense
week with a United Nations working
group in Geneva, speaking of the plight
of lndia's Dalits. They spoke with
authority on Dalits as they are Dalits
themselves.
They had come to London to meet
with the new Dalit Network, an initiative
of David Haslam of the Churches
Commission on Racial Justice. The Dalit
Network brings together religious groups,
human rights organisations, development
agencies and concerned individuals to
listen to Dalits and to co-ordinate action
to show solidarity with them.
Bishop Azariah spoke from his own
experience as a "Paraiyar Bishop." He
describe Dalits in this part of South
lndia. Bishop Azariah talked of the
impact of caste ideology on the selfrespect
of Dalits.
Henry Thiagaraj said that "Every
hour two Dalits are assaulted, every day
MORE THAN 2OO ARMED UPPER.
CASTE TvIEN SURROUNDED THE
VILLAGE. SOME DALIT I'IEN
HEARBY FLED, BELIEVIHG THAT
THE GUH]'|EH YVOUTD NOT
ATTACK THEIR SLEEPIHG FAIVITLIES.
THEY WERE YVROHG. DURIHG THE
NEXT TIYO AHD A HALF HOURS,
THE GUN]'|EH KILLED 6l PEOPLE'
IHCLUDIHG 26 VVO]'|EN AND l9
CHILDREN UHDER THE AGE OF I O.
three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits
are murdered, two Dalit houses are
burned, in lndia." These figures are
based on official lndian Government
movcmgnt 10
Delta Project, for the liberation and
ecological awareness of Dalits.
Learning from the Dalit experience, we
could consider our own culture. Who are
people in our society reluctant to touch?
Do women have true equality here? And
what kinds of people are left on the
margins by our religious institutions?
The new Dalit Network in the UK
will meet visiting Dalits and show
solidarity with them. You are warmly
invited to participate in these meetings.
Such solidarity is needed. ln the words
of Bishop Azariah. "The experience of
the Dalits is rejection." fit
Alwyn Jones works for Khalsa Human
Rights in Leicester.
. lf you would like to book a Dalit
Solidarity workshop for your local
group contact Alwyn Joneq Khalsa
Human Rightc 9 Holy Bones, leiqester
LEI 4lJ, UK, teUfax 0116 262 4264
KhalsaHR@dial. pipex.com.
o For information about th6 Dalit
Network, contact the Rev. David
Haslam, Convenor, Dalit Network, c/o
Churches Commission for Racial
Justice, Councit of Ghurches for Britain
and lreland, 35 Lower Marsh,
Waterloo, london SEl 7RL.

Millennium Dreams
(No Knitting; Please)
hen I was in my teens I
would sit in church each
Sunday behind an elderly
lady in the congregation
who would knit throughout every
service. Maybe she stopped for the
prayers; I can't recall. However, unlike
pandrop sooking, knitting is not a
universally accepted way in which to
alleviate the tedium of dull and lengthy
sermons in the Kirk, and the lady in
question frequently felt called upon to
explain (with alacrity) that her labours
were driven by spiritual purpose and
charitable intent: "l'm knitting vests for
the black babies," she would confide to
vocal and visual enquirers alike.
Even at that relatively tender age I was
conscious that 'knitting vests for black
babies' was almost as ideologically
unfashionable as the sartorial garments
she produced. Never having been to
Africa, the vests' disclosed destination, I
These experiences surfaced in my
mind in May while I was on a bus travelling
to Birmingham. The leaders of the
world's most powerful governments were
holding a summit meeting there and like
the many thousands of others who made
a pilgrimage to Birmingham that day, I
was there to protest about the gross
economic disparities between the rich and
the poor of our planet and, in particular.
to add my voice to the calls for the
cancellation of so-called 'third world
debt'. This was Jubilee 2000, the
campaign to mark the millennium by
breaking the chains of international debt
which enslave so many of the world's
people.
lT'S HARD TO GET AWAY FROl'l
THE FACT THAT IH OUR CULTURE
MAHY OF OUR COHVEHTIOHAL
NOTTONS OF sCHARITY' ARE
CLOSELY BOUHD-UP }YITH
ARCHAIC IgTH CEHTURY NOTIONS
OF DUTY AHD PFIILANTHROPY
WHICH NOW SEEM NOT OHLY
TAINTED, BUT IHDEUBLY
SCARRED BY THE HANGOVER OF
A VIOLENT COLOI{IAL HISTORY.
could relieve my own boredom by
imagining a vast continent peopled by
countless children who roamed the veldt
in their dolly-sized vests of eccentric stripg
made from oddments of scratchy wool. ln
Guides we were encouraged to knit to an
only very slightly different pattern in order
to produce 'square' blankets for the Red
Cross. I loathed knitting and was as
certain as I am now that there were
alternative ways in which to demonstrate
my concern for the needy.
&
eilidh ruhiteford
thinkpiece
On the long drive south I had a
chance to reflect on my motives for
being there. At times I can feel torn
between my apparent helplessness in
the face of global economic forces and
a sneaking suspicion that I'm salving
my own conscience as much as the
greater ills of humanity. lmaginary
knitting needles are prodding me into
action. l've been trying to pinpoint the
difference between the Jubilee 2OOO
campaign and the colonially inspired
gestures of earlier generations.
Regardless of the trenchant and very
welcome political analysis of the Jubilee
2000 organisers, I suspect that in
practice the 'black baby' mentality is
only changing slowly. I'm not sure it
matters too much if quite a few folk
arrived in Birmingham to 'help' the poor.
There's a lot of work to be done in
educating us all about the many complex
issues surrounding debt, development
and international aid and its an ongoing
process. And I sense too that most of us
have as much to learn about the spirituality
of giving as about the politics of
debt. Besides which, actions speak
louder than words. lt need hardly be said
that the most incisive political critique is
pretty worthless if it is devoid of any
concrete efforts to realise change.
It's hard to get away from the fact
that in our culture many of our conventional
notions of 'charity' are closely
bound-up with archaic 19th century
notions of duty and philanthropy which
now seem not only tainted, but indelibly
scarred by the hangover of a violent
colonial history. Some might argue that
our 'giving' alleviates our 'guilt' about
our undeserved affluence; maybe it
reminds us that really we're 'good'
people prepared to make a non-compulsory
donation of time or money to a
good cause as we vainly attempt to
squeeze fleshy hips through the eye of
a needle.
But this is too simple. I think we do
ourselves a disservice if we try to carry
the full weight of . cultural histories we
did not choose. Guilt tend to get out of
hand in church environs as it is. We may
not choose the backgrounds into which
we are born, but we do have some say in
how we respond to our situation. Surely
it's better to focus on what we can do
rather than on a past we cannot alter.
ln fact, I don't think that 'charity'
necessarily stems solely from selfcentred
motives; such a conclusion
(which is not so uncommon) depends
on a very limited notion of 'self' which
defines human beings in unconvincingly
individualistic terms. What if we
abandon this Cartesian 'l'? What if,
instead, we define our selfhood and
that of other humans in a relational way
that emphasises our interdependence
rather than our separateness? One
movsment 11

'it
consequence could be that we would
begin to depart from the destructive
concept of 'otherness' demanded by
our dualistic ways of thinking and begin
to recognise our 'selves' in our
neighbours. Having established such a
connection we can begin to understand
that we too own the 'debts' of the poor
and that we also are imprisoned by
them. We can begin to acknowledge
the 'third world' right in our midst.
But leaving the sermon aside, what
of the day itself? lt was certainly one of
the most lively (and good natured)
demos l've ever been on. My part of
the Glaswegian contingent had
departed from the city chambers on the
stroke of midnight the previous evening
and had travelled through the night to
arrive on the outskirts of Birmingham
well and truly pumpkined early on
Saturday morning. We were treated to
breakfast at a local church hall before
making our way to the city centre
where we spent a pleasant morning
playing frisbee, eating ice-cream and
sleeping in the sun (l'm sure the
Revolution only needs a decent Spin
Doctor...) As the day wore on, the
hoards started to arrive and it soon
became evident that far more people
had converged on the G8 summit than
anyone had dared to predict.
We were a very mixed bunch. An
on-the-spot 'walks of life' survey
revealed everything from birkenstocks to
green wellies. That in itself was a
measure of the mood. However, the
brigade who arrived from SCIAF
(Scottish Catholic lnternational Aid
Fund) deserve special mention. Clearly
on a warm-up mission in preparation for
France '98 they appeared resplendent in
tartan jimmy-bunnets and kilts. They
were the ones making a disproportionate
amount of noise as the
diplomatic limos rolled past. (And if you
want to celebrate the millennium in
style next Hogmanay...) There was a
pensioner who wielded a canisterfuelled
fog-horn with aplomb who
definitely won my prize for best 'crazy
young thing'. A nameless new editor of
Movement standing next to me was
heard'to say, "l wish she was my gran!"
Who knows what we achieved?
Who knows if anfone was listening?
Clare Short. the Development Secretary
of State made some encouraging noises
which I hope weren't just hot air. Time
will tell. More than that. I hope that the
campaign for Jubilee 2000 is gathering
momentum and is only now beginning
to create justice at home and abroad. I
want to be a part of it-just don't ask
me to knit. @
Eilidh Whiteford is chair of the WSCF
European Regional Committee
The Call Away
From Everyday Life
|
've already had my holiday this year.
lt was spent on the shores of the
I Aegean Sea not far from the Turkish
tourist resort of Marmaris, in a little
fishing town. The holiday company had
assured us that we would be in a quiet
spot away from the bustle of busy
bartering in the bigger towns, so when
we were transferred from our large bus
to a minibus "because the big bus can't
get over the mountain pass" we were
happy campers. Here we were, "away
from it all" for a week, over the
mountains, in our little town nestled on
pI
t
ruth horvev
soundings in
spirituolitg
the sea shore, surrounded by swathes
of cliffs. The ideal place for gentle
strolls along the promenade, a spot of
snorkelling, some light swimming, a
mud bath, long meals and even longer
sleeps.
On the first evening we met Veli, our
waiter for the week. Not particularly
loquacious, we took a while to discover
that he was here on a summer
placement from college in lstanbul
where he was studying "tourism" and
"hotel management". He was. however,
also learning English and German
(essential in his line of business) so
despite his initial hesitancy was glad of
the chance to chat.
It wasn't until the second morning
of our holiday that we realised we were
being rudely awakened from our sundrenched
slumbers by the siren call to
prayer from the local mosque hidden
amongst the flipper and snorkel shops
in the middle of the town. Gradually it
dawned on us that no, this wasn't a
purpose-built tourist slumber valley. but
a living, kicking, every-day Muslim
Turkish town where people are called to
worship 5 times a day and the clock
does not stop ticking when the
foreigners arrive. The disembodied voice
could be heard all over the town-yet it
was only from the sea, or from a
vantage point high up above the town
that the mosque could actually be seen.
The loudspeaker is the Muslim equivalent
of our quieter but no less
prominent church spires, gently and
clearly reminding all who pass that
whatever your pass-time, whatever your
motive for being in that place, for
however long you are a visitor or a
lnovgmsnt 12
resident, there will be regular calls to
turn our attention away from the things
of this world to the glory of another
world/kingdom.
According to Veli, the search for
spirituality amongst younger Muslim
Turks has a similar shape to our
Western searches. The regular call to
worship, he said, did not mean much to
him these days. His parents were still
practising Muslims, but he, while a
nominal Muslim was not drawn to the
worship. Perhaps the incantations of the
lmam had as much significance to Veli
as would the array of spires that meets
the eye of a typical Torquay waiter. Yet
he in his faltering English was able to
communicate to us that despite this
distance from traditional religion, he and
his friends are still searching for a
meaningful spirituality which makes
sense to
PERHAPS THE
them in th:it lNcANTATtoNs
:"#:ll-"" oF rHE rr'rAr'r
Back HAD AS MUCH
home, and I SIGHIFICAhICE
settle back TO VELI AS
into mr7 woutD THE
ii::il#?*'ARRAY oF
book about SPIRES THAT
spirituality. We MEETS THE EYE
OF A TORQUAY
WAITER.
have asked
50 people
from around
Britain and lreland to reflect on the
meaning of spirituality in your own life
and work.' The contributions have been
fascinating, revealing a range of experiences
of spirituality which touch on vulnerability,
rejection and pain, the earth,
creation, the cosmos and our connection to
the land, the search for stillness and places
for reflection in our secular muddled world,
the call to work for justicg peace and
reconciliation for all in an age when
individual gratification is so often our
warped call to worship, and much more
Thinking back to my holiday in
Turkey, I am more aware than ever of the
true nature of ecumenical spirituality,
that search for a rooted, grounded,
earthed, integrated spirituality which
reflects the faith, doubts and visions of
"the whole inhabited earth." For my next
volume l'll travel to Turkey on
and interview Veli in German.
expenses
tr
Ruth Harvey is the director of the GGBI
Ecumenical Spirituality Project, with
offices in Milton Keynes and Penrith

Robert Jones reviews Tori Amos' latest, From The Choirgirl Hotel
Lyrical Chaos
TORI AMOS: FROM THE CHOIRGIRL
HOTEL
Produced by Tori Amos
WEA lnternational
Tori
I
Amos is back with a new
collection of songs which are as
commercial as this artist is
likely to get. This is a good
thing. as commercial these days-as in
days past-often means the rehashing
of cliches to target a specific
demographic. From the Chiorgirl Hotel
lives in another galaxy when compared
to this kind of categorisation. Amos
stands on her own, love her or hate her.
Where the dance sensibilities of her
successful album, Professional Widow
are not the dominant sound on this new
disc, Amos has made a progression
toward the full-band sound here, as well
as keeping with the stream of
consciousness style of lyric writing with
which the artist has become known.
Made largely in the UK-Amos and
her new husband now ensconced in
Cornwall- the music is a mix of
American accoustic sound, thanks to
the ever-present Bosendorfer piano, and
the more European electronic experimentation
with vocal effects and tape
loops. lt's not drum and bass but
shares the same kind of energy, if not
the pace, on tracks like " She's Your
Cocaine" and "Raspberry Swirl" which
are songs concerned with rhythm, sonic
variety and. frankly, sex. This is in
contrast to the "pretty", introspective,
tune-oriented direction of her past work.
It is this juxtaposition which makes
the record interesting. Again, the band
play a more important role. Gone is the
"girl at the piano" familiarity of Amos'
sound. More to the forefront are the
more bass heavy backdrops, garnished
with a serrated guitar which suggests
Andy Summers,. This is not to say that
we don't hear some gorgeous piano, but
the voices here are more varied. We get
pedal steel ("Playboy Mommy"), stings
("Jackie's Strength"), and multi-layered
vocals (throughout) which range from
the sweetness on tracks like "Northern
lad" to Shirley Manson-esque growls on
the previously mentioned "She's Your
Cocaine" where Amos barks "cut it
again" to bring the track to a sudden
end. The tunes are still here, we just get
them wrapped in a more colourful package.
The expectation to find meaning in a
Tori Amos song is where the artist
draws clearly demarcated lines. Do her
odd phrases on songs such as Cruel
("lover brother bogenvilla my vine
twists around your need") or Liquid
Diamonds ("this is madness a lilac mess
in your prom dress and you say I guess
l'm an underwater thing") fire your
imagination and give you a sense that
they mean something at some deeper
level? Or do they just annoy you and
make you think your being hoodwinked
into looking for something that was
never there to start with? These two
reactions often occur in varying
degrees during the length of the
disc. This kind of lyrical chaos
may be a symptom of an artist
who has come from the small
town of Newton, North
Carolina in America's bible
belt. Amos is no longer
interested in pinpointing
single truths as she is in
putting words together that
simply sound good and
create images in the mind of
the listener. The voice here is
not a didactic instrument, it is
a musical instrument, not
singing to the brain but to some
other part of us which we know
less about. This can be uncomfortable,
like Andy Warhol's soup tins and
Jackson Pollock's spatters of paint. But
it makes us react, it doesn't allow for
passivity.
Having said all this, the songs do
appeal to the part of us who want a
good story, but the lyrics do not
clearly outline people and events with
the anticipated signposts of traditonal
storytelling. lnstead, it opts to take
the listener by surprise in various
ways. On songs like "Jackie's
Strength" Amos considers the impact
of Kennedy's Camelot and its eventual
fall in a way which takes the form of
childhood memories and the expectations
of childhood, as opposed to the
bludgeon approach of Oliver Stone.
The classic American ideals which the
Bouvier-Kennedy marriage, on the
surface, embodied are coupled with
"mooning" the image of David Cassidy
on the lunchbox of a schoolmate. This
is a kind of Americana with a twist
and demonstrates this sort of
movement 13
I
unexpectedness in it's lyrical
approach.
Another example of this unexpectedness
is on the song "Nothern Lad"
which employs the folk traditions of
the ideal lover who becomes lost and
adds lines like "But I feel that
something is wrong/ But I feel the cake
just isn't done". The unexpected is
used in equal value here. Where does
the baking methphor come from? There
is no greater or lesser value given to
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language
here,
there are just
words put together in such a way so as
to challenge the conventions of what
we expect a methphor to be. This again
may make us uncomfortable, but it
shows the true range of language as it
may appear in modern songwriting.
It is this unexpectedness which has
made Tori Amos such a standout
among often angst-ridden, earnest
songwriters. We don't know what she
is going to do next, and this unexpectedness
strangely becomes its own kind
of expectation. lf Amos can continue to
draw the line between those who "get
her" and those who don't as she has
managed to do here on From the
Choirgirl Hotel, then her work will,
likewise, continue to be vital. El
Robert Jones is a writer and poet based
in London

Tl
As the theme song go€s: "FriendlV faces evervwhere, humble folks without temptation", but is
that so? Tim Woodcock looks at the bizarre communitv of paper cutouts where KennV keeps
getting resurrected
South Parks True Original
elcome to the 1998 TV
awards. The Bill Hicks
Memorial Sickbag for
grimmest joke goes to
South Park for: "My mom was young and
she needed the money"; "Those pictures
wore taken, like, two weeks ago, dude."
lf there are any taboos that have not
been broken in the late night Friday
timeslot on C4 they have now. By the
end of South Park's first series there
will have been an elephant/ pig hybrid
(no test tubes involved), games of "Kick
the Baby" and J.C. on the TV doing a
phone-in. Something to offend
everyone's tastes.
The underlying assumption is a very
funny and perceptive one: children are
not cute and loveable (as most cartoons
would have us believe), they are
tactless, vindictive and self-absorbed.
So with Cartman and chums this is
taken to brainfrying, jaw-dropping
extremity. The bullying campaign shifts
effortlessly from Pip, a Dickensian
outcast, to a new kid, Damian. He gets
his Dad on them -from his supernatural
powers and Richard Ashcroft hairdo
they should have guessed Damian's
Dad is Beelzebub. ln another episode
when they find out their attractive
substitute teacher is a lesbian the boys
all want to become lesbians. (Cartman's
mom's advice is unprintable.) I needed
a medical dictionary to understand
some of the B-year olds' jokes.
The style of the animation is as
crude as the subject matter. The muchfeted
running gags are soon limping:
"They killed Kenny. You bastardsl"
IUIH
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v
grows ever more tiresome; although I
was more endeared to Chef's soulful
songs, that no matter where they start
from, end up
being about
making "sweet
lurve" to a
woman. 2D cut
out characters
and 2D characterisation.
Think of the
richness of
Springf ield
which lhe
Simpsons
inhabit: an
intricately
constructed city. The school, the power
plant, the TV shows and the imaginary
products- perfectly observed and
grotesquely exaggerated. "Elasticated
reality" is what Matt Groening calls it.
And there's Principal Skinner, Krusty
the Klown, Otto the busdriver, Apu and
Barney: even the minor characters have
fnovefnent 14
distinct histories, their own ambitions
and obsessions-that is to say a believable
psychology (well, almost...)
South Park makes no concessions to
"realism", or indeed social conventions.
Political correctness chokes creativity
and the writers are fairly even-handed
(and imaginative) in
doling out the
amusingly inventive
invective. The offthe-wall
plots are a
delight too, if
somewhat devoid of
subtlety. However
the show is too
scattershot to work
as satire, and trying
too hard to shock to
be enjoyably funny. I
sniggered and
gasped: I never
belly-laughed.
There are two
ways to approach
originality. Method
one: Jump up and
down and shout,
"lt's great: that's
never been done
I
before! I love it and
I love you!" Proclaim
the creator a genius and wait on their
every word. (This describes much
recent press reaction to South Parkl.
Or two: to say the reason no-one had
said/ thoughti done that before was
that it is not worth bothering with: it
was too tawdry and a trivial a perception.
South Park is a very original show. @
Tim Woodcock is the incoming editor of
Movement

The man who added Oeneration X to the lexicon, oouglas Coupland, returns with a new novel
Oirlfriend ln A Coma. Terry Orsett discusses a trulv prophetic work.
Future lmperfect
GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA
Douglas Coupland
Flamingo / HarperCollins
f someone says "prophetic" in the
newspaper or on TV what they most
likely mean is an ability to predict the
future-such as
"At the time he
prophetically stated
that David
Beckham would
damage England's
chances more
than Paul
Gascoine". This is
in stark contrast
to a Judeo-
Christian use of
"prophetic"
which,
populalrly,
means "telling
the truth about
the things we
do wrong"-
such as "She
prophetically
remarked upon
the Bishops'
hypocrisy in the
Lords over age of consent". Both definitions
were true of the Biblical prophets,
but it seems that in secular and sacred
society, a polarity now exists.
Douglas Coupland's Girlfriend ln A
Coma is a prophetic book. lt is
prophetic in a way that breaks down
the polarity between the secular and
sacred uses of the word. Girlfriend ln A
Coma gives us uncomfortable insights
into our future, while at the same time
deelaiming the selfishness which
younger generations have adopted.
The book begins in 1979. A group
of high school friends in North
Vancouver go to a party, partake in the
usual low-level narcotics and go back
home, whereupon one of their number,
Karen, slips into a coma. Karen remains
in a coma for almost 20 years, during
which time she unknowingly gives birth
to her daughter. The friends spend their
time drifting, flirting with success, but
mostly winding up in various forms of
detox. Eventually they all move back
home, where they start doing special
effects for a series which sounds
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suspiciously like The X-Files. fhen
Karen wakes up, and things start
getting weird.
So far, it's everything you expect
from Douglas Coupland, who made his
mark on literature with Generation X
(spawning the term for cynical twenty
and thirtysomethings
- although
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Coupland really meant
those born between the
late '5Os and early '70s,
and he has subsequently
distanced himself from
the term altogether).
Over the past decade he
has produced fiction that
consistently challenged
our assumptions about
the culture we now find
ourselves in.
Girlfriend ln A Coma is no
exception. lt is populated
with Coupland's usual cast
of
mixedup.
burnedout
disposable
people
born on
the cusp
of the baby boom
who now find
themselves rootless,
without values and
meaning. So far
we've seen it before,
SELF-l
but Coupland finds
something new to say. mostly through
the now reawakened Karen. Through
her, we come to realise that the future
envisioned in the 60's and 70's of
something better has turned out to be
just a more messed-up, uber-tech
version of how things were before. only
even more spiritually dead.
And that is the central theme of
Girlfriend ln A Coma: the realisation
that we've become bereft of optimism,
of hope, and instead have filled that
void with more toys and more selfindulgence.
We're all wired up, but does
that make us better people?
It's a point Coupland hammers home
in the last part of the novel, when
Karen's visions of the end of the world
come true. I won't tell you how it
movgment 1s
comes about-suffice it to say it is
frightening in its simplicity-but in the
end all that's left is Karen and her
friends, and the ghost of one of their
old classmates. This is where the novel
shifts into the realm of fable. The
friends wander around the detritus of
the apocalypse, playing demolition
derbys with all the parked cars and
learning, far too late. the cost of their
own self-absorption.
This is Douglas Coupland's most
pessimistic work yet. lnstead of railing
at the culture around him, as he did in
Generation X, in Girlfriend he is
criticising his own generation (which.
whether Coupland likes it or not, still
speaks to people born well into the
'7Os and '8Os) for their arrested adolescence.
As the vanguard of the future,
we've made the future a scarier place.
Nothing gets better, just faster and
easier.
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HDULGEHCE.
Douglas Coupland is concerned
about values, meaning, community, and.
yes, even the struggle to believe in
some kind of a God. Girlfriend ln A
Coma is probably the most polemical
work Coupland has done since his
collection of short fiction, Life After
God. While it is steeped in the zeitgeist
of the millennium and the obsession
with apocalypse that surrounds it, one
suspects that ten years from now it still
won't seem dated-in fact we'll be
frightened to see how much has turned
out to be true.
This book is prophetic, in every
sense of the word. E
Terry Orsett is a freelance writer living
in London

Jonathan tdle examines Faith and Power, a book which challenges the claims of a secularised,
multicultural British society
False Neutrality
FAITH AND POWER: CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM IN 'SECULAR'BRITAIN
Lesslie Newbigin, Lamin Sanneh and
Jenny Thylor
SPCK
e live in a Christian
society; a secular society;
a multicultural society; an
anti-Christian
society. These statements do
not necessarily contradict each
other, and Faith and Power is
valuable in tackling the implications
of this. What kind of
society do we really have
what place does religion have,
and what role should it have?
we have replaced a
dominant monoculture
of Christianity with a
tolerant multiculturalism.
The authors call
the latter secular humanism, and see it
as a new hegemony, all
the more insidious in that it's very basis
is in denying the dominance which it
exerts itself, becoming an orthodoxy
which we disobey at our peril.
The authors argue first that we must
recognise this, and second that society
should base its laws and customs on a
Christian world view. Not by returning
to a repressive state religion, but
moving forwards to a public life based
on the freedom and honesty of the
Gospel. This, the.authors feel, will bring
true tolerance, whereas secular
humanism, in spite of its claims to
achieve this, is seen as a system which
fears debate and as such is a false
neutrality.
The theme is restated several times
during the book powerfully, and in the
end passionately. lt is convincing
illustrated by semantics as well as
social comment-for examplq do we
realise that 'secular' can mean not only
that no one faith dominates, but also
the dominance of a view which does
not admit the value of faith?
The need to expose our false
secularism arises from observing the
public face of lslam in Britain, specifically
the contrast between a few
specific examples of the political
demands of Muslims and the comparative
reticence of Christians. But this
contrast is documented piecemeal and
smothered in generalisations, and at
times the themes don't quite hang
together in such a short
book. The
established
church, for
seen as
abandoning its
prophetic role;
but too many
generalisations
about what
'Christians' or
'Western society'
have done in fact
weaken the
tendency is to make
a point by showing
the implications of
public attitudes in
their most extreme form to make the
point. For example, with Human rights
the argument follows that if we believe
in human rights as existing in
themselves, rather than as the gift of a
holy and loving God, then they are
based on nothing. The individual has no
protection when democracy becomes
populism, and so ultimately those rights
can be swept away by totalitarianism.
There is no mention here of the
possibility of a written constitution for
Britain; that would be one solution to
some of the problems they identify.
With such in-depth analysis, it is a
shame not to have more discussion of
any solution other than public
acceptance on the Christian gospel as
the basis for public life and law
Another weak section is where they
raise the gap in urban regeneration
caused by ignoring the spiritual aspect
of society's problems. lt is indeed a
gap, but the implication that it is the
central component of modern urban
deprivation is wide of the mark, and it
movemsnt 16
would be better to leave the issue
alone rather than indulge in such
simplif ication.
There is thorough discussion of the
interface between a still-evolving and
diverse Muslim society in Britain and
secular British social policy. ln the worst
cases, officialdom has been fearful and
ignorant-often confusing religion with
ethnicity and reinforcing disadvantage
and segregation. But this too is
piecemeal, and there is no exploration of
the times and reasons we've got it right.
The significance of Shariah law is
explored-it is still unresolved how the
juxtaposition of British law and Shariah
law will work itself out in Muslims'
loyalties and in legal terms. The authors
see Shariah as raising the complex
issue of the neutrality of law They
point out the falseness of such
neutrality by contrasting judgements on
cases involving Sikhs, Rastafarians,
Jews and Muslims. Again they plead
that first we acknowledge that the law
cannot be neutral, and then we realise
that only a law rooted in Christian faith
can provide the true tolerance and
justice which we wrongly believe is
already here.
Shariah also stimulates debate on
the proximity of church and state. The
role of each must be distinct, overlapping
in order to inform each other but
not to confuse their roles as has often
happened in history. We need politicians
to be influenced by morality and
prophetic faith, but religious leaders
should not be able to compel either
belief or practice.
Overall it is a necessary discussion,
which will become more necessary as
the Muslim presence in Britain
evolves-and as public policy becomes
increasingly based on public opinion
rather than constitutional or institutionalised
common belief. lt is important
that the discussion is held, as here,
dispassionately as respectfully. The
authors convincingly bring into the open
some of the inconsistencies of public
life, and call on readers to acknowledge
these and to work for change. The
argument and its many components are
fascinating and underlie much of our
social policy. Faith and Power should
challenge us to take it further. E
Jonathan ldle is a Youth Worker in Hackney

,
THE GREATEST STORY
Once there was a person
who came from heaven
and lived amongst us.
That person touched the
sick, said a lot
meaningful things and
enraged those in power.
That person died at the
hands of those who
persecuted them for so
long, went to heaven and
within a year a
movement of devoted
followers rose up, and
signs and wonders
followed.
But enough about
Princess Diana. . .
ISAIAH DID IT JUST
LIKE THIS, REALLY To
err is human, and to
really foul things up you
need to be an international
ecumenical
movement.
The World Council of
Churches is holding it's
o n ce-eve ry-seve n-yea rs
(septiennial?) Assembly
this December in the
Zimbabwean capital,
Harare. Which is all nice
and tickety-boo, except
Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe has done
his bit for the struggle
for gay rights by calling
homosexuals "pigs" and
"perverts" and describing
homosexuality as a
"Western perversion"
unknown in African
culture, and has pretty
much made it clear that
gays and lesbians are not
welcome in Zimbabwe.
All in all, just the sort of
friendly, inclusive
environment everyone
wants for an international
ecumenical
gathering.
Not surprisingly. at
least ono progressive
Dutch church has
announced it would not
attend, and ArchbishoP
Desmond Tutu has stated
in no uncertain terms
that the WCC would
have to take a Positive
stand on homosexualitY
if the organisation hoPed
to retain anY sort of
credibility in the face of
choosing this venue.
I wouldn't want to
criticise one of my
heroes, but I think
Archbishop Tutu has set
his sights a wee bit high.
This is the World Council
of Churches, an organisation
whose initials also
stand for "Wibble
Circumspectly and
Continuously". Chances
are any pro-gay motion,
will be tabled and sent
to the appropriate
subcommittee of JPIC
(Just Put lt for
Caveating). where it
be appropriately
over some mo
back, amend
some more
eventually
accepted.
Of course
will now re
people shoul
comfortable I
they want"-a
of such prophetic
that I'm sure Presi
Mugabe is trembling
even now.
REALITY
s pea
pres
f org
who
Lord
leg is
ofc
Kudo
go to
Winch
"The
the ris
health
su bstantia I
homosexual activiti
are significantly greater
than those for heterosexuals.
" Regular
readers will no doubt
have recognised that
this was the same
argument made last
year by Anne Atkins in
the Sun-an argument
which the Press
Complaints Commission
deemed to have "failed
to distinguish between
comment, conjecture
and fact". Then again, I
suppose if most people
were capable of that,
the church would be out
of business altogether.
FOR EVERY CAR YOU
DRIVE... l'd like to know
just what illicit
substances executives
at ad agencies are on
these days. lt used to be
that the point of a car
advert was to sell the
bloody car. Barring some
notable exceptions (like
the Avensis one which
uses lggy Pop to great
ef f ect), nowadays
they're going for these
bizarre,
which
d seem more at
in a David Lynch
I mean what are
trying to achieve?
don't even gain
ct recognition with
-
people refer to
m as "that disturbing
e with the weird
an who acts just
Bjork" (lt's for
er, in case you were
eri ng)
the more linear
coming
ercedes
d won't
ercedes
any
ption of
ved. Even
recent one
marrieds "
our in the
a seafood
ople
on by
?t
TS TRAMPLED
s given a delightf ul
antidote to the sort of
Christian kitsch you find
when you visit your
relatives with a version
of the poem "Footprints"
that ends with: "During
your times of trials and
suffering, I got the hell
out and went round to
the pub for a quick one.
lf you had any sense,
you would have joined
me there!" Rumour has it
Sea of Faith might do
one soon, ending: "get a
pair of specs, mate,
there's been only one
bleeding set of footprints
all along... "
JESUS OF AUCKLAND
One of the great things
about Channel 5-whose
viewership recently
doubled to 14-is their
weekend programming,
especially Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys and
Xe n a : Wa rrio r Pri n c ess.
For those not familiar
with these programmes,
they're action-adventure
series set in the Greco-
Meditteranean world
(which surprisingly looks
like New Zealand) where
everyone is incredibly
muscular for an era
where most died by the
age of 40, Mythology
and history are regularly
muddled into an end
product which is
anachronistic, postmodern
and delightfully
entertain ing.
I don't think that this
should be limited to just
figures from Greco-
Roman mythology. I
would wholeheartedly
support the making of
Jesus: The Legendary
Journeys.
Buff, good-looking
Jesus and his buddies
Peter and John The
Baptist (ditch the other
apostles, they're boring)
travel along the Kiwi, er,
Gallilean shores, battling
their earthly enemies,
Pilate and Herod.
Occasionally, they
battle Satan (played by
Anthony Head of the
Gold Blend adverts),
who speaks in selfref
lexive dialogue the
whole time
Jesus would
occasionally heal and
raise the dead, but
mostly, he'd turn
someone else's cheek
with his fists- with
bizarre sound effects to
match. And every
episode, he'd say
something nice about
loving one's enemy
before walking on water
to battle the Hydrax
monster left over f rom
Hercules' time.
Well, l'd watch...
THE SERPENT

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