Love - the heart of safeguarding

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

Safeguarding has at its heart a longing for all people to be safe, protected, welcomed and cared for within our churches and in wider society. It is an integral part of the ministry and mission of our churches and a core part of how we are church. But more than this, safeguarding is about love in truth and action. As we seek to love and serve our neighbours in our communities, we are called to be places and spaces where there is a healthy culture of interactions and relationships. We need to take our call to love one another seriously. We also need to take our call to live truthfully seriously.

Over the past few years, the Church of England has been called to account for its Safeguarding failures. As an institution, we are on a journey: there is always more work to be done and more lessons to learn and there is a constant need for us to lament and repent of our failings. As a Church, we need to acknowledge our failings, learn from the past, and listen and respond to victims and survivors with humility. We need to love in truth and action.

As Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, has said, “There is much for us to open our eyes to. For years, the merest sniff of a question or the first hint of an allegation sent church leaders hurrying to circle the wagons and defend the institution and its staff. Far too often we have reacted with – at best – ostrich-like complacency to those of our own who have posed grave threats to others.” “Terrible things have happened in the churches, as in all our best-loved institutions; we share a responsibility for ensuring that they cannot happen again.”

Those terrible things meant that the Church of England, as with other denominations, has been guilty of the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus criticises in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 23.27-32). Like those who presented as whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of all kinds of uncleanness, so the Church of England has tried to present itself as being whiter than white, while the reality has been very different, both in terms of those who abused others and those who failed to support the victims of abuse.

As a result, many people in our communities and in our churches live daily with physical, emotional, mental and spiritual scars of abuse. If this sermon prompts any safeguarding concerns or raises any safeguarding issues you would like to discuss, please contact our Parish Safeguarding Officer or get in touch with our Diocesan Safeguarding Team. You can find their contact details on the Diocesan website: www.chelmsford.anglican.org under the safeguarding tab.

As Nicholas Papadopulos has also said, “We cannot live out the great commandment to love God and love neighbour if those who would harm their neighbour find a secure hiding-place in our common life … the great commandment … [is] right there … when we do whatever we can to ensure that the vulnerable are kept safe, remembering that any of us can be vulnerable. That, surely, is the bare minimum that loving one another requires of us.”

Through Jesus, God relates to us in love and friendship. And this is how Jesus wants us to relate to others. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Jesus’ primary action is to love: not to judge, condemn, criticise, belittle or dismiss. He loves. A love that goes beyond boundaries and that is without agenda. A love that is about equality and mutual respect. A love that refuses power and abuse; that washes tired, dirty feet. A love that lets everyone sit down to eat.

Faithful discipleship is known by love. Jesus calls upon his disciples to mirror the love that God has for him and the love that he has for the Father and for his disciples. To lay down one’s life is to put the needs of others before our own, to live for the good of others, to make time for them, to be present for them in times of trouble and crisis, to listen to them, to witness to their hurts. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Following Jesus means taking love seriously. As the first letter of John stresses: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us… love one another just as he commanded us… all who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them.”

We are also compelled to live truthfully. This means going beyond addressing issues of harm and abuse and protecting against them. It means being willing to face hard truths, to stand with victims of injustice and - if required – to speak up and out with them and for them. We know that abuse devastates lives, that it has and does take place in the church and that its consequences are profound and long-lasting. The task of Safeguarding is to acknowledge this hard truth and to do everything possible to ensure that abuse no longer happens, now or in the future. In all that we do, particularly in balancing our responsibilities, we must continually seek to place survivors and victims at the heart of our concern.

We long to be a refuge for the hurting and vulnerable, and to do this we must listen to those who feel voiceless and empower everyone in our communities to remain safe, within their families, places of work and of worship. “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Jesus’ command to love as he loves is an invitation into relationships of profound mutuality and interdependence.

These kinds of relationships contribute to healthy communities, modelled on the example of Christ’s own humility and sacrifice. This is a way of being that says, who I am is caught up in who you are. We are members together of the same body of people. Whatever affects one of us affects all of us. We are all God’s children; Jesus calls us all friends; we are all brothers and sisters. So, if I am your sister, your brother, I have a responsibility for how I behave towards you and that has implications for the choices I make about how I live and love in the world. This is the kind of integrity that is the reverse of the hypocrisy criticised by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading.

As we reflect, we remember that the kingdom of God is not for the strong but the weak; it is not for the rich but for the poor; it is not for the powerful but for the powerless; it is not for the proud but for the meek. The Church is where the least, the lost and the broken – all God’s children - should be able to find the safest of places in a loving community that lives out its faith in truth and action. May that be true for us, here in Wickford and Runwell. Amen.

(Based on 'love in truth and action' by Venerable Ruth Patten, Archdeacon of Colchester)

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Howard Hewett - The Journey (Think About It).

The book of Ruth: Migration, eldercare and patriarchy

Together with other clergy from the Diocese of Chelmsford, I had the pleasure of attending and contributing to activities for the Jewish festival of Shavuot as celebrated at Oaks Lane Reform Synagogue.

My contribution was as the Christian representative to a Scriptural Reasoning style session on the book of Ruth, together with Rabbi David Hulbert. Doing so was a particular pleasure because, while Vicar of St John's Seven Kings, I had got to know David through the East London Three Faiths Forum including travelling to the Holy Land with that group, and had also been involved in setting up and running a Scriptural Reasoning Group which included groups from the local Islamic Study Centre, Oaks Lane Reform Synagogue, and Sr John's Seven Kings.

Here is the introduction to the book of Ruth that I shared in the session this evening: 

In the Revised Common Lectionary, which is used by many Church of England parishes for the scripture readings in their services, the book of Ruth is included in Sunday readings once in year A and twice in year B. The Revised Common Lectionary works on a three-year cycle. The daily lectionary also provides 17 additional readings from the book of Ruth.

 
A principle identified by the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary was allowing for multiple perspectives on a specific text, depending on where the text is assigned in relation to other scripture texts and in relation to the liturgical year. For example, the fidelity of Ruth to Naomi and the Moabite people and God’s fidelity to Ruth and her posterity are related to God’s fidelity to Israel in the Isaiah reading for Advent 3 of year A. The connection is thematic.

In a similar way, for thematic reasons, Ruth is read again in the season after Pentecost in the complementary series of year A. In this instance, where the first reading for Sunday (I Kings 17:8-16) tells of God feeding Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, Ruth’s story is told on Monday through Wednesday to show the compassion of God and of Naomi’s kin for two widows, both Naomi and Ruth.

The book of Ruth is a story of ordinary people. History is commonly but, perhaps misguidedly, spoken about as being written by the victors; the rulers or monarchs with their armies. There is, of course, much in the Hebrew scriptures that is about those who rule and their actions but there are also writings like the book of Ruth which take a very different focus.

One Biblical scholar in the Christian tradition to have written about these twin strands in scripture is Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemann writes about this in terms of the core testimony and the counter testimony. The core testimony is structure legitimating; that is to say it is about order and control – everything in its rightful place and a rightful place for everything. The counter testimony is pain embracing; that is to say it is about hearing and responding to the pain and suffering which is found in existence. The core testimony is “above the fray” while the counter testimony is “in the fray”. The core testimony is about the victors and the counter testimony about the victims.

When the two are brought together Brueggemann thinks the Bible sees the kind of justice we see being worked out in the book of Ruth as key to any form of public leadership: “The claim made is that power – political, economic, military – cannot survive or give prosperity or security, unless public power is administered according to the requirement of justice, justice being understood as attention to the well-being of all members of the community.”

Brueggemann notes that the kind of kingship that we see David and initially Solomon exercise: “had the establishment and maintenance of justice as its primary obligation to Yahweh and to Israelite society. This justice, moreover, is distributive justice, congruent with Israel’s covenantal vision, intending the sharing of goods, power, and access with every member of the community, including the poor, powerless, and marginated.”

As a result, as Gerd Theissen has written that, in the Hebrew scriptures, when compared with other writings from the same time period: “religion takes an unprecedented turn, and becomes instead an agency of healing for the wounded. In the religion of the prophets … we see the distillation of faith in a God who is on the side of the downtrodden rather than their oppressors, and who seeks to bring a new, supernatural order of justice and peace out of the natural laws of selection and mutation which spell death for the weak and powerless.”

With that thought in mind, I would like to share brief reflections on the book in terms of three current issues: migration, elder care, and patriarchal views.

The book of Ruth is one of those places in the Old Testament where women are central to the story and where the story is told from the perspective of the female characters. The book ends however with a genealogy in which the women's world of the story was completely ignored by the male voices of those who compiled a traditional patrilineal genealogy. So, this is a story of women surviving and thriving in a patriarchal world, a struggle that, as we know, continues to this day.

Ruth and Naomi became refugees driven by economic necessity from Ruth’s mother country in Moab to Naomi’s mother country in the land of Judah. They survive and thrive in these challenging circumstances through their commitment to and support of each other. Ruth could have left Naomi, as Orpah did, but there was a bond of friendship between the two women that held them together, as Ruth said to Naomi, ‘Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die.’ The world of women and female solidarity are therefore at the centre of this story.

Ruth and Naomi show great courage in leaving one culture to enter another, as do all those who become refugees today. In addition, they are proactive and resourceful in seeking ways forward to find security and a significant place in the history of Naomi’s people.

When Ruth and Naomi return to Israel, they are very poor and a local farmer, Boaz, takes pity on Ruth and allows Ruth to do what is described in Leviticus 23 v 22; Boaz leaves the grain at the edges of the fields so that poor people like Ruth can harvest it and make food to survive. Boaz could harvest the whole of his fields and keep all the grain for himself but doesn’t. Instead, he deliberately reduces what he harvests for himself in order to ensure that there is something left over for those less well off than himself. In doing so, he is following a specific instruction from God, which, while not directly applicable to us today because we are not farmers harvesting fields, can still apply if we reduce what we have for ourselves in order that we share something of what we have with others less well off than ourselves.

The story of Ruth, then, is a wonderful story of the benefits and joy of caring for others, even in the midst of tragedy. Difficult circumstances and tragedy can be the prompt or spur for real acts of care, as we saw happen to a significant extent during the Covid pandemic.

As a result, I once used this story in a funeral address. Fred and Ivy knew tragedy in their lives, particularly through the untimely deaths of their two children. Such heartbreak can cause people to look inward and shut themselves off from others and from God, but that was not the response of Fred and Ivy who continued to love and support each other, to care for Ivy’s parents in their old age and, then, Fred cared faithfully for Ivy as she approached death.

Ruth and Naomi returned to Naomi’s home where Ruth’s care for her mother-in-law was recognised and rewarded by Boaz, a landowner, who firstly found ways to support the two women and later married Ruth bringing an end to the poverty in which they had lived since the tragedy of their husband’s deaths. Similarly, the need that Fred and Ivy had in their lives to receive support and care, as well as to give it, was also recognised. Cousins and long-time friends stayed in regular contact. Closer to their home in Ilford, Fred received care and support from Janet and Gill, who met him through church and a lunch club.

People may ask where was God in the tragedies that occur in these stories; the untimely deaths of Ruth and Naomi’s husbands and also of Fred and Ivy’s children. Where was God? In talking with Janet about Fred, she said, “The Bible says that people should not live alone. We can’t always be close to those who need care. Others can be a substitute. Just keeping an eye on another is not to be sneezed at.” So, I concluded in this funeral address that, as we offer practical care to those nearby and the support of remaining in regular contact with those further away, we are the hands and feet, the eyes and ears of God in this world. That kind of care is also what I think we see modelled for us in the book of Ruth.

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Victoria Williams - What Kind Of Friend.

Prisons Mission Prayer Vigil

Churches Together in Westminster's Prisons Mission Prayer Vigil took place at Notre Dame de France on Friday evening and included a sequence of readings, dialogue, testimonies, reflections, music and prayer on the themes of prison reform, rehabilitation of prisoners, needs of victims and the Christian response.

Fr Pascal Boldin welcomed us to Notre Dame de France. John Plummer introduced speakers who described experiences and observations of prisons and the prison system from several very different perspectives:

• Paula Harriott. Lead Prisoner Involvement. Prison Reform Trust
• Erica. Ex-offender and Award winning artist
• Ruth Fogg. Specialist in youth crime and related matters.
• Marcel McCarron. Managing Chaplain HMP & YOI Bronzefield.
• Joanna Ex-Offender. St Giles Trust
• Josie Bevan. Wife of a serving prisoner.
• Gethin Jones. Care system to youth crime, custody and reformer.

Shirley Vaughan sang pieces by Handel and Fauré, both of whom wrote on themes of imprisonment. This performance was followed by ‘Voices from Prison’, a drama for three voices written and compiled by Richard Carter, Associate Vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields, based on: ‘Koestler Voices: New Poetry from Prisons Volume One’. This book presents some of the best poetry from the 2016 and 2017 Koestler Awards. Poetry and prose has a long tradition in secure establishments and the criminal justice system. With the only materials needed being a pen and paper, poetry is the most popular type of Awards submission to Koestler Awards – with around 3,000 poems each submitted annually across Poem, Anthology, Poetry Collection and our Themed Category. One prisoners who writes explains the impulse like this: ‘Jail is like purgatory. You are still around, but you have no impact. No effect. The point of your existence is void. You slowly begin to die … In his introduction to ‘The Illustrated Man’, Ray Bradbury says that he writes “so as not to be dead.” And that is it.’

The Prison's Mission Team at Notre Dame de France led by Sister Catherine Jones guided us in our first prayer session based on Desmond Tutu's prayer: 

Goodness is stronger than evil;

Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness;
Life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.
I led the next prayer session based on prisoners & homelessness. Between April 2017 and March 2018, 38% of people (approx 491) seen rough sleeping in Westminster are known to had had experience of prison. 3% (14 people) of those new rough sleepers seen by outreach teams in Westminster were people who had been in prison prior to their rough sleeping. The majority (approx 79%) of these would have had alcohol, drugs or mental health support needs or a combination of these.

We prayed about the issues depicted in ‘Coming out after Fourteen Years’ by P and E (Manager): 'E and I created this piece by using cuttings from today’s newspapers about the complexities of society, which you are shielded from in prison. After 14 years I was that figure walking out into an overwhelming society, full of problems.'

P and E are both at KPH House, a hostel for 20 men convicted of criminal offences who have recently left prison. Their residents come to them from prison under license to continue their sentence within the community. It is one of 12 Independent Approved Premises in the country and is funded by the Ministry of Justice. We prayed for the ministry of KPH House and West London Mission.

The next time of Prayer was led by Major Richard Mingay, Corps Officer Regent Hall Corps. This session focused on Supporting Victims and was divided into four parts-

• 'The God of our Support'
• 'The God of Healing'
• 'The God of Forgiveness'
• 'The God of Hope'

Each section included a Scripture verse; a thought; prayer time and the song verse 'O Lord Hear my Prayer'.

Finally Prisons Mission volunteers presented their personal stories from prison visits and read contributions from other volunteers. Suggested areas for prayer included: those wrongly imprisoned; those who are depressed or lonely; those held beyond the end of their sentence; those experiencing ill health; and those fearing deportation.

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Gabriel Fauré - Prison.

Vigil remembrance

Here is the remembrance presentation from Wednesday's Vigil Service for victims of knife crime at St John's Seven Kings.

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Take That - Rule The World.

Candlelight Vigil Service

See https://www.facebook.com/events/631829703604240/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming for more information about this service on Wednesday 3rd December which is being organised with Anti-Knife UK.

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Eric Bibb - Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down.