E I D S IN McGrath on CS Lewis E4,E5

THE SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2013 No: 6172 www.churchnewspaper.com PRICE £1.35 1,70j US$2.20 CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE ORIGINAL CHURCH NEWSPAPER ESTABLISHED IN 1828 NEWSPAPER Churches tackle housing crisis

CHURCHES IN WALES are being urged to ments a chance to learn more about church suitable for today’s worshippers as they are rest has been convert ed into a four-storey transform any available space, including land and buildings. too large and difficult for small congrega- luxury home with a basement swimming closed buildings and glebe land, into Alex Glanville, head of propert y services tions to maintain. pool. affordable homes to help tackle the in the Church in Wales, explained the “They could be leased or sold to housing The former nave has become a vast draw- nation’s housing crisis while a church in thinking behind the churc h initiative. “For associations if they become redundant or ing room with a 42ft vaulted ceiling. Wor- London is on the market for £50 million many people in Wales the notion that there part ly convert ed if they are still used for shippers who use the small area that after being convert ed into one of the capi- is still poverty and homelessness in our worship. All the money raised will be remains as a church told the ‘Evening Stan- tal’s most opulent homes. country may be unbelievable,” he said. “Yet ploughed back into the Church’s ministry,” dard’ that the conversion work had caused Faith in Affordable Housing is a project the number of homeless and poorly housed he suggested. ‘endless aggravation’. that will be highlighted by a special confer- people in Wa les is rising fast and charities Since 2007, the Church in Wa les has sold The converted church is not being for- ence called for 26 April by the Church in are calling for urgent action now to prevent four churches to housing associations and mally placed on the market but being ‘dis- Wales and the housing charity, Housing a housing crisis. has a further six in the process of being creetly placed’ with a handful of super-rich, Justice, and sponsored by the Welsh Gov- “As a Church, we increasingly have more sold or under consideration. predominantly overseas, buyers. It is now ernment. building space than we need acro ss Wa les By way of contrast, St Saviour’s, Knights- known as St Saviour’s House. The conference will encourage local con- and we are keen to see how it could be con- bridge, only a few yards from Harrods, is The sale comes as concern grows in Lon- gregations to think about how they can vert ed into affordable housing. on sale 15 years after the Diocese sold don at the number of foreign-owned luxury help provide affordable housing and will “We have many churches built 150 years most of it for £1million. A small part of the homes in such areas as Belgravia that are also give people working in local govern- or so ago for example, that are no longer building is still used for worship but the unoccupied for most of the year. Tributes paid to Baroness Thatcher

ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL is to be the venue for the ceremonial funeral of Baroness Thatcher, who died on Monday. “The fundamental reason of being put on earth is so to improve your character that you are fit for the next world,” Baroness Thatcher said on Radio 4 in 1987. The Archbishop of Canter- bury released a statement following the death of the former Prime Minister on Monday, saying: “It was with sadness that I heard the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher and my prayers are with her son and daughter, her grand- children, family and friends. It is right that today we give thanks for a life devoted to public serv- ice, acknowledging also the faith that inspired and Saying goodbye: sustained her.” Margaret Thatcher Obituary: page 5

LETTERS 8 • PETER MULLEN 9 • COMMENT 9 • CLERGY MOVES 12 • ANGLICAN LIFE 13 • SUNDAY 15 • PAUL RICHARDSON 16 2 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 14, 2013 News Inside... Britain’ s leading evangelical newspaper Parable is reborn “GO FORTH and multiply,” said the vicar. And they did — more than £10,000 worth. Richard Steel, rector at Kirkheaton Parish Church, near Hudder- sfield in West Yorkshire, distributed 550 of his own £10 notes at a church service last November in a final attempt to raise £73,000 for church renovations. His idea originated in the Gospel of Matthew’s Parable of the Tal- ents, in which Jesus describes a story of a man who entrusts money to his servants. While one servant opted to simply bury his money in the ground, the other two servants chose to double their invest- ments. Mr Steel hoped to see the same return on profit from his congre- gation come Easter Day, and after four months of waiting, his News ...... 1-7 prayers were answered. Your Church ...... 2 While almost £500,000 had already been raised towards church UK News ...... 1-5 repairs over the past seven years, members of the congregation World News ...... 6-7 individually invested this money purchasing materials and products that they then transformed and sold at a profit. Comment “Not everyone in the church has money to give so I thought I’d Letters ...... 8 offer them some ‘seed capital’ to invest, maybe in baking cakes for Leader ...... 9 sale, buying car-washing kit, material to make cards or a woolly hat Peter Mullen ...... 9 to keep warm when offering a dog-walking service.” St John’s parishioner Gill Jolly, for instance, used her artistic tal- England on Sunday ents in her home studio to raise money for the church with the sales Justin and Francis ...... E1 of a few of her artworks. given for God, not to waste them. Andrew Carey ...... E2 The thousands raised will now go to installing a new floor, new “I wanted all, from the oldest to the youngest to feel involved in Whispering Gallery ...... E2 heating system, kitchen and toilets, office, as well as a full redeco- this exciting project and hopefully do some good and have some fun Tommy Gee ...... E3 ration and replacing the pews with chairs. This final fundraiser will while they did it,” he said. Judy West ...... E3 also help with the costs of expansion to make the church more suit- Mr Steel is encouraging others looking to preserve old parishes McGrath on Lewis ...... E4, E5 able for a wider community. to follow the words of Jesus as he did in that, “What you give will be Arts & Media ...... E6 “Jesus encouraged people to fully use the gifts they had been given back to you.” Books ...... E7 Janey Lee Grace ...... E8 Crossword ...... E8 Fears over brain-boosting drugs raised The Record Classifieds ...... 10, 11 USE of drugs to boost memory and improve in order to receive prescriptions for drugs So far warnings in both the US and the Clergy Moves ...... 12 alertness have come under criticism from that will improve concentration. It is UK have concentrated on the addictive Anglican Life ...... 13 the Head of Public Policy at the Christian claimed parents are pressurising doctors to properties of these drugs but there is still a Faith Stories ...... 14 Medical Fellowship, Philippa Taylor. Her help with their children’s troubling behav- lack of knowledge about possible side Spiritual Director ...... 15 comments came at the same time as the iour and slipping grades. effects. Sunday Service ...... 15 New York Times published a long article In ‘Helix’, the journal of CMF, Philippa “The brain continues to mature until the Peter Brierley ...... 15 claiming nearly one in five high school boys Taylor says that ‘brain steroids’ or ‘smart late 20s and beyond,” warns Ms Taylor. “No Paul Richardson ...... 16 in the US have received a diagnosis of atten- drugs’ can be bought for a few pounds to one really understands the consequences of People ...... 16 tion deficit hyperactivity disorder. enhance focus, concentration, or memory. the long-term used of stimulants on a devel- Milestones ...... 16 The fear in the US is that some parents In Britain the most common users are peo- oping brain.” Next week’s news ...... 16 and young people are seeking the diagnosis ple aged 18–25. News from Your Church your diocese

DERBY: The Bishop of Derby’s 2012 Harvest Appeal of Hereford, will be held on 25 April at Leominster Priory. possible, so that those suffering hardship and extreme raised over £27,500 in aid of the Mothers’ Union Parenting Anni Holden, one of the organisers, said: “We are working worry and isolation can at least know of our solidarity.” Project in Rwanda, which supports vulnerable children with the Shropshire and Herefordshire Churches’ Bishop Priddis pointed out in his letter that The Farm and traumatized families. The Mothers’ Union introduced Tourism Groups and the neighbouring dioceses of Lich- Community Network (FCN) received more local calls in a worldwide Parenting Project in 2005 in Rwanda that field and Worcester, so were confident people would come the January than the whole of last year, and is now urging includes education around early marriage, HIV, marriage to this rural area but it is now shaping up to be an excellent the purchase of as much locally sourced food as possible break-up and child abuse - supporting many of those who day.” It’s the first time Hereford Diocese has held such a to ensure returns to the local economy, and in turn, these survived the genocide in that country. The Bishop of visitor focussed Conference but it is recognised as being at farmers. He added: “It is vital that our farmers, their fami- Derby, Dr Alastair Redfern, said: “Despite the current eco- the forefront of Church Tourism nationally. The full pro- lies and our whole rural communities are assured at least nomic hardship that is affecting so many Derbyshire com- gramme is available at www.hereford.anglican.org. of our prayer and support in these straitened times.” munities, there have been extraordinary levels of giving by individuals, churches and schools. The members of the HEREFORD: Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev Anthony SALISBURY: Salisbury Cathedral is running a free open Mothers’ Union have worked tirelessly to raise awareness Priddis, has written an open letter of support and solidarity evening Night Visions: An Evening at Salisbury Cathedral of the great needs of Rwandan families.” with farmers facing the direst of situations since the foot on Friday 17 May from 6.30pm to 10.00pm. The event is He added: “We can all understand the importance of a sta- and mouth outbreak 12 years ago. While some farmers part of Culture 24’s nationwide Museums at Night initia- ble family life but many young Rwandans lost their entire originally estimated that their income would be down 40 tive, the annual festival of late night openings when hun- family network during the genocide in the 1990s; conse- per cent at the start of the year, this figure is now expected dreds of venues open their doors for special evening quently they have very little experience of parenting. Our to be significantly exceeded. According to Bishop Priddis, events. David Coulthard, Director of Marketing and Visi- donations will resource the programme and allow for an this reality still won’t account for the worry and hardship tor Services, said: “We’ve devised three-and-a-half fast- expansion across the Rwanda. The Rwandan Mothers’ that will arise out of their debt. While he recognizes that moving hours of different activities to entertain and appeal Union will be able to continue to support parents, children there is nothing those inside or outside the farming com- to families and our younger and older visitors alike. There and their community.” munity can do about the underlying issues themselves, are four elements to the evening: music, stories, tours and including weather conditions, fuel and feed costs, disease hands-on activities. Come along, we might just surprise HEREFORD: The Small Things BIG difference, one-day and so on, he will continue to pledge his support. “We can you!” Musical activities include a ‘come and sing’ work- Conference on Church Tourism organised by the Diocese nevertheless show as much care and understanding as shop.

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper Npw2 Sahduy 4 r cil . A, 30. s www1enacenhpw2rurpc1eom s NEWS IN BRIEF Views sought on film classifications Archbishop calls

The British Board of Film Classification “Many Christians will feel that the (BBFC) is asking members of the public current guidelines are too permissive,” for their views on age ratings for films. the group says. for MDG action Christian Concern is urging people to The BBFC says on its website: “The respond to the survey, saying this will Review ensures the BBFC Classification cause an impact on how the BBFC rates Guidelines for age rating films are in WRITING IN A LETTER to money they spend’. In addition to Archbishop films in the future, which is important step with public opinion”. the Financial Times, Arch- The religious leaders Welby, the letter is signed for the protection of children. bishop Justin Welby and a claim that ‘development is by Archbishop Vincent number of religious leaders working but challenges Nichols, a representative of have called on Heads of remain’. They claim one in the Ecumenical Patriar- Mothers on the march Government in the G8 to eight people in the world chate, and representatives At 11am on Saturday 13 April, London Mothers are marching in opposition to the take steps to fulfil the Mil- still go to bed hungry every of other Christian Church- ‘economic hardship being forced upon them by the government’s decision to make lennium Development Goals night and more than 2m die es, as well as Muslim, Jew- low income mothers the prime target for cuts’. by the 2015 deadline. of malnutrition every year. ish, Sikh, Hindu and The march is organised by Taxpayers Against Poverty with the support of the They appeal for Govern- The UK is fulfilling it com- Buddhist organisations. Haringey Trades Council, the Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches ments of the G8 to take mitment to spend 0.7 per “Meeting the remaining among others. three steps. First of all they cent of its national income targets, while challenging, “Mothers claiming benefits suffer for their children. They go without food to feed want them ‘to fulfil existing on aid but at a time of aus- is possible – but only if gov- them and struggle with the misery of rent, council tax and utility arrears. The commitments to spend 0.7 terity many governments ernments do not waver from coalition has added to their financial hardship. There is nothing fair about the per cent of income on aid.’ are reducing their dona- the moral and political com- current welfare policies,” said the Rev Paul Nicolson, one of the organisers. Second, the want them to tions. mitments made over a ‘launch a G8 convention on This year the presidency decade ago,” the letter Bible by the Beach speakers named tax transparency that com- of the G8 rests with the UK warns. This year’s Bible By The Beach convention will hear from Emma Scrivener, who mits signatory countries to and the religious leaders Coming soon after his recently wrote “A New Name - Grace and Healing for Anorexia” speaking on the preventing individuals and argue there is the potential inauguration the letter is a theme of “True Identity in Christ” along with her husband Glen, an ordained Church companies from hiding ‘to advance the MDG agen- striking indication of Arch- of England minister and Helen Roseveare - who survived rape and violence during wealth so that it is untrace- da in ways that strike at the bishop Welby’s emergence the Congolese Civil War in the 1960s when working as a medical missionary - will be able.’ underlying causes of pover- as a world figure among reli- sharing something of her faith as she looks back over nearly seven decades of active Third, they ask the lead- ty, in particular by ensuring gious leaders. It demon- Christian discipleship. ers of the G8 ‘to press for that wealth created by devel- strates both his concern to Other topics include “A Biblical Approach to Environmental Issues” with Ruth greater financial transparen- oping countries is not lost improve the condition of the Valerio, from Revelation Church in Chichester, and John Stevens, first national cy from governments of through unfair tax practices, poorest people and his director of the Federation of Independent Evangelical Churches, who tackles “The developing countries so that a lack of transparency or a determination to secure Challenge of Contemporary Britain”. the citizens of these coun- failure to secure the benefits greater financial accounta- Bible By The Beach is enjoying increasing popularity in the south of England for tries can hold their govern- of trade for developing coun- bility from international Bible teaching, music and inspiration, attracting churchgoers from across a wide ments to account for the tries’. firms and governments. area. The theme for 2013 is an often-neglected area belief at the heart of the Christian faith - the second coming of Christ, and will take place at The Congress Theatre and Archbishop’s role praised in HBoS report Winter Gardens in Eastbourne, over the 3-6 May weekend. PART OF THE CREDIT for a report by the mer in ‘The Daily Mail’ called ‘both commer- Parliamentary Banking Commission cial and moral authority to the exercise.
Patrick Regan OBE,
Obama urged to labelling HBoS ‘a manual for bad banking’ Archbishop Welby continued as a member CEO and Founder of talk to Kim has gone to the Archbishop Welby. of Parliamentary Banking Commission after XLP, has announced the Dr Tony Campolo, The report places the blame for the down- his translation to Canterbury and the Com- launch of XL Mentoring former spiritual adviser fall of the bank on the former chief execu- mission chairman, Andrew Tyrie, attended National this spring. to Bill Clinton, called on tive, Sir James Crosby, on the chairman, an inaugural service in Canterbury Cathe- Across the UK, in vil- President Barack Lord Stevenson, and on Cosby’s successor, dral. lages, towns and cities, Obama to open talks Andy Hornby. The committee wants to see Contrasts have been made between the vulnerable young peo- with the leader of North all three banned from further work in the forceful action of the Parliamentary Com- ple and their families Korea, Kim Jong-un. He City. mission and the approach to Barclays taken are struggling with dif- said: “We need to find Financial journalists are giving credit to by the Salz report and the FSA report of the ficult circumstances ways to make friends former Chancellor, Lord Lawson, for asking Royal Bank of Scotland. As a result of the including family break- with North Korea. If probing questions of the trio, and to Arch- merger with HBOS 35,000 bank workers at down, poverty, drugs your enemy hungers bishop Welby for lending what Alex Brum- Lloyds lost their jobs. and crime without any you should feed him, if consistent support in he’s naked you should their lives, often lead- clothe him. Those are ing young people to Jesus’ words. Can we really overcome evil with good or drop out of school. “In was he being unrealistic? The question is: how seriously 



  
 
  fact, 31 per cent of do we take the scriptures?” NEETs did not have The co-founder of Red Letter Christians, with its CONSULTATION ON SELF-SUPPORTING MINISTRY someone to talk to emphasis on social justice, Campolo will speak at a AND 50th ANNIVERSARY EVENT FOR SOC & SEITE about their problems private briefing with UK parliamentarians at Portcullis while they were grow- House, Westminster this Wednesday 15 May and at the ing up,” he said. Christian Resources Exhibition International on Saturday 18th May 2013, Southwark Cathedral Thursday 16 May.

The event begins with an anniversary Eucharist at 11am Search for upcoming theologians Rising Theologian is an initiative from The London School of Theology (LST) in partnership with the Evangelical Alliance and Christianity Magazine to find the UK’s most imaginative theological mind. Organised and supported by the Church of E   
  
   
 The competition is being run to champion and raise the awareness of theology in Diocese of Southwark and the South East Institute for Theological Education the UK and to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of LST, which began life as London Bible College (LBC) in 1943 and is now the largest evangelical theological college in Europe. For further details and a booking form please visit www.seite.co.uk The prize is the chance to win a place on a fully funded BA or MA at LST, worth in the region of £20,000. Entries can be submitted by email to: by Tuesday 30 April, for more details visit www.lst.ac.uk.

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper 4 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 14, 2013 News New blow for Bishop piles the same-sex marriage By Amaris Cole

ONE OF THE country’s most influential family lawyers has spo- pressure on DiCanio ken out against the same-sex marriage plans, arguing they go against principles established for thousands of years. Baroness Butler-Sloss said plans to redefine the definition of marriage would give same-sex couples no new rights, but instead just destruct the meaning of the institution. The Judge went on to claim such changes would remove the concept of adultery in same-sex divorces, encouraging ‘immorali- ty’. Lady Butler-Sloss is widely regarded as a supporter of same-sex couples adopting children and supported landmark legislation in the House of Lords to allow gay couples to celebrate civil partner- ships in churches and other religious buildings. However, these latest plans are a ‘step too far’, the Baroness has said. Speaking out for the first time on the subject, she said: “I have always spoken in favour of same-sex relationships and the rights of homosexual people. This does seem to me a different issue and one which attacks marriage”. The views stem beyond her Christian views, Baroness Butler- Sloss argues, saying many religious people including Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs hold similar concerns. She went on: “[I cannot understand] why the Government is faffing around with same-sex marriage when they need to be right- ing a wrong.” She said the Coalition Bill could promote “immorality” as offi- cials could not agree what constitutes sex between people of the same gender, so same-sex couples cannot divorce on grounds of adultery.

PAOLO DI CANIO, Sunderland FC’s new manager, But as the child of Jewish refugees who got out of was forced to issue a statement denying he was a fas- Germany just in time and who lost many of her family cist after the Dean of Durham, the Very Rev Michael and friends in Nazi death camps, the Dean said he was Sadgrove, said he was struggling to stay loyal to the struggling to stay loyal to the club. club and found Di Canio’s ‘self-confessed fascism “You say you are not a racist,” he wrote to Di Canio, deeply troubling’. “but it needs great sophistication to understand how Di Canio refused to answer questions at a news con- fascism and racism are ultimately different. I can ference last week, even though that took place after promise you that this distinction will be lost on the the resignation of David Miliband as vice chairman in people of the North East where the British National protest at Di Canio’s appointment. Party is finding fertile soil in which to sow the seeds of By Thursday Di Canio was forced to place a state- its pernicious and poisonous doctrine. ment on the Sunderland website insisting he is not a “I believe that unless you clearly renounce fascism racist and does not support the ‘ideology of fascism’. in all its manifestations, you will be associated with Describing the accusations against him as ‘painful’ these far-right toxic tendencies we have seen too Di Canio said that he was not political, did not affiliate much of in this region.” himself to any organisation and respected everyone. It remains to be seen if Di Canio’s statement is In his open letter Dean Sadgrove revealed his loyal- enough to quieten the furore his appointment has ty to Sunderland went back a long way. He and his caused in the North East. Durham Miners’ Associa- wife got engaged on Cup Final Day in 1973 ‘figuring tion has asked the club to return a symbolic banner that if Sunderland won her father would say yes to that is kept at Stadium of Light if he stays at the anything and if they lost he would be past caring’. club.

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[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper News Sunday April 14, 2013 www.churchnewspaper.com 5 Tributes paid to Baroness Thatcher By Amaris Cole father’s grocery shop in the town, out against Labour’s high-tax poli- land made her time in office pro- March 23 announced that her she saw him rise through politics, cies, which she described as a lific. The first female Prime Minis- doctors had advised her to cancel TRIBUTES have been paid follow- as an independent candidate, step ‘not only towards Socialism, ter survived assassination all public speaking engagements ing the death of former Prime though liberal, to become Mayor but towards Communism’. attempts from the IRA, strikes and not to accept anymore. Minister Baroness Thatcher on in 1945. Always known for her contro- that resulted in the loss of 29mil- A year later, Dennis Thatcher Monday morning following a Studying Chemistry at Oxford, versial views, the Tory was one of lion working days and the Falk- died. In the book The Downing stroke. Margaret Roberts left Somerville the few members of the party lands War. Street Years, she wrote: “Being Lord Bell announced at College with a Second Class Hon- who supported Leo Abse’s Bill to In defence of her views, the Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a lunchtime that the first female ours Degree, and then moved to decriminalise male homosexuali- Prime Minister once visited Scot- sense, it ought to be: you cannot Prime Minister had ‘died peace- Chelmsford to work as a research ty, and also voted in favour of land to give a speech that the lead from the crowd. But with fully’ earlier that day, after suffer- chemist for a plastics company. It legalising abortion. press there dubbed the Sermon Denis there I was never alone. ing a stroke. was during this time she attended In the years that followed, Mrs on the Mound. Speaking to the What a man. What a husband. The ‘Iron Lady’, as she was a Conservative Party conference Thatcher was promoted to the Church in Scotland, she gave the- What a friend.” widely known, will receive a cere- in Llandudno, as a representative Shadow cabinet as the Fuel ological justification for her ideas Though opinion of the Iron monial funeral at St Paul’s with of the University Graduate Con- spokesperson and then Shadow on capitalism and the market Lady is hugely divided, her legacy full military honours like Diana, servative Association, having led Transport spokesperson and later economy, claiming ‘Christianity is is undeniable. Margaret Thatcher Princess of Wales, and the Queen the Oxford Tory group while to Education. about spiritual redemption, not changed the political landscape Mother it was announced hours studying there. When Edward Heath won the social reform’. and saw more than a million fami- later, but not a State Funeral like Officials of the association were 1970 General Election, she was She went on to quote St Paul: “If lies buy their council homes, an Winston Churchill. said to be so impressed by her appointed Secretary of State for a man will not work he shall not increase from seven per cent to The Conservative leader was in that they asked her to apply to be Education and Science. In this eat.” 25 per cent of adults owning power from 1979 to 1990, the a candidate, even though she was role, her administration’s attempt The theme of ‘choice’ was also shares and personal wealth rising longest serving British leader of not on the Conservative party’s to cut spending attracted much used to describe the Thatcherite by 80 per cent. Women’s pay also the 20th century and the first to approved list: she was selected in attention, abolishing free school reforms, claiming choice was also rose considerably during the win three elections in a row. January 1951 and added to the milk for children over seven, Christian by explaining that time, and many cite the Iron Lady Tributes from across the politi- approved list post ante. It was at a which won her much criticism Christ chose to lay down his life as an inspirational figure to grow cal world and beyond were quick dinner following her selection as and the moniker ‘Thatcher, and that all individuals have God- up with. to flood in, with Twitter being the candidate for Dartford that Thatcher, Milk Snatcher’. given right to choose between Her premiership of 11 years taken over by the news. she met her future husband, Though not the obvious good and evil. Many in the and 209 days means she was the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Denis Thatcher. replacement for Edward Heath Church at the time disagreed longest serving British Prime Most Revd Justin Welby, released By the time she finally won a when his leadership was called with this view, with one clergy- Minister since Lord Salisbury in a statement following the death of seat in Finchley in 1959, she was into question following their man present describing the senti- 1885. A BBC Poll in 2002 ranked Baroness Thatcher. He said: “It Mrs Thatcher and had given birth defeat to Labour in 1974, she ment as ‘a disgraceful travesty of her 16th of the 100 Greatest was with sadness that I heard the to her children. She regarded the eventually became viewed as a the gospel’. Britons. news of the death of Baroness area’s Jewish community as ‘her promising contender, offering a In 1990, she was replaced as In February, 2007, Lady Thatcher and my prayers are with people’, and became a founding fresh start. Prime Minister and party leader Thatcher became the first living her son and daughter, her grand- member of the Anglo-Israel When the premiership of Mar- by Chancellor John Major. She ex-Prime Minister to have a stat- children, family and friends. It is Friendship League of Finchley, garet Thatcher began in 1979, she retired from the House two years ue of herself unveiled in the right that today we give thanks but did believe that Israel should paraphrased the prayer of Saint later at the age of 66, saying that House of Commons. She said: “I for a life devoted to public serv- trade land for peace. Francis on arriving at 10 Downing leaving the Commons would might have preferred iron, but ice, acknowledging also the faith October 1961 saw Mrs Thatch- Street. “Where there is discord, allow her more freedom to speak bronze will do. It won’t rust and that inspired and sustained her.” er promoted to the front benches, may we bring harmony. Where her mind. this time, I hope, the head will The former Archbishop of Can- as Parliamentary Undersecretary there is error, may we bring The first former Prime Minister stay on.“ terbury, Lord Carey, who was at the Ministry of Pensions and truth. Where there is doubt, may to establish a Foundation follow- The flag flew at half-mast over appointed during the Thatcher National Insurance in Harold we bring faith. And where there is ing her retirement, Lady Thatch- Downing Street on Monday, and era, said while he did not agree Macmillan’s administration. Mov- despair, may we bring hope,” she er continued being a prominent the current Prime Minister, David with her politics, the only female ing to the Shadow cabinet when said. public figure. Her health declined Cameron, returned from meet- Prime Minister ‘transformed’ the the party were the opposition in Privatisation, economics, indus- in 2002 however, after suffering ings in Europe to attend to the sit- UK. 1966, she soon began speaking trial relations and Northern Ire- several small strokes, and on uation. The former Labour Prime Min- ister, Tony Blair described Baroness Thatcher on Monday as “a towering political figure”.     The former Labour leader said:   “Very few leaders get to change  -") % !"' ! ,#%' '! )-!  )& % !   not only the political landscape of '%) (( 1"+" !"+'&""%/&'! their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her !!!'/ &'%#%/! '%)&''& %/& global impact was vast. And some % $)&("!&''-")+") #%" -&-")%& 1 -") of the changes she made in !!"'  &)% " ' !&+%&0 '! '  '" &"  #"#  Britain were, in certain respects +"!1%"%-)'" "(*0'%&#'%&)## %&"! - at least, retained by the 1997 '" %-!)%  %&0%")''%'" #-")1 Labour Government, and came to %"%-+&")!-"% % !%&%" )'"&*  be implemented by governments !'% && # "!1 %')&'" %'&' around the world.” * "&%*0+ &'#%"*!'"#$) '-%0! ' Born Margaret Hilda Roberts '*%-&'#%1 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in %' &"*%43-%&",#%!!'&%! 1925, her father was an active '-#%" &'" "''#%'%"%-")1%&!" politician, alderman and preacher & &#%&&)%!!"&& 0)&'"!&'*"!"+'- in the Methodist Church. She + "'!'&'%''-")% "!-!)--")1*%- was brought up a strict follower *  &)##  )!%"& ' "&' &'%!!' & ! of the denomination. Speaking #%#%("!0"%% *%-&%*'"-")%""%! later on Radio 4 in 1987, she said: “The fundamental reason of '-+ *!%*-")%" %+-'#%2%% being put on earth is so to #%1 improve your character that you 

 
 
 



 
are fit for the next world.” Faith   
 




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[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper 6 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 7, 2013 News Two killed in Appeal succeeds for Egypt clashes TWO MEN were killed and 89 injured in clashes between Coptic Christians and Islamists outside St Mark’s Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo this week. A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Health said 66 people had been treated and new Archbishop re leased from hospital while 23 re mained in care after fighting broke out on 7 April outside the THE HOUSE of Bishops of the Iglesia The December 2011 election of Dr Uruguay. cathedral as mourners left the church following a Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América) Pollesel by the Uruguay synod to suc- The small South American diocese funeral for four Christians who were killed in sec- has upheld the appeal of the Diocese of ceed Bishop Miguel Tamayo had raised has been an outlier within the wider tarian violence in the northern town of Khusus Uruguay and ratified the election of questions from conservative activists. Cono Sur in recent years, focusing its over the weekend. Archdeacon Michael Pollesel. The former general secretary of the energies on “social gospel” issues. On The state news agency re ported that as mourn- A statement released during Holy Anglican Church of Canada and interim 12 November 2010 the diocese voted to ers left the Cathedral they carried wooden crosses Week by the Presiding Bishop of the priest-in-charge of St Nicholas Church, secede from the Cono Sur after the and chanted re ligious slogans as well as calling for Southern Cone, Tito Zavala of Chile, Birch Cliff in Toronto was credited with provincial synod declined to authorize the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood re gime. said the bishops and provincial Execu- crafting the “non-confrontational” the ordination of women priests. Confrontations with Islamists erupted in Ramsis tive Council had “with joy and thankful- approach to the debate over same-sex Uruguay had proposed the women Street outside the cathedral and police responded ness to God” ratified Archdeacon blessings taken at the last General priest resolution, which was passed by by firing ru bber bullets and tear gas grenades into Pollesel’s election after consideration of Synod. the lay and episcopal orders, but defeat- the Christian procession. the appeal and the presentation of new Conservatives claimed that by mak- ed in the clergy order at the provincial Opposition members of the upper house of Par- background material. ing the issue of homosexuality value- synod in Buenos Aires. liament, the Shura Council, on 8 April called for At the close of their 21–25 May 2012 neutral, it privileged gay supporters in The 12–15 November 2011 meeting the resignation of the interior minister Mohamed meeting in Montevideo the bishops the General Synod and allowed Canada in Asunción, Paraguay, of the provincial Ibrahim. released a statement saying that “after to also claim it had not violated the synod rejected Uruguay’s request to The government’s “catastrophic failure to pro- discussion and prayer and in accord Anglican Communion’s strictures secede, but adopted a motion request- tect the lives and properties of citizens through- with its canons the Provincial Executive against gay marriage. ing a study in the feasibility of dividing out the past months” demanded immediate of the Cono Sur together with its Col- No explanation as to the reasons for the province into Atlantic and Pacific change they said in a press confere nce aire d on lege of Bishops did not ratify the elec- the 2012 rejection and 2013 ratification halves with Peru, Bolivia and two dioce- al Jazeera. tion of the Ven Dr Michael Pollesel as of the election has been released by the ses in Chile comprising one province A Coptic member of the Shura Council, Rami bishop-coadjutor for Uruguay” province. However it is understood Dr and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Lakah, described the cathedral clashes as the The Cono Sur did not state why Dr Pollesel — who has served as vicar Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the beginning of the ethnic cleansing of Egyptian Pollesel’s election was rejected, but general of the diocese since his election second. The New Zealand meeting of Christians, accord ing to the Cairo newspaper noted the province “promised its close — persuaded the bishops that he did the Anglican Consultative Council Aswat Masriya, and urged the immediate inter- cooperation with the diocese in its not share and did not propagate the declined to endorse the diocese’s vention of President Mohamed Mursi to restore future decisions.” Canadian church’s doctrines in request to secede. order. Church Army campaign goes Inside Out Sri Lanka plea for calm By Priscella Vega THE BISHOP of Colombo has called upon India to protect its Sinhalese visitors following a series of high profile CHURCH ARMY has launched a new campaign, assaults on Buddhist monks. Inside Out, where new projects will be introduced for While the April 1 letter of Bishop Dhiloraj Canagasabey is their mission to encourage ordinary Christians to addressed to the Indian government and leads with the con- lead a positive life. demnation of last month’s attack on two Buddhist monks in Wilson Carlile founded the Church Army in 1882 in Tamil Nadu, sources in the Church of Ceylon tell The hopes of sharing the Christian message through Church of England Newspaper the true audience is the gov- action and to encourage faith. Currently, the organi- ernment of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and sation continues to train those interested in evangel- its subject the sharp increase in sectarian violence targeting ism, creating new church ventures as well as aiding Ceylon’s Christians and Muslims. the poor and encouraging young people to connect Bishop Canagasabey wrote: “Several incidents of intimi- with their faith. dation and violence against Sri Lankans have been reported Chief Executive of the Church Army, Mark Russell recently from within and outside Sri Lanka,” adding the commented on their new project saying it will assist “most serious” had been the attack on Buddhists monks in those who need help in coming into touch with their Tamil Nadu state. faith. “In the first incident in Tamil Nadu, a group of postgradu- “Like Jesus, we too want to invest in people, live ate archaeology students had been attacked during a study alongside them and journey with them through life’s tour to a temple site in Thanjavoor. In the second a group of ups and downs,” Russell said. “And person by person Buddhist pilgrims who had arrived in Chennai from a visit think, believe and act differently from us and to accept their we are seeing the gospel at work from the inside out.” to sacred sites in North India had been attacked at the freedom and right to do so. From here it is but a short step The Church Army has been successful enough Chennai Railway Station. to blind and mindless violence against the group or groups with positive results like Evangelist Richard Cooke “In both instances the monks had been singled out for we choose to demonize,” he said. who moved to Flaxley Road Estate where there were abuse and physical violence, possibly due to their distinc- He stated that “while we very rightly condemn such acts not any Christian churches or residents. The estate in tive dress. Several extremist Tamil groups have been identi- by others, we also need to turn the spotlight inwards and general was breaking down due to the lack of employ- fied as perpetrators of these attacks in India. I appeal to the reflect on and examine our own failings in this regard. It ment and debt problems within the area. Central Government of India, and the State Government of may be that unconsciously in the practice of our own beliefs As a result, Richard had a vision of creating a Tamil Nadu to stop this act of violence immediately,” the and religion we have caused avoidable irritation and church and an area where not only adults but tod- bishop said. offence to those of sister faiths,” he said, adding “we can dlers and youth could join in. As of then, evangelist The Bishop added that “within Sri Lanka, attacks in the hardly demonstrate against and condemn such acts by oth- Neil Walpole helped with the Flaxley Road Estate and form of intimidation and violence especially on Christians ers against us, if we ourselves condone or participate in sim- it has now blossomed into a place where there are and Muslims have been too many to list.” ilar behaviour against those who are different from us.” holiday clubs, an after-school club, parenting drop-in The Church “views with grave concern and denounces It was the duty of state to guarantee the protection “of all and other activities. this growing and very dangerous trend of sectarian vio- groups in society,” the bishop said, warning the Buddhist The Church Army has a video on their website that lence. These incidents are yet another manifestation of the nationalist government “during the past decades we have further explains what their mission is. Those interest- fast spreading intolerance and fundamentalist extremism witnessed in this country the tragedy, huge damage and ed in viewing the “Being Church Army” video should which is engulfing many societies today,” the bishop said. destruction brought about by the negligence of this pri- visit, www.churcharmy.org.uk/ It was a “reflection of the refusal to listen to people who mary duty. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper News Sunday April 14, 2013 www.churchnewspaper.com 7 Hong Kong moves Bishop criticises welcomed by Church crime response THE BISHOP of Jamaica has domestic disputes.” prize but first needed to make denounced his government’s The Bishop condemned the a tax payment before the slow response to a lottery government for permitting money would be released. scam that has defrauded thou- the sale of lottery tickets on The Jamaican-based fraud had sands of elderly Americans, Sunday. He noted that the leg- taken in tens of millions of dol- saying it was symptomatic of islation passed during holy lars, prosecutors have the breakdown of law and week led him to ask “whether alleged. order in the West Indies. this is an expression of gross “After seven years of public In his presidential address insensitivity or a statement awareness of the lottery to the Diocese of Jamaica and concerning the way forward scam, our Government has the Cayman Islands at the for the relationship between only managed to table anti- 143rd annual meeting of church and society”. scamming legislation and talk Synod held at St Ann’s Bay He also took the govern- tough at the very moment parish church, Bishop ment to task for not moving to when the United States Sen- Howard Gregory said the stop the “Jamaican lottery ate was holding a [Senate] “system of justice needs to scam” until the US Senate hearing on the scam in become a primary focus of began hearings on the crimes. Jamaica,” Bishop Gregory attention.” A report by CBS reported said. “As a nation we are being that in 2012 over 29,000 lot- The government’s failure to CHURCH LEADERS in Hong Kong “My religious background is relative- called to repentance with a tery scam complaints were act did nothing to combat have welcomed the proposal for public ly conservative, but even the Anglican consequent change of action filed with American police Jamaica’s reputation as a den consultations on a Sexual Orientation Church in England is discussing this in relation to the blood of our agencies. Posing as represen- of crime and corruption. “The Discrimination Ordinance (SODO) issue now,” he said adding that young men and our women tatives of Publishers Clearing- way we are presenting our- that would protect the civil rights of the “regardless of what my religious back- and children which is being house and other lottery and selves to the world in terms of homosexual community. ground is or my personal view… these shed daily in our country by sweepstakes firms, the scam- our moral values as a nation While declining to speak to the mer- people should not be discriminated criminal elements, but just as mers would tell elderly Ameri- calls for serious repentance its of any particular bill, Roman against.” significant in the resolution of cans that they had won a cash on the part of citizens.” Catholic and Anglican leaders have In November 2012 a proposal was voiced their general approval of civil put forward in the Legislative Council rights legislation. to launch a public consultation to On 1 April 2013 Dr York Chow Yat- gauge potential support for SODO. Christian set free in Pakistan ngok, a leading Anglican layman and After vigorous debate the motion was SEVEN years after being sentenced to death the police arrested Masih. A Lahore Court sen- the former secretary for food and defeated and Chief Executive Leung for blasphemy a Pakistani Christian has been tenced him to death on 30 May 2007. In over- health, took office as chairman of Chun-ying dismissed calls for a consul- set free. turning his conviction the appeals court held Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunity Com- tation in a policy address in January. On 3 April 2013 Lahore High Court justices there was no proof of blasphemy. mission. Evangelical leaders had voiced con- Khaja Amtiaz Ahmed and Khalid Mehmood In a statement released last week Release Last month gay activists attacked the cern that SODO would lead to gay mar- Khan overturned the conviction of Younis International, which had been working with appointment of Dr Chow arguing that riage. Choi Chi-sum, secretary-general Masih and ordered his immediate release from lawyers from the Legal Aid for Destitute and his religious principle would prejudice of the Society for Truth and Light, said prison. Settlement society in Pakistan, welcomed the the debate. However Dr Chow told the they were “disappointed” that Dr Chow On 10 September 2005 Masih was arrested news. South China Morning Post he was a had now offered his public support for after he had asked a party of Muslim men the Release chief executive Paul Robinson said: “liberal-minded” Christian and not prej- the ordinance before consulting night before if they would lower the volume of “We are celebrating with Younis, his family and udiced against gay people. groups who opposed the legislation. their singing. The men responded by attacking our partners who have supported them for all The issue should be handled dis- Created in 1996 the equal opportuni- Masih and beat him unconscious. Islamic lead- these years. We hope this sets a precedent for creetly. “In the process of legislation, ties commission has a mandate to work ers then incited a mob to burn Christians’ other victims of Pakistan’s notorious blasphe- there should be more discussion. towards the elimination of discrimina- homes, saying Masih had committed blasphe- my laws who should now be released.” Because not everyone would be coura- tion on the grounds of sex, marital sta- my. More than 100 Christian families were Release commended the “bravery of High geous enough or would choose to dis- tus, pregnancy, disability, family status forced to flee. Court judges” who released Masih, “despite close their own sexual orientation,” Dr and race. This brief should be extend- His lawyers alleged that to placate the mob intense pressure from Muslim hardliners.” Chow told Radio Television Hong ed to sexual orientation Dr Chow said. Kong.

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[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper 8 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 14, 2013 Letters

THE OF CHURCH ENGLANDNEWSPAPER Write to The Church of England Newspaper, 14 Great College Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3RX. or you can send an E-mail to [email protected]. Tweet at @churchnewspaper If you are sending letters by e-mail, please include a street address NB: Letters may be edited

Marriage the ideal City church membership Gay debate Sir, Jesus’ teaching on marriage, based on Sir, It is wrong for Mr Chalke to bring Roy God’s plan in creation, remains the ideal: Sir, The news that membership in City of London churches has increased by 24 per Clements into his argument re. homosexu- would that it were also the norm, as nowa- cent between 2007 and 2011 is significant for two reasons. Firstly, the units (registered ality. Rev Clements forgot his responsibili- days many dispense with marriage alto- membership) can often diverge from attendance. Baptist Union churches recorded ties towards his family, his church and his gether. increased attendances of 3.5 per cent between 2001 and 2008, and a membership ministry. He’s not the first person to be Before Jesus died, however, he also told decline of seven per cent in the same period. So the City figures represent unexpect- tempted but some have remembered their his disciples that he had more to teach edly solid commitments. loving responsibilities. Some however put them than they were then ready to receive. Secondly, the period began in 2008 with City workers leaving their recession-blitzed sex first. Is Mr Chalke doing this too? Having set a trajectory, he has left us to dot offices to see TfL buses telling them to ‘stop worrying and enjoy their lives’ because D Defoe, the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s, and since his time ‘there’s probably no God’. Via email our understanding of human sexuality has So, Dr Dawkins, the Church’s message to you is ‘Please do it again’. become, rightly, more nuanced. Jesus Richard Wilkins, promised, however, to leave us his Holy Watford Spirit to guide us into all truth and this Spirit is not confined to the Church but blows where it wills. fruit in our lives. currently in situ. Peter was taken aback by a ‘How can this It is quite possible to wear a cross round By the way, if Mr Mayo wants to run Your Tweets be?’ moment at Joppa but then acted bold- your neck and a frown on your face; to have more than 26 miles in the Holy Land I sug- ly, prompted by the Spirit. Few of us are a fish on your car and to drive aggressively. gest he takes road 60 from Jerusalem to kormos endre @kormosendre granted a vision and so must needs exer- There is no law against the smile of kind- Nablus [through Samaria and past Bethel @churchnewspaper As member of C cise discernment, in community. We ness flowing from the love of God towards and Shilo] which I estimate is about 60 of E in Hungary, we (for one) do not should all be able to identify with Thomas our fellow human beings. They will know miles long with no checkpoints - I have really feel threatened. Merton’s words - ‘I cannot be sure that we are Christians by our love. driven along it, but not run it — yet! what I do at present pleases you, Lord... but Capt Roy Hollands CA, FR Baigel Andy Mason @Mase_the_vicar I am sure that my desire to please you does Whitstable Bury, Lancs youtube.com/watch?v=c5lFgv… please you.’ Excited that Bristol Street Pastors Serena Lancaster, has launched... (see vid for what SP Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos. Careless language actually do) Sir, I have often enjoyed reading Paul Signs of the times Richardson’s contributions to the CEN, but Sir, Thank you Tony Higton for reminding will vanderhart @vicarwill Parish sharing in last week’s column, I was disturbed to us to look up to see signs in the heavens We have posted some supportive Sir, “Scottish Parish Shares Church With see him slipping into the careless use of (24 February). Perhaps someone could resources about suicide on Muslims”. That headline certainly is an David Cameron’s meaningless phrase ask Dr Peter Brierley to calculate the sta- @mindandsouluk today. This is a arresting one. “equal marriage”. Equal to what? tistical chances of a ground-shattering visi- sermon address for leaders: Maybe some readers will recall Dr Paul He similarly used the phrase “gay mar- ble meteor even happening within hours bit.ly/12xPFLK White’s Jungle Doctor stories, however. riage”, which is surely almost as bad; until after a near-miss asteroid passing. Without There is one about a sweet little leopard the word marriage is redefined, everyone much scientific knowledge people would Michelle Boorstein @mboorstein which someone keeps as a pet. The leop- knows it has always meant a relationship truly see this as a ‘star falling from the sky’ The day before his son killed ard grew up. What next? The story ended between different sexes. It is like speaking (Matt 24). There were injuries but as far as himself, Rick Warren set the sermon with the tag “Little leopards become big of a square circle; such a thing is impossi- I know no one was killed, and modern tech- for this weekend: “What to do on the leopards, and big leopards kill”. ble till one or the other word is given a new nology ensured that it was seen across the worst day of your life” #depression When Muslims offer their mosques to meaning. “Same-sex marriage” is that sort world. Christians or even when Muslims allow of contradiction in terms. Signs seem to be ignored by Christian Graham Tomlin @gtomlin churches to be built in their countries, then We need to use words carefully, or argu- leaders because of very sensitive pastoral Few things can be harder to endure one might possibly think again. ments can be lost without people noticing, reasons, namely that often thousands are than a child taking their own life. Tony Cullingford, simply by one side’s clever use of loaded killed and many more thousands mourn Prayers 4 @RickWarren to a Father Tewkesbury words. their loss. For example, in 1912 Great who knows what it is to lose a Son Arthur Robinson, Britain proudly launched a symbol display- Liverpool ing to all other nations GB’s worldwide ken costa @kenjcosta Bible example importance, strength and authority. @RickWarren prayers with you and Sir, In response to Serena Lancaster’s let- Named the Titanic (a Greek god) the family from all your friends in ter. I would urge her to read what God’s Concern for Gaza unsinkable ship sank on its maiden voyage England. word says. The Bible makes it very plain Sir, I do hope that the Rev Bob Mayo’s con- and the UK’s influence has been sinking that same-sex ‘marriage’ is an abomination cern for Gaza covers all facets of life there - ever since. Tony Higton @TonyHigton to God, and I am very surprised that our especially as Hamas showed its true Then in 2001 the world watched as the Is it right for Israel to divide the Church leaders fail to make that important colours for all to see by refusing to allow towers of the World Trade Centre unex- Promised Land? See point, preferring to merely state they women to run in the planned UN pectedly collapsed. Global finance has christianteaching.org.uk/blog/?p=28 believe in marriage between a man and a Marathon. been in turmoil ever since. 4 woman. This of course would include the fight for As a nation we are living in a period of EM Owens, the democratic rights of approximately half uncertainty and shaking, so perhaps the Diocese of Durham Liverpool a million people resident there. And not asteroid/meteor event for Christians @DioceseofDurham ignore the glaring denial to Gazans of other should be a timely reminder from our lov- Archbishop joins call on G8 to ‘strike basic civil rights by the regime that rules ing Lord, ‘Fear not, I am still in control. at causes of poverty’ Love example the area with an iron fist. Hamas is duplici- Just watch and pray.’ archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles Sir, Many Christians worry that public tous, as Mr Mayo must realise by now. Only a few Wise Men recognized the .php/5… expression of our faith is becoming The Doha agreement between Hamas sign of a star rising in the East. Now that I increasingly unacceptable and even risky. and Fatah lies impotent with every day that am in my seventh decade the sign of the Christian Aid @christian_aid However, Jesus did not call his followers to Hamas refuses to not only permit elections undisturbed tomb cloths is the one I want Who is the most inspiring Christian be distinctive by our doctrine, nor by our in Gaza, but even allow a direct political to claim for myself. We do not know what Aid Week collector you know? Tweet clothing and jewellery: it is by our love, opposition to reside and operate there. the future holds, but we do know who us your nominations #CAWeek even for enemies, that people will see that Here’s hoping the concern for Gazan holds the future. we are children of God. Paul further Arabs delivers a brand new democratic John Mummery, follow us reminds the Galatians (5:22-23) that there election as opposed to a seven-year-old Lindfield, @churchnewspaper on Twitter can be no law against the Spirit bearing his result being clung to by the radical militia Sussex

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper Alister McGrath uncovers the real CS Lewis E4,E5

SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2013 Justin and Francis: One in faith, prayer and simplicity of life

By Martin Dales of any desire to join ‘the club’. It is not only churches who are suffering a lack of hat a momentous time it has been for membership but many organisations who Wover 2 billion Christians worldwide. find competition from the modern age with In the same week, we saw both the all its ephemerality. Inauguration of Pope Francis for the On the day of Archbishop Justin’s Roman Catholic Church in Rome following Enthronement, we remembered the 6th in the steps of St Peter and the century Abbot St Benedict and also the Enthronement of the Most Rev and Rt Hon 16th century Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby as the 105th Archbishop of Thomas Cranmer. Canterbury following in the steps of St Benedict wrote what became known as Augustine. upholds the teaching of most Churches. the Rule of St Benedict, a living-out of the Both leaders have a huge amount on As well as his own Diocese of Gospel of Christ in community as relevant their respective plates as they start these Canterbury, there is the pastoral care of now as when it was first written. new phases of their ministries. the family of 78 million Christians that Archbishop Justin is a 21st Century Oblate The role of Archbishop of Canterbury is, make up the Anglican Communion of the Order of St Benedict in the Anglican frankly, an impossible one for any one worldwide: these are Churches that are “in tradition as am I and in Yorkshire we are person to fulfil. communion with the See of Canterbury in blessed by the presence of our Roman In General Synod as long ago as 1999, the Church of England, and thus the Catholic Benedictine friends at Ampleforth we looked at how we resourced the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his person Abbey. Archbishops of Canterbury and York in and ministry, is the unique focus of Cranmer wrote the Book of Common the exercising of their ministries. Anglican unity”. Prayer and the 39 Articles, which remain In 2002 the report “Resourcing office of Archbishop. There is also the desire for unity with part of what the Church of England Archbishops”, chaired by Professor So what are the challenges facing other Christian churches in their various continues to believe as it too tries to live Anthony Mellows, made the following Archbishop Welby as he takes on the traditions and understanding of God’s out the teachings of Christ. observations on the first page: “It is mantle of Dunstan, Anselm, Becket, purposes for the world. This often looks Archbishop Justin has already been remarkable what the Archbishops achieve Cranmer, Temple, Ramsey, Coggan and impossible and incredibly slow in its outspoken with the Government about the with the limited resources available to Williams to name but a few of his manifestation but is a vital part of the need for care of the poor and needy and them” and “The demands upon, and the predecessors? ministry of Archbishop Welby. It was good, Pope Francis holds similar views it seems. expectations of, the Archbishops are at the There is the unfinished business relating for instance, to see the Ecumenical Cranmer was executed as a heretic for very limit of what is realistic. The jobs are to women bishops, which was rejected by Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew his views, which were unacceptable to approaching the point at which they will the General Synod last November as an I, at Pope Francis’ Inauguration, the first Queen Mary I: being an Archbishop in become impossible.” unsatisfactory package of potentially time since The Great Schism of 1054 that a 2013 continues to be a sacrificial Eleven years later, very little has discriminatory proposals. Much work is Greek Orthodox Patriarch has attended. appointment from so many perspectives. changed and those observations hold true going on to bring back to the Synod a new As in any family, whether here in But in the words of St Ignatius of Loyola, and indeed are exacerbated by the way package to enable women bishops to England, in the wider Communion or in whose spirituality influences both Pope 21st century communications and 24/7 happen whilst accepting that those who the universal Church there are good times and Archbishop, there lies their job news coverage require instant comments have theological difficulties with this will and bad, happy and sad, agreements and specification: at the drop of a hat from such as have equal opportunities for continuing disagreements and Archbishop Justin’s Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Archbishops and others in public life: what pastoral care. honed skills in reconciliation will come Thou deservest: is often needed is a considered response The matter of same-sex relationships into their own in helping us all deal with To give and not to count the cost; assisted by a combination of space and and how they are titled continues to the issues that Christians face living out To fight and not to heed the wounds; silent consideration. exercise minds both in the Church and the Gospel wherever they are. To toil and not to seek for rest; It is clear that the sharing by our Parliament with the re-definition of the Perhaps the most pressing item on To labour and not to ask for any reward Archbishops of the many responsibilities word ‘marriage’ being at the heart of it. Archbishop Justin’s agenda is to address Save that of knowing that we do Thy will. and varied roles which both are expected My dictionary defines marriage as “the the dwindling number of people attending to shoulder is the best way of leading the legal union of a man and a woman in order churches in England. It is not so much Martin Dales has been a Lay Member of Church of England and utilises the to live together and often to have children” that people don’t believe in God or have no General Synod for the Diocese of York since different skills that each brings to the which seems to me fairly unequivocal and faith but instead a general apathy and lack 1995

ANDREW CAREY E2 • WHISPERING GALLERY E2 • JUDY WEST E3 • ARTS AND MEDIA E3 •CROSSWORD• E8 • JANEY LEE GRACE E8 E2 www.englandonsunday.com Sunday April 14, 2013

their terms and conditions changed by the fathers. “There’s a lot of research which proposals will have no wriggle room whatso- shows getting parenting right in those early ever and the effect on teachers and other years has a positive impact on health, on edu- Andrew Carey: mainly public sector workers could be chill- cation and on social behaviour.” ing on their freedom of speech. It is good to see a bishop put his head The Bishop of Exeter this week criticised above the parapet on an aspect of govern- another aspect of government policy where ment policy that doesn’t concern welfare. View from the Pew the warm rhetoric of support for marriage He’s wholly right. The government’s defence and the family has been the very opposite to of its policies has been to say that it aims to the effect of policies on struggling families. let families make their own choices. This is Citing child benefit changes, tax policy and disingenuous since the effect of its changes social fiscal policy generally, Bishop Michael is to force mothers back to work early. Fur- Langrish argued that families, and especially thermore, by offering tax breaks for child The gap in those in which one parent stayed at home to care, the government effectively nudges par- look after children were being punished for ents back to work in a way which may be their choice. harmful for the development of children. “I have a general concern that we’ve had a The fact that the recently announced child lot of rhetoric about the support for family care tax breaks caused such controversy rhetoric life and good parenting. If the rhetoric had indicates that it has left full-time parents feel- substance I would expect that to be reflected ing undervalued and scorned. his government faces a credibility gious leaders the Prime Minister yet in public policy decisions,” he told the Tele- A more family-friendly tax system that crisis in a number of areas but again paid lip-service to his support for graph (‘Full-time mothers penalised by Gov- allows parents to make their own choices Tmost importantly the gap strong and thriving faith communities, ernment, says Bishop of Exeter’, Daily would in fact tax families less. The practice of between rhetoric and reality. trying to heal the wounds left by his Telegraph, 27 March 2013). tax credits and tax breaks makes the tax sys- The debt and deficit is steadily rising legislation for the redefinition of mar- In particular, he criticised the failure of the tem unnecessarily complex and expensive to in spite of much talk of austerity and riage. Yet this government has done so Government to bring in a transferrable administer. A simpler and lower system cuts. While it is true that the budget of little to match its words with reality. allowance for married couples, in spite of a would leave more money in the pockets of high-spending departments is In spite of support for the wearing of Conservative manifesto pledge to do so. struggling families and may even result in squeezed, there is still spending and crosses, the government betrayed this According to an international study, single- more revenue for the exchequer. borrowing at astronomical rates, which by employing lawyers who argued earner households in Britain are paying Finally, these considerable gaps between will bequeath future generations with against the right in the European Court more tax than the international average and rhetoric and reality leave all politicians and our debts to pay. My view is that it is of Human Rights. Its same-sex mar- were worse off than before the coalition was political parties in an exposed position. The immoral to spend unsustainably and let riage legislation leaves Christians in formed. public are losing trust in leaders who say one our children pick up the bill. the public sector exposed to sackings Bishop Langrish argued that society need- thing and do another. Without trust our polit- In a pre-Easter meeting with reli- and injustice. Registrars who will have ed to support stay-at-home mothers and ical system will break.

Keeping a low profile Which way will he go? Lord Williams of Oystermouth, or Bishop Rowan, as he prefers to be known, is not enjoying the high profile of his predecessor but he has not altogether disappeared from view. Over Easter he was reported helping in a Pope Francis continues to surprise and excite Catholics. No one yet knows in food kitchen in Cambridge and he has given an interview to Christian mag- which direction he will steer the Church but he has given ample evidence that azine. In this he says he is ‘excited’ by his successor’s appointment but he is very much his own man. His decision not to live in the apostolic apartments unlike his predecessor does not appear to be worried by the advance of sec- but to share meals with others living in the Vatican must have thrown tradition- ularism. “Christianity has nothing to fear,” he says quite firmly. In an inter- alists into a fit but he has stuck to his own way. The same confidence was shown view with Premier Christian Radio last month Bishop Rowan said he was not by his decision to wash the feet of two women on Maundy Thursday. The rubrics ‘rushing to the barricades’ to defend Christianity. “Don’t let’s imagine the say that the bishop or priest should wash the feet of men. Conservative Catholic advance of the kingdom of God is bound up with our being popular or influ- blogs are full of dismay. Only a few fear this is the first step to women priests but ential,” he warned. He suggested that we are in a climate ‘where people most are convinced more liturgical horrors are in store. The body language of don’t quite understand how religious conviction works very well’ so it’s not the Vatican’s master of ceremonies on TV speaks volumes. Papal speeches prais- surprising that they ‘get themselves in a tangle about how to honour it pub- ing the role of women in the church have not helped steady conservative nerves. licly without honouring public universal provision’. Meanwhile American Traditionalists may be nervous but so far there is no evidence of significant theologian Stanley Hauerwas has hailed Rowan Williams for teaching us change in Church policy. We may get more clues to the future when the several ‘the art of ordinary living’ without grand gestures or heroic actions. He told new promised biographies of Francis appear this month. John Allen is already the ABC in Australia that Williams showed how to live with and attend to the hard at work in Buenos Aires and a prominent Italian journalist released his ‘church as it is’. book on 10 April. The Whispering Gallery Success in print Filming the Bible A TV series about the Bible is making waves across the pond. President It seems different factors make for a best-selling book. The Bishop of Port Obama attended Easter service at St John’s Episcopal Church in Washington Moresby reports that the Christian bookshop in the city has a large stock of and heard criticism of the Religious Right but a new poll reveals that 13 per books by the Dean of St Albans, the Very Rev Jeffrey John. He found this cent of Americans think he is the anti-Christ while some viewers of the TV puzzling until he worked out that the manager had confused the Dean with series ‘The Bible’ apparently think that Satan was depicted in a way that made the well-known evangelist (and CEN contributor) J John. him look like their President. Questions have been asked about why the devil Back in England Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch looks set to do well with his is always portrayed as dark skinned. Producers of the series have denied any new book on Silence. It helps that Sir Diarmaid is not the silent type. He is attempt to depict the President for whom they have professed their ‘highest signed up to speak in bookshops and literary festivals around the country. respect’. The TV mini series has stirred up a great deal of controversy. It sticks He also appeared on the BBC news channel programme ‘Meet the author’ pretty much to the text but critics have worked hard to find errors. Stephen is and revealed he does not like to use his title although he did readily disclose stoned by a mob, rather than the Sanhedrin, for example. But perhaps the real that he is an ordained deacon. Sir (or Deacon) Diarmaid’s fully justified sup- problem with the series is that it is too literal. Viewers saw Moses killing an port for the campaign against the horrible building Oxford University plan Egyptian guard, the angel of death moving through Egyptian cities and which will ruin the view of Port Meadow is also helping his cause. So far all Pharaoh’s army drowning in the Red Sea in a way that suggested death and the reviews have been positive except for one unsigned piece in The Econo- destruction are God’s will. Just what the new atheists want people to think. mist. Sunday April 14, s012 www.englandon3unday.com E2

The elderly married couple living on their combined basic OAPs of some £200 per week, or £10,400pa enjoy pension credit. It is the former especially the child, for whom the cuts are the most unkind, and where survival also requires a safety net. This requires income redistribution so as to pro- vide more generous benefits. Analysis: Welfare Cuts These are the poor who deserve our attention. They are being failed by our prejudice, possibly by ignorance, too often a lack of compassion, by sweeping measures and By Tommy Gee the latter and then immediately anomalies, problems and political point scoring bickering. Let us give them our arguments arise. The exercise of informed and wise attention, and make sure they have a safety net. here is a sterility surrounding the current debate administrative discretion often proves to be a better way of The excellent detailed work undertaken for the Rown- with claims and counter-claims about myths and curing poverty than a complex set of rules based on wide tree Trust on Minimum Income Standards (MIS) recom- Tchanges in benefits, so perhaps a more fundamental sweeping decisions. mends the income people need to achieve a socially look at poverty and its alleviation, is needed, rather than Examination of a typical low weekly household budget acceptable standard, which it points out is relevant to the highlight atypical cases in large families or special circum- for two struggling on the margins with little money might discussion of poverty, and that households classified as in stances. be: relative income poverty are generally unable to reach Poverty is relative and depends on where you live, past acceptable standards of living as defined by the public. experience, ‘expectations’ and surrounding norms. Falling Food £25 Those with 60% of median income are usually classified as below average national income is one approach. To use an Rent £100 poor, or in poverty. international average as the basis for defining poverty Electricity, heat and water £30 OAPs receive pension credit, a safety net benefit on top might be regarded by some as both rational and Christian, Travel £15 of pension which brings them up to MIS, but the out of but unrealistic in today’s world overtaken by unregulated Council Tax £30 work benefits for the single parent with one child leave markets conducted by the rich and greedy who have most TV, Newspaper, School, misc £15 them on the poverty line, with much less than their basic of the power. Contingencies, Emergencies £20 expenditure needs. Nevertheless, there is a case for no economic growth, Total £235 per week. UNICEF UK states in a recent poverty report by Dragan certainly in the West, with new enterprises replacing those Say £12.000 pa, or half of the national average. Nastic that “child poverty is about more than income or that disappear. The expanding world population cannot be the lack of items in a given list, and that children can be sustained unless there is a redistribution from rich to poor, This bare budget does not allow for any frills, alcohol, poor in love and attention, in parental time and skills, in both nationally and between nations. cigarettes, Xmas, Sky TV, or holidays, but with care it pro- relationships and community”. In any event, places at the table must be found for the vides a safety net on what may be termed the bread-line, at Which sounds very much like the scriptures to me and a emerging economies of China, India, Brazil etc., (the so- a level which the minister himself has claimed he once sur- reason why we should reflect on what Jesus would have called Brics). And it is becoming apparent that the impend- vived, and which I too am testing in my quest for simplicity, done about it. I believe we need to identify the families ing tsunami of emigration from poor countries, especially or the simple life. whose budgets fail to provide basic needs and to make as their own climates change, and the movement of people What is the income of a typical single mother not in work sure that their poverty and that of their children is protect- cannot be controlled or stemmed. with an only ‘teenage’ child? ed by a safety net. If we can do it for pensioners, surely we But we can at least look at current poverty in our own can do it to make sure our children are provided for. back yard, the purpose of this note, which is not based on Housing benefit, just cut because she is in a three bedroom In many cases it is mothers who struggle - and they need complex statistics arising from a sample survey; rather it is council house ...... £70 per week our help. We must “mind the gap”. how it seems to be in the village where I live. Other social benefits inc child allowance ..£80 per week I believe we should look at what appear to be typical Total ...... £150 per week Note: All numbers have been rounded to assist the reader cases rather than the average. Governments legislate for and to show the order magnitude.

Judy West’s It makes you think

The following series of advertisements reported- ly appeared in a daily newspaper: Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes Monday: “The Rev AJ Jones has one colour TV set for sale. Telephone 626-1313 after 7pm and Atheism turns ask for Mrs Donnelley who lives with him, out to be too simple. cheap.” The quest for perfection If the whole universe Tuesday: “We regret any embarrass- has no meaning, we ment caused to Rev Jones by a typographi- It is said that as the great Michelangelo painted the magnificent frescoes on should never have found cal error in yesterday’s paper. The ad the ceiling of the Sistine chapel — lying on his back for endless hours to finish out that it has no should have read: ‘The Rev AJ Jones has every detail with great care — a friend asked him why he took such pains with meaning. one colour TV set for sale, cheap...Tele- figures that would be viewed from a considerable distance. CS Lewis phone 626-1313 and ask for Mrs Donnelley, “After all,” the friend said, “Who will notice whether it is perfect or not?” who lives with him after 7pm.’” “I will,” replied the artist. Wednesday: “The Rev AJ Jones informs us that he has received sev- Urban Myths eral annoying telephone calls A Lutheran newsletter has some tongue-in- because of an incorrect ad in yester- cheek suggestions for church members day’s paper. It should have read: Getting the message across? unhappy with their pastor: “Simply send a ‘The Rev AJ Jones has one colour copy of this letter to six other churches who TV set for sale, cheap. Telephone are tired of their ministers. Then bundle up 626-1313 after 7pm and ask for Mrs your pastor and send him to the church at the Donnelley who loves with him.’” top of the list. Add your name to the bottom of Thursday: “Please take notice the list. In one week you will receive 16,436 that I, the Rev AJ Jones, have no ministers, and one of them should be a dandy. colour TV set for sale; I have Have faith in this letter. One man broke the smashed it. Don’t call 626-1313 any- chain and got his old minister back.” more. I have not been carrying on with Mrs Donnelley. She was, until yesterday, my housekeeper.’” Friday: “Wanted: a housekeeper. Usual house- Church Typos keeping duties. Good pay. Love in, Rev AJ Jones. Lift up our Messianic brothers Telephone 626- 1313.’” and sisters in Israel who are suf- Mistakes are inevitable in the publishing busi- fering during our prayer time. ness.

Do you have a funny story, quotable quote or sermon illustration? Send them to The Church of England Newspaper, 14 Great College Street, London, SW1P 3RX or email [email protected] E4 www.englandonsunday.com Sunday April 14, 2013 Alister McGrath explains why it was time for a new

t is 50 years since the lonely death and funeral of Christian superstar CS But why paint a picture that is so stark and challenging? me onto a rathe Lewis. On that grim and rainy day, Lewis’s brother was at home emptying “Lewis would have wanted me to do this, I think. I owed it to him to be the Lewis legac Ia whisky bottle. Lewis’ later years were marked by disintegrating honest. I had to show him as he was. He was very human.” today. How did friendships and anxiety about money. It was a dismal end. It seemed the Don I ask McGrath what surprised him most in the writing of this book. What acclaim – espec who Oxford no longer loved was doomed to a short shelf life – a sad end to surprised him about Lewis? American evan an odd and narrow life. “I was very surprised by his relationship with his father. I knew it wasn’t a “A lot of Chri The only close parallel is to another clever man whose funeral was a good relationship. But I was shocked by Lewis’s behaviour towards his rational intellec similar picture of futility. Karl Marx, an obscure economist, was buried in father who, after all, supported Lewis financially over many years. I think Lewis has been Highgate Cemetery with just a handful of that Lewis was ashamed by the way he behaved Christianity is b people there. Who could imagine that his too. He used his father and he knew it and felt but that it is no books would fuel a movement in history bad about that.” Christian story that dominated for years? McGrath’s method of writing his book is the young.” Marx’s legacy is, at the very least, unsure interesting. He didn’t interview any family Lewis’s world – his ideas have not stood the test of time. members or anyone who knew the great man. male environm But Lewis’s lived to fight another day and Instead he relied on reading everything Lewis from boarding he is now a true hero of many in the ever wrote and just about everything ever written he holds attitud evangelical world – especially in America. It about Lewis. So there is a distance in the writing dinosaurs. is a vexed question as to why. The books – a distance in McGrath’s One thin somehow don’t warrant the wild acclaim, relationship with Lewis. But devel and Lewis’s life was rather strange. this very distance is the key dev Today I am in the office of Alister to the book. exp McGrath at Kings College, London. He has It is deeply readable – str written what is going to be the benchmark with numerous cliff- re biography of Lewis, with strong reviews hangers and provocative a already coming in. On a freezing London questions. For my day London seems a long way from Oxford. money, it is McGrath’s And McGrath has himself, like Lewis, masterpiece – the ended up displaced from academic mothership of the city of dreaming very best thing he has ever written. Lewis has w spires. These two share rather a lot in common – but more of that later. managed to bring the best out of McGrath. B So why has McGrath written his biography of Lewis? “The most recent One of the more intriguing aspects of one was written by AN Wilson, but since then there has been an awful lot of McGrath’s book is the way he looks at the Lewis scholarship and I’ve spent a lot of time in the Lewis archives. So with chronology of Lewis’ conversion and redates it. Le the 50th anniversary of his death upon us, it seemed time to write it.” Put simply, McGrath feels that Lewis got the date in It’s a good answer and a logical one, but somehow you detect there is wrong in Surprised by Joy. Or perhaps it was part of more to it than this. Lewis has intrigued McGrath, got under his skin. And a pattern in Lewis’s life of bending the truth. As ac he similarly got under AN Wilson’s skin, who in a review of McGrath’s book McGrath puts it: “He wanted to tell things as he calls Lewis an odd man. An odd man indeed. McGrath’s biography is a real wanted them to be – he was very human. He was page-turner and this is in no small measure due to the sheer oddness of dealt certain cards, he had problems and wrestled Lewis the man and the life lived. But the oddness doesn’t seem all that odd with his thought-life. But what he did when he to McGrath. had thoughts he didn’t like was to write “I’m used to academics being strange people. Lewis wouldn’t have fitted in things down, even the dangerous anywhere other than an academic context, and he wasn’t even a normal thoughts. He affirms the power academic really. I have called him an eccentric genius and that’s what he of writing things down as was.” a way of dealing with But eccentric can cover many sins – and Lewis seems to have been beset them.” with some odd predilections. He flirted with sadism for instance. And his So this takes attitude to friendship was not always honourable. His TheThe growinggrowing appeaappeall dear friend Tolkien felt wounded and abandoned by Lewis – although Lewis tended to blame Tolkien for the split. “He chose friends very carefully, people who were brilliant, who he could relate to and who gave him something. But he always kept his distance from them. He didn’t tell them everything about himself, he kept secrets. He didn’t even tell his closest friend Tolkien that he had married Joy Davidman.” But, I ask, how would McGrath have got on with Lewis – would they have been friends? “I don’t think we would have got on very well. We wouldn’t have had that much in common. I tend to see Lewis as a trophy of grace. God could even use this strange and awkward man. Lewis had a lot of rough edges.” And on those rough edges hang quite a tale. If you’ll excuse the use of words, McGrath’s book lays bare Lewis’ odd sexual and family life. And these rough edges are rather refreshing. Today’s evangelical leader has to be squeaky clean – pretty wife who shares the ministry, but not the good stuff, three kids, nice teeth and never touching a drop of the hard stuff. God forbid if an evangelical leader smoked! Step forward CS Lewis – pipe smoker, heavy drinker, morning tippler, lover of his dead best friend’s mother and a secretive man who was rather economical with the truth. Alister McGrath and CS Lewis

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper Sunday April 14, 2013 www.englandonsunday.com E5 w biography of CS Lewis. Steve Morris listens. er vexed question. Although McGrath devotes a chapter to “Mere Christianity has stood the test of time. Pilgrim’s Regress I think highly of and respect. But the best thing cy in his book, I still don’t quite get why Lewis is so popular he ever wrote was a sermon (one of only two university sermons he ever preached).” d the obscurity of the funeral get replaced with worldwide That sermon can be found in Lewis anthologies and it is called Weight of Glory. It is an amazing piece of work. cially from evangelicals. He is certainly a very unlikely And what an odd thing. Lewis, the failed poet, the children’s writer, the apologist could have been one of the ngelical hero. McGrath tries to explain. greatest preachers we ever had. istians have been brought up with a restricted and rather One of the overriding emotions in McGrath’s book is sadness. I wonder, did he die a disappointed man? ctual diet. The stuff they’ve been fed is dry and didactic. “Lewis died a sad man. He was wounded by the alienation from his dear friend Tolkien. His brother was an n a lifesaver for many people’s faith because he shows that alcoholic and a mess. He was anxious about his tax bill – he thought that if he gave money away he wouldn’t have bigger and better than this. He shows that faith is reasonable, to pay tax on it. His house the Kilns was in a bad state.” ot limited by reason. He uses story and imagery to bring the It is a dispiriting picture. Lewis had been exiled to The Other Place and his long train journeys must have got to y to life. He appeals to postmodern people in this way and to him. His health failed. He had the indignity of a rather Heath Robinson catheter put together by an incompetent doctor friend. But what remains are some amazing books. d was very different to our own. Oxford in his day was a very So here is a thorny question. Why are we still reading Lewis? Why hasn’t someone else come along to take his ment. It was very narrow. Lewis’ mother died and then he went place – a modern Lewis who can take on his legacy and easy way of communicating the faith. The cupboard, I am school, to army, to Oxford. So perhaps it isn’t that odd that afraid, is bare. McGrath agrees. des to women that seem like they died out with the “We are still waiting for a new CS Lewis. Tim Keller is good on apologetics, but hasn’t got Lewis’ tone, and he is one of the best we have.” ng he had, though, was male friends who helped him Lewis developed that tone during the war when he visited airfields and interacted with lop his mind. McGrath’s book tracks this regular servicemen, answering their questions and explaining the faith. velopment. Lewis’s life was the story of a mind “He had to teach himself to speak all over again. And what he learned was how to panded, but with the emotional side of his life speak and write with warmth. He developed the common touch. He was creative.” ruggling along behind. It was possibly for this Indeed. It is that warmth and way of connecting that keeps Lewis alive. It is the eason that he was such a sitting duck for fact that to read Lewis is to hear Lewis. attentions of Joy Davidman. It was also possibly Which brings me to a final point… and another poignant one. McGrath may feel why Lewis was hopeless with money. that Lewis wouldn’t have warmed to him, but they have a lot in common. I ask McGrath what he thinks is Lewis’s best “Lewis was much more talented than I am. We both grew up in Belfast. I work – after all he’s read everything Lewis ever understand the patriarchal culture he grew up in. We both went to Oxford and wrote. His answer is surprising – even astounding. became Dons. We both do apologetics, though, again, he was much better at it But it is an answer I thoroughly agree with. than I am. I have an instinct for his character and what made him. It has helped me to write this book although I never met him. Of course he was a literary man and I am a scientist.” ewis wouldn’t have fitted That connection dances through McGrath’s book. It is behind every n anywhere other than an question and insight. It is behind the affection McGrath feels for this odd and rough-hewn man from Belfast. cademic context, and he And on this winter day in London I wonder too if that connection comes from McGrath, wasn’t even a normal like Lewis, ending up a long way academic really from Oxford. McGrath can see Waterloo Bridge from his office. The snow is falling. ll ofof CSCS LewisLewis

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though Robert cites the importance of his they could actually play “by heart”. It’s second violin role, Pilar puts into Robert’s technique versus feeling, demonstrated by mind that he and Daniel should alternate Peter’s telling his students about his first and second violin. chance to play for Pablo Casals and how Daniel doesn’t like the idea, neither does the great cellist overlooked any technical Juliette, whose comment, “you are the best defects for the passion. second violinist out there”, is meant as high Yaron Zilberman co-wrote and directed praise (and it has been said of some famous this engaging story. Finding it may be a musicians). It’s not quite how Robert takes test as it’s not showing in most of the usual it. arthouse cinemas – I saw it at one of Cur- The device of an old TV documentary zon Cinemas’ new out of London outposts, about The Fugue fills in some of the play- at Knutsford in Cheshire, but it’s already ers’ back-stories, while in another clip (or available on Curzon Home Cinema and Sky in Peter’s mind) we see and hear Peter’s Store. opera singer wife Miriam (played by The Brentano Quartet played the music Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von while the actors do passable miming of Otter). Miriam’s recent death is part of playing their instruments; the Brentano’s Peter’s story, and if film acting is “in the cellist Nina Lee is named in the film as a eyes” then, as he gazes at old photographs, potential replacement for Peter, and Walken’s performance is as technically per- appears. The actors might not be really fect as the Fugue’s concerts. playing the music but, led by Walken, they That’s another point of conflict; after 25 play to each other’s strengths in a dramatic years, while Daniel’s detailed arrange- masterclass. ments aid the quest for perfection – ou wait for a film with “quartet” in the dra (Imogen Poots), daughter of Robert upstroke here, downstroke there – maybe Steve Parish title then two come together – maybe and Juliette, has its own tensions, com- Ynot quite at once, but following pounded by Alexandra’s feelings toward British greycom Quartet comes A Late parents who, on the road, missed half her Quartet (cert. 15). It’s a marvellous musi- childhood. The marriage has other prob- cal story with a talented acting ensemble lems – one assumes that when Juliette tells playing a world-renowned musical ensem- Robert she’s “not in the mood”, that’s not ble, the Fugue Quartet. rare. They’ve been together 25 years, record- Robert doesn’t look like a regular runner, ing and touring, musicians and friends – but often meets Flamenco dancer Pilar second violinist Robert (Philip Seymour (Liraz Charhi) in Central Park. Their trysts Hoffman) and violist Juliette (Catherine may be about more than keeping fit. Keener) are married to each other - but Shots of Central Park and the New York harmony is under threat. Cellist Peter skyline – the quartet were all teachers or (Christopher Walken) finds that his fingers pupils at Juilliard School – illustrate the are not always doing what his brain tells story, and from Peter’s class where he them to do, and starts to think about a suc- quotes TS Eliot’s poem Burnt Norton cessor, especially as their repertoire (from The Four Quartets) to biographical includes Beethoven’s “late quartet” Opus details of Beethoven (being dragged from 131, its seven movements to be played his childhood bed to play for his father’s without a break in over 40 minutes. drunken friends) there’s a literary and The tutor-pupil relationship between first musical background to the emotional and violinist Daniel (Mark Ivanir) and Alexan- professional strains. For a start, even How a Texan river inspired a glorious collaboration

Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy through one another, sensing them as one surrounded by little other than percussive Watersky unit. popping, distant backwards guitar, slight (Ark Music) The first two tracks set the tone, as guitar funky bursts, dribbles of piano and plenty virtuoso Keaggy displays his more of space. At intervals throughout the track, hese two fine veteran musicians Knopfleresque side. On the slightly less Keaggy spills gurgling bits of bass that repeat their best-of-2009 collabora- fluid When Cicadas Marched he brings out stand out against the light and airy silki- Ttion Frio Suite with another instru- a fretless, oud-like, 12-string cumbus to ness. mental, whose source is again their retreat create a more oriental mood. The project’s satisfying melodic peak is by the river Frio in Texas. The second half is where it really builds: Waiting for Moonlight, built on a gorgeous Like its sibling, Watersky bubbles, eddies Thermal Dance is textbook minimalism Johnson line that could come from any- and gently cascades as it floats through the and Air & Light, reminiscent of Keaggy’s where between the Albion series and A speakers for an hour. The Master and the Musician, sees a myri- Still Silence, decorated with a few flamenco A liner photo suggests that the title ad elements merging into a Frio-like tapes- guitar lines. comes from looking down into the Frio try. It’s not quite Frio Suite, but it is still high- canyon and seeing the sky reflected in a Multi-instrumentalist Johnson opens The ly welcome. long squiggle of water. It is a fine image of Cody Incident with a beautiful piano motif the way that we hear these two players that gives way to a transfixing, reverbed riff Derek Walker

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arcus Braybrooke growth, loss and sexuality. This is designed for ordinands, sades were imperialist aggression’, ‘Christianity is homo- is an Anglican clergy and anyone engaged in pastoral ministry. Each phobic’ – these are among the 145 myths that Jeffrey Bur- Mpriest who is well chapter includes discussion questions and a short bibliog- ton Russell demolishes in Myth Busted! (Paternoster). known and respected for raphy. Highly recommended. Russell is one of the most distinguished living church his- his work to promote inter- In his Easter sermon Justin Welby warned against high torians and is the Professor of History Emeritus at the Uni- faith dialogue and under- expectations of leaders. This is the theme of a new book versity of California. In this book he draws on his immense standing. He is particularly written by a priest in the diocese of Canterbury. In You range of knowledge to write a first-class work of apologet- interested in the Christian- Are the Messiah and I Should Know (Bloomsbury) ics. The new atheists are fond of denouncing Christians for Jewish dialogue and was Justin Lewis-Anthony looks at leadership within the causing war or censoring science. Here is a reply to many Director of the Council of Church and comes down in favour of Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the fallacies spread about Christianity. This is a first Christians and Jews (CCJ) rather than John Wayne. He argues that our understanding class resource for clergy and teachers. Highly recom- from 1984–7. In Chris- of leadership has been too much shaped by Hollywood mended. tians and Jews Building myths so that we look for a great man who will solve every One Firm Anchor (Lutterworth) is an ecumenical his- Bridges (Braybrooke problem and rescue us by redemptive violence. There is a tory by a Roman Catholic priest of the contact between Press) he looks at the foreword by Stanley Hauerwas. churches and seafarers. The author, RWH Miller, looks at issues that have been most important in Christian–Jewish First published in 1994, Richard Burridge’s Four British seafarers in particular. Such organisations as the relations over the past 20 years. The second part of the Gospels, One Jesus? has now been reissued as an SPCK Mission to Seamen, the British Sailors’ Society, the Apos- book looks at some of the people who have been active in classic. It carries an endorsement from Bishop Rowan tleship of the Sea, and the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen CCJ during this period. Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. This are discussed. The latest SCM study guide is devoted to Pastoral The- is a book that makes Bible scholarship accessible to the In The Death of a Child (Bloomsbury) Peter Stanford ology and is written by Margaret Whipp, formerly Lectur- general reader. It will be read with pleasure by many lay has a very moving collection of essays in which parents er in Pastoral Studies at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and people as well as by clergy. As Ian Markham puts it, Bur- and siblings tell their own stories of losing a child, brother now Chaplain of the Oxford University Hospitals Trust. ridge is the CS Lewis of biblical scholarship. or sister and of how they coped with bereavement and She sets out a creative pastoral vision of what it means to ‘Medieval Christians believed the earth was flat’, ‘Christ- grief. First published in hardback in 2011 the book is now be human and uses case studies to look at such issues as ian missionaries degraded indigenous culture’, ‘the cru- available in paperback. The Church and sexual ethics Sexual Politics in the Church of Eng- lished, women were given the right to vote A major contribution made by the Anglo- he concedes some of them could be very land and to serve as members. When the Catholics to encouraging the participation rebellious. He criticises their work with Timothy Willem Jones Assembly met for the first time over 11 per of women in the life of the Church was the fallen women without asking whether OUP, hb, £55.00 cent of its members were women. creation of religious communities. Jones some of these women might actually have Approval of contraception at the 1930 acknowledges that at the height of their welcomed the freedom to change their ith growing acceptance of the fem- Lambeth Conference was actually a step influence, 10,000 women were members of lifestyle. inist maxim that the personal is ahead of some other institutions. The Min- communities in England. By entering a sis- A big omission of the book is any serious Wthe political, istry of Health banned informa- terhood, Victorian women were able to discussion of the ‘Churching of Women’. church history has taken tion about contraception in escape society’s pressure on them to Jones thinks this service was obsolete but on fresh importance. As health clinics until 1931 and the marry and raise a family and to some it remained important in some parts of the we see in contemporary medical profession did not extent gain the freedom to decide the country such as the NW well into the 20th debates, churches are accept birth control until the direction of their lives. Century. This is ‘Whig history’ that does often the arena where bat- 1930s. A similar point could be made about dea- not recognise that opponents to such tles over issues of gender The Church of England was conesses, although the number of them measures as the ordination of women may and sexuality rage most also ahead in the 1950s push- was much smaller. In the end, Jones have stood for something important but for fiercely. Timothy Willem ing for the decriminalisation of argues, both nuns and deaconesses did all its limitations it is an timely work on a Jones examines debates in homosexuality, some years have to accept the control of men although subject of keen interest. the Church of England before the Wolfenden Commit- between 1857 and 1957 tee report. Jones terms the about marriage, religious Church’s advocacy of homo- orders, women’s suffrage, sexual law reform in the 1950s women’s ordination, con- ‘remarkable’ and credit must traception, and celibacy be given to D Sherwin Bailey Subscribe to and homosexuality. who published the first public His book began life as a PhD thesis in discussion on the subject in a Church the print the University of Melbourne and some forum with an article in the magazine The- attention is given to debates elsewhere in ology in 1952. But long before this time, edition for the Anglican Communion and to decisions Jones sees the Church of England creating of Lambeth Conferences, but the main a ‘stained glass closet’ where gays or £17.50 focus is on the Church of England. We ‘inverts’, as they were called, could find learn little about developments in the community and status. American Episcopal Church except in so The great obstacle to change in many of That’s right, you can far as they have relevance to the situation the areas Jones studies, and especially in subscribe to the print in England. regard to the ordination of women, was the edition and have it sent to you by Many will be surprised by the conclusion Anglo-Catholic movement. This achieved post every week for three months that on a number of questions the Church its greatest influence in the final years of for just £17.50. was actually ahead of public opinion. The the 19th Century and the first 30 years of 1928 Prayer Book made provision for hus- the 20th. As well as opposing women’s band and wife to make the same vows so ordination, Anglo-Catholics held a sacra- Email that the woman no longer had to promise mental view of marriage. They opposed [email protected] to obey her husband. As Jones comments, divorce, contraception and allowing men to or telephone 020 7222 8663 while the Church as a whole was often con- marry their deceased wife’s sister. servative, most of its more active and intel- Jones argues evangelicals were more lib- lectual members were progressive. In 1897 eral although it is open to question how In addition to the print edition you in a move to formalise a system of local much research he has done on this. JC will also get full access to our website at Church government that was developing, Wright, the Archbishop who took Sydney www.churchnewspaper.com women were excluded from PCCs and in a more firmly conservative evangelical from serving as churchwardens but in direction, is wrongly described as ‘Bishop 1919, when Church Assembly was estab- JC Wright’, one of a number of slips.

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper E8 www.englandonsunday.com Sunday April 14, 2013 Janey Lee Grace Live Healthy! Live Happy!

In other cultures it is accepted that the mind affects the body but in the UK even when cases present that are clearly a ‘miracle’ they will often be written off as some- thing unexplained or merely coincidence. Sweetening David Hamilton is an author who uses scientific research to inspire his work. David says: “It’s not myste- rious at all and evidence shows that there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the mind impacts the body. Try to think of a sexual fantasy without having a physical impact or causing hormonal fluctuations in your body!” the Pill David has a PhD in organic chemistry, which involves building up molecules by sticking atoms together. He new report reveals that ‘97 per cent of GPs have worked in a lab developing drugs for heart disease and prescribed placebos’. The press headlines declared cancer in a large pharmaceutical company. He became Athat ‘Doctors have been fibbing to us’ admitting to fascinated by the people in the medical trials who prescribing sugar pills or saline injections, which contain improved on placebos, (almost exactly the same number no active ingredients. who improved on the drugs) and this accelerated his One doctor leading the research claimed they are not interest in the mind-body connection. deceiving patients, they are simply acknowledging that if David says: “If you think of someone who causes you endogenous opioids, and the love hormone, oxytocin.” your body expects a response from a pill it can activate stress then you’d produce stress chemistry in your brain. Oxytocin will also be produced around the body and will one even if your mind knows it’s a placebo. So what was You’d also elevate levels of cortisol and adrenaline in quickly dilate your arteries and lower your blood pressure. It’s my response – am I up in arms at this so-called decep- your bloodstream, and cause increased blood to flow to called a ‘cardioprotective’ hormone – it protects the heart. tion? Am I incensed that patients have potentially been your major muscles. If you think like this consistently, With consistent thinking in this way, the elevated oxytocin lev- denied the right to medication? When I heard this news I you could produce higher levels of free radicals and els will neutralise free radicals and inflammation in your blood shouted Hurrah!! I’m thrilled that there are those who chemicals of inflammation in your bloodstream too. vessels… and you’re doing it all in your mind.” recognise the power of the mind and our body’s own “Or think of someone you love or feel affection The best prescription: Harness the power of the mind and incredible power to heal itself, of course not always, but towards. This time, you’ll produce love chemistry in your heal your body in the process. often given time and support and some may say God’s brain, which will involve dopamine, serotonin, the brain’s How your mind can heal your body by Dr David Hamilton is healing. natural versions of morphine and heroin, known as out now, published by Hay House books.

Across 6 'And thou shalt ------the tabernacle PRIZE CROSSWORD No. 844 by Axe according to the fashion...shewed thee 7 Branch ------, a splinter from the Shep- in the mount' [Exod/KJV] (4,2) herd's Rod cult, decimated in the 13 Aramaic name for Calvary, both words Waco siege (8) meaning 'skull' (8) 8 Father of Jehu (1) [1 Chr] (4) 14 Clerical garment (7) 9 'Even in the case of...the pipe or ----, 16 After Psalms, the longest book in the how will anyone know what tune is Old Testament (in 10) (6) being played...?' [1Cor/NIV] (4) 18 'The memory of him perishes from 10 Assemblies of canons (8) the earth; he has -- --- in the land' 11 Ancient commentary on part of the [Job/NIV] (2,4) Hebrew scriptures (7) 19 One of the sons of Jacob and Zilpah 12 African country, significant in the OT, [Gen] (5) still a sovereign nation (5) 21 Phoenician trading centre and port 15 (Church) tax (5) flourishing in OT and NT (4) 17 Relating to a major apostle or his doc- trines (7) Solutions to last week’s crossword 20 Evangelical Protestants that believe in the immersion only of adult believers Across: 7 Masada, 8 Levant, 9 Stay, 10 Darkness, (8) 11 Rachel, 13 Anoint, 14 Sardis, 17 22 'If a man ---- a hundred sheep...will he Angels, 19 Tarshish, 20 Lack, 21 Palace, not...look for...one that wandered off?' 22 Nereus. [Matt/NIV] (4) 23 '...for doing what is right and just and - Down: 1 Tantra, 2 Mary, 3 Handel, 4 Gloria, 5 ---' [Prov/NIV] (4) Evensong, 6 Mnason, 12 Hadassah, 15 24 Representation of Jesus wearing a Arabah, 16 Sailed, 17 Athens, 18 Lucius, crown of thorns (4,4) 20 Lord.

Down

1 Father of Jehu (2) [1 Kgs] (6) 2 Wife of Moses [Exod] (8) 3 Bishopric (7) 4 Jewish High Priest, father-in-law of Caiaphas [Luke; John] (5) The first correct entry drawn will win a book of the Editor’s choice. Send your 5 Receptacle, one not big enough for 20! entry to Crossword Number 844, The Church of England Newspaper, (4) 14 Great College Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3RX by next Friday

Name SCRIBBLE PAD STAIRLIFTS FROM £995 Address NEW OR REFURBISHED FOR AN INFORMATION PACK CALL Telephone FREE on Post Code 0800 007 6959 www.castlecomfortstairlifts.com See our notice on page 11 for Clergy disount Leader & Comment Sunday April 14, 2013 www.churchnewspaper.com 9 Comment Baroness Margaret Thatcher Melvyn on Mary: Baroness Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinarily successful and significant Prime Minister on any terms. She was the first, and thus far only, woman Prime Minister. She was the longest serving in the 20th Century, with three consecutive general election victories. She raised the UK economy from the ashes by dint of persisting with free market reforms and fostering an entrepreneurial culture of business and confi- dence. She took on the overmighty Trade Union barons, and won. She the big issues won back the Falklands from General Galtieri’s fascist invasion, and engaged in the changing of the Soviet Union with Mr Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. She was a conviction politician who resonated with a we find that all four gospels, far from “rubbing out” class of people who till then would have been Labour loyalists, ‘Mon- Mary, reinstate her and give her pride of place. The deo man’ or ‘Basildon man’, upwardly mobile tradesmen and office Peter Mullen women disciples were all mightily respected from workers who liked her message of hard work getting its due reward. the first days of the early church, and Mary Magda- She began the privatisation of council houses and utilities, now accept- I have been an admirer of Melvyn Bragg FRS; FBA; lene was given the title Apostle to the Apostles ed by all the main political parties. Basically she made open socialism FRSA; FRSL; FRTS ever since I read his romantic because she had been the first to see Jesus risen unelectable intellectually. novel The Maid of Buttermere in 1987. It is a delight- from the dead. For those reasons she will have a place in the history books for a ful tale from the presenter of renowned and erudite Halfway through his wonderful programme very long time, as her opponents on the left are saying, for example television and radio series such as The South Bank about Mary, Melvyn suddenly seems to be seized Roy Hattersley of the Labour Party: he disagreed with her, but respect- Show and In Our Time, and with such strong emo- by a fit of anti-historical petulance which leads this ed her as open and honest in arguing her views so successfully. And tional content that we have surely found in Melvyn normally even-tempered and even-handed man off yet, despite breaking the mould for women, the feminist movement the Barbara Cartland of the Lake District fells. All the rails. He becomes quite wild: “What then for the hated her. Likewise, despite coming from a tradesman’s background, a this and he still manages to contribute magnificent- celibacy which has led the organised church into so grocer’s daughter, Labour detested her and the left, with its control of ly to Labour Party funds and retain such a luxuriant many abuses and crimes and distorted lives? What the educational professoriat, demonised her to a generation of school- head of hair. So I was not surprised to discover that then for the subjugation of women which has children. And, despite delivering Conservative Party victories beyond a romantic such as Melvyn has been a lifelong devo- repressed and downgraded them so effectively for expectation, she was never quite ‘one of us’, an upper crust public tee of Mary Magdalene. Indeed he presented a so long?” school Tory, and she was politically assassinated by that caucus of the BBC documentary about the lovely lady at the most I’m not even sure what he means. Is he referring Party – an assassination that has continued to split and weaken it ever sacred hour on Good Friday. Some of what Melvyn to fornication and homosexuality among priests? since. says about her prompts me to questions. Or child abuse? Is it this alleged “subjugation of How should the Church evaluate her? In line with its predictable ten- He begins by asking: “Was Mary Magdalene a women” – which actually never happened – that led dency to support the Guardian editorial line as its gospel, the Bishops saint or a prostitute?” I had not thought either occu- the church astray? At the very least, it is a strange opposed her tooth and nail, and yet never articulated an alternative as pation precluded the other. It’s rather like asking if conclusion for Melvyn to have drawn. to how the nation should gain the cash to pay for welfare provision. she was a saint or a sinner; but all the saints were Suddenly, Melvyn lays aside the affable presen- Archbishop Runcie’s ‘Falklands Sermon’ refused to pray for the victor sinners before their sanctity was bestowed upon ter’s role and tells us what he really thinks. Instead more than the defeated, to her annoyance. Her phrase ‘there is no such them by God. St Peter for instance – the rock upon of presenting Mary, he starts talking about himself. thing as society’ was taken up and used against her as an individualist which Christ built his church – denied Jesus three He mentions, “…the resurrection which I came to lacking in care: but the phrase is explained in the next sentence: ‘There times and watched him go to his death. I’m sure think wholly impossible and the existence of a per- is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that Melvyn doesn’t share the erro- sonal God unbelievable.” Oh tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each neous opinion that saints are dear! And is that all Mary’s fault of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us pre- people who are super-plus-good as well? He can’t believe Chris- pared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfor- by their own striving: as if they The miraculous deeds tian doctrines but he thinks they tunate’ [http://bit.ly/cdqiNR]. She of course believed in a made a very special effort to of Christ and his make “magnificent metaphors.” compassionate society, but not in a big, interfering state. In terms of become saints. They didn’t. On that score, I’m only surprised the history of thought, she was a classic liberal, in the Gladstonian Many of them were downright claims to be no less they didn’t make Melvyn a bish- mould: free trade and freedom of thought, the rule of law and national weird. Others, such as St Paul, op. sovereignty, opportunity for all rather than today’s guaranteed out- were former persecutors of than the Son of God And, sure enough, he soon comes for all - perhaps an outlook fostered by her Methodist upbring- Christians. Mary Magdalene on earth are the lays his cards open on the table: ing. was a saint, by the grace of God, “The seven demons cast out of to whom much was forgiven centre and purpose of Mary have been well-explained because she loved much. the gospels by recent academics as likely The Church of England Newspaper Melvyn says that he set out to symptoms of a form of nervous with Celebrate magazine incorporating The Record and Christian Week try to find out the true Mary breakdown.” God bless “recent Published by Religious Intelligence Ltd. from under all the legends and academics”! Company Number: 3176742 myths. How did he get on? Well, And what makes their Publisher: Keith Young MBE he is very honest. He found that the task was “tan- anachronistic “explanation” more persuasive than talising and elusive” in the course of which he dis- the gospel’s version? Yes, modern critics are forev- covered only “faint but persistent tracks.” When I er telling us that the gospel writers were “men of Publishing Director & Editor: CM BLAKELY 020 7222 8004 heard him say this, I feared it was only the sort of their time.” What they don’t admit to is that modern Chief Correspondent: The Rev Canon GEORGE CONGER 00 1 0772 332 2604 plea for excuses we are accustomed to hear from critics too are men of their time. When will modern Reporter: AMARIS COLE 020 7222 8700 those who have made fortunes pretending to have scholars, as well as dedicated amateurs such as found the lost Ark of the Covenant, or even Noah’s Melvyn Bragg, get it out of their heads that just Advertising: CHRIS TURNER 020 7222 2018 Ark itself but whose actual findings turn out to be because some people lived a long time ago doesn’t Advertising & Editorial Assistant: PENNY NAIR PRICE 020 7222 2018 (to put it politely) inconclusive. mean they were stupid? Where I think Melvyn’s commendable enthusi- He says, “The gospels are – minus miracles – rea- Subscriptions & Finance: DELIA ROBINSON 020 7222 8663 asm spoils his intentions is when he says, “The sev- sonably convincing accounts of a unique man and Graphic Designer: PETER MAY 020 7222 8700 eral women followers of Jesus, as close to him as his followers.” the 12 male apostles, have been rubbed out of his- Ernst Renan, Rudolf Bultmann: thou should’st be The acceptance of advertising does not necessarily indicate tory.” That is a preposterous statement. Arguably, living at this hour! How can we be reasonably con- endorsement. Photographs and other material sent for publication more has been written about Christian women vinced by the gospel writers if more than half of are submitted at the owner’s risk. The Church of England Newspaper down the centuries than about the men. The their accounts are either lies or foolish delusions? does not accept responsibility for any material lost or damaged. Gospels themselves present the women in a much Would you believe anyone who wrote like that? In Christian Weekly Newspapers Trustees: Robert Leach (020 8224 5696), better light than the male disciples who run away fact the miraculous deeds of Christ and his claims Lord Carey of Clifton, The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, The Rt Rev Pete Broadbent, terrified for their own necks when Jesus is arrest- to be no less than the Son of God on earth are the Dr Elaine Storkey, The Rev Peter Brown, The Rev Cindy Kent ed. It is the women who take him down from the centre and purpose of the gospels. There was no cross and lay him in the tomb. And it is Mary Mag- airbrushing of the real Mary Magdalene out of The Church of England Newspaper, dalene who is first witness to his resurrection. Christian history. Next to Jesus himself, she is the Religious Intelligence Ltd And on this glorious fact there are fascinating most commanding figure in the gospel. 14 Great College Street, London, SW1P 3RX things to be said – not least the place accorded to “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magda- Editorial e-mail: [email protected] women by St Paul contrasted with that given to lene early, while it was yet dark, unto the sepul- Advertising e-mail: [email protected] them in the gospels. St Paul’s letters were written chre.” Listen to those words, dear Melvyn, and in Subscriptions e-mail: [email protected] years before any of the four gospels and yet they them you can hear the hotly racing footsteps of the make no mention at all of Mary Magdalene and the woman who was closer to Our Lord than any man. Website: www.churchnewspaper.com other women who were companions of Jesus. Yet

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12 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 14, 2013 The Register

Charge, Longton Hall (Lichfield): to resign APPOINTMENTS with effect from 31 May 2013. Remaining ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER Vicar. The Rev John Alessi, The Rev Charmaine Sabey-Corkindale, Assistant Curate, Longton Hall (Lichfield): Sunday 14 April. Easter 3. Psalm 85:8-13, Deut. 4:15-24. Nambale - (Kenya): The Rt Team Vicar, Hitchin (St Albans): to resign to be Priest-in-Charge. Rev Josiah Were with effect from 1 June 2013. The Rev Preb Philippa Boardman, The Rev Canon Grahame Shaw, Vicar, Old Ford St Paul and St Mark (Lon- Monday 15 April. Luke 1:68-75, Heb. 11:24-39. Namibia - (Southern Africa): The Rt Vicar, Newington St Paul; and Southwark don): to be Canon Treasurer, St Paul’s Rev Nathaniel Nakwatumbah; Suffragan Bishop of Namibia - (Southern Africa): The Archdeaconry Ecumenical Officer (South- Cathedral. Rt Rev Petrus Hilukiluah wark): to retire with effect from 30 April The Rev Jonathan Croucher, 2013. Upon retirement he will become Priest-in-Charge, Gipsy Hill Christ Church Tuesday 16 April. Psalm 78:17-30, Deut. 4:25-35. Namirembe - (Uganda): The Rt Canon Emeritus, Southwark Cathedral. (Southwark): to be Vicar; and to be also Rev Wilberforce Luwalira Area Dean, Lambeth South Deanery (same diocese). Wednesday 17 April. Psalm 78:32-39, Deut. 5:1-21. Nandyal - (South India): The Rt LAY & OTHER The Rev James Curry, Rev Lawrence APPOINTMENTS Rector, Aboyne; and Rector, Ballater; and Rector, Braemar (Aberdeen and Orkney, Thursday 18 April. Psalm 78:40-55, Deut. 5:22-33. Nasik - (North India): The Rt Rev Mrs Anne Mackenzie Horde: The Scottish Episcopal Church): to be Pradip Kamble is now Chaplain for Wellbeing, Karis Med- Priest-in-Charge, Longwood; and Priest-in- ical Centre (Birmingham). Charge, Golcar (Wakefield). Friday 19 April. Psalm 78:56-64, Deut. 6:1-12. Nassau & The Bahamas - (West Mrs Charlotte Swan: The Rev Helen Dearnley, Indies): The Rt Rev Laish Boyd is now Chaplain for Wellbeing, Karis Med- Chaplain, HM Prison, Leicester (Leices- ical Centre (Birmingham). ter): is now Chaplaincy Advisor, Leicester Saturday 20 April. Psalm 75, Deut. 6:13-25. Natal - (Southern Africa): The Rt Rev NOMS Headquarters (same diocese). Rubin Phillip; Natal - North West Episcopal Area - (Southern Africa): The Rt Rev Tsi- The Rev Keith Duckett, etse Edward Seleoane; Natal - South Episcopal Area - (Southern Africa): The Rt Rev DEATHS Chaplain, King’s School Wolverhampton Dr Hummingfield Ndwandwe (Lichfield): is now also Spiritual Care Lead, The Rev George Davies, John Taylor Hospice (Birmingham). who held the Bishop of Derby’s Permis- The Rev Sally Mason, The Rev Aidan Smith, The Rev Joanne Whitehead, sion to Officiate in retirement, died on 29th NSM (Associate Priest), Blackwell and NSM (Assistant Curate), St Martin Assistant Curate, Oakwood (Derby): to be August, 2012. Tibshelf (Derby): to be Spiritual Director, Ludgate (London): to be NSM (Assistant Priest-in-Charge, Newhall (same diocese). The Rev Gordon Bloxham Marsh, Derby Anglican Cursillo (same diocese). Curate), Pinner (same diocese). died on 25th March 2013. He leaves a The Rev Mark Prentice, The Rev Martin Strang, RETIREMENTS & widow Jean. Gordon was ordained in 1985 Assistant Curate, Langham Place All Souls Priest-in-Charge, Stafford St Paul Fore- RESIGNATIONS and served his whole ministry in the Dio- (London): to be Priest-in-Charge, Ipswich bridge; and Priest-in-Charge, Castle Town cese of Canterbury. The funeral will take St John (St Edmundsbury and Ipswich). (Lichfield Diocese): is now Vicar, Stafford The Rev Catherine Gillham, place on Thursday 11th April at 2pm at St The Rev Malcolm Raby, St Paul and St Thomas (same diocese). Assistant Curate, Kempshott (Winches- Mildred’s, Tenterden. Priest-in-Charge, Over; and Diocesan The Rev David Street, ter): to resign with effect from 29 April Adviser in Mission and Evangelism; and Assistant Curate, Bucknall (Lichfield): to 2013. THE 2013 Priest-in-Charge, Long Stanton with St be Team Vicar. The Rev Preb Keith Haywood, BIBLE CHALLENGE Michael (Ely): to be NSM (Assistant The Rev Dr Malcolm Torry, Rector, Hanley Holy Evangelists (Lich- Curate House for Duty), Leatherhead and Rector, East Greenwich (Southwark): is field): to retire with effect from 31 May Day 104 Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read Mickleham (Guildford). now Team Vicar. 2013. aloud in church The Rev Dr Benjamin Sargent, The Rev Fiona Weaver, The Rev Rachel McElwee, Day 105 1 Samuel 8-10, Psalm 87, Acts 1 Assistant Curate, Warblington with Family and Youth Work Adviser (London): NSM (Assistant Curate), Clapham St Paul Day 106 2 Samuel 10-12, Psalm 93, Acts 8 Emsworth (Portsmouth); and Research to be Priest-in-Charge, Purley St Swithun; (Southwark): has resigned with effect from Day 107 2 Samuel 13-15, Psalm 94, Acts 9 Fellow, Oxford Wycliffe Hall (Oxford): to and Priest-in-Charge, Purley St Mark 31 March 2013. She has moved to the USA. Day 108 2 Samuel 16-18, Psalm 95, Acts 10 be Priest-in-Charge, Bransgore and Hinton (Southwark). The Rev Peter Mockford, Day 109 2 Samuel 19-21, Psalm 96, Acts 11 Admiral (Winchester). Vicar, Blurton and Dresden; and Priest-in- Day 110 2 Samuel 22-24, Psalm 97, Acts 12

CCooookk tthhiiss!! Old-Fashioned Wine of the Week Fitou Duck, Sausage and Les Vins du Place 2010 Tesco £7.99

Bean Cassoulet “Vin” as readers will know, is the French for “wine”, but after that, as the French make their categorisation of what is in a bottle more complex, a little learning is helpful. This is an old-fashioned cassoulet recipe. Last year, a new wine classification was finally introduced. Out went “Vin de Table”, for simple It's a rich and hearty, slow cooked dish with duck, everyday drinking. “Les Vins du Place” above, is sausages and beans. For the traditional touch, not a category, but the name of the maker sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and finish the dish in (“Place” giving the impression of a bustling local the oven. Ready in 8 hours village market). From now on, above “Vin de France”, ranked the lowest category, sits IGP (meaning: Indication Geographic Protected) and the highest ranking, AOP (Appellation Method of Origin Protected). Our Fitou is AOP, and very enjoyable it is. It comes from Langue- In a large frying pan, brown the sliced doc, in the far south-west of Mediterranean Ingredients sausage over medium heat. France, a blend of Carignan, Grenache and Insert whole cloves into onion. Roll Mourvèdre. Deep red in the glass, there’s a Serves: 8 1 sprig fresh rosemary bacon up, and tie with a string. Tie togeth- savoury aroma with hints of herbs. In a 450g pork sausages, 450g dried haricot beans, er parsley, thyme and rosemary. smooth body, on the palate a fine balanced sliced soaked overnight In a larg e slow cooker, place soaked blend of that encounter on the nose, now 1 tablespoon whole 1 bay leaf beans, sausage, bacon, onion studded with partnered with fruit, bramble and black cher- cloves 3 carrots, peeled, sliced cloves, fresh herbs, bay leaf, carrots, ries, leading to a pleasing finish. minced garlic and duck. Add enough water Modest in Alcohol by Vol., only 12%, suit- 1 onion, peeled, kept 3 cloves garlic, finely whole to cover the other ingredients. Cook for 1 able for vegetarians — but not if you serve it chopped hour on HIGH. Reduce heat to LOW and with that traditional South of France dish, a 3 sprigs fresh parsley 450g skinned, boned duck continue cooking for 6 to 8 hours. cassoulet, a slow-cooked stew of a mix of 1 sprig fresh thyme breasts, sliced into thin Remove onion, bacon and herbs. Stir in meats, including pork sausage, and haricot 225g bacon strips. chopped tomatoes. Continue cooking for beans. 1 fresh tomato, chopped 1/2 hour. Serve. Graham Gendall Norton

[email protected] facebook.com/churchnewspaper @churchnewspaper Anglican Life Sunday April 14, 2013 www.churchnewspaper.com 13 ‘We love our town and want to bless it’ Kim Hartshorne is founder of the Upper Room missional community in the centre of Cirencester and a current participant on the Church Mission Society (CMS) Pioneer Mission Leadership course

Please tell us about the Upper Room and how it came to be? In 2000, I had a dream about starting to work in mission and community development and I began to pray with some other women. It took eight years for the Upper Room to grow into reality. We began five years ago, opening two drop-in sessions a week for people who needed a helping hand, offering prayer in a non-threatening way. We aimed to show the love of Christ as well as tell about it, figuring that people will understand it if they see it in action and feel included in it. Mainly women came the first year or two with all kinds of struggles and illnesses. Then a group of homeless men started coming, needing new boots, flasks of tea and support. Several men with post-traumatic stress disorder came; one in particular was a homeless army officer experiencing flashbacks and night terrors. We had to learn quickly what this condition was about, and about the support networks available. Our work is about getting alongside people and letting them determine what team to set up new mission activity on an estate being made in God’s image and the mandate given to the first support they need from us, if any. We learn together as built in the town. It helps people understand what we’re humans is the same for all of us since – to transform the we open our hearts and lives to one another. about when they see incarnational mission in action. earth, creating beauty and culture that blesses and Recently the NHS Mental Health Crisis Team began All of this necessitates a spirituality that will sustain and enhances life. referring people to us who have come out of hospital underpin it. In the last five years I have explored more of I learned several years ago — when I left work in following a suicide attempt. They need a safe space to the monastic tradition, with its emphasis on rhythm and engineering and became more involved in local village explore what happened to them, and find the hope they rule of life. It helps me to stay healthy and live a sustained life, joining the parish council — that little people can do need to rebuild their lives. We journey slowly along life amidst the pressures of juggling work, study and big things that matter, if they can work together and grow together. Many people have come to faith, very naturally, home. I have also journeyed into the traditions belonging in confidence. The village I lived in had no play area for after a period. We have no ‘hard sell’ approach, simply to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and children and as a group of local mums we raised £40,000 believing that every person who comes is brought by the found I love the mystical aspects and greater use of image in grants and installed a playground. This life lesson has Holy Spirit for a reason and we offer love, support and and beauty in worship. influenced everything I’ve done since. belonging, waiting to see the image of God in that person, Most recently I have fallen madly in love with the All of us have great gifts and unique attributes to offer which may be hidden under despair or pain. Eucharist and its surrounding theology. Joining the and can make a transformative difference here and now, So our pattern of life is two drop-in sessions a week Anglican Church sees me come full circle to my infancy wherever we are. The divide between ‘clergy’ and the followed by lunchtime communion at our local parish [my family left the Anglican Church when I was younger] ‘laity’ is something I’m passionate about breaking down church. On Sundays we gather for accessible worship, and I really feel like I’ve come home again. There are so we can all participate fully in society and church life. meaning Lectio Divina, discussion and prayer. Monthly, things that drive me crazy, but I love it very deeply and we have a communion service and community lunch. am very happy to have found a home where my gifts are How did you end up choosing the CMS Pioneer Every month we eat together in someone’s home. We not only tolerated, but are given space and Mission Leadership course? meet up for prayer, advocacy or to accompany someone at encouragement to grow. I’d been following [course leader] Jonny Baker’s blog for a hospital appointment, etc. I know some mission pioneers find the Church a hard years. This was the only course I could do part-time In the town we support a local refuge and a charity for place and I hope and pray this changes in the future. We whilst still leading the Upper Room community and homeless young people and we support our vulnerable as a community have been hugely blessed and welcomed looking after my family. Once it was approved as a community members by decorating or other tasks that by our diocese and I was recently licensed as a lay pathway for ordained pioneer training, my Diocesan are hard to do alone. We go on trips in summer and help pioneer minister. Director of Ordinands agreed. I wish this course had people with emergency support when needed. We work been around when we were first trying to establish the with other small charities, churches and the local housing And you are now on the path to ordination? Upper Room! But as the course is for lay people as well as association. We love and want to bless our town wherever Yes. My call to ordination came in a dramatic fashion and those pursuing ordination, our project worker can come we can. I confess I was horrified by it, completely refusing it for learn some elements of pioneering, too, which is great. some years. In the end I was like Jonah; there was The Upper Room is part of Hope Cirencester: Can you describe your relationship with the Church nowhere left to hide and my vicar agreed I had to obey. I www.hope-cirencester.co.uk in your area? still at times am confused about what it all means and why For the full interview by Helen Harwood and to learn We work in partnership with the local parish clergy and I had to do it, but I know it will unfold over time. more about the CMS Pioneer Mission Leadership course: are in the process of having a Bishop’s Mission Order. We My theology of the priesthood isn’t that there should be www.pioneer.cms-uk.org. The next course open day is 14 love the church and are working together with the parish fewer priests, but that there should be more! All of us are May 2013, 10.30am – 2.30pm at CMS in Oxford. 14 www.churchnewspaper.com Sunday April 14, 2013 Feature

By Andy Grant

he Rev Andy Grant is a curate in Boston Spa. Before being ordained, TAndy served in HM Forces in 1st Battalion The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, until a life-threatening accident caused him to Being called rethink his faith and his vocation.

Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu: I always say that our British armed forces are the best of the best. They do a difficult job in impossible situations, putting themselves in the line of fire to protect to be the Best others. Every morning I pray for our forces serving overseas and for the families left behind. wasn’t the only survivor when another of to have second thoughts. By the time we England in 1997, I decided to get Often our forces are called to be the our men cried out. Crawling a few feet to landed, all the desire and motivation I had confirmed. peacemakers on behalf of the global reach him I saw he was badly injured and for the trip had gone. I asked for a private A short while after my confirmation an community through the United Nations; it stayed with him on the hillside until some word with my platoon commander, ‘You’ve incumbent at the church pulled me to one is an important but unenviable task. Bosniak soldiers came out of their got to get me on the first plane out of here. side and said: ‘I’d like you to consider Loving your neighbour sometimes means positions to help us down the tracks to the I can’t stay.’ exploring a vocation.’ The idea sounded that you have to protect them too. bottom of the valley. When we eventually ‘I can’t get you out of here now,’ he told very nice, but at the same time I thought it arrived back in camp we learned that me, ‘but when the tour finishes I’ll make odd, bearing in mind that I was from the Andy Grant: three of our men had been killed and we sure you’re on the first flight.’ infantry. Then, about a year later my love I never thought much about death when I were two of five survivors. I had damage True to his word I was on an early flight for being an infantry soldier just died and joined the army in my late teens. Although to my left thigh, my elbow, ligament home, but not until I’d was replaced with a real being a soldier meant that I might lose my damage to my knees and there was an first served another desire to work in army life in conflict, it never crossed my mind as open wound on my face which needed seven weeks. It was mid- They all knew that administration as a clerk. a real possibility. I felt immortal. Nothing stitching. winter and the weather I’d followed this So, after 10 years as a could touch me. I know that nothing I did saved my life was a real challenge. I’d soldier I processed a Then, while serving in the Balkans, I that day. I was utterly in the hands of God, go to sleep cold and vocation to be a transfer and within the was involved in an accident. For the first or chance, or whatever you want to call it. wake up even colder. priest, but they next six months had time in my army career I feared for my No amount of training could have taught Trying to function and completed two clerk life, and it changed my perspective on me what to do if the vehicle I was exist in such extreme didn’t treat me any training courses, a everything. travelling in tumbled a thousand feet down temperatures was promotion course and a I was serving as Lance Corporal with the the side of a valley. It was very frightening difficult enough, without differently tour of South Armagh. former Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and took a great presence of mind to stay having a job to do. Far No sooner had I started and Wiltshire Regiment. Conflict had calm. Yet somehow I did manage to stay from being exciting, the work as a clerk, than I broken out in what was Yugoslavia. We calm. Obviously I was in shock, but I was days were a long hard slog, and the found out that the army had a welfare had just finished a patrol and were calm, because when I was carried to the toughest part of all was getting back into a service and decided I wanted to work returning to our base when the Saxon bottom of the valley I felt ok. Saxon vehicle. there. To do that I’d need to be promoted vehicle we were travelling in started to tip. After the accident I came home to get Patrolling vehicles through Gorazde was to sergeant, get a recommendation and do This was an armoured personnel carrier, patched up properly. I needed a couple of like driving through hell. The place wasn’t further training. It seemed a tall order at built to be driven across rough terrain and operations and time to heal. My body was totally annihilated, but the area had been the time, but I went for it anyway, and, through water up to 90cm deep. shelled, children ran around in after three or four years as a clerk, I got in, Although we were driving down a bare feet, homes had no windows, spending the next seven years in steep valley, when it is at an angle roofs were missing and there was occupational welfare. Looking back, I can like that you know something is no electricity or power of any kind. see the skills I learned in those jobs as very wrong. I was in the turret It was a place with its soul ripped foundational building blocks leading me to behind the commander who out, and there we were, in our blue where I am now. It meant that my move started screaming down the radio berets, trying our best to support from the army into the church was not to the driver to find out what had and protect the desperate people really so much of a leap as a next step. happened. If a vehicle like that still living there. A week after my ordination I found rolls when you’re half way out, It is easy to look at a place of myself back in Gorazde, this time as a that’s it – game over. great darkness and oppression and minister, leading a service to re-dedicate The driver was killed in the think, where is God in all of this some memorial stones to my three accident, so we’ll never know mess? At the same time, in the colleagues who died in the accident, and exactly what happened or why the midst of all that upset, I knew that another who died in a separate accident vehicle went out of control. It all God was there. It was almost four days earlier. happened so fast that I had no because I felt frightened of being My life as a curate is very different to sense of being in control or there, that I couldn’t just accept that of a soldier, but part of me hasn’t thinking to myself, ‘I’d better the horror of it all, that I knew God changed. I’m more aware than I was as a duck’. I was probably in shock, but was there. I couldn’t push him teenager that conflict and warfare creates I felt a force either push me under away. I knew he wanted something a huge amount of suffering, but I hold on or pull me down. It definitely better for this land and for these to the theology that chaplains promote in wasn’t one of the other guys people than this. Without God it the army, that to love your neighbour grabbing and pulling me, I know would all feel completely sometimes means that you need to protect that. There was a sense of us meaningless and I probably would your neighbour. As long as the army is rotating through the air and then have been in hell – or at least hell fulfilling that role – behaving itself as it crashing against the undergrowth. of some description. were, abiding by the Geneva convention, No one could survive this, I was The war in Bosnia lasted three using minimum force and protecting life sure of that. I thought about my years, nine months, one week and where necessary – then I’m happy to family momentarily. Andy Grant six days. It ended on 14 December support that. I was certain I would die. Then 1995 and I left in the April of that The guys I met up with again, they all the vehicle landed on its side momentarily, full of adrenaline, drive and energy, yet at year. The accident and my time there had knew that. They all knew that I’d followed a small door opened, I fell through it, the the same time it was trying to repair itself, a profound effect on me and how I viewed this vocation to be a priest, but they didn’t vehicle lifted off me and continued its which meant that I wasn’t able to do lots of my life. I started to think in much greater treat me any differently. They were pulling descent down the hill leaving me sitting on things that I felt I should be able to. As depth than I’d ever done before about my my leg all over the place, like they used to the hillside. My body armour, helmet and soon as I was fit enough I wanted to be life, about God and about the time I spent in the old days, and I really liked that. In webbing had all been ripped off and I was back on tour. with my wife and children. In many ways it some ways it is more of a surprise for me left wearing only my boots and uniform. I If I’m honest I wasn’t completely better kick-started my faith, which had become a than it is to them, for although I hadn’t didn’t know how I’d got undressed or when I decided to return to the Balkans. bit staid, and I began to attend church on a seen it in myself at the time, for them, my where my kit was, but my arms and legs My knees were still in pain, but I didn’t much more regular basis. vocation was inevitable. ‘Glad you made it, were all there and working. I couldn’t give much thought to how physically After leaving Bosnia, the whole Andy,’ they smiled. ‘We always knew this believe it. There was nothing to say demanding the job would be. I just pulled regiment, families and all, flew to Cyprus. would happen.’ through my tears except, ‘Thank you, on my backpack and away I went. The idea We stayed in Cyprus for two years, during Jesus!’ of being back on tour was exciting and it which time I began attending a Church of Extracted with permission from John I never expected anyone to come out of felt the right thing to do. That feeling England chapel. I started taking my faith a Sentamu’s Faith Stories, published by DLT, that vehicle alive, but I soon realised that I didn’t last long. On the flight over I began lot more seriously and, on returning to price £8.99 Sunday Sunday April 14, 2013 www.churchnewspaper.com 15

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, one of the prise when he even spoke to her, let alone most educated people in his society. As a engaged her in a conversation that took Pharisee he was looked up to and expected THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR her responses seriously. to have answers, especially answers to reli- Nicodemus’ reply to Jesus’ pronounce- gious questions. He is a great contrast, ment is a question that could be taken as then with the character featured in the fol- By the Rev Dr Liz Hoare ridicule or it could also be a sad and weary lowing chapter at Jacob’s well. ‘if only’ response. If only I could start over The woman of Samaria was not only from again and have that new-birth. Life could the religiously despised Samaritans, but Pharisee and told him he must be born might expect Nicodemus to be sure of him- be so different. Re-birth, however, also being a woman she would not be consid- again. There is nothing more intellectually self and secure in his powers of intellect involves becoming vulnerable and depend- ered worthy of an intellectual conversation, helpless than a newborn baby, but Jesus and place in society. He anticipated that ent to a very great degree. For Nicodemus certainly not with a rabbi. We might there- was adamant that Nicodemus wasn’t going Jesus would meet him on his own terms as for us, it would sound like a contradic- fore imagine that chapter 3 of John’s to get into the kingdom of God or under- and clarify who he was. Perhaps he would tion of everything he had learned as he Gospel is about the intellectual encounter stand who Jesus was unless he was pre- allay the debates among the other religious grew up: autonomy, independence, status with God through Jesus while chapter 4 is pared to be born from above. leaders and teachers of the law. Jesus and control. It would mean letting go in about the emotional encounter, via the Later, when he met the Samaritan pulled the certitude from under his feet order to find the answer to his original things of the heart. Nicodemus can grapple woman, he not only challenged her about and told him he must become like a new- question of who Jesus was. It would involve with what it means to be born of the Spirit her domestic arrangements but he talked born child again. a leap of faith rather than an intellectual while the woman is told to go and fetch her to her about living water in all its rich sym- The woman on the other hand had none conundrum to solve. It is not surprising husband-who-wasn’t-her-husband and bolism and its special meaning for her in of Nicodemus’ certitude. She was a broken that it took him a while to get fully on explain herself. her need. person, a member of a hated minority and board. Yet it wasn’t like that at all. Jesus went Jesus is full of surprises and yet he gets could expect nothing from Jesus who was The Rev Dr Liz Hoare (nee Culling) is straight to the heart of the matter with the to the heart of the matter every time. We her superior in every way. Imagine her sur- tutor at Wycliffe Hall

SUNDAYSUNDAY SERVICESERVICE The Immigration Challenge Over the past two decades, population of the country is tion, and, as Muslims have Sunday Readings for 21 April 2013 on average almost half a the number of immigrants more children on average million people per year and emigrants, which is not than British people, some of Easter 4 - Year C have immigrated to this easy since the number the other growth was immi- country. In the latest British keeps increasing. In their grant-related also, as Muslim Social Attitudes survey (No latest forecast they have babies count as Muslims. Acts 9:36-43 Revelation 7:9-17 John 10:22-30 29), three-quarters (75 per assumed that the net figure There is also another cent) of respondents advo- will continue at 140,000 for complicating factor, which cated a reduction in num- the time being, but put it is where immigrants reside. The Acts of the Apostles describes how the mission of the Church in Jeru salem, bers of immigrants, and higher at nearly 170,000 for Many come initially to Lon- announcing the Resurrection of Jesus and accompanied by miracles of healing, was first half (51 per cent) suggested the 2020s. Those who emi- don and not a few stay in extended by Peter and others among its leadership to neighbouring towns and coun- a large reduction. What is grate may well be those the city. Greater London’s tryside. The good news was brought at first to the Jewish and Greek believers who wor- often not realised is that a who immigrated a few population increased by a shipped in the synagogues and spre ad rapidly as re ports began to circulate throughout considerable number of years earlier because of million people between the population of large towns such as Joppa, where Tabitha or Dorcas was well known, people also emigrate, that is employment or study rea- 2001 and 2011, and of this and everyone could see for themselves that she was now very much alive, thanks to the leave the country – on aver- sons, but obviously British increase 400,000 were extra ministry of Peter and the gospel of the risen Lord which he proclaimed among them. It age over 300,000 a year. people also go and live Muslims. Many Muslims is the clearest possible sign of the authority given to the Church to proclaim the good The graph shows the num- abroad as well, sometimes do, however, move to other news throughout Israel and to all the nations, and of the authenticity of the message bers. for the same reasons. cities, like Bradford, but, carried by the apostles. The names of Tabitha and Simon the Tanner are recorded so However, that still leaves The consequence of all even so, of all the Muslims that everyone who knew them could hear what had happened from living witnesses to a net increase of 140,000 this is a considerable in the country two-fifths (38 this miraculous event. per annum, and over 20 change in the make-up of per cent) live in London. On the day of the Resurrection the company of those who believed in the risen Lord years that’s 3 million peo- the population and this is The same is true for was tiny, but within a very short space of time, empowered by faith in Christ and by the ple! Of these 2 million have seen in various ways, such other religions although to gift of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ brought salvation to many who came to believe come in the last 10 years, as age and culture, and, as a different extent. Jews con- in him through God’s free gift of grace, glorifying not only Israel but those whom God which is one reason why the 2011 Population Census centrate in certain parts of has called to himself from all the nations of the earth. In John’s great vision of the day of our general population showed, in religion. Unlike London, and in fact nearly the Lord’s coming, the first to be marked with the seal of salvation are those who increased by 3.7 million – Australia, which records three-fifths (57 per cent) of belong to the twelve tribes of Israel, called by God from of old. But the gathering of over half of them were the religion of their immi- all the Jews in England live souls in the presence of God is extended far and wide to the ends of the earth and immigrants! A quarter of all grants, Britain currently in London, as do half (51 throughout the ages, embracing alike both Israel and all who have been saved from the non-UK born people in does not do that, and sam- per cent) of all the Hindus, every nation on earth, all bearing palm branches and robed in white as martyrs who England and Wales in 2011 ple surveys among immi- a third (34 per cent) of all have been purified by the blood of the Lamb of God. There are no longer any human (7½ million) have arrived in grants are therefore the Buddhists and almost boundaries or distinctions between them, as all are gathered together in the temple the previous 10 years, necessary to determine as many (30 per cent) of all where they worship God day and night under his eternal protection. Whatever suffer- the Sikhs. But London only ing they have endure d in this life they are now assure d fore ver of the love of the Lamb Number of Immigrants to and Emigrants from has a small proportion of who is also the good shepherd, who comes to meet each one and wipes away the tears Britain, 1991 to 2011 those with no religion (13 from their eyes. per cent, the same percent- Jesus gave many signs of his identity in the course of his teaching and in the miracu- age as it has of Christians, lous events that accompanied his ministry, above all in the Resurre ction itself. These showing that Christianity signs bear witness that he is the Messiah, but they re main signs and not conclusive and atheism are spread proofs of the kind that continue to be demanded by those who choose not to believe in more evenly across Britain. him. Many were fed at the miracle of the loaves and fishes, but for most it meant no Christians are also spread more than a meal at which they satisfied their hunger. Even those who held high office more evenly across Lon- in the temple came demanding answers, wanting Jesus to convince them, to compel don, unlike the Muslims them, although he had already provided ample evidence that his ministry came from who are concentrated in the Father, evidence that they chose not to believe. Jesus does not teach a set of propo- just a few Boroughs, espe- sitions to which we must give our assent, or provide irre futable “scientific” proofs that cially Tower Hamlets where he is the Son of God. Instead he invites us to hear the word of God in his teaching and they outnumber Christians. in the signs that he gives, so that we may believe that he is the One whom God has sent. Some churches actively It is by faith that God calls us and saves us and gathers us into his sheepfold, guiding us according to the 2011 Cen- their religion. When this help immigrants in their to springs of the water of life. sus. was last done, the results locality. The need for lan- The Rev Stephen Trott Where aree they from? In showed that a third (31 per guage help can be very real the last 10 years, 700,000 cent) were Christian adher- – in four per cent of British HYMN SELECTION people have emigrated ents and a quarter (24 per households today no one from India, almost 600,000 cent) were Muslim. As the speaks English as a main Hymns for Easter 4 from Poland (though over numbers are so great, how- language, and in one per Take my life and let it be half of these have now ever, for the minority reli- cent the main English Breath on me, breath of God returned), 500,000 have gions these numbers begin speaker is a child not an Let all mortal flesh keep silence come from Pakistan and to make a real difference. adult. Whatever our views Shall we gather at the river 400,000 from Ireland. Between 2001 and 2011 on the Government’s immi- Blessed assurance One of the factors that the Muslim population gration policy, as Christian Only by grace Government actuaries have increased in England by 1.1 believers we need to seek I am the bread of life to take into consideration million people. At least half creative ways to befriend Now is eternal life as they assess the future of this was due to immigra- “the stranger in our midst.” Jesus, stand among us Loving shepherd of thy sheep Milestones

FaithAction’s new publication, Faith With its Sleeves Rolled Up, is to be launched on Thurs- day 9 May in the House of Commons. The book, which emerged from involvement in the APPG for Faith and Society and is an exploration of the active contribution faith makes to society, fea- tures contributions from The Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP and others... Church Army has launched its newest campaign, Inside Out - mis-

sion in community, featuring projects where their evangelists are seeing lives transformed, the organisation says... Bedford Council has voted unanimously for a borough-wide ‘nil’ policy in relation to sex establishments, which Chris- tian groups have been campaigning for, meaning that if applications for sex clubs are made in the

future, the Council is in a much stronger position men. As Francis has himself commented, to refuse them... Uruguayan senators have voted celibacy is a matter of discipline, not doc- in favour of a same-sex ‘marriage’ law this trine. A shortage of priests is hindering the week, and lawmakers in the lower house are PAUL mission of the Church all around the expected to vote on it next week. The President, world, not just in Europe. In Latin America Jose Mujica, has indicated that he supports the RICHARDSON it is an important reason for the rapid measure... Archbishop of Canterbury Justin growth of Pentecostalism. Welby and religious leaders from across the G8 But although there are reasons to feel countries have called on‘ Heads of Government to Church and World optimistic about the new Pope there are follow the UK in fulfilling existing commitments also clouds over this papacy. During to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on Argentina’s dirty war from 1976 until the aid... Fr Michael Collins, Vatican expert and Junta fell in 1983 at least 16 priests were author of books such as The Fisherman’s Net, murdered or disappeared. Some bishops Benedict XVI and Successor to Peter is to write the gave the military their support; others first autobiography of the new Pope... Taking the Church failed to speak out. In his history of reli- gion in Latin America, Professor John Lynch writes that the Church in Argentina “For many people in ‘had the moral authority and the strength Wales the notion that in a new direction? of numbers to provide independent opposi- there is still poverty and tion but it failed to do so, it failed even to It is still early days but Pope Francis his work as Archbishop of Buenos protect its own people. Indeed through the homelessness in our has sent signals that indicate he Aires, tells me that while he holds to attitude of its hierarchy the Church helped country may be intends to shift the papacy in a new traditional church teaching, he is not to legitimise the dictatorship’. unbelievable” direction. For starters, there is the especially conservative. We are not Fr Jorge Bergoglio was head of the Alex Glanville, head of name. Francis is by far Italy’s most likely to see him making special Jesuits in Argentina under the Junta. He popular saint, associated with love for efforts to encourage celebration of neither opposed nor supported military property services in the the poor, concern for the environment the old Tridentine mass although he rule. In the rest of Latin America Jesuits Church in Wales and reform of the Church. would be well advised to let those had founded Social Institutes to work for From the moment of his election who want continue to use the ‘extraor- justice. Sometimes they had to operate Francis has referred to himself as dinary form’ do so. underground. In Argentina the Jesuit Insti- ‘Bishop of Rome’, indicating he sees There is a pragmatic streak in Fran- tute refused to criticise the Government People himself as a bishop among bishops, cis that was revealed when he tried and was allowed to work openly. Bergoglio rather than as someone operating in (unsuccessfully) to persuade the had little sympathy for Liberation Theolo- special sphere above the rest of the Argentine bishops’ conference to gy or for some of the militants opposed to ‘A former BBC producer, Robbie Lane, has Church. This could be a sign that he accept gay civil unions or civil part- the Juna. released an e-book he hopes will help churches to intends to be more collegial in gov- nerships. But he led the Church’s Two Jesuit priests who refused to leave a get a ‘better press’, called Your Church in The erning the Church. The fact that he is opposition to same-sex marriage in barrio where they had links to the opposi- News, which argues that churches need to show tion were arrested. There is no evidence off the work they are doing if they want to make a that Bergoglio played any part in their bigger impact... One of arrest and later he acted to secure their Britain’s most influen- release. There also stories that he worked tial family lawyers, to help others in trouble with the military Baroness Butler- and on one occasion gave someone who Sloss, has attacked the looked like him his ID so that he could Coalition’s same-sex escape the country. ‘marriage’ plans, say- The press will continue to examine the ing they go against new Pope’s past. There are allegations he principles established was slow to act in cases of sex abuse but so for thousands of years far the clouds from the past do not seen big and that plans to rede- enough to overshadow Francis’ papacy. fine marriage would More worrying for him are the problems lead to the destruction of the meaning of mar- the Catholic Church faces today such as riage without giving same sex couples any signifi- the growth of secularism in Europe and the cant new rights... rapid spread of Pentecostalism in Latin America. It seems likely that Francis will seek to not living in the papal apartments and Argentina and the Catholic Church push what John Allen and George Weigel Next Week’s News his decision to abandon certain forms under his leadership will not change have labelled ‘evangelical Catholicism’. of papal dress also fuel hope that the its stance on this issue. Weigel distinguishes this from an older, papacy is to cease operating as a Where we may just see change is formal type of conservative Catholicism The United Nations have declared 12 April as the medieval monarchy. over the question of celibacy. Accord- with hang ups on such things as the Latin International Day of Human Space Flight “to Reports from Argentina say that ing to someone who knows the coun- Mass. Evangelical Catholics focus on a liv- celebrate each year at the international level the Francis can be tough when it is neces- try well, most secular priests in ing relationship with Jesus, ongoing con- beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirm- sary and that he has the determina- Argentina live in informal partner- version, the importance of the Bible as the ing the important contribution of space science tion needed to reform the curia. But ships with women and have a family. Word of God and liturgical renewal in and technology in achieving sustainable develop- reform to make the present system This is accepted by parishioners. accordance with Vatican II. To this Francis ment goals and increasing the well-being of States operate more efficiently will not be Francis must know this undermines will add love for the poor. It may not please and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of enough. Changes must be implement- the moral credibility of the Church. the neo-conservative Weigel but it will their aspiration to maintain outer space for peace- ed that give more power to local Allowing priests to marry will be diffi- endear the Pope to the masses in the uni- ful purposes,” as 12 April 1961 was the date of the churches along the lines envisaged at cult because of the position of the versal Church. first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Vatican II. Orthodox Church but it would be pos- There are clouds over this papacy but Gagarin, a Soviet citizen... A priest, who knows Francis from sible to start ordaining more married there are also grounds for hope.

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