Phil's Treehouse

walls come tumbling down

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:21:00 +0000

Lots taking place today in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. A book that springs to mind when I think about this momentous event is Ian McEwan's Black Dogs; the black dogs of the title are a metaphor of the potential for violence, corruption and perversion in modern Europe as the book ranges from events during the second world war to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Here's something else that the collapse of the Berlin Wall brings to mind even though it was recorded several years before; Paul Weller and The Style Council's Walls Come Tumbling Down.

And if you are looking for a liturgical rite to celebrate the bringing down of the wall you can do no better than this from the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley.

5 deeply de-Christian doctrines

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:59:00 +0000

Interesting meme doing the rounds at the moment and here's my response:

List 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.

God calls us to be perfect. God calls us to be holy, which is not the same thing and faithfulness is an expression of our desire to be the people God longs for us to be.
Jesus is a good bloke and a good moral example to follow. Jesus is but he is much more than that.
Evangelism and social justice are two sides of the same coin. This suggests you can choose heads or tails; both are non-negotiables of the Christian faith.
The immutability and impassibility of God. The more I read the Bible the more I am convinced that this doctrine owes more to Greek philosophy than the God revealed in the scriptures and ultimately in Jesus. If God is immutable and impassable what was the cross all about?
That there is a hierarchy of sin and sex is near the top. If there is a hierarchy then I’m pretty sure it’s not the one we suggest by our teaching and practice. That is not to say that sex does not matter, but while we are obsessed with it millions of children are dying for want of clean water.

I tag Paul Trathen, Jonathan Evens, Sam Norton, Tim Goodbody and Peter Banks.

nativity

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:16:00 +0000

O.K. I know we've only just got bonfire night out of the way but sometimes you have to plan ahead. I've already seen the trailer for the film Nativity and now Steve Goddard has drawn my attention via Twitter to a set of resources being produced by Damaris Media to link in with the film. The resources include:

A full service outline of an all-age service, using footage from Nativity!
Full notes for a primary school assembly using footage from Nativity!
A specially created short video for use in or before church services, telling your congregation about the film
A specially created short video for focusing your congregation in advance of your Advent Sunday service
A specially created short video for use in a children’s slot in a Sunday service
Open access Tools For Talks resources with downloadable clips from the film and suggestions for use in your meetings

Here's the trailer for the film which will be released at the end of November.

commission4mission exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Dropped into Chelmsford Cathedral this morning to see the commission4mission exhibition. Commission4mission aims to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a mission opportunity and as a means of fundraising for charities. The exhibition runs from 2nd – 7th November ‘09 in the cathedral and ends on Saturday 7th with a Study Day entitled ‘Perspectives on commissioning Christian Art’.

There is a wide variety of art on display including: pottery, painting in watercolour, oils and acrylics, embroidery, wall hangings, prints, sculpture, panel reliefs, mosaics, drawings, glass work and jewellery. The cathedral also contains many examples of contemporary art and one of the most striking features is a 20 foot painting situated in the North Transept and unveiled in January 2004 to celebrate the 1,350th anniversary of St. Cedd's arrival at Bradwell. It is of a "Tree of Life" painted by Mark Cazalet. It is a Gospel Oak which evokes different levels of response from the viewer with many symbols that give their own messages. The environmental and ecological themes are obvious. but it is also a celebration, which exults in the sheer splendour of this great tree, and is a call to worship the God who creates.

Jonathan Evens, one of the key people behind commission4mission, posted a guest blog which explains more about the vision here.

UP 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:54:00 +0000

A beautiful, heart warming story that really does deliver at every level. Rarely does a film have our whole family wiping away the tears, but Up managed it in the first ten minutes. The story follows the developing friendship between an old man called Carl, and Russell a young adventure scout, set against the background of surreal and yet captivating action. Among the themes explored are: bereavement, old age, family breakdown, childlessness, disillusionment, unfulfilled dreams and environmental exploitation. It is so refreshing to watch a film devoid of cynicism and free from contrived sentimentality.

Occasionally animators manage to capture in a few short scenes the joys and sorrows of life with a sensitivity missing from most other films. One family favourite is the story of the cowgirl Jesse in Toy Story 2 set to the song When Somebody Loved Me; it is heartbreaking. The opening montage in Up, unfolding the relationship between Carl and Ellie Fredricksen is perfectly judged, full of humour and heartache and almost a complete film on its own, though it lasts about five minutes.

The main story is an adventure in which Carl ties thousands of balloons to his house to float away from impending eviction and life in an old people’s home. Russell accidentally ends up coming along for the ride and the two find themselves landing near Paradise Falls, somewhere in South America, the place Carl and Ellie had always dreamed of visiting. There they meet Muntz the long lost adventurer that Carl had looked up to as a child, only to discover he is not quite the hero he appeared in the old cinema newsreels. There’s plenty of straight forward action and laughter to balance the more subtle emotional moments in the film.

It’s refreshing to see a film in which the central characters are so ordinary; a curmudgeonly old man and a rather overweight and seemingly unexceptional child who nevertheless proves to be courageous, loyal and compassionate - so different from the classic Disney heroes and princesses.

The only concern I’ve read raised about Up centres on the use of 3D. I certainly think you could watch the film in 2D and the film wouldn’t be diminished in any way, but it was great fun for us as a family putting on the 3D glasses and it made the cinema trip feel like more of an event. Having said that the trailer for A Christmas Carol really showed off the 3D technology to great effect and meant that the 3D impact of the feature film was somewhat flattened.

Up is a superb example of the high quality animated films being produced today. It’s a great family film with plenty to hold everyone’s attention and we floated out of the cinema uplifted by the whole experience.

Down’s

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:49:00 +0000

We spent a very enjoyable evening with friends at the 18th birthday party for a lovely young lady at the weekend, she is the sister of my God-daughter. I remember her birth and the privilege of being one of the first to see her and her adoring parents in the hospital. I also remember the following weeks as the baby was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome and the determination of her parents over the years to ensure only the best for her in care and education. The birthday party gave the young woman the party she has dreamed of having and the joy on her face as she and her friends partied and danced was a delight to see.

Over the years in ministry I have had the privilege of getting to know several children, men and women with Down’s Syndrome. In one parish I prepared a young man called Alan for confirmation and I still remember vividly the reverence on his face as he knelt before the bishop. Alan used to come to church with a scarf draped as a stole around his neck, a piece of paper in his collar like a priest and he would always bring some bread for the communion. I suspected that Alan never thought we were a proper church; he preferred a more catholic service to our church plant services as we met in a school hall on the urban overspill housing estate. Alan had worshipped at another church in the town for a time, but some of the congregation found his attire and actions irreverent and he was discouraged from attending. Their loss was our gain because Alan and the others from the supervised accommodation on the estate were an integral part of our church life and ministry and I couldn’t imagine the church family without them. Alan died a few years ago.

Today the British Medical Journal has published a report suggesting a steep rise in the number of Down’s Syndrome diagnoses. Various factors have been identified to explain this increase, including a growth in the number of women deciding to start a family later in life and the wider availability of diagnostic tests. About 92% of those receiving a diagnosis as a result of screening choose to terminate the pregnancy. Yet, this is only part of the story.

On Saturday The Times ran a story stating that between 2000 and 2006 the number of children born with Down’s Syndrome had increased by some 15%. The explanation given is that more parents are willing to consider bringing up a Down’s child. Various factors have been suggested for this decision including; those with religious/moral objections to abortion, awareness of an increased quality of life and life expectancy for those with Down’s Syndrome, changes in social attitudes and integration into mainstream education.

Another reason given for the willingness of some to bring up a child with Down’s Syndrome is that they know people with Down’s or other disabilities. This seems to me to be key to our attitude to disability; when we know the person and not just about the condition then our perspective changes. This is in no way to diminish the challenges and sacrifices that many parents make in nurturing a disabled child; I am only too aware of all that my friends have given over the last eighteen years in caring for their daughter. However, I also know how much she has enriched the lives of her parents, brothers, sister, the wider family and her friends; it was clear for anyone to see at her birthday party on Sunday evening.

drink Fairtrade

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Excellent recommendations for some Fairtrade wines in The Observer by Tim Atkin. Here’s a way to enjoy a glass or three of wine and feel good about it. Tim writes:

The quickest way to make a difference as an ordinary wine drinker is to buy from a Fairtrade producer. This is not the gamble it once was. There are now 51 of these, in South Africa (29), Argentina (12) and Chile (10) and quality is much better than it was even two years ago. I was a judge at the 2009 Fairtrade Awards (the results will be announced on 19 November) and I was impressed by the best wines.

The Co-operative has by far the best range of Fairtrade wines, with 16 different labels, but all of the other supermarkets are now supporting the brand. My current favourites, three of which did well in the 2009 awards, are the juicy, raspberryish 2008 Sainsbury's Fairtrade Pinotage, Citrusdal, Olifant's River (£4.99, 14%); the peachy, honeyed 2009 Fairhills Fairtrade Chenin/Chardonnay, Western Cape (£5.48, 12.5%, Asda), both from South Africa; the grassy 2008 Los Unidos Fairtrade Carmenère/Cabernet Franc, Chile (£5.49, 13%, Waitrose); the vibrant, slightly sweet 2009 Co-operative Fairtrade Chilean Merlot Rosé (£4.99, 14%) and from Argentina, the floral, citrus-scented 2009 Fairtrade Tilimuqui Single Vineyard Torrontés, Famatina Valley, La Riojana (£6.29, 12.5%, Waitrose). These are wines you can drink with pleasure…

In contrast, this week has been designated International Nestlé-Free Week and thanks to David Keen over at St Aidan to Abbey Manor for drawing this to my attention. As a family we have sought to avoid Nestlé products because of their disastrous baby milk policy. Babymilkaction.org has a helpful list of Nestlé linked products; I did a quick check in the kitchen this morning and was pleased to discover that at the moment we appear to be Nestlé free. Using Fairtrade products and avoiding the products of ethically dubious companies may seem a rather small gesture in the global scheme of things, but it sets down a marker and helps us as a family to reflect upon our priorities.

celebrating Reader ministry

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:49:00 +0000

A full Cathedral in Chelmsford on Saturday for the annual Readers Service. It’s always a great occasion, celebrating the ministry of over 380 Readers in the diocese. During the service 11 new Readers were admitted and licensed and, having journeyed with them through their training, I felt a real sense of joy as they were sent out to serve their churches, parishes and communities. The service was also an opportunity to thank Canon Pat Nappin, the retiring Warden of Readers, and to license Revd Dr Martin Kitchen who takes over from Pat as Warden.

David Lowman, the Archdeacon of Southend, preached a cracking sermon based on Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The address began with testimony as David shared a personal experience leading to a renewed passion for preaching the gospel. David went on to challenge those present that the ministry and mission of the church is the responsibility of all of us, lay and ordained. With so much focus on clergy in the news following the Pope's announcement, it's good to be reminded that God's work doesn't depend on one small band of workers in the vineyard.

On the Reader licensing retreat a couple of weeks ago at Pleshey. Canon Philip Ritchie, Jill Poole, Susan Riches, Sue Howlett, Chris Thomas, David Bates, Olive Thursby, Pam Kirby, Canon Michael Fox (retreat leader) (front) Diana Lowry, Liz Paxton, Rosemary Elden, Tina Rollings.

After the service on Saturday. It was rather wet so I was pleased to get at least one shot of the new Readers and their clergy before a dash back into the cathedral.

planet narnia - lecture

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:21:00 +0000

In 2003 Michael Ward made a discovery. Many critics believe he has finally unlocked the secret meaning of C.S. Lewis’s famous Narnia stories. This became a book, Planet Narnia, which was profiled in a BBC 1 documentary at Easter 2009, called ‘The Narnia Code’. I blogged about the programme here.

The St Paul's Theological Centre Annual Lecture: Of interest to all who have read the Narnia books or watched the films, Dr Ward explains his discovery in a fascinating lecture he has given all over the world, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Dr Michael Ward is Chaplain of St Peter’s College Oxford, and one of the world’s leading experts on C.S. Lewis.

Venue: Holy Trinity Brompton
Time: 7.00 pm, Monday November 16 2009

Trivia: Did you know that Dr Ward's other claim to fame is that he handed a pair of X-ray spectacles to James Bond in the movie The World Is Not Enough.

Update: There is an excellent review of Planet Narnia by Bishop Tom Wright in the TLS here.

the balloon goes up

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:53:00 +0000

It’s been a weekend for balloons. First the story of a young boy feared to have been carried away by his father’s home-made helium filled balloon. Then footballer Darren Bent scores for Sunderland against Liverpool on Saturday, the ball being deflected into the goal by a stray balloon/beach ball on the pitch.

Falcon Heene is the six year old who prompted a panic search in Colorado after his brother reported that he had taken off in a balloon. The events were covered live on U.S. television as police tracked the balloon during its two hour flight. When the balloon landed Falcon was nowhere to be found and a search ensued tracing the balloons trajectory. However, young Falcon was at home the whole time and over the coming hours suspicion began to mount that the whole incident was a not so elaborate stunt set up by his parents to court publicity. It is likely that the parents will face police charges and also a large bill for the cost of the chase across the state. There is much speculation as to the parents’ motives for setting up the scenario and the most popular explanation is that they were seeking publicity in order to attract a lucrative reality T.V. contract.

I guess the question most people will ask is why parents would make up a story about their child being in jeopardy? It seems that some people will do whatever it takes to court publicity, fame and wealth. This is a rather extreme example but there are many others, not least the pushy parents who ‘hot house’ their talented children on the sports field or stage. There is a fine line between wanting to encourage a gifted child and exploiting them in the quest for fame and fortune. We are all too familiar with the tennis prodigy burnt out before her twenties, or the young film star found dead from an overdose before their potential has been fulfilled.

It’s not just the gifted who are encouraged to expose themselves to the glare of publicity in the hunt for success. The plethora of reality T.V. shows demands an ever increasing supply of ‘talent’ desperate to become the next big thing. There is something pathetic about the young lad dismissed by the celebrity panel because he can’t dance or hold a note, only to be filmed being consoled by his mother who maintains the delusion that he is the next Michael Jackson.

When will the balloon go up about the perils of the desperate quest for fame?

As for the other balloon incident, I guess Nena’s 99 Red Balloons won’t be the most popular request at the Liverpool Football Club Christmas party this year.

blog action day ‘09 – climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Wanted to put something up for Blog Action Day ‘09 which this year focuses on Climate Change. The song that keeps coming to mind is Satchmo’s What A Wonderful World. There are loads of homemade Youtube videos of this song and most of the ones I’ve viewed are full of beautiful pictures of the world; stunning landscapes, cute and cuddly animals and happy smiley faces. Well if you want that video go to Youtube because when I think of Armstrong’s song the images that come to mind are far from beautiful; they are images of the mess we are making of the world that God entrusted us to steward. So here’s the version from Good Morning Vietnam.

bishops - what they do and what it costs

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Here it is then, the statement of the Church of England House of Bishops' office and working costs for the year ending 2008. The document starts with a summary of the role and responsibilities of the bishops, before giving a breakdown of the costs for each diocese and the individual expenses for each bishop.

Don't hold your breath if you are looking for details of moat cleaning, duck houses or house flipping, though heating, lighting and cleaning costs are included. Not easy to glance through and compare costs unless one is prepared to research which posts had a vacancy during the period.

Anyway, looking at the figures I'm not expecting any Telegraph front page splashes, though you can never tell with the press. MPs will be sad to learn that attention is unlikely to be deflected from their ongoing travails over this issue.

le Carre – a most wanted man

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:02:00 +0000

There are a few fiction writers who have the gift for giving global issues a human face; Graham Greene was one such author and John le Carre is another. Le Carre’s brilliant explorations of the Cold War through the eyes of George Smiley are peerless and I recently watched again the T.V. series based on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Alec Guiness is masterful as Smiley and the cast are a roll call of British theatre’s finest, but it is the author’s labyrinthine plot and understated characterisation that make it a work of genius.

I read le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl in the early 1980s and remember finding myself mirroring the sympathies of the young English actress Charlie, as first she is swayed one way by the arguments of her Israeli intelligence controller Kurtz and then the other by her Palestinian terrorist lover Khalil. Sadly, the film starring Diane Keaton hardly did the Israeli Palestinian conflict or the book justice.

I’ve just finished le Carre’s latest book A Most Wanted Man and was pleased to discover that the master of political intrigue is on his usual great form. The story teases out the ambiguities and contradictions of the ‘war on terror’ through the eyes of a British banker with dubious accounts, a human rights lawyer and her client, a Chechen illegal immigrant. Based in Germany, the plot is beautifully paced, redolent with treachery and a damning indictment of the moral bankruptcy of terrorism and extraordinary rendition. I’m reluctant to give anything away, but the denouement is heartrending and left me seething at the injustice of what may well turn out to be one of the United States most shameful and counterproductive criminal acts of this century.

I’ll be interested to see if the book makes it onto the big screen, but my suspicion is that it will be some time before any film maker will be able to attract the sort of financial backing the story merits. With A Most Wanted Man le Carre has again proved that the subtlety of his pen is more powerful than raging polemic.

guitar praise

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:20:00 +0000

I thought this had to be a wind up but it looks like there really is a Christian version of Guitar Hero being marketed called Guitar Praise. Check out the video and then check out Peter Banks’s superb devastating critique of the product entitled ‘The Devil Inside…’ You may also be interested in David Keen’s observations on these 'Christian' products entitled Markets need Morals 2.

Every time I think Christian sub culture marketing gurus can’t get any worse they prove me wrong.

h/t Memorybanks

celebrating Fairtrade

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:44:00 +0000

The Fairtrade Foundation celebrates its 15th birthday and to mark the occasion the UK Government has announced it will be investing £12 million in the enterprise. Fairtrade has come a long way since those early days when drinking their endorsed range of tea and coffee was a triumph of hope over experience for the taste buds. The UK is the biggest market for Fairtrade and this is something we should be proud of in the midst of all the talk about ‘broken Britain’; their range of products, while still limited, are nevertheless very good quality. There is still a very long way to go and Fairtrade is not without its critics, but we should celebrate the great strides Fairtrade has already made and remember the people whose lives have been transformed by their endeavours.

At the Chelmsford Diocesan Office we try and use only Fairtrade products where possible, though at times it has been something of a struggle. I remember sitting in a Diocesan Pastoral Committee meeting when someone complained that we were using Nestle coffee rather than Fairtrade. On further enquiry it turned out that because the Fairtrade coffee came in large tins someone was transferring the coffee to smaller empty jars for convenience; the smaller jars were labelled Nescafe!

By the way, were you aware that Nestle have been sourcing their milk from farms owned by Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace; farms that have been confiscated from their owners under his odious regime.

Update: In an earlier earlier version of this post I wrongly implied that Spring Harvest don't supply Fairtrade coffee; they do and I apologise for any misunderstanding.

is faith a sign of dementia?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

I’m lecturing on Theology and Experience in a couple of weeks time and so a recent article in the New York Times caught my attention. The piece is about Dr Francis Collins the new Director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Collins is no mug; he was in charge of the Human Genome Project, but his appointment seems to have caused some concern because as well as being a prominent scientist he is also a committed Christian. This has led to some questioning in the scientific community as to whether Collins is an appropriate choice for director. Gardiner Harris writing in the NYT comments:

First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.

Collins describes his journey to faith in his book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. In the book Collins relates how he was challenged by a patient who asked what he believed and he found himself flushed and stammering in response to the question. This incident caused Collins to explore the possible existence of God and he concluded that He does exist. Some critics have dismissed the experience as an easily explained medical condition, a hormonal rush, suggesting that Collins’s failure to recognise this and willingness to give it a higher significance was cause for concern. Others have been worried that there might be a conflict between Collins’s faith and, for example, developments in therapeutic cloning which will fall under his remit. Collins has assured colleagues that he is committed to therapeutic cloning and sees no conflict with his religious beliefs.

The story is reminiscent of Michael Reiss who was forced to resign as director of science education at the Royal Society earlier this year. Dr Reiss is a priest and some Fellows of the Royal Society claimed his faith was incompatible with his role. One notable critic was Richard Dawkins who described Reiss’s appointment as a Monty Python sketch. The accusation against Reiss was that he was a Creationist and, even though he denied this, there were some in the scientific community who just couldn’t understand how his faith was not in conflict with his commitment to evolutionary biology.

When I hear of these incidents I find myself asking a question; who are the real fundamentalists? Who are the people so locked into their world view, their belief system, that they can’t allow for any experience or understanding of that experience outside their framework? On the evidence of these stories the real fundamentalists are not the Christians.

it’s Rio

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:37:00 +0000

Rio de Janeiro has been chosen to host the Olympic games in 2016; cue lots of gratuitous close up shots of bikini clad women sambaing to Santana’s greatest hits. Not that I’m complaining and to get you in the mood here’s some classic Santana – you’ll have to wait for the other bit.

sign of the times (6) - st francis

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:43:00 +0000

This lovely bird bath sculpture of St. Francis resides in the Diocesan Office garden. I walk past it nearly every day and occasionally stop for a moment to contemplate. One thing struck me recently; I can't remember the last time I saw any water in the bowl or any birds bathing or drinking from it. Although the weather wasn't great this summer, the autumn has been warm and sunny and there has been hardly any rain for ages. On the up side it means I haven't had to worry about cutting the grass and on the down side, well that's obvious. So St Francis stands as another Sign of the Times.

The sculpture is by Catharni Stern and was originally displayed as part of a Cathedral Festival.

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

the ouroboros & the media

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:09:00 +0000

The Ouroboros is a mythical serpent whose chief characteristic is that it eats its own tail in a never ending cycle of self absorption. I say it’s a mythical creature but I have discovered it is alive and well but living under another name, The Media.

Last night in a carefully timed move, clearly intended for maximum political effect, The Sun announced that it was going to be supporting the Tory party at the next election. To be honest I’ve never thought The Sun was anything other than a conservative newspaper if the utterances of its political correspondents are anything to go by. Anyway, what has followed has been a master class in self absorption. The BBC news ran the story as its main headline both late last night and first thing this morning: not the content of the Prime Minister’s speech, not the breaking news of the earthquake and tsunami hitting Samoa, nor any of the other important issues of the day directly affecting people’s lives, but The Sun’s decision to support a different political party.

The press followed the same agenda, discussing and analysing the significance of the switch in a feeding frenzy which can only reflect their own sense of self importance. On radio and T.V. pundits and commentators have been wheeled out to chat to each other about how significant the story is; a classic example of reporting the news being the news. This is where we are with political reporting, analysis not of what is said and done, the content, but of process; the medium not the message is what counts.

The media has been consumed in recent days with commentary on Andrew Marr’s question to Gordon Brown about whether he takes prescription drugs, asked on Marr’s Sunday morning BBC 1 politics show. Where did this question come from? It is becoming increasingly clear that the question derives from an unsubstantiated piece of speculation, put out on a blog, bounced back and forth across the internet and then spread through the Westminster village; innuendo masquerading as serious journalistic enquiry. It’s just one more example of the media feeding off itself and then regurgitating the content only to consume it again as it debates the appropriateness of the original question.

The broadcast media and newspapers constantly complain about the threat to their survival as viewers, listeners and readers turn to other sources for their news, information and comment. Well the media need not worry - at this rate they will eat themselves out of existence long before other forms of communication finish them off. Then the new Ouroboros will be no more than a mythical creature, just like the original.

entertaining angels

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:22:00 +0000

My son found this stone on Branscombe beach at the end of the summer holidays. I meant to post the picture yesterday to celebrate St Michael and All Angels, better late than never.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

reading old age

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Hope I die before I get old; the line from The Who’s My Generation often pops into my mind when I hear matters of old age being discussed. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend haven’t had their wish fulfilled, though their two chums from the band were not so lucky. Last week the High Court upheld the law that allows businesses to make employees retire at 65 without any redundancy pay. The case had been brought by Help The Aged and Age Concern and, although their bid was unsuccessful, the judge did say there was a case for raising the compulsory retirement age.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about retirement recently. When I was ordained, clergy could receive a full pension after 37 years service and this meant I would get a full pension at 65 (2025). Then a couple of years ago the rules were changed and I worked out I need to keep going until I’m about 67. Sitting on my desk is the latest consultation document on changes to the Clergy Pension Scheme in preparation for a likely General Synod debate in February 2010 and suggestions include moving the pension age to 68 with a full pension after 43 years service. Don’t get me started on the challenges many colleagues face in buying a retirement home once they finish work and have to move out of their parsonage house.

Perhaps I need to be thinking less of My Generation and more about U2’s song Dirty Day and the line borrowed from Bukowski ‘The days run away like (wild) horses over the hill’. I can see my retirement disappearing over the horizon faster than I can say Additional Voluntary Contributions. Of course, what we stipendiary clergy are facing are the realities that most other employees must come to terms with, unless they happened to have bankrupted a major financial institution and headed over the hills with a massive guaranteed pension. The truth is that many people are looking forward to their retirement and old age, not in the hope of enjoying the golden years, but with genuine concern and even fear.

In July I attended a conference on the Learning Church with other colleagues from across the country including; Theological College and Courses staff, Continuing Ministerial Development Officers and Diocesan Adult Education Advisers. You might be tempted to think of one of Dante’s Circles of Hell and at times it felt like it. However, there were some highlights and one contribution in particular resonated with my thinking about retirement and old age.

James Woodward was until this year Director of The Leveson Centre for the Study of Ageing, Spirituality and Social Policy. In a fascinating session entitled ‘Reading Old Age’ James presented some reflections on what emerges when we listen to the voices of old age and how that can shape and challenge our theology. This was done by introducing us to four narratives drawn from his extensive reading in the United States while on sabbatical. The four stories made for challenging listening and offered much food for thought; here are some of the observations that I jotted down:

The Journals of May Sarton at Seventy: May is a poet and author who writes about the inevitability of old age and reflects on the unsolved, painful mistakes and reasons for shame and woe. Yet, May also comments that she is ‘more myself than I have ever been’. Constant themes are downsizing and uncluttering and the need for ‘nurturing thankfulness’.

The thing about life is that one day you’ll be dead; David Shields. This book is a biography of Shields’ own body and a narrative of his Father’s old age; much graphic physical detail and the challenge to listen to one’s own body and the wisdom that exists in it. There is a term used in the United States called ‘successful aging’, how do we judge what is fulfilling and what makes us happy? Man is a ‘pleasure seeking missile’ and we must resist giving in to the inevitability of how things should be. We need to live with the possibility of change as part of the narrative. ‘Everyone tries, no one wins, everyone dies’.

The Last Gift of Time – Life Beyond Sixty; Carolyn G. Heilbrun. Carolyn determined that she would end her life by the age of 70 and reflects on some key questions:

Why is it good to be old?
Can we be ourselves?
What freedoms are there in old age?
Will old age be conventional or unconventional?

The writer observes that the circle of friends in old age is enriched by a range of ages; she is challenged by the issue of memory and asks why so few can live in the present? Carolyn observes that in the last decades memory prevents us looking at what is in front of us in the present and she sees memory as a ‘useless distraction’. The author did take her own life which raises the question of how her suicide affects a reading of her book and what she left unsaid.

The Bill from My Father; Bernard Cooper. This is a memoir about the relationship between the author and his father. One day Cooper senior presented Cooper junior with a bill for all it had cost to bring him up and demanded repayment; the bill came to $1.7 million! Much of the book is a reflection on the horrors of the onset of dementia and the perpetual question of who shapes our story?

Four quite different stories connected by themes raised in contemplating old age and all of them remind us that we have a long way to go in our theology and praxis when it comes to this issue.

Munich

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:51:00 +0000

I can still remember the unfolding tragedy of the hostage taking at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the disastrous conclusion to the siege when the Israeli captives lost their lives. The events of the attack and the ensuing slaughter are powerfully told in the documentary One Day In September. A few years later I read a book recounting Israel’s response, sending out Mossad agents to hunt down and kill those involved in the atrocity. Munich is Steven Spielberg's film portraying the activities of the assassination squad as they worked their way around Europe picking off the terrorists. Although the characters and the events are fictional the film claims that they are ‘inspired by real events’.

Munich is a long film, clocking in at nearly two and a half hours but it maintains an intensity and pace that holds the attention throughout. The unofficial assassination squad are a complicated group reflected in the casting; Eric Bana and Daniel Craig look like what I expect of secret agents, but the others including Ciaran Hinds are disarmingly ordinary. The group are far from the accomplished hit men of Bond films or the Bourne adventures and their first kill is a nervous, halting execution; the celebrations betraying their relief and exhilaration at success.

The film presents state sanctioned murder as messy, incompetent, questioning, depressing and ultimately futile. For every assassination of a terrorist the enemy hits back with the devastating slaughter of hundreds of Israelis. It’s a cycle of violence which reflects the tit for tat retaliations that characterise so much of the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. The agents question the morality of their actions and become the targets of other assassins; several are killed before the operation is concluded. The central character is left haunted not only by the Munich massacre but by the murders he has participated in and the fear that his own government is seeking to silence him.

Spielberg does risk accusations of propaganda in his depiction of the hit squad and one example is the way the film suggests that only the guilty were targeted. In reality the agents were not so discerning and at least one of their victims was an entirely innocent Moroccan waiter shot in Norway. This murder was one of the most shocking incidents I remember from the book and I can’t understand why it is omitted unless Spielberg didn’t want to sully the reputations of the Mossad agents.

Munich’s closing shot is a pan of the Manhattan skyline finishing with the Twin Towers in the background. The scene poignantly sums up a question raised by the whole film: ‘Is anything gained by the war on terrorism?’

billboard wars

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago Manchester City fans put up a billboard proclaiming the news that they had pinched Carlos Tevez from Manchester Utd. Following Utd's fantastic defeat of City at the weekend, Utd fans have responded with the billboard above. The picture shows Utd's new signing Michael Owen celebrating his magnificent last gasp goal in the Manchester derby, which Utd won 4-3. Michael Owen joined Utd on a free transfer, City paid approximatley £25 million for Tevez; I wonder who got the better bargain?

Here's a photo of the original Tevez poster showing a rather disdainful Ryan Giggs looking down with the words Pity The Fool.

h/t the excellent Off The Post
Owen pic. Benny Smyth
Tevez/Giggs pic. Stephen Broadhurst

assisted suicide - a relative issue?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:33:00 +0000

As a curate I played rugby for an old boys club. Each Saturday a converted van would draw up beside the pitch and the back would be opened. Inside sat a young man in a wheelchair, paralysed from the shoulders down and dependant on his full time carers to assist with his needs. This young man had broken his neck in the scrum while playing for the old boys and could only watch from his chair the game he had loved to play. The club did all they could to help him, along with family and friends, but not surprisingly occasionally he had severe bouts of depression and spoke about a desire to end his life.

The young man mentioned above came to mind when I first I heard the news reports of the assisted suicide of Daniel James the 23 year old paralysed rugby player. Daniel was taken to a Swiss euthanasia clinic by his parents in order to fulfil his stated desire to die. I can’t imagine what Daniel went through in the time following his accident, nor the pain and turmoil experienced by his loving parents, which led to the decision to end his life. I pray for them as they seek to live with the choices they have made.

Today new guidelines on the issue of assisted suicide have been published by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC. The publication follows many months of lobbying by assisted suicide supporters. Lord Falconer, for example, made a bit of a Charlie of himself recently when he rather arrogantly suggested that he knew better that the Archbishop of Canterbury what constituted Christian compassion when it came to this matter.

One of the most chilling contributions to the debate has come from Baroness Warnock, a trenchant supported of the legalisation of assisted suicide. Writing in The Observer last October she wrote Legalise Assisted Suicide, For Pity’s Sake. The first part of the article was a consideration of the legal implications of the James’ case and was a fairly straightforward rehearsal of the issues. And then came this statement:

But the more crucial argument is this: we have a moral obligation to take other people's seriously reached decisions with regard to their own lives equally seriously, not putting our judgment of the value of their life above theirs. Mr and Mrs James have sadly and dramatically carried out this moral obligation.

Why is it a moral obligation? What is the ethical framework within which Warnock expresses this obligation? Warnock’s argument is the ultimate retreat to relativism – there is no objective moral framework simply the belief that each person should be free to decide what’s best for them. I say belief but it seems to me to be nothing more than an assertion. No explanation is given as to the basis of this opinion and this is pretty worrying coming from someone who for so long has been involved in framing the debate and law on a wide variety of moral issues in our country.

I first studied Warnock’s approach to ethics as a student when I wrote a paper on the Warnock Report (1984). I was looking particularly at what the report had to say about surrogate motherhood but it led to a wider exploration of the methods and assumptions underlying the report’s findings and recommendations. My conclusion was that the report was characterized by a secular, utilitarian and technological world view. The report came out against surrogate motherhood but only on the grounds that there was a danger of commercial exploitation.

I shouldn’t have been surprised at Warnock’s article in The Observer. This is what she said in an interview for Life and Work, the Church of Scotland Magazine.

If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service.

I'm absolutely, fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there's a wider argument that if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they're a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die.

So let’s be clear. The reason for supporting assisted suicide/dying is that the person is wasting other people’s lives and wasting the NHS’s resources by continuing to live. A person’s worth is measured by nothing more than this. It’s one small step from saying that people have an obligation to die when they become a burden and another short step to saying that the state has an obligation to get rid of those who have become a burden. Let’s go all the way and make Soylent Green our blue print for the future. Soylent Green is the Charlton Heston film in which people were encouraged to embrace suicide so that their bodies could be turned into food for the masses.

But there is another way of determining a person’s worth. A person’s worth is not defined by their abilities or faculties but by the truth that they are created and loved by God and precious to him and we will be held accountable by God for how we treat them.

An initial response to the DPP's Interim Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Assisted Suicide by the Church of England can be found here.

The Church of England's position on Assisted Suicide is set out here.

This is a re-working of an earlier post first published here.

goodbye Chas & Dave

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Ritchie) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:58:00 +0000

A cultural body blow delivered today with the news that Chas & Dave are finally splitting up after four decades together. I saw Chas & Dave open for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979 when they led the rather damp punters in a lunch time cockney sing a long featuring many of their hits. Can't say it was the highlight of the event but it certainly warmed up the crowd. Following the death of his wife, Sue Peacock, Dave has decided to lay down his bass and give it a rest. As Pete Broadbent, the Bishop of Willesden, tweeted this morning:
'With Chas and Dave splitting up, there's only one word with which to start the day - Gertcha!'