A TABLED RESOLUTION

It being Church of England Synod and all that...

"Becoming Christ-like swings on keeping close to Christ himself, being part of his living body. This means constantly coming close to his bread-body lying on the table as his breathing-body standing around the table. The table of Christ demands that we grow up, and growing up means learning to live with those we find awkward and uncongenial as well as those we warm to naturally. It means living in a community where we don't always get our own way." -- David Wood, writing in Fear or Freedom?

[The picture is the former mural from Santa Maria de Los Angeles, Managua, Nicaragua.]

A VOICE FOR TRUTH

I'm really sad to hear of the death of veteran correspondent Charles Wheeler - though, as they say, he had "a good innings", and contributed more to the integrity of reporting and journalism than almost anyone else in Britain over the past six decades. That his demise became news on 4 July, given his long years in Washington, seems strangely appropriate. BBC Radio 4 will be paying tribute with a special 45-minute programme, Charles Wheeler In His Own Words at 1100 BST on Saturday, 5 July 2008 or afterwards for a week at the Listen Again page.

ACTING IN GOOD FAITH

Responding to the broader concern attached to a high court judgement issued on 2 July 2008 ('Faith Schools judgment fails to consider human rights angle'), Simon Barrow, co-director of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia, commented: "It is time that both religious communities and government were more direct in tackling the issue of discrimination in admissions and employment in faith schools, with a view to eliminating such practices." Our concern about this is theologically grounded. What message does this kind of thing send out to people looking for integrity, love and fairness from Christians and other people of faith?

LIMITS TO 'THE POLITICAL'

Without doubt, I am a 'political animal'. Always have been. But political processes can easily become overbearing, distorting, disconnected and over-determining of the many features of life that they touch upon. In my latest Wardman Wire 'Thinking Aloud' column, which I have entitled 'The Limits of Politics' , I explore how and why the church might play some role in generating alternatives in this area. There's also an anecdote about Nelson Mandela at the 9th WCC Assembly in Harare ten years ago, illustrating my point that "grace as well as power is needed to triumph over injustice, and to hold on to the vulnerable dream that a different world is possible."

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

Deep disagreements between followers of Christ over the nature and mission of the church are not new. In fact the recent goings on in Jerusalem may remind us of the Council that Acts of the Apostles records as the first in the early Christian movement's history. It came up with a classic Anglican-style fudge (which was at the same time rather radical), unlike the Anglican one held last week, ironically enough. Here is my recent sermon tackling these issues for the Feast of St Peter and St Paul: Whose mission is it anyway?

MEET THE COTTAGERS

Meanwhile, the nascent Fellowship of Confressing Anglicans hasn't quite made its acronym stick on the net yet. If you Google FOCA you get a whole variety of intriguing alternative possibilities, including cuddly seals (very, very cute and quite unschismatic-looking), an appealing holiday destination in France, and the Federation of Cottagers' Associations in Ontario, which to those who believe that Canadian Anglicanism has now been irreversibly taken over by a "gay mafia" may sound rather more sinister than it actually is.

WILL WILLIAMS HEAD FOCA OFF?

Sorry, couldn't resist that one. Nor could Andrew Brown, I see. I am travelling at the moment, and so only logging in fitfully (yes, it does happen), but I see that Riazat Butt writing on the front page of the Guardian this morning, no less, reports an "unusually robust" response from Lambeth to the declaration from GAFCON - one that Theo Hobson describes as more of a coup than a schism: an observation which is both politically true and theologically literate... it seems that most people who use the latter term have nary a clue as to what it really means, assuming it just to be a synonym for 'split', when historically it has referred to a major uprooting of the tradition, not simply a division within a denomination (which, in the case of Anglicanism, has never claimed the kind of permanency that would be necessary to make sense of this kind of description).
That said, there are many evangelicals (including some quite conservative ones) who are unhappy with the attempted putsch, so while Theo is right on one paradigm, he is in danger of succumbing to another mistaken one. Anyway, it is all rather unpleasant and diversionary to the major challenge Christianity faces in an era where a top-down, institutional version of church is being threatened as never before. In all this, a certain kind of bogus anti-colonialism has arisen, where the abuse of power and attempts to impose a new version of the old imperial order is disguised with guilt-tripping rhetoric about liberation. About which more, later.

LIVING IN CONTINUITY

"Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble." -- Jaroslav Pelikan

TEXTUAL HEALING

"Whoever thinks he understands divine scripture or any part of it, but whose interpretation does not build up the twofold love of God and neighbour, has not really understood it." -- Augustine of Hippo

A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE

Ekklesia's press release on Savi Hensman's paper and my book - Anglicans challenged on power, sex and 'traditionalism'.

A ROUNDER PICTURE

In another fine research essay, Savitri Hensman, who has also contributed several chapters to Fear or Freedom?, gives a much broader picture of the current Anglican struggles over sexuality, authority and scripture. Her article Tradition, Change and the New Anglicanism looks at how the tradition claimed exclusively by hard-liners as their own has actually developed in the past, and she locates it in a wider concern for authentic interpretation, love of neighbour, the history of authoritarianism and the search for a universal code of human rights - something endorsed by the Lambeth Conference back in 1948.

LO, I STAND AT THE DOOR - BUT DON'T KNOCK

Well, happy birthday Gordon Brown. One year in Downing Street, but not very much to celebrate at the moment, it seems. I admit that I had greater hopes for the new PM after the stains of the Blair years. The hammering he is getting at the moment seems excessive, and though I'm not keen on the political project to which he is conjoined, he is a decent man. But I suspect Jonathan Freedland is right. A number of us mistook his tactical acumen for strategic capability. Now, I suggested recently, his challenge is to find ways of moving towards the confidence building 'yes' that Prime Ministers' need to generate (otherwise known as political purpose and energy), in the same way that he was successful by dint of his capacity to say 'no' as Chancellor. Meanwhile, the poll shocks continue.

So who will be next through the door at No 10? Neither of the dodgy characters in this photo, for sure. The one on the right looks especially suspect. The one on the left is my good friend Andrew Bradstock, of CSM. As a likely parliamentary candidate, he stands more chance than me, of course. He's even generously willing to consort with me despite the fact that I left CSM twenty years ago when it affiliated to the Labour Party. The occasion of this particular photo op was a recent reception for faith groups. But since I was Andrew's best man a few years back, we regard it as a happy 'reunion' snap.

One of the questions people asked me (and each other) during the course of the reception was "have you been to 10 Downing Street before?" The answer for me is yes, on two occasions. Though not quite as some might have anticipated. The first was when I joined an anti-nuclear weapons sit-down with a wonderful group of nuns, organised by a former Christian CND coordinator, the equally wonderful Barbara Eggleston. A rather officious police officer marched up and demanded, "who's in charge around here?" Without missing a beat, Barbara looked up and replied sweetly, "The Holy Spirit", dumbfounding him completely! Goodness, I miss her. The second occasion was when I was arrested during another sit down (no 'standing on ceremony' for me), following the bombing of Libya in 1986.

So this, as far as I can recall, is the first time I have actually been to the PM's residence on what might be called diplomatic duty.

DRAWING A CLEAR LINE

Mark Russell, who heads up a prominent evangelical Anglican mission agency, is to be thoroughly commended for his forthright condemnation of violence against gay people, and his willingness to take a stand on the recent goings on at the GAFCON conference.

ANGLICAN ANGLES AND ARCHES

Lately, I've spent a fair bit of time talking to journalists, including one from the international edition of Newsweek yesterday, about the latest fissures in Anglicanism and the GAFCON conference. Even though I'm a member of the Church of England (St Stephen's in Exeter is a very special place), once worked as an education/training adviser for a major diocese, and have just edited a book on 'Anglican wars' and beyond, I do find all this stuff, like Jane Stranz, a little tedious -- and, as Steve Fouche says, painful. The "will they, won't they split" stuff has been around for ages. The capacity of Anglicanism to produce formulae to keep people who don't talk or share communion arguing about each others' status is very deep indeed. What it all amounts to, one seriously wonders.

The really fascinating question is why a relatively small religious group, in global terms, can get everybody (well, a lot of people who should know better) so worked up, and what that truly signifies. The end of a certain kind of era, I think. About which, more in a while. Suffice it to say, though, that while Fear or Freedom? is aimed partly at the Lambeth Conference and what's going on within the Anglican world, it has a much broader and longer concern with Christianity and its provenance in a changing international order. For those who do want to follow what's happening on Planet Anglicana, however, I thoroughly recommend Thinking Anglicans (they do as it says on the can) and Episcopal Cafe (who curate a range of resources of really worthwhile scope and depth). Now, I'm off for a refreshing cuppa. It's far too early for a gin. [Image (c) R. Wilson and courtesy Episcopal cafe]

DEFINING DIFFERENTLY

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry

"He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in." - Edwin Markham

WHERE THE PM WANTS TO FIND FAITH

Gordon Brown’s search for purpose Ekklesia | Column | 24.06.08 |

Gordon Brown's recent poll humiliations have left him seeking to rebuild support, says Simon Barrow. The 'faith constituency' is one that he has a particular interest in. And though not unproblematic, it won't go away - no matter how much the liberal sceptics sneer.

A CONNECTED AWAKENING

"It is useless to dream of reforming the socioeconomic structure...as long as there is not a correspondingly deep change in our inner selves." - Dom Helder Camara

The late Archbishop of Recife in Brazil also famously said: "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. Why I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist" - and he pointed out that personal piety without social change is equally useless.

Holding these two insights together seems to me very important. When I started to engage in politics as a Christian in the UK in the late 1970s, it was hard to persuade some (especially in the evangelical sector) to get out of the pew and into society at large, or to recognise that reforming individuals could still leave the wider social structure damagingly unaltered. These days, such Christians can often be seen zealously trying to change the social order while themselves behaving in the same old power-grabbing way that characterises "the political game" as a whole.

Likewise, in the '70s and beyond, there were some "social justice Christians" who eventually found themselves spiritually dried-out: partly because they implicitly kept hoping that altered structures would make people behave differently without the need to change hearts and minds. What we have come to discover, I think, is that the process of transformation is always about connecting the structural and the interpersonal, the spiritual and the political, the macro and the micro, in positive, life generating ways. This is the connectivity that "church" ought to be about.

[Picture: the cover of Camara's marvellous book, The Conversions of a Bishop, which documented his own transformation by those he sought to work with.]

MISSING THE GLOBAL POINT

Ekklesia Press Release, 23.06.08: Anglican wrangling about sexuality and authority in the church is missing the big picture about how the relationship between religion and society is changing, says a new book from the think tank Ekklesia to be published next week.

Christians need to be beacons of hope, not signs of decay, it argues, suggesting that the 'conservative versus liberal' stereotype disguises a deeper tension between establishment religion and the Christian message of radical transformation.

With a preface by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who declares, "in God's family, there are no outsiders, no enemies", Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change, is edited by Ekklesia co- director Simon Barrow.

The book contains essays by clergy, a peace activist, an equalities adviser and two New Testament professors. It is aimed at substantially challenging the argument that will take place at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in July. Continued here.

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM?

As a group of leading Anglicans gather in Jerusalem to debate their quarrels with another leading Anglicans, the world looks on with a combination of mild amazement and disinterest, one imagines. The whole thing is deeply bizarre, unless you inhabit a particular strange corner of the universe. Anyway, Anthony Barnett kindly prompted me about this earlier today on behalf of openDemocracy's 'Our Kingdom' project, and the result is When Jerusalem turns to Little England, bringing William Blake into the picture. It will be the first of a number of pieces connected with the new book I've edited, Fear or Freedom? Just to warn you! [Picture (c) the Blake archive]

VOICES FROM THE MARGINS

Among the major aims of Refugee Week (16-23 June 2008) in the UK is to give a human face to the often misinformed and tendentious public debate about asylum and refugees, to counter propaganda put out by the British tabloids and their allies, to hear voices from the margins, to reframe our policy thinking, and to highlight the superb work done by a number of voluntary agencies in assisting people whose often desperate plight does not stop where borders begin. Incidentally, I see that a new sanctuary blog has been created in the US. Last year, CTBI, the ecumenical body, drew up a set of important principles and guidelines for churches working with migrants. There's also a powerful piece by Mark Haddon on The hell of being an asylum seeker.