The best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness

Here's the Stewardship sermon that I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

The Christian life is so much more than how we gather together on Sunday; 98% of Christian disciples spend 95% of their time not in church. Everyday faith is all about how we express our Christian faith every day, in everyday situations, Monday to Saturday, not just on Sunday. It is about where and how we encounter God as we go about our lives and how we express that to others in our words and actions. It is found in our joys and cares, in our challenges and conflicts, in our work and rest, in our workplaces and homes, in our friendships and relationships as we lean into God’s presence and guidance.

Our faith connects with the wider community through our everyday lives and commitments. Whether because of our paid work, our family roles, or our community or political involvements, we are all intimately involved in the wider community. God calls us to do so as people of faith.

God knows each one of us intimately and prepares us for our calling before we are born, so we need to trust that our interests, skills and talents are gifts from God to be used for his glory. Then, as St Paul wrote to the Colossians, whatever we do, in word or deed, we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever our task, he wrote, we are to put ourselves into it, as done for the Lord (Colossians 3.23). The poet George Herbert wrote that this way of thinking is the “famous stone / That turneth all to gold.” So, this is where we begin with our calling, looking carefully at our natural interests, abilities and talents and putting them to use where we are doing what we do in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his glory.

Then, we develop and grow how we act as Christian people in our everyday lives. Living as a Christian is like getting undressed and then dressed again. The picture we are given in Colossians 3.12-17 is of taking off our old clothes (our old way of life – our vices) and putting on new clothes (a new and different way of life – Christian virtues).

This is something that we have to consciously choose to do. Getting dressed is not usually something we do without thinking about it. We take time when shopping to find clothes which we think suit us and generally we do not just put on the first thing that comes to hand with whatever the next item is. Instead, we match items until we are satisfied that we will look as we wish.

The new clothes that we are to put on as Christians are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. That implies that the old clothes we take off would be their opposites; hatred, unkindness, pride, roughness, and impatience. Also implied is the idea that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience do not come naturally to us, so we have to make a conscious change. Tom Wright has said that “the point about “vice”, the opposite of “virtue”, is that, whereas virtue requires moral effort, all that has to happen for vice to take hold is for people to coast along in neutral: moral laziness leads directly to moral deformation (hence the insidious power of TV which constantly encourages effortless going-with-the-flow). The thing about virtue is that it requires Thought and Effort . . .”

So, change begins with a conscious decision, not a magical or instant makeover. St Paul writes in Romans 12. 2, “let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.” We know this is so because we only make changes in our lives when we break bad habits and form good habits. Tom Wright, again, “The point about the word “virtue” – if we can recapture it in its strong sense – is that it refers, not so much to “doing the right things”, but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character ... All behaviour is habit-forming … we [can] use the word “virtue” and “virtuous” simply to mean “behaviour we have had to work at which has formed our character so that at last it becomes natural and spontaneous to live like that.”

We can use a different illustration to see how this works in practice. Tom Wright says, “The illustration I sometimes use is that when you learn to drive a car, the idea is that you will quickly come to do most of the things “automatically”, changing gear, using the brakes, etc., and that you will develop the “virtues” of a good driver, looking out for other road users, not allowing yourself to be distracted, etc.; but that the highways agencies construct crash barriers and so on so that even if you don’t drive appropriately damage is limited; and also those “rumble strips”, as we call them in the UK, which make a loud noise on the tyre if you even drift to the edge of the roadway.

“Rules” and “the Moral Law” are like those crash barriers and rumble strips. Ideally, we won’t need them because we will have learned the character-strengths that St Paul lists for the Colossian Christians and will drive down the moral highway appropriately. But the rules are there so that when we start to drift, we are at once alerted and can take appropriate action – particularly figuring out what strengths need more work to stop it happening again.”

So, to sum up, Christian virtue comes “as the fruit of the thought-out, Spirit-led, moral effort of putting to death one kind of behaviour and painstakingly learning a different one.” When the Spirit is at work in us in this way, “we become more human, not less – which means we have to think more, not less, and have to make more moral effort, not less.”

What habits do we need to break and what habits do we need to build as a result of what we have thought about today? “So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … and to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.”

The final week of our Stewardship month is to do with our community involvements. The Five Marks of Mission include: Tending - responding to human need by loving service; and Transforming - seeking to transform the unjust structures of society. Our Stewardship Pack suggests many things we can do to transform our community including:

• Volunteer with Project 58.7 or another voluntary organisation.
• Help at the Gateway Project.
• Pray regularly for your work and community.
• Make creative suggestions in your work.
• Write to your MP and/or Councillors about issues of international, national and local concern.

Can you commit to doing any of these or others mentioned in the pack? When we do, we are having a ministry of presence and engagement. Presence is what we often talk about here as ‘Being With’:

“The word ‘presence' points to our incarnational theology and the word ‘engagement’ to our pentecostal theology ... Presence can be largely passive, a simple acceptance that this is where we are, without any meaningful recognition of the relationship between our presence, the presence of others and the real presence of Christ who seeks constantly to bring human beings into relationship with each other in love. But the Spirit of God is constantly seeking to move us on from the fact of presence to the action of engagement – engagement as a public sign of our commitment to the wellbeing of the world and to the discovery of the Kingdom in the midst of the places where we are present.”

Jonathan Sacks has said: “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good ... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness.”

David Ford has expanded on the opportunities that community engagement provides including the: “Opportunity to learn more about other human beings around us, especially those sincerely engaged in seeking God. Opportunity to present our Christian understandings of God by the lives we live and the words we speak. Opportunity to contribute to the common good and above all, opportunity to learn more about trusting in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” We can grasp these opportunities as we take up the challenge of our Stewardship Pack to be involved transforming our community and as we follow St Paul’s advice do everything that we do in the name of the Lord Jesus.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - What Can I Do For You?

Immersed in the story

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Runwell this morning:

The favourite Christmas story of the Archbishop of York concerns a two-year-old called Miriam at a church on the edge of Chichester where he was then parish priest.

The red brick rectangular church seated about 80 and was full to overflowing for the Christmas Day service. As every space was taken, the crib scene had been placed under the altar. During the service Miriam wandered into the sanctuary and stood for a while observing the nativity scene. It was a large nativity set and so the characters in the scene were about the same size as the two-year-old. After observing the scene for a while, Miriam carefully climbed in under the altar making her way around the characters to sit in a space within the crib scene where she then remained for the rest of the service.

What she did was essentially an acted parable to the congregation because she became part of the story. That is what happens – it is what we are doing – when we become Christians. In other words, for many of us, it is what is going on when we are baptised.

Baptism is our immersion in the Christian story; a story which begins with God’s creation of the universe and life on earth. It continues with our rebellion as human beings. Our saying to God that we know who we are and what we need to do and, therefore, will go ahead and do our own thing. We all live with the consequences of that right now.

But in the story which the Bible tells, God does not leave us simply to do our own thing. First, he chooses the people of Israel and through his special relationship with them seeks to call all people back to their true identity and purpose and then he sends his own Son, Jesus, to reach out in rescue and return us to him. He does this so that each one of us can find our identity and purpose in God and play our part in bringing the kingdom of God in full on earth as it is in heaven.

When Jesus was baptised, he was saying that he would immerse himself in this story and play his special, unique part within it (Luke 3. 15 – 17, 21 – 22). As he made that commitment, God the Father affirmed him in his identity and purpose by saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”

As we do what Miriam did and enter the story, then we are also affirmed by God in just the same way. St Paul writes in Romans 8. 14 – 17 that:

“Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.”

What he is saying is that as we enter the story we are adopted by God as his children and become brothers and sisters of Jesus, co-heirs with him of all he possesses.

You may remember the wonderful words of Philippians 2. 6 – 11 which say that Jesus gave up the equality he had with God the Father in heaven in order to be born as a human being, living and dying as our servant in order to save us:

“For this reason God raised him to the highest place above
and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.
And so, in honour of the name of Jesus
all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below
will fall on their knees,
and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

That same glory, St Paul says, is shared with us as we enter the story, join the family of God and play our part with the story. The incredible message of Christianity is that our rightful identity as human beings is that of being God’s own dear children with whom he is greatly pleased.

How do we play our part? That all depends on our coming to know the story and what happens within it. New Testament scholar Tom Wright has described Holy Scripture as being like a five-act play containing the first four acts in full (i.e. 1. Creation, 2. Fall, 3. Israel, 4. Jesus). “The writing of the New Testament,” he says, “would then form the first scene in the fifth act, and would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of the Apocalypse) of how the play is supposed to end ... The church would then live under the 'authority' of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion ... the task of Act 5 ... is to reflect on, draw out, and implement the significance of the first four Acts, more specifically, of Act 4 in the light of Acts 1-3 ... Faithful improvisation in the present time requires patient and careful puzzling over what has gone before, including the attempt to understand what the nature of the claims made in, and for, the fourth Act really amount to.”

So, we start by looking at what we know of the story to date – the things God has done in and through Israel, Jesus and the Church – and we also look at the hints we have about the way the story will end with the coming in full of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Then we say to ourselves, ‘What is it that people do in this story? How do they act and behave? And then we start to do and say similar things, as we have the opportunity. As Christians we are never given a script which has all our lines and actions printed on it. Instead, we have to improvise our part on the basis of what we know of the story so far, on the basis of the example provided by those who have lived in the story before, and on the basis of the opportunities provided in the places where we are and among the people that we know.

Living in the Christian story, therefore, is a challenge – something we should know anyway from looking at the life and death of Jesus – but it comes with the affirmation that we are part of God’s family; his dearly loved children, brothers and sisters of and co-heirs with Jesus himself. When we know this, we can relax because whatever happens to us we are accepted, forgiven, loved and gifted by the God who created all things and who will bring all things to their rightful end.

When we do that, we are like Miriam climbing in under the altar to become part of the crib scene. When we do that, we become part of God’s story which makes us his children and gives us identity, purpose and meaning. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iona - Edge Of The World.

Image: In the Face of Death: Damien Hirst and the Thrill of Mortality

Image Journal issue 123 is now available. This issue includes an essay I have written entitled 'In the Face of Death: Damien Hirst and the Thrill of Mortality':

"How we deal with death and what happens after, if anything, are among the central themes of the great religions, while how we live with the knowledge of that fate is one of the ethical conundrums we each face. Hirst’s work, therefore, has been ethically and religiously engaged from the get-go. In addition to his central focus on the inevitability of death, Hirst explores our efforts to prolong life, including the paradox that we kill other creatures as food in order to survive, the preservation and decay of bodies, death threats, and how we live in the light of our mortality."

The cover of Issue 123 features the work of Josh Tiessen, from a series of narrative, “hyper-surreal” paintings that explore the sources of wisdom, human and otherwise.

As the Image team put the winter issue together, they noticed several themes emerging. You’ll see candles, time-worn scraps of paper, and a set of images they think of as “Eden after the fall.” There are several gardens—some that are havens, others that reflect the world’s troubles—and marriage with all its beauties and difficulties, including sex, companionship, aging, and illness.

In her first editorial as editor in chief, Molly McCully Brown weaves these strands together. You’ll also find a surprisingly theological interview with a stand-up comedian, a documentary film about a dress made of nettles, a grandmother who is mysteriously knowledgeable about Cuban art history, and more.

For more of my writings on Damien Hirst, see my VCS exhibition entitled 'Fishers of People' and my Artlyst review of his 'Natural History' exhibition from 2022.

‐------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scott Stapp - Weight Of The World.

Optimism, realism and hope

Here is the sermon I preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields today:

‘Boris Johnson must peddle Brexit optimism "as if he were a steroid-boosted cyclist trying to win the Tour de France;" between now and October 31, key Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has argued’. ‘Johnson’s promise to prove “the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters” wrong, and his claim that “no one in the last few centuries has succeeded in betting against the pluck and nerve and ambition of this country”, is in exactly that vein’.

Whether this is a credible Brexit strategy I’ll leave to you to decide but what it has done is initiate a national debate regarding the nature and value of optimism. For instance, in ‘one of the standout moments in Rory Stewart’s ill-fated campaign for No 10’, Stewart ‘compared his rivals’ defiant optimism about Brexit to a man trying to cram three bags of rubbish in an impossibly-full dustbin while yelling, “Believe in the bin bags!”’

Assessing Johnson’s use of optimism in The Guardian, Tim Lott noted that: ‘Optimism gets things done. It has energy. That is its perpetual triumph over pessimism. But unfortunately, like pessimism, it is skewed. It leads to the very unwelcome emotion that pessimism seeks to avoid by pre-empting it, assuming failure in the first place. This emotion is disappointment – attended by its ugly henchmen, bitterness and resentment.’ That is what Lott anticipates will be the result of Johnson’s optimism over Brexit.

Our Gospel reading (Luke 12.49-56) makes clear that this was not a strategy followed by Jesus who told his disciples plainly that he was about to be killed, that they would be scattered and then persecuted. That, as the effect of what he was about to do would be divisive, they would live and minister in an on-going situation of division and persecution. In a series of addresses that are often read in Advent, he explained that, at some point after his Ascension and the coming of his Spirit at Pentecost, the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed and they would live in a state of persecution. In AD70 the Romans destroyed the Temple, ending all worship there, and the Early Church in Jerusalem, together with the majority of Jews, was dispersed across the Roman Empire. Many of the letters in the New Testament describe experiences of trouble and persecution prior to that point, but, from that point until the Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of the Empire, the early Church experienced the kind of division and persecution about which Jesus had warned.

Jesus was never less than real! In our Gospel reading he confronts us with the reality that once the good news about him gets into households there’ll be no peace and families will split up over it. That reality continues to be the case to this day. However, it may well have been the situation of the Church post-AD70 that he had primarily in mind at the time. He did so in order that his followers genuinely understood the commitment that they were making. That is why whenever he spoke with those who wished to follow him he emphasised the depth of commitment involved; ‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’. There were no false promises and there was no fake news with Jesus.

That level of commitment is necessary because the conflict he describes and the prophecies he makes will, he says, be an opportunity for his disciples to tell the Good News, if they stand firm. For example in Luke 21 we read of his saying: Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be terrible disasters everywhere; you will be arrested and persecuted; you will be tried and put in prison; you will be brought before rulers for my sake. This will be your chance to tell the Good News (Luke 21. 10-13). That is what Jesus looked for from his followers in times of conflict and difficulty and he promised both his support and enabling in doing so: ‘Make up your minds beforehand not to worry about how you will defend yourselves, because I will give you such words and wisdom that none of your enemies will be able to refute or contradict what you say.’

The situations in which we are called to do this change throughout history but what is unchanging is the call to tell the Good News whether in situations of military defeat, as in the post AD70 situation for the Early Church, or in times of victory, as with the beginnings of Christendom post-Constantine. Today we seem to be called to do so in a political and social situation which has shifted towards the mind-set of populism, with its emphasis on national interests and the erection of walls and tariffs to protect ‘us’ against ‘them’. Whatever we think of that situation, Christ calls us to tell the Good News of God’s love shown in Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection with all its implications for society through the coming of the kingdom of God.

Jesus’ warning that his disciples will experience not peace but division is clearly realistic rather than optimistic but it also contains, within the arc of his warning and within the pattern of his actions, a hope for the future which is optimism built on realism. The warnings Jesus gives about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and so on, for example, include a quotation from Micah 7.6, a passage in which the prophet warns of imminent crisis and urges that the only way forward is complete trust in God. The prophet says although his experience is of division, ‘I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.’

The Biblical witness, as our Vicar has regularly reminded us, is that the place of setback, hardship and failure is also the place of revelation and relationship. From the exile of 585 BC onwards, God’s people have habitually experienced renewal emerging out of times of setback, hardship and failure. Jesus saw a crisis coming for those to whom he spoke; a crisis of which his own fate would be the central feature. He would be rejected and killed but would rise from death before ascending to his Father and sending his Holy Spirit on all who follow him. Jesus realistically prepared his disciples for the experience of despair and loss when he was crucified and of later hardship and persecution following his Ascension.

He did so because he was absolutely sure that they would experience a depth of relationship with God in their troubles. That, like him, they would come through the valley of the shadow of death into an experience of the kingdom of God - of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven – that is resurrection. God’s presence in the time of trouble and God’s resurrection of Jesus and, through Jesus, his people, provides the basis for Jesus’ hope about the future, which for those who believe is not just optimistic, but realistic.

Optimism is generated by our energy (or bravado) moving into an unknown future, whereas hope is generated by God’s initiative in Christ reaching back into our present. Slavoj Žižek has argued that ‘In our predicament every direct optimism is a fake’. This is because ‘the only bearers of true hope are those who dare to confront the abyss we are approaching’. That is a realism which accords with that of Jesus. Similarly, Jürgen Moltmann who wrote a Theology of Hope based on lived experience as a prisoner-of-war, said that ‘Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present’. ‘There is no pleasant harmony between us and reality … due to our unquenchable hope’. Hope keeps us un-reconciled, ‘until the great day of the fulfilment of all the promises of God’. The Church is intended to be ‘the source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come’. Our hope should ‘provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love’.

We do so, to quote our Vicar, by modelling what the kingdom of God (our term for an alternative society, our language of God’s future now) means and entails in visible and tangible form – that is a community living by faith and in whose life are seen the things God makes possible: ‘The church has to believe it’s about more than spirituality and it has to let its financial needs and the material poverty of many it encounters become entry-points to new adventures, new relationships, new discoveries in God’s kingdom. What are needed now are communities of ordinary virtues, but ones infused with grace: thus trust, honesty, politeness, forbearance, and respect are the bedrock of such communities, while tolerance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and resilience are among its abiding graces.’

In 2004 Clay Sinclair quit his day job to pursue an art career full-time. Having become an internationally recognised artist with his provocative pop paintings on perspex, dealing with issues of power, prestige and possessions, in 2014, for the sake of true riches, he willingly, and with no loss of dignity, opted to become a little poorer and more obscure by relocating to Stroud, where he opened a gallery. Over the past few years has been exploring the possibilities of fashion and the positive impact it can have on individuals, communities and environments.

In 2016, the day after the Brexit referendum, he tongue-in-cheekily declared The People’s Republic of Stroud as a call to community unity after witnessing some horrible post-Brexit abuse towards a refugee charity shop next to his gallery. The People’s Republic of Stroud, along with associated t-shirts, has become a unifying brand that is now firmly established in terms of its ethos and visual identity. Using organic cotton, fair trade and transparent production suppliers, along with local screen-printers he has created a brand that not only brings the community together, but has become a model for sustainable and ethical fashion. To move this successful, inclusive and ethical fashion brand beyond the five valleys of Stroud he has now launched The People’s Republic as an ethical and philosophical clothing brand which aims not only to clothe the world with ethical, sustainable and revolutionary fashion, but also help facilitate the connection between ourselves, others and the planet..

Clay’s enterprise is an experiment of hope in times of division; in a time when we experience not peace but a sword and when peace with God means conflict with the world. God’s initiative in Christ means the future is already secure. We don’t have to create it, we just have to imitate God’s future now; a realisation that provides a realistic basis on which such communities of hope can be built. So, may hope provide us with inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love. May hope keep us un-reconciled until the great day of the fulfilment of all the promises of God and may we all embrace the true nature of Christianity becoming witnesses to the future of Christ. Amen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniel Amos - Strong Hand Of Love.

St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series Introduction

Autumn Lecture Series Intro

With the UK voting to leave the European Union and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series examines the crucial question: Who is my Neighbour?

Dates:

• 19 September - Rowan Williams 
• 3 October - Michael Northcott 
• 17 October - Sarah Teather 
• 24 October - Sarah Coakley 
• 31 October - Stanley Hauerwas 
• 14 November - Sam Wells 

Find out more:

http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/press-releases/who-is-my-neighbour-the-ethics-of-global-relationships/

http://stmartininthefields.eventbrite.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great Sacred Music - A Hymn for St Cecilia.

Who is my neighbour? The Ethics of Global Relationships

Who is my neighbour? The Ethics of Global Relationships - September – November 2016

With the UK voting to leave the European Union and with realisation of increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series examines the crucial question: Who is my Neighbour?

What does the Christian commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself actually means for us today. Lectures by renowned theologians and thinkers will reflect on this subject in relation to issues of ecology, immigration, fear and discrimination, the present political climate both in UK, Europe and the USA and how that the lives of our poorest neighbours may in fact be God’s gift to us as a Church and as a Nation.

Rowan Williams who gives the first lecture in this series writes:

“The way that our world works, as many people have said in recent years, seems to be a way in which the boundaries and barriers are rising higher between different parts of the human race. It is a world in which very few voices are saying that the death of a child in Africa or the suffering of a woman in Syria, diminishes the reality of the child or woman in Britain, or the other way round. And if the church is not saying that, God forgive us, and God help us. That’s unity. There is our calling to let the Son of God be revealed in us, to be a sign of a unity that brings alive that deep sense of connectedness in the human world…. Each person is diminished by the pain of another and each person is enriched by the holiness of another”

All lectures from 7.00pm-8.30pm at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and are free and open to all.

To ensure a place please book a free ticket on Eventbrite

Monday 19 September, 7.00pm
Rowan Williams: Who is my neighbour? The Ethics of Global Relationships

Monday 3 October, 7.00pm
Michael Northcott: My neighbour and the ecological crisis

Monday 17 October, 7.00pm
Sarah Teather: My neighbour the refugee

Monday 24 October, 7.00pm
Sarah Coakley: My neighbour beyond fear and discrimination

Monday 31 October, 7.00pm
Stanley Hauerwas: My neighbour, my nation and the presidential election

Monday 14 October, 7.00pm
Sam Wells: My neighbours, God’s gift

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Springsteen - How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.

The Ethics of Humanitarian Aid in a Time of Crisis

The Ethics of Humanitarian Aid in a Time of Crisis
Tuesday 10 May 2016 7.00-8.30pm
St Martin-in-the-Fields

Peter Gill presents a paper based on his challenging new book: Today We Drop Bombs, Tomorrow We Build Bridges: How Foreign Aid became a Casualty of War.

Followed by a panel discussion chaired by Mike Wooldridge, former BBC foreign correspondent.

The panel:

• Matthew Carter (Humanitarian Director, CAFOD)
• Atallah Fitzgibbon (Policy and Strategy Manager, Islamic Relief Worldwide)
• Fr George Sigamoney (Director of Caritas Sri Lanka)
• Revd Rachel Carnegie (Co-Director, Anglican Alliance).

Opportunity will be given for questions and comments from the floor.

This event is free and open to all, with a retiring collection to cover costs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Martyn Joseph - This Fragile World.

Paying attention: Ethics

"All this should make us think a bit harder about how we as Christians approach the whole business of ethics. . . . if the desert literature is right, then we all need training in listening and attending almost more than anything else. Unless we are capable of patience before each other, before the mysteriousness of each other, it’s very unlikely that we will do God’s will with any kind of fullness. Without a basic education in attention, no deeply ethical behavior is really going to be possible; we may only keep the rules and do what is technically and externally the right thing. but that 'doing the right thing' will not be grounded yet in who we are, in the person God wants us to become, and it may not survive stress and temptation. It may also be quite capable of existing alongside attitudes and habits dangerous to ourselves and each other; it may not bring us life with and through the neighbour. Our Christian codes of behaviour quite rightly tell us that some sorts of action are always wrong - torture or fraud, killing the innocents or the unborn, sexual violence and infidelity - but to see why that is so requires us to go back a step or two to see why this or that action is bound to speak of inattention, why this or that action makes it impossible to listen for the word in another person. Unless we can grasp something of that, our ethics will never really be integrated with our search and our prayer for holy life in community."

Rowan Williams, Silence and Honey Cakes: The wisdom of the desert

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jennifer Warnes - Joan Of Arc.

Organic Ilford

Organic Ilford are starting off with two great pick-up points - The Wanstead Tap and the Hardback Cafe Ilford. More pick-ups will added as demand grows in other areas in Redbridge and the neighbouring boroughs.

If you're clamouring for fresh, local, organic veg. but are not in the pick-up area but are happy to travel, you are welcome to join the scheme. Just chose that location on the sign-up form & collect your delicious veg from there until they expand.

If you can't collect from there and want to get involved, then perhaps you could help drum up trade in your neck of the woods? Contact info@organicilford.com for more details.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Housemartins - Me And The Farmer.

The ethics and limits of atheistic evolution

On Tuesday I heard Anna Robbins (Senior Lecturer in Theology and Contemporary Culture, London School of Theology) speak at the Christian Resources Exhibition on Using the Bible in Ethics.

As an example of the application of the Bible in ethics, Anna contrasted the ethical implications of the Christian story of creation (as opposed to Creationism) with those of the story of atheistic evolution, which she argued is the current dominant story told in Western culture.

Atheistic evolution, she suggested, sees the development of life as a closed system requiring no external divine intervention in which the purpose of life is the transmission of genes through procreation. The ethical implications of this story then lead, she argued, to the sexualisation of our culture, something which can be seen, for example, in the lyrics of the Top 5 downloads (currently in the UK - 1. Where Them Girls At (feat. Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida) David Guetta; 2. The Lazy Song Bruno Mars; 3. Party Rock Anthem (feat. Lauren Bennet and GoonRock) LMFAO; 4. Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer) Pitbull; 5. Beautiful People (feat. Benny Benassi) Chris Brown) and the premature sexualisation of children through such things as retailers selling items of clothing inappropriate for the age they're targeting, sexually provocative music videos and newsagents stocking lads' mags in the eyeline of toddlers, among other examples.

I've preached on this theme on several occasions, particularly at baptisms, mixing the following poem by Steve Turner, the understanding of the 'world' which Stephen Verney argues is found in John's Gospel, and Switchfoot's New Way To Be Human:

"These are your first lessons in living.
To begin we drag you head-first from your shelter,
away from your food, from your warmth.
We cut you apart from your only known friend.
We take you and beat you until strange gases
rush your lungs and pain jerks your frame.
These are your first lessons in living.
They will stand you in good stead."

In this poem life is portrayed as something hard and painful. It says that we are being born into a world where, if we don’t look out for ourselves, we will dragged from everything we enjoy and beaten up. And it says that our first lessons in living when we emerge from our mother’s womb, the placenta is cut and the nurse strikes us on the back to get us breathing are important lessons for us in survival. The lesson to learn is that in a world like this we need to put ourselves first, we need to look after No. 1, otherwise someone else will take what we have and hurt us in the process. It is what scientists describe when they talk about us having selfish genes which get us ready to live in a world that is about the survival of the fittest.

John the Baptist talks about this way of understanding life when he says that Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The word used for ‘world’ means a way of life centred on our egocentricity. In this way of life “the ruling principle is the dictator ME”. My ego is all-important. The world revolves around me, my needs and my wishes. I do what I want when I want and to whom I want. When society is organised like that people spend all their time competing with each other, manipulating each other and trying to control each other. It’s called the survival of the fittest and it is what scientists say the world we are born into is like.

John the Baptist says that that is a sinful way of life and that Jesus came to take it away. Jesus shows us a new way of being human. His way of being human can be summed up in the words of John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. He looks at all of us, at all human beings, and says, “You are my friends”. Jesus allowed his own life to end so that all people could know what it is like to really live. Not to live in the old, selfish, self-centred way of being human but to live in his new way of being human, loving God with all our being and loving our neighbours as ourselves.

Similarly, in a recent post I used the recent Royal Wedding as an example of the way in which the language of what Robbins calls atheistic evolution is inadequate to capture our experience of the relationality of love:

"Instead of being about the mutual celebrations of love and affection which we saw between the couple themselves and also between the people of this country and the royal family, on the basis of measurable scientific knowledge what occurred Friday simply becomes about the survival of the fittest through the passing on of selfish genes in procreation. Our experiences of love and faith cannot be adequately captured through the language of scientific measurement. Instead, we need the languages of belief and imagination to give voice to what we truly experience of love and faith. As the Bishop of London said in his sermon, 'Faith and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life.'”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human.

Renegotiating 'value': what faiths offer 21st century business leadership

Renegotiating 'value': what faiths offer 21st century business leadership is a seminar series which seeks to explore the benefit and challenge of faith traditions in leading sustainable businesses. Each of the faith traditions contain resources for leadership in their spiritual values and teachings. Sometimes these come through the teaching of these communities and sometimes through the examples of past or current leaders. In recent years such teaching and examples have been increasingly applied to the realm of work with the result that a broadly-based Spirituality at Work movement has emerged providing additional resources relating to leadership.

Faiths in London’s Economy, which works with faith communities in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy, has sought, through this seminar series, to explore a broader understanding of value than that linked solely to monetary value. These seminars are therefore intended to be a timely and necessary contribution to those challenges currently facing society generally and the world of business in particular.

Underpinning our thinking has been the idea that we may be in a moment in time when recession, the credit crunch and the ecological crisis are combining to bring about profound shifts in the global economy. A ‘third way’ or ‘middle path’ is needed between nationalisation and capitalism based on agreed standards of ethics, environmental and social responsibility and a broad understanding of wealth and value. Our discussion of what faiths offer to 21st century business leadership and of ways in which inspirational leadership can be sustained in the face of human imperfections is a valid and vital contribution to the development of that paradigm shift.

Our first seminar was entitled 'Profit vs Prophet: making money and making a difference, are they opposed?' and was held at the St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace on Thursday 7th October. Presentations from Mannie Sher (Tavistock Institute), Abigail Morris (ResponseAbility) and Harmander Singh (Faith-based Regeneration Network) provided a rich variety of faith perspectives on and approaches to the topic.

Mannie Sher began with the Biblical prophets, and the prophet Micah in particular, sketching out the context into which they spoke and highlighting the way in which they demonstrated the courage to denounce the corruption of rulers, sympathise with the poor and call for justice as being the essence of God's demands. The prophets however were opposed to excessive and unequal profits, and not to profit per se. In an Agrarian society, production cannot be solely for immediate consumption, some produce must be stored for future planting and a contemporary equivalent may be the division of one third for direct costs, one third for indirect costs and one third as profits for future investment. Time is a key factor as profiteers seek to shorten work processes to maximise profits and are solely concerned with profits in the present rather than investment for the future.

Current research undertaken by Sher, with Alison Gill, seems to suggest that bankers may inhabit a bubble where their only talk is of investments and decisions are made solely on the basis of how much a particular investment has increased. In speaking about the banking crisis they seemed only able to talk in terms of headline phrases and seem unsure of how to judge their part in a systemic failure. The system seems to be drunk on debt and has distorted negatives into positives, so that 'Greed is good'. A middle way is needed which understands that money is more than the value of the things we buy, as it is also a vehicle for our fantasies (conscious imagination) and phantasies (inner unconcious). We need both prophets and profiteers in order to marry the wisdom, humility and care of the prophets to the wit and acumen of the profiteers.

Abigail Morris provided a different model for translating the wisdom of the Jewish tradition into the contemporary business world by utilising the insights of psychological and sociological research into wellbeing. Research demonstrates that beyond what is, in the West, a minimal level of wealth (£20,000 per annum) levels of well being do not increase with income. Levels of well being for those with wealth are reduced by surrounding poverty and levels of mental ill health are also high and rising in the affluent West. Positive psychology impacts on wellbeing, including health and longevity.

Based on such scientific evidence, the new economics foundation has created a set of five simple actions which can improve well-being in everyday life. These have clear corrollaries to teaching within Judaism: Give (Tzedakah) - being a volunteer and giving to charity has consistently been shown to be hugely beneficial, both mentally and physically; Connect (Kehilah) - people cope better if they are part of community networks and possess strong relationships with friends and family; Be Active (P'ilot v'kasher) - exercise is not just about physical health, but mental wellbeing as well; Keep Learning (Torah) - learning new skills stimulates the mind and can have long term benefits in reducing your chances of developing dementia or alzheimers; and Take Notice (Tefilah) - reflecting on your surroundings and your feelings can help you to appreciate what matters to you most. To these, and based on the work of Martin Seligman, ResponseAbility add Gratitude (Berachot) as studies have shown that if people take time at the end of every day to reflect on things that have gone well there is a marked increase in well-being. It is worth noting that none of these steps towards well being are about making money. Instead, the scripture says, "choose life, that you may live."

Harmander Singh noted that the Sikh Gurus bestowed upon the Sikhs the concept of Miri-Piri and Raj Jog which is princely living according to Gurmat (Guru's teaching/thinking) and therefore is attuned to the Almighty. Miri-Piri is the balance between Spiritual and Temporal living and is denoted by the two crossed swords in the Sikh symbol, the Khanda. All Sikhs are encouraged to be householders but this does not mean becoming property developers or Peter Rachman's. It is acceptable to be rich as long as you live according to the principles of Gurmat and not indulge in un-Sikh businesses or those businesses which force you to a life that is anything but "honest living."

Here, the three basic principles of Sikhi always apply. These are: Naam Japna, Kirat Karni and Vand ke Shakna. Naam Japna is to remember God lovingly during all waking moments. Kirat Karni means making an honest living that is according to Gurmat living. Selling alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, and being in the adult entertainment business are activities which Gurmat strictly forbids. Vand Ke Shakna is to share with others, especially the needy and vulnerable. As there is no Welfare State equivalent worth mentioning in certain parts of the world and certainly not in the times gone by, Sikhs donate (Daswandh or Darshan Pehta) whatever they can from their earnings to the Gurdwara - which is more than just a place for congregational worship as it provides a centre where support of all kinds can be sought either directly or signposted.

In her first public engagement since the Privileges and Conduct Committee report which suspended her from the House of Lords, Baroness Uddin spoke at the second seminar in the series, ‘Bonus vs Pro Bono’, which explored the place of inspirational leadership in renegotiating 'value',

Baroness Uddin stated that, although speaking both as a woman and a Muslim, she primarily wanted to contribute as someone who has seen inspirational leaders in action throughout her professional career. She summarised the qualities for leadership in Islam as: hikmah (wisdom, insight); taqwa (love and fear of Allah); ‘adl (justice) and rahmah (compassion); courage and bravery; shura (mutual consultation); decisiveness and being resolute; eloquence; a spirit of self-sacrifice; and sabr (patience).

These are the qualities, she said, that build and sustain strong communities and enable the tackling of prejudice and Islamophobia as well as the male discrimination and family pressure that women suffer when seeking employment. Despite these challenges and stereotypes, more and more women, increasingly proactive, are interested in participating in ESOL and information technology classes. This willingness is a massive opportunity to engage women's participation. We need to move beyond lip service into the realm of equity, she argued, by genuinely reflecting the community in our workforces.

Peter Hyson of Change Perspectives Ltd shared research indicating that ‘spirituality’ is an essential component of outstanding leadership and value. Any discussion of successful leadership and of value, he argued, must involve spirituality as business success requires outstanding leaders and for most of us the leaders we most admire exhibit strong presence of those spiritual values identified through US research. So why, especially in times of recession and economic struggle, is the silence so deafening? I answer, he suggested that there are two endemic problems: an unchallenged assumption that spirituality and work are like oil and water – never to be mixed; and a lack of a commonly understood and shared vocabulary.

Hyson identified approaches to time and space, tolerance of imperfection, servant leadership, and peace and equanimity as characteristics of leadership, value and spirituality before challenging participants not only to identify such characteristics but also to provide the opportunity, the greenhouse, where they can be nurtured.

The resulting discussions have explored among other issues:

• barriers to the discussion of workplace spirituality and means of overcoming these;
• the importance of the legacy which we leave in terms of empowerment and stewardship;
• the extent of engagement with spirituality outside of organised religion; spirituality as a driver for more meaningful work;
• tensions between the leadership ideals of faith tradition and the fallibility of human beings; the relationship between the systems we inhabit and our human emotions;
• the ability of wealth to feed a feeling of omnipotence and of common wealth to equal common well being;
• the importance of primary theology which begins with God's economy and challenges the current situation;
• the reality of change as organisations recognise that in order to gain business you also have to contribute to society;
• the understanding of wealth as a gift from the Almighty, a loan to us with a duty to ensure that everyone benefits according to their need;
• our responsibility for the way in which society promotes greed and consumption; the delinking, by Richard Nixon, of the dollar from gold and the hyper-Capitalism that we have experienced from this point onwards.

A third seminar exploring who it is that businesses are and should be accountable to and the difference this makes to their structure and operation is being planned. Ideas emerging for action from these seminars include a faith-based contribution to the Finance Lab and a Foundation for Business Ethics and Spirituality. Further information and debate on the issues and the seminars can be found at http://renegotiatingvalue.blogspot.com/.

Renegotiating ‘value’ is a seminar series organised by Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) in association with: Ethos HumanCapital; Faith Regen Foundation; The Grubb Institute; Mission in London’s Economy; the SmithMartin Partnership; and St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Homeless.

New guide urges church members to invest ethically

A new ‘Action Guide for Churches’ has been launched to encourage Christians to apply their principles through their savings and investment decisions. The guide was produced for National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW) in conjunction with the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR).

The guide, available at http://www.neiw.org/, provides practical information on how to raise awareness of green and ethical options. Rev. Raymond Singh, Vice Chair of ECCR, said: “Many churches now celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight. I hope this Guide will help church members think about where we invest our money and what it is used for. It includes excellent resources for worship and ideas for meetings and displays. Our aim is for ethical investment to become as widespread as fair trade among churches and their members.”

Penny Shepherd, UKSIF Chief Executive, said: “By choosing a green or ethical option, savers and
investors can make a positive difference to society and the environment. Green and ethical investments can promote transparency and encourage corporate social responsibility, help fund solutions to global problems, and may contribute to more sustainable profits in the longer term.

“Ethical investing in the UK is rooted in the faith community. Churches, charities, and people of faith were the first to take account of ethical criteria when making investment decisions. Throughout the twentieth century, faith groups used their power as investors to address such issues as unfair labour practices, apartheid in South Africa, and arms trading. Since then, the number of ways to invest ethically has grown, as have the issues that green and ethical investments address.”

The ‘Action Guide for Churches’ is sponsored by CCLA Investment Management as part of NEIW 2010 which was sponsored by The Co-operative Financial Services and Ecclesiastical Investment Management.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Low - Death of a Salesman.

The faith of Generation Y

On Wednesday evening I was at the book launch for The Faith of Generation Y which draws on the views of over 300 young people who have participated in Christian youth and community outreach projects around England over the last five years and which presents some fascinating and surprising findings for the wider Church to consider. A friend of mine, Sally Nash (Director of the Midlands Centre for Youth Ministry), is one of the authors, along with Sylvia Collins-Mayo (sociologist of religion), Bob Mayo (parish priest in West London) with the Bishop of Coventry, Rt Revd Christopher Cocksworth.

The Faith of Generation Y (those born from around 1982 onwards) provides an empirically grounded account of the nature of young people’s faith – looking into where they put their hope and trust in order to make life meaningful. The book goes on to consider whether Christianity has any relevance to young people, and asks whether the youth and community projects in which they participate foster an interest in the Christian faith.

The findings from the study suggest that for most young people faith is located primarily in family, friends and their selves as individuals – defined as ‘immanent faith’. ‘For the majority, religion and spirituality was irrelevant for day-to-day living; our young people were not looking for answers to ultimate questions and showed little sign of “pick and mix” spirituality,’ says Sylvia Collins-Mayo. ‘On the rare occasions when a religious perspective was required (for example, coping with family illnesses or bereavements) they often ‘made do’ with a very faded, inherited cultural memory of Christianity in the absence of anything else. In this respect they would sometimes pray in their bedrooms. What is salutary for the Church is that generally young people seemed quite content with this situation, happy to get by with what little they knew about the Christian faith.’

Sylvia adds: ‘The Christian youth and community projects were an important source of Christian faith support for the minority of young people who were already actively involved in Church. For the majority, however, the Christian dimension of the projects had little impact on them beyond keeping the plausibility of Christian belief and practices alive.’

Although often unfamiliar with formal religion, Generation Y are keenly aware of ethical issues, as Sylvia comments: ‘Young people today have to grow up quickly and the study showed that they often face a wide range of difficult choices. Consequently they were interested in ethics. The young people drew moral guidance from family as friends, but they also recognised the potential of religion, including Christianity, to provide them with guidelines for living.’

The assumption that teenagers are alienated from their parents and hostile toward religion – a hangover from the 1960s and 70s – is a deep-rooted but flawed stereotype according to the study’s findings. ‘Generation Y have less cultural hang ups about the Church than did their predecessors… The challenge to the Church is to provide them with the opportunities to explore and to learn about a narrative of belief of which they know little.’

What I found most interesting about the research as presented at the launch was that many traditional aspects of Church such as ritual and sacrament connect with Generation Y; something which incidentally also seems apparent from aspects of the alternative worship movement. The argument emerging from the research finding was that the Church needed to be its authentic self in connecting with Generation Y as this generation, through their interest in ethics, are asking 'does it work?' as opposed to 'how does it make me feel?'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stacie Orrico - (there's gotta be) More To Life.

Morality in football?

In yesterday's Guardian and on Comment is Free, Peter Singer asked the question Why is cheating OK in football?

The nub of Singer's excellent piece was that after the England Germany match, the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer gave this account of his actions:

"I tried not to react to the referee and just concentrate on what was happening. I realised it was over the line and I think the way I carried on so quickly fooled the referee into thinking it was not over."

To put it bluntly: Neuer cheated, and then boasted about it.

By any normal ethical standards, what Neuer did was wrong. But does the fact that Neuer was playing football mean that the only ethical rule is "win at all costs"? ...

Neuer missed a rare opportunity to do something noble in front of millions of people. He could have set a positive ethical example to people watching all over the world, including the many millions who are young and impressionable. Who knows what difference that example might have made to the lives of many of those watching. Neuer could have been a hero, standing up for what is right. Instead he is just another very skillful, cheating footballer."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.

Ethical & Equity based finance

Today I went to an event organised by Ethos HumanCapital at the Cass Business School, as part of a series on ‘Ethical Business & Finance’, entitled Ethical & Equity based finance - Socially Responsible Investment, Islamic Finance & Private Equity: Contradiction or Common Ground?

The event brought together speakers (Vincent Neate, Head of KPMG UK's Sustainability practice; Farmida Bi, Partner in Islamic Finance at Norton Rose; and Chris Mills, Ethical Policy Manager, The Co-operative Bank) from the three core areas of Private Equity, Islamic Finance and Socially Responsible Investment to examine the theoretical commonalities and practical contradictions. The aim was to challenge current thinking and create debate leading to a better model.

Talking with another delegate before the session began brought back to mind statements made last week in my session on Transforming the Workplace by North Thames ordinands with experience of the Finance Sector. Each were emphasizing the difficulty of taking genuinely ethical stances within the sector.

As a result, it was then encouraging to hear the perspectives of these speakers who, although realistic about the challenges, were also more positive about the opportunities that exist and developments within the sector. Vincent Neate commented that, from his perspective as a consultant to major firms on issues of Climate Change, Ethics and Sustainability, there were two extremes when it came to the weight give to ethics in the sector; where people care about ethics they care deeply but where they don't, they don't care at all. Where ethics was taken seriously, the lead came from the top. Chris Mills gave an example of the business benefits that the Co-operative Bank has derived from its ethical policies as it is bucking current trends by expanding its market share at the expense of other banks with the overwhelming majority of its customers citing ethical policies as a significant reason for choosing to bank with the Co-op.

Mills argued that belief in unfettered capitalism has gone and Neate supported this view by stating that, not only is it currently not possible for the worst examples of asset-stripping to occur because there is insufficient liquidity in the markets, but he believed that private equity firms had seen the error of such actions. Bi was less optimistic, however, thinking that the sector is seeking to return to past unethical practices as soon as possible because the bottom line for many is delivering immediate profits. By contrast Ethos HumanCapital proposed a triple bottom line of people, planet and responsible profit.

Bi spoke about the specifics of Islamic Finance emphasising that it was more than simply a prohibition on interest. Other factors including prohibitions: on speculation; investment in specific goods/services such as gambling, pork, banks, arms etc.; and failures to understand the contract on either side. Such an approaches aligned well with non-Islamic approaches to ethical investment and financial services. More universal principles derived from Islamic Finance included, among others, working hard for a profit and using money earnt for social good. She felt that, despite initial optimism that Islamic Finance would emerge from the recession as a standard bearer for ethical practices, this was not occurring because Islamic Finance was a small segment of the sector which had been as affected by liquidity as other parts of the sector and because of a reluctance to go further in developing alternative models to existing financial practices. As a result, the opportunity to develop beyond the current stage achieved by Islamic Finance in the sector is being lost.


Ethos HumanCapital is a social enterprise business specialising in human capital consulting, including search & selection, as well as training & development and research with a focus on ethical finance, Charities/NGOs, Responsible media, Green & Responsible business spaces.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Duke Special - No Cover Up.

Faith-based leadership models (3)

Equality

Sikh philosophy (Sikhi) is a “comprehensive philiosophy ranging from religious, social, cultural, economic, scientific to political thoughts” articulated by Guru Nanak in the late 1440s. Guru Nanak “taught the unity of all existence, the equality of all human beings, the diversity of life and opinions, the acceptance of pluralism and the sanctity of human life.” He considered that “human life is fulfilled by searching for the ultimate ‘truth’ through the rubble of false mirrors and to be a Sikh is, therefore, to be a learner, student or seeker of truth. In this search for truth the Guru dismissed the worship of idols, dogma and ritual as delusions masking the real search and dismissed caste and divine rulers as oppressive human inventions.

In 1699 the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh provided an initiation service or baptism for those choosing to accept and live by Sikhi. He then submitted himself to the first five who, through this baptism, became Amritdhari Sikhs or Khalsa. The Khalsa “became an organised people in South Asia who destroyed the system of hierarchical orders making every human being equal in power and dignity.” The Khalsa also “removed the notion of divine intermediaries giving humans confidence in their own collective divinity.”

Similarly, Bahá’ís seek to work towards:

• equality of opportunity for men and women;
• elimination of prejudice of all kinds;
• universal compulsory education;
• a universal auxiliary language;
• abolition of extremities of poverty and wealth through international legislation; and
• the establishment of universal peace by a world government which will have international courts and military.

Ethics

The idea of leadership by moral force is widespread in many religions, but is particularly central to the Confucian ideal of government. Leaders should be honest, moral, and virtuous people, who will not take bribes or act corruptly. Because people look up to leaders as role models, they should set a good example for others.

An example of a faith-based organisation applying this approach in their mission statement is the MATS School of Business and IT (a Post Graduate School of Excellence of the Jain Group of Institutions) which strives to “foster an intellectual and ethical environment in which both spirit and skill will thrive so as to impart high quality education, training and consultancy services, with a global outlook and human values.”

The Jewish Association for Business Ethics (JABE) exists to encourage high standards of integrity in business and professional conduct by promoting and teaching the Jewish ethical approach to business and to contribute to the debate in wider society. JABE also aims to promote awareness and understanding in the Jewish Community of Jewish teachings and traditions in business.

The European Baha'i Business Forum (EBBF) plays a similar role for the Bahá'í community by being an association of women and men involved in business and management who are exploring ways and means of applying Bahá'í ethical and social teachings to issues arising out of their business activities. EBBF aims promote the following core Bahá'í values and principles:

• ethical business practices;
• the social responsibility of business;
• stewardship of the earth's resources;
• partnership of women and men in all fields of endeavour;
• the need for a new paradigm of work;
• non-adversarial decision making based on consultation; and
• application of spiritual principles to economic problems.

Buddhists are encouraged to work hard and to be industrious but to earn money through righteous means (right livelihood). This means that no ethical or religious principles should be violated through the work done and the work should benefit both the individual and society. Right Livelihood is the fifth aspect of the Eightfold Path and has two main elements. The first is a negative aspect, deriving from the principles of non-violence, of not engaging in work involving weapons, meat, intoxicants (e.g. alcohol), poisons (e.g. drugs) or trade in living beings (animals or human beings). The second is a positive aspect, deriving from principles of simplicity, of using technologies that are in harmony with the natural environment and its resources to produce no more than an adequate range of material goods.

Islamic moral character requires that leaders emphasize the following five key parameters of Islamic behavior: justice; trust; righteousness; the struggle towards self-improvement; and promise keeping. A Muslim leader is expected to be just, behave righteously, strive towards self improvement, and never break his word. He is to consult with others, especially in areas where he is not competent. Islam stresses consultation in all affairs. A leader is expected to bear adversity patiently, and remain forever humble.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome.

The art of conversation

I have on more than one occasion recently (see here and here) argued that inter-faith dialogue provides an opportunity for the development of a broader understanding of interaction with those who are different from my or ourselves; that it can both provide a basis for a new approach to morality and give an insight into the nature of the Trinity.

The necessity for such understandings have been reinforced for me by the reaction to decisions made recently by the deputies and bishops of The Episcopal Church and the posts regarding CMS and Greenbelt. What passes for debate on such issues is often anything but, primarily because there is no real desire to understand, respect or value the other. So, in the CMS/Greenbelt furore, for example, those who understand themselves to be abused by their opponents as "bigoted, blinkered, homophobic, narrow-minded" etc. respond in the exactly the same vein by posting about gay bishop poster boys with a "sadly amaturish biblical hermeneutic" and equating gay christian organisations with the BNP.

Such positions are taken and abuse meted out because people have already made up their minds on these issues before hearing any argument from their opponents and, therefore, they believe that they have nothing to learn from their opponents. This is the reverse of what has to occur when real and meaningful inter-faith dialogue takes place, as can be seen, for example, in the ten ethical guidelines drawn up by the Christian Muslim Forum which set out how Christians and Muslims can talk about their faith to each other in a way that is just, truthful and compassionate:
1) We bear witness to, and proclaim our faith not only through words but through our
attitudes, actions and lifestyles.
2) We cannot convert people, only God can do that. In our language and methods we
should recognise that people’s choice of faith is primarily a matter between themselves and
God.
3) Sharing our faith should never be coercive; this is especially important when working with
children, young people and vulnerable adults. Everyone should have the choice to accept or
reject the message we proclaim and we will accept people’s choices without resentment.
4) Whilst we might care for people in need or who are facing personal crises, we should
never manipulate these situations in order to gain a convert.
5) An invitation to convert should never be linked with financial, material or other
inducements. It should be a decision of the heart and mind alone.
6) We will speak of our faith without demeaning or ridiculing the faiths of others.
7) We will speak clearly and honestly about our faith, even when that is uncomfortable or
controversial.
8) We will be honest about our motivations for activities and we will inform people when
events will include the sharing of faith.
9) Whilst recognising that either community will naturally rejoice with and support those who
have chosen to join them, we will be sensitive to the loss that others may feel.
10) Whilst we may feel hurt when someone we know and love chooses to leave our faith, we
will respect their decision and will not force them to stay or harass them afterwards.

These are guidelines which those on both sides of the current debates in the Anglican Communion would do well to study and apply. If we could begin to debate controversial issues from a similar starting point, our debates could be much more productive.

Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, writes in The Dignity of Difference:

“We must learn the art of conversation, from which truth emerges not, as in Socratic dialogues, by the refutation of falsehood but by the quite different process of letting our world be enlarged by the presence of others who think, act, and interpret reality in ways radically different from our own.”

When we do this, when we “recognize God’s image in someone who is not in my image, whose language, faith, ideals, are different from mine” then we are allowing God to remake us in his image instead of making God in our own image. And to do so has moral outworkings, as Sacks notes when he writes:

“I believe that we are being summoned by God to see in the human other a trace of the divine Other. The test – so lamentably failed by the great powers of the twentieth century – is to see the divine presence in the face of a stranger; to heed the cry of those who are disempowered in this age of unprecedented powers; who are hungry and poor and ignorant and uneducated, whose human potential is being denied the chance to be expressed. That is the faith of Abraham and Sarah, from whom the great faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, trace their spiritual or actual ancestry. That is the faith of one who, though he called himself but dust and ashes, asked of God himself, ‘Shall the judge of all the earth not do justice?’ We are not gods, but are summoned by God – to do His work of love and justice and compassion and peace.”

Richard Middleton and Brian Walsh make similar points when they write that:

“in this covenantal worldview, all of creation is subjective, all of creation speaks. The task of human knowing, in all of its forms, is to translate that creational glossolalia into human terms … An epistomology intent on listening to our covenantal partners (God and the rest of creation) will decidely not silence the voice of the other … In response to the gift of creation, we are called as stewards to a knowing that opens up the creation in all of its integrity and enhances its disclosure. Rather than engaging the real world as masters, we are invited to be image-bearing rulers. Our knowing does not create or integrate reality. Rather we respond to a created and integrated reality in a way that either honors and promotes that integration or dishonors it. We are called to reciprocate the Creator’s love in our epistomological stewardship of this gift. Wright describes such an epistomology of love beautifully when he says, “The lover affirms the reality and the otherness of the beloved. Love does not seek to collapse the beloved in terms of itself.” In a relational and stewardly epistemology, “ ‘love’ will mean ‘attention’: the readiness to let the other be the other, the willingness to grow and change in relation to the other.””

Like Middleton and Walsh, I have also written (in Living with other faiths) that there is a biblical, theological and philosophical grounding for such dialogue in the Christian tradition. I believe that this grounding begins with the exchange that is at the heart of the Trinity, takes in both the conversations between human beings and God which repeatedly occur in scripture and the dialogical form of scripture itself, and accepts the philosophical perception that human identity is constructed through conversation.

Drawing on the philosophical thought of Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas, Rowan Williams has written that, “all human identity is constructed through conversations, in one way or another.” First, we have to become aware of someone other than ourselves. Jonathan Sacks says, “we must learn to listen and be prepared to be surprised by others … make ourselves open to their stories, which may profoundly conflict with ours … we must learn the art of conversation, from which truth emerges … by the … process of letting our world be enlarged by the presence of others who think, act, and interpret reality in ways radically different from our own.”

Second, by these conversations we become aware of ourselves. As people, we are not autonomous constructions. Instead, our individual identities are gifted to us by the people, events, stories and histories that we encounter as we go through life. If there was no one and nothing outside of ourselves we would have no reference points in life, no way of knowing what is unique and special about ourselves. In conversations we become aware of how we differ from others and therefore what is unique about ourselves.

Finally, in conversations we also become aware of what we have in common with others. Conversation is something that you can only do with someone else. Therefore, Charles Taylor has argued that, opening a conversation is to inaugurate a common action. A conversation is ‘our’ action, something we are both involved in together. In this way, conversation reminds us of those things that “we can only value or enjoy together” and is, as Rowan Williams has said, “an acknowledgement that someone else’s welfare is actually constitutive of my own.”

Recognising the significant changes which have led to religious plurality in our society, the General Synod as long ago as 1981 endorsed the Four Principles of Inter Faith Dialogue agreed ecumenically by the British Council of Churches:

• Dialogue begins when people meet each other
• Dialogue depends upon mutual understanding and mutual trust
• Dialogue makes it possible to share in service to the community
• Dialogue becomes the medium of authentic witness

Though simple and obvious when set out like this, as are the ten ethical guidelines from the Christian Muslim Forum, they nevertheless are easily and frequently ignored when debate and dialogue is supposedly occurring. These are then guidelines and principles for the art of conversation that we urgently need to re-learn in dealing with differences within the Anglican Communion, and inter-faith dialogue can show us the way.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Low Anthem - This God Damn House.

Shared Faiths Response to the Credit Crunch (3)

Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) has facilitated a process for preparing a shared faiths response to the credit crunch which calls for: non-interest bearing transactions; mutual societies; business accountability to a wider range of stakeholders than shareholders alone; transparent and ethical business practices; and recognition of the role that artists and communities play in generating real wealth.

FiLE's 'Shared Faiths response to the Credit Crunch' can be read by clicking here.

The overall process that has produced this shared faiths response is one that has included people from the Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain and Jewish traditions in addition to representatives of faith-based and inter-faith organisations.

We hope that our modest efforts will be a small part of a much wider process of reflection and restructuring needed to genuinely respond to the issues raised by the credit crunch.

People of faith form a huge constituency, can motivate people to action and are also part of rooted communities which in some instances are beginning to plan for greater economic resilience.

As such, FiLE believes that people of faith should make their contribution to the current search for means of ameliorating the financial and environmental misery experienced around the world, in part because of the effects of the credit crunch.

Our wider hope is that London will lead in adaptations and changes to a restructuring of the global economy that will in future become focussed on a broader understanding of wealth than monetary gain and economic growth alone and do so in a way that maintains and develops it’s social, ethnic and faith diversity.

The 'Shared Faiths response to the Credit Crunch' originated in the ‘Ethics in a global economy’ seminar held at St Ethelberga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and organised by FiLE in October 2008. A call for a shared faiths perspective on the credit crunch to be developed emerged clearly from the seminar and FiLE undertook to try to facilitate that process.

Two meetings to discuss a shared faiths response were held and two draft documents circulated to a group of interested people for comment. The overall process has included people from the Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain and Jewish traditions in addition to representatives of faith-based and inter-faith organisations. One organisation making specific contributions to the document was Green Equity.

FiLE aims to work with the range of faith communities across London in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy.

As a new network, our first initiative has been to begin to map faith-based business organisations across London and to share the information we have found with others through listing faith-based business organisations and resources on our webpage at http://www.mile.org.uk/file.htm. As this listing grows, it will offer employers and employees a one-stop shop for faith-based business organisations and resources available in London.

Secondly, as part of raising awareness and removing misconceptions about faith-based business initiatives, we have begun a seminar series on faith and workplace issues. This series began by considering ‘Ethics in a global economy’ in a seminar held at the St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace on 29th October 2008.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More To Life.