Gunpowder, treason and plot

“Remember, remember the fifth of November- gunpowder, treason and plot!” So goes the old nursery rhyme and this Friday our youth club will do just that when we go to Crystal Palace to enjoy the annual fireworks display. Guy Fawkes famously stockpiled gunpowder under the House of Lords as part of a plot to blow up Parliament.

The other week our present government published their National Security Strategy, outlining today’s security threats. Top of that list were attacks on computer networks, closely followed by ‘flu pandemics and terrorism. It all goes to show that threats to our parliamentary democracy are nothing new and that we all have to be vigilant.

That vigilance should not perhaps be limited to security. For our Parliament to work also requires us to be informed and involved, so that we can hold our politicians to account. General elections are a fairly infrequent way of doing that. If, however, you want to have your say in the meantime, you could do worse than attend the regular surgeries for our own MP, Tessa Jowell , held in Kingswood House 13.30-15.00. (next one: 15 November.)

Such vigilance is a natural outworking of the Book of Common Prayer’s intercession;
“We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors; and specially thy Servant Elizabeth our Queen; that under her we may be godly and quietly governed: And grant unto her whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they may truly and indifferently administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue. “

Something to consider as you light the blue touch paper and stand well back.

Angelic

A few years ago I visited Ethiopia and was able to witness the wonders of a little known corner of Christendom, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It has an art form and liturgy quite different from our western traditions yet witnessing to the same Gospel.

One of their most beautiful Churches is Debre Birhan Selassie. It’s ceiling is covered with wide eyed angels with African faces. Scores of them are featured wing to wing in vivid reds, blues and oranges overlooking the worshippers below.

We probably do not think much about angels but they feature regularly in the Bible as God’s messengers and as heavenly creatures standing in worship before the throne of God. As such they are a model for our own worship here on earth.

This week the church celebrates the feast of St. Michael and All Angels and as we stand to sing our hymns this morning you may wish to look up to St Stephen’s angels standing atop our pillars. In moments when I am particularly moved in worship, I sometimes imagine these angels taking flight and looping through the arches as they give glory to God. Isaiah famously had a vision of something similar;

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Lift high the cross

This week, on Tuesday, the Church celebrates Holy Cross Day otherwise known as the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross’. This marks the day when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated in 335 and a fragment of the true cross was brought out of the church for people to venerate.

The cross is an incredibly powerful image venerated by Christians around the world. This is perhaps surprising given that it was an instrument of torture and execution used by a number of the Emperors to make quite clear that they held the power of life and death.

Yet in Christ’s crucifixion the tables are turned. As the disciples saw Christ breath his last they may well have feared that the authorities had finally beaten this ‘Galilean prophet’. But in three days Jesus is raised from the dead, glorified as the risen Christ. Finally we see that God is the victor above and beyond earthly rulers and despots. It is he who is the source of life and who has overcome death.

Maybe you where a cross around your neck, maybe you see them on Churches as you travel to work, maybe you have one on the wall at home. If so take a moment on Tuesday and join with others in saying this special prayer for Holy Cross Day;

Almighty God, who in the passion of your blessed Son made an instrument of painful death to be for us the means of life and peace: grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer for his sake; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Party people

My dear friend the Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, Revd. Giles Fraser, has been on the radio again. This time to suggest that too many weddings are about narcissism and self-promotion and can end-up as expensive, overblown vanity projects. Well, I think that is a bit ‘bah, humbug’!

Here at St Stephen’s, the wedding season is in full swing with seven weddings taking place this month alone. I have to say that I love taking weddings and even find myself getting a bit emotional, as I hear the couples exchanging their vows.

When I think back to the day that Helen and I were wed it really was a special day and yes, we did push the boat out and had a lot of friends and family around us but I don’t regret a bit of it. Especially not the keg of Timothy Taylor Landlord ale which we ordered especially to ensure that our guests were suitably refreshed for the barn dance.

Celebrations are important and in a society that is, at times, worryingly insular anything that brings together family and friends, celebrates lifelong commitment and builds up our community has got to be a good thing.

As it says in the opening preface to the wedding ceremony, “Our Lord Jesus Christ was himself a guest at a wedding in Cana of Galilee” and it is worth remembering what he did there. Our’s is a God who is in favour of parties.

holy-days

This week the Church remembers one of the great theologians of the Orthodox Church, Gregory of Nyssa.

Gregory was a Bishop in what today is part of Turkey. He was a great orator, philosopher and theologian and, together with his brother Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.

I was able to learn more of Gregory and his theology when visiting Turkey last summer where he is revered as the father of mysticism who taught much about the unknowability of God. Gregory understood the spiritual life as the journey of the soul towards God. He taught that the soul of the believer is aware that it is the object of God’s love and that this love marks the soul, draws it towards God and ignites it with love.

As I travelled through Turkey, I learnt not only about Gregory but also about Paul’s missionary journeys and about other saints who were central to the development of early Christian thought. Along the way, I was reminded that Christianity began as an eastern religion that only slowly spread to the west and our own shores.

This summer you too may be off to foreign climes and may have the opportunity to worship in beautiful Churches and to learn about interesting saints. If so, I would encourage you in a Holy curiosity that might well turn your holiday into something of a pilgrimage as well.

With best wishes for a Happy and holy holiday!

State of Independance

Today Americans the world over will celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, parades and baseball games.

It was on this day in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was finally approved by Congress. That Declaration famously stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Born out of the grievances of colonists regarding taxation and representation, the declaration has many historical influences. Some see it as the application of the thought of liberal philosophers and the enlightenment whilst other look further back to the Magna Carta.

Meanwhile, some take an even longer view looking to the Old Testament as the foundation of the declaration and there is certainly something to be said for this. The Bible teaches that humanity is created in the image of God and in the ten commandments and the wider law we can see that this has implications for the way we should order society.

As the Old Testament prophets warned, however, any nation that claims to have God on their side is likely to be on shaky ground and that applies as much to the divine right of kings as it does to the pursuit of happiness.

In amongst all of these influences, however, we can all join with Americans today as we pray that God might bless America.

The laughing Christ

Today is Trinity Sunday. A festival that invites us to consider what images of God we hold dear. Perhaps it is a Crucifix, or an illustration in a Children’s Bible or perhaps it is a work of art which we have seen in a gallery.

These pictures are often more powerful than we imagine. They shape our image of God and the way in which we pray and think about him. Indeed the Old Testament contains many warnings about images of God and the way in which they can never contain him. Of course, the supreme image of God is Jesus Christ and it is through him that we know who God is.

The image above is called the ‘Laughing Christ’ and is one that I find particularly powerful. The Bible does not report that Jesus laughed but he did go to weddings, tell stories, play with children, tie his questioners in knots and have to deal with those were surprised by God’s love. I doubt that he could have done this and kept a straight face.

So as we celebrate God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit today let us also give thanks afor a God who cries, smiles and laughs with us.

All shall be well

As we come to terms with our hung parliament many may be feeling a little disappointed. Over the last few weeks hopes have been raised of democratic renewal and clear government to help the country through difficult economic times. As I write this in the cold light of Friday morning, it is not yet clear how this might be achieved.

This weekend whilst the politicians will be considering how best to move forward the Church will remember an English saint from the fourteenth century; Julian of Norwich. Julian famously experienced sixteen visions of the love of God when dangerously ill. Following her recovery she wrote these down in her book, ‘Revelations of Divine Love’. This was the fist book written by a woman in the English language and she is now considered one of our greatest mystics.

If you find today’s headlines unsettling then spare a thought for Julian. She was writing during outbreaks of the plague and the peasants revolt and many in the Church understood these as God’s punishment for our sin. For Julian, however, it was the love of God that held the world together. Her confidence in that love led her to proclaim that, despite current trials, in God’s loving mercy all shall be well.

“Though shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. God willeth that we take heed of these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For he loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth he that we love and enjoy him and mightily trust in him; and all shall be well.”

The government we deserve?

As I write this on polling day, I’m not sure how the election will end. A diplomat once said, “Every country has the government it deserves.” As we come to terms with our new political landscape, I wonder whether you agree?

Now that the counting is over and the ballot boxes have been put away we may heave a sigh of relief that the News can now move on. But I’m not sure that the issues raised during the campaign will go away quite so quickly. Indeed democratic reform, painful tax and spending decisions and our foreign policy are all likely to require our attention long before the next election.

When Jesus was interviewed by Pilate about his leadership ambitions he said that his Kingdom was not of this world. When quizzed on his tax policy he said that we should pay our taxes to Caesar but also render our dues to God. When asked about human relations- international or otherwise- his sound bites were all about love. One small word which has radical implications. Unfortunately, those implications rarely fit with the agenda of one political party.

As you voted last week your pencil may have hovered over differing boxes, maybe you felt torn between tactics and policies and quite possibly what you hoped for in the polling station hasn’t quite materialised across the country? If any of these are true it might that your cross on the ballot papers might prove to be the beginning of a political journey rather than it’s end. As the saying goes, politics is too important to be left to politicians.

How to vote...

I want to use this post to tell you how to vote.

After this week of manifestos it won’t be the first time that someone has tried to win you over to their way of thinking. Down the centuries Christians have, of course, taken widely differing political stances.

One of the most thought through examples of this is catholic social teaching. This is based on the idea that love is the supreme judge for any social policy. Flowing from this is a commitment to the values of justice, freedom and truth which should guide our decision making. These in turn lead to five inter-connected principals all of which should promote the ‘common good’ or human flourishing of all.

Now how this translates into any of the manifestos before us is slightly more tricky. Help, however, is at hand as Churches Together in Dulwich are hosting an evening to quiz the candidates on Wednesday 28 April (8pm, Methodist Church Hall on Half Moon Lane. Near the corner with Beckwith Avenue). The candidates for the four main political parties have all confirmed their attendance, so it will be an opportunity for you to put your questions directly to them.

After all that has happened over the last year, it seems important to hold our candidates to account and let them know that the Churches are an active and engaged part of their constituency. I will be chairing it, (doing my best impression of David Dimbleby) so do please come along with others to make your voice heard.

Oh, and how to vote? Well you put a cross next to the name of your favoured candidate, of course!

The miraculous egg

Last week our youth club were decorating eggs for Easter.

This involved gently inserting needles in the eggs, blowing out the contents (which were then made into omelettes) and microwaving the egg before dipping them in food dye. As you can imagine there were several possibilities for disaster here. Fortunately, however, no eggs were thrown, no children impaled themselves on the needles and no outbreak of salmonella has been reported!

Eggs have fascinated humanity since antiquity. They were revered in ancient Egypt, China and in Persia where they were seen as a symbol of the universe. Meanwhile, in the pagan world the egg was revered as a symbol of springtime and miraculous rebirth.

The Church reinterpreted this understanding the egg as a symbol of the tomb from which Christ was miraculously resurrected. Records show that in 1290 Edward I spent eighteen pence to have four hundred and fifty eggs covered in gold leaf to be given as Easter gifts. The eggs that Fabergé made for the Czar were famously a little more pricey.

So if this Easter morning you have already marvelled at your breakfast egg or failed to stop your children digging into their chocolate one, why not treat it as part of your Easter devotion to the empty tomb from which Christ arose this day.

With best wishes for a happy Easter!

Passiontide

Today is Passion Sunday and as you look around Church you will see that many of our decorations are now covered. For in these last two weeks of Lent we enter a deeper stage of our pilgrimage, traditionally known as Passiontide.

Passion as a deep, driving and unsettling expression of love is an evocative word which we can find in the tabloid press as often as in a Church news sheet. Sometimes it is hard to connect these two uses and in many ways it seems safer to keep ‘unruly passions’ a long way from the ‘Passion of our Lord’. As we approach Easter, however, and the supreme example of God’s love, such neat distinctions can be hard to maintain. Indeed some of our most profound Christian mystics and poets, such as John Donne, see no distinction at all.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to'another due,
Labor to'admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly'I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you'enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Avatar

The other week I went with the youth club to see the film ‘Avatar’ which looks set to strike gold at the Oscars this year. At a rumoured cost of $500m it is a spectacular 3D exploration of our relationship to nature.

Set in the future, an inter-galactic mining company is digging up a planet to get at it’s mineral deposits. Whilst the company claims to want the best for the local population, it’s private army and armour plated excavators tell a different story.

The film introduces us to a paradise world in which the local population communicate with their ancestors through the trees and with animals by linking their minds and uniting their wills. This includes the ability to fly through floating mountains on the backs of pterodactyls and in 3D that is quite a ride!

Meanwhile, the private army cannot breath the same air and seem able to bond only with machines and terrifying robot soldiers. It all comes to a head when the richest mineral deposit is found underneath a gigantic tree where one of the tribes has it’s ancestral home.

Now I won’t tell you any more because you should really go and see it for yourself. If, however, your recollection of 3D films is of those funny green and red glasses that didn’t really work, then think again. I found myself gripping the seat to stop myself falling and batting away floating objects that seem to have drifted out of the film and into the cinema. All in all, this is a film which offers a stimulating perspective and I’m not just talking about the special effects.

Matters ecumenical

This Sunday falls in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; an event which Fr. Ted might have described as, “an ecumenical matter”- a box into which tricky issues could be placed- rather than explained.

The word ecumenical has a Greek root meaning ‘the whole world’ and it has been used to describe the movement which seeks the unity of all Christians. The idea being that the unity of the Church should act as a signpost for the wider reconciliation of the whole of humanity.

Now you may feel that the multiplicity of Churches mean that we are not doing a very good job, however, unity and uniformity are not the same thing. When I attend other churches I am often struck by the particular gift of differing traditions and that is something which might be lost if we all tried to be the same. Instead we need to realise that when it comes to faith, we only ever possess part of the picture. Indeed, through learning and sharing with other Christians we often gain a deeper and richer vision of the glory of God.

These ecumenical practices do, I believe, have something to offer to the wider world. A world in which we need to do more to celebrate our global diversity, exercise humility and be better at giving and receiving from one another. Indeed, as we are beginning to see in Haiti, these are far from abstract ideas but are in fact powerful forces which can save lives.

When did we see you hungry?

The other week, on my way to morning prayer, I passed a young man sleeping rough in the woods.

I went back after prayers with a couple of mugs of tea and we had a chat. He explained that things hadn’t worked out where he was living in Crystal Palace, that he had been homeless for four months and that he wasn’t sure where he would be sleeping that night.

Last week, at the Churches Together in Dulwich (CTiD) Advent service, we heard about a project which works to help people like the young man that I met. It is called the Robes Project and is a network of seven Churches who each commit to providing a night shelter, for one night of the week, during the coldest months of the year.
It is one of several local projects supported by the CTiD homelessness appeal, (details of which can be found in the enclosed leaflet). St. Stephen’s is part of this appeal and will be having a special collection in aid of it at our Festival of Lessons and Carols on 20th. December. That doesn’t of course stop you from making other donations of money, time or any of particular items which they list!

This morning we enter the season of Advent when the Church begins to look towards Christmas. Advent is traditionally a time of prayer and reflection as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ; a child who was born in a stable and grew-up to be an adult who had nowhere to lay his head.

As we prepare for his coming, I would commend this appeal to you.

Trick or treat?

I have vivid memories of one Halloween party which I attended as a child. This involved hearing a scary story interspersed with opportunities to reach into bags and boxes containing jelly, cabbages and the like which were tactile props for an unsettling tale. It’s probably done me no lasting damage but it has certainly stayed with me for many years.

Last night, together with the Kingswood Estate Tenants Association, myself and members of the youth club ran an alternative Halloween party at Langbourne school. This tried to offer a different take on All Hallows Eve with a fancy dress competition themed around saints, angels and superheroes. As well as saving the estate from marauding bands of ‘trick or treaters’, it also tried to offer a more positive way of celebrating this ancient autumn festival.

Its roots can be found in the pagan rite of ‘Samhein’ in which Farmers sought to placate evil spirits so that their crops could be safely gathered in for the winter ahead. In a shrewd piece of missionary one-upmanship, the Church took over this date for the celebration of All Saints and the commemoration of All Souls. These offer us important opportunities to remember the faithful departed and to gain a deeper understanding of the heavenly glory to which we are called.

Indeed, the truth that underlies both of these services is that death is not the end because ours is a resurrection faith in which our Heavenly Father is both our beginning and our end.

Some things bright and beautiful

This week the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ finally seems to have arrived. Whilst walking in the woods, Oscar and I have noted the changing colours, acorns constantly dropping around us and a particularly good harvest of chestnuts.

The chestnuts have also caught the attention of our growing Parakeet population and one evening last week I witnessed a flock of fifty fly over our house. These bright green arrivals with their vivid red bills and high pitched call do tend to divide public opinion. Indeed last week I read that, whilst currently protected, in future people will be able to apply for a licence to shoot ‘problem parakeets’; so much for all things bright and beautiful!

The poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins had a few things to say about such colourful wildlife. I am guessing that he probably never saw a Himalayan Parakeet but I can’t help wondering whether he might have welcomed their arrival? Whilst we may not want to thank God for this particular species, autumn nevertheless remains a vivid season to praise God for pied beauty…

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

Pied Beauty
Gaerard Manley Hopkins

Business as usual?

In our service this morning we will hear the story of the prodigal son. He famously demands half of his father’s wealth and leaves for the big city and a life of wild parties. Soon however he runs out of money, his friends desert him and he is left feeding pigs- just to survive.

One year on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this cautionary tale of living beyond one’s means sounds familiar. As commentators have reminded us this week, a decade of cheap credit led governments, banks and individuals to all borrow far too much. And so, like the hard times faced by the prodigal son, we are now experiencing the biggest economic crisis for 100 years.

This week the debate has been whether we have learnt the lessons of our, ‘irrational exuberance’ or whether we are still pretending that it is business as usual? Are each of us saving more, have the banks changed their ways, might capitalism be renewed? Joining the debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that there remains a lack of closure and a need for repentance.

Indeed, repentance is what the story of the prodigal son is really about. As it continues we see the son, coming to his senses, returning to his father and asking forgiveness. Seeing his son in the distance, the father runs to embrace him and welcomes him home.

Realising our mistakes, saying that we are sorry and mending our ways may not sound like much of a macro-economic strategy but, as this gospel story reminds us, repentance does have the power to liberate us from self pity, to enable us to take responsibility and to help us to move on.

The Plight of the bumblebee

I’m sure that along with many in the congregation, I have been worried by the recent serious decline in the country’s bee population. Some estimates suggest that we have lost a third of that population over the last three years.

In recent months, as I have walked through the woods to Morning Prayer, I have come across a number of bumblebees in difficulty and on more than one occasion have gently moved them off pathways with an encouraging word, usually along the lines of, “Go bumblebee, go!”

Now you may fear that your Curate is losing his marbles but a world without bees would be a very different place. Indeed, as they pollinate 70% of the food we eat, some suggest that humanity could only outlive bees by four years.

If you are interested to know more, I can recommend the ‘Save the honeybee’ campaign by the Soil Association (www.soilassociation.org) which is collecting signatures to ban a particularly strong pesticide- neonicotinoids. Whilst this pesticide has been banned in France, Germany and Italy our own government is yet to act.

Whatever the causes of this decline, it is impossible to deny our connection with our natural world. This connection was famously highlighted by St. Francis of Assisi who spoke of ‘Brother Son’ and ‘Sister Moon’. For Francis the world around us is something to which we are spiritually related and which God wishes to redeem as much as he does humanity.

Such a medieval insight may yet save not only the bumblebee but also ourselves.