Let’s be honest, we at the Twurch see ourselves as critical friends of the Church, pointing out ways and means in which the central bodies of our beloved Via Media so very often don’t get the internet and how to use it. This means that some people in the hierarchy don’t like us very much, but others further down the food chain delight in our willingness to say what needs saying (and to do so in an amusing manner). Do we need to remind you, for example, about THAT video and the way that minutes after we pointed out its utter naffness the Archbishops’ Council suddenly realised that too? No? Good job…

So imagine our surprise when in amidst all the hoo-hah at General Synod about Women Bishops (a short summary of which is “carry on as before”) the Liturgical Commission managed to sneak in an absolutely genius website aimed at helping schools and churches put together worship for children. It’s called Worship Workshop and it’s a joy to behold. Not only does Worship Workshop help teach children and their accompanying adults about what worship is (and isn’t) it also has a very nifty interactive tool to help you put together a service of your own. Want a Mothering Sunday service with an emphasis on Compassion? Not a problem. Need to pick a range of hymns and songs that are traditional and right up to date (OK, not totally up to date – we didn’t see any of the wonderful kids worship material coming out of Hillsongs these days)? There’s oodles and oodles to choose from.

You can search by seasons and by themes. You can look up individual components of a service by themselves or use the interactive tool to produce a downloadable outline (in Word format though – we prefer non-alterable pdfs) for printing.

Honestly, the only thing that would make it better would be a moderated forum where site-users could share their tips and tricks.

Who is to blame for this moment of majesty from the Church of England? Why that would be the stunningly wonderful @revmaryhawes who works tirelessly in the bowels of Church House producing this kind of marvellous offering. Go and tell her what a good job she’s done, there’s a nice Twurch.

I mean, if we *have* to have women bishops, who else then Mary?

Oh look, we just did something controversial again. Silly us.

@peterould and @thechurchmouse chat about all the news from the back end of 2011 as well as Facebook rankings, church furniture and a whole horde of other items. Then we turn to our interview with the one and only Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad and all round good egg. He shares with Peter how he ended up in Iraq, what he does with his life when he’s not in the Middle East and how God has blessed him in Iraq in ways he couldn’t have done anywhere else. It’s an absolutely unmissable listen with the Twurch of England 2011 Vicar of the Year!

You voted in your, well let’s be honest, tens. The numbers have been crunched, the figures analysed, re analysed, scrutinised and assessed. And now we can reveal that the Twurch of England Vicar of the Year, 2011, is…..

Canon Andrew White, the “Vicar of Baghdad”

How could there be anybody else? The man is an utter legend and as his biography on his website shows, a true disciple of Christ.

In the face of significant threats to him personally and repeated bombings of the church, Canon White pastors one of the largest churches in Iraq, St George’s Baghdad. St George’s Church ministers to over 550 local Iraqi Christian families and operates well outside the safety of the International Green Zone.  Most of the congregation are women and children – widows and orphans – since most of the men have been killed in the decades of violence in Iraq.

Based in the church compound, the St George’s Clinic employs medical staff from across sectarian divides to work side by side to deliver humanitarian relief to their neighbours, regardless of patients’ religious or ethnic background.  They provide free medical and dental care to around 100 Iraqi patients every day, treating 2,000 people every month.

As if tending to such a church in such a place was not enough of a full-time job, Canon White also frequently exchanges his dog collar for a bowtie and engages in conflict mediation in the area.  He has built up standing and reputation with the most senior religious leaders in Iraq.
Through these relationships of trust and confidence, Canon White has brought together the leaders of the opposing sectarian factions and his Foundation has sponsored a number of high-level peace talks between them.

These religious leaders have enormous influence in the region; influence that they can use for peaceful means or to incite sectarian violence.  In meetings chaired by Canon White, they produced the first ever joint Sunni / Shia fatwa against violence in Iraq, which was read out in at least 80 per cent of the mosques throughout Iraq, as well as on several popular satellite television channels.

In October 2010 Canon White was in New York, collecting the Train Foundation Civil Courage prize.  This prize is awarded to individuals who have shown steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk to themselves.  Most previous recipients of that prize are now either dead or in prison.

White says: “I have been detained at gun-point, been thrown into a room with people’s chopped-off fingers and toes all over the floor, and have had my picture posted on walls around Baghdad with a notice saying, ‘Wanted, dead or alive.’  Members of my church have been kidnapped or killed.  I have lost many friends.  It is very difficult.”

Did we mention he does all that whilst struggling with MS? No? He does…

Andrew White, we salute you. If you felt that you wanted to let him know what a good egg he is, pop over to his Facebook page and do the honours.

The full results of the vote are below.

P.S. Honorary mention goes to the cart-wheeling verger of Westminster Abbey. We reckon if he’d had a dog collar he might well have won!

Nothing like a bit of guilt to end the year on.

Anyway, voting closes at midnight and we’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

The rules are very simple – today we open nominations until later this evening. In the comments below, nominate any ordained and licensed clergy person in the Church of England (so yes, technically a deacon who is not a priest or vicar could win, but that would just make the title even longer – oh what the heck – “Vicar / Rector / Priest / Deacon / Bishop of the Year” it is!) giving their name, twitter ID, blog site, Facebook or some other way we can all know who they are. Give a brief reason why they should win, and we’ll include them in the poll tomorrow.

We’ll start you off. The Twurch’s nomination is Sally Hitchiner (@sallyhitchiner) for being such a media darling during the summer riots AND actually doing stuff on the ground that mattered as well.

Over to you. Who should win our coveted prize? Who is worthy of praise, honour and a slight amount of consequential deprecation? We’re looking for great achievement, public acclaim or just sheer theological prowess. Like the bloke below.

Right, you know the level we’re aiming at now. Get to it.

I’ve posted about her before, having first come across her when she supported Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall in London a couple of years ago. She is the only support act I have ever seen who could have gone on all night – the audience loved her. Last night we went over to the Barbican at York and she was brilliant.

Imelda May not only has a great voice, but she also can sing. From the high-energy Johnny Got a Boom Boom to the poignant Too Sad to Cry, she lives the song. From rockabilly through to ballad, she commands them all. And from the moment she walks on stage she commands the space with a charisma that is at once bigger than the venue and yet intimate in her connection with the audience. Bizarrely, you come away thinking the gig is not just about her – when she thanks the audience for coming out, hopes they are going home happy, generously thanks not only the band, but also the crew and venue management, you know she means it. This is an artiste who knows her audience, doesn’t take them for granted, and repays every penny (and more) of the ticket price.

But, it’s the music that is just brilliant. Her band are superb: tight drummer, excellent double bass player (how does he do that stuff?), evocative trumpeter/guitarist, and fantastic guitarist (and writer of some of the songs). Clever, entertaining and totally engaging, her approach is summed up in the song Humble and Proud: she struts the stage with charisma and confidence, belting out these wonderful songs, yet never overreaches herself.

Just go and see her. Don’t book a seat – stand where you can dance. OK, sort of dance.

The support yesterday was Big Boy Bloater. As I tweeted, I’d never heard of him before. But he and his band (the drummer and keyboard players reminded me for some reason of the Proclaimers) were entertaining, funny and promising of more to come. I didn’t get the CD. But, I will.

Human beings need ritual points at which they stop and recall where they have come from. An honest appraisal of our ‘story’ should help prevent arrogant amnesia and recall us to a certain collective humility. We didn’t get to where we are today from some sort of historical or cultural vacuum. Which is why, whatever the worldview of people in the UK, we all need to understand and collectively acknowledge the Christian history and development of (at least) Britain.

This isn’t about evangelism or special pleading. Rather, it is about understanding how we have got to where we are… in order that we can understand why we are where we are… in order better to think about where we want to go to.

For Christians this is a regular practice.

The people of Israel were ordered to build into their annual diary particular rituals designed to remind them of their roots. Warned that growing affluence would make them forget, they had to do physical things to ‘live’ the memory. (See Deuteronomy 26, for example.) The basic story of the Hebrew Bible is this: God calls his people to show the world who and ‘how’ he is – a vocation that brings responsibility, not privilege or status. This gets contorted – they forget that once they were slaves who had nothing and they begin (as they were warned would happen) to think that their growing wealth was the product of their own hands alone. Their refusal to remember their story – and then live graciously towards others – led them into exile and the loss of all their identity landmarks.

If we forget that we needed grace, forgiveness, generosity, we will enslave others. If we forget that we were once hungry, we will consume while others starve. That’s the logic.

The Christian community re-members constantly. The Eucharist (Holy Communion) involves a re-telling of the Christian story – a putting back together the ‘members’ or the memories. That is why it is called a ‘eucharist’ – a thanksgiving, because we should not be able to leave this corporate celebration of grace without being reminded of our vocation to give grace.

More could (inevitably and obviously) be said. ‘Never forget’… and build in phyiscal rituals that bring us back to reality – that’s the message that goes beyond military casualties and penetrates our whole common life. But, now I have to go out…

I have now read the piece in question and can’t believe (a) that it ever got written and (b) that the CEN actually published it. The editor claims he didn’t actually read the article, but would have asked for the language to be toned down if he had. Leave aside the question of an editor not reading what goes into his (very short) organ, but how did such an article ever get published anywhere?

Basically, it compares the gay lobby in the UK with the advance of the Nazis in the 1930s. It speaks of the ‘gay Wehrmacht’ and the ‘Gaystapo’. This sort of nonsense clearly doesn’t take seriously a rational, theological or humane argument about sexuality, but merely shocks by its sheer awful ineptitude.

You would have to be brain dead to write this stuff and think that anyone in their right mind would not think it outrageously stupid. What did the CEN think it was publishing it for? Or, for whom? It is less Allo Allo and more a mockery of the gruesome bits of Schindler’s List.

Alan Wilson has done a good piece on it, so I won’t repeat or rehearse it. This sort of thing needs to be ridiculed, not argued with. But, I will shine a light on it from a different angle.

World War Two ended in May 1945. British people haven’t moved on. Our sole point of reference for anything to do with Germany is that war. History teaching has been dominated for decades by Hitler and the rise of fascism from 1933-45. Our tabloids still invoke stereotypes from war comics every time we play Germany at anything sporting. The mocking chants at international football matches of ‘two world wars and one world cup – na na na na na’ demonstrate the poverty of our understanding and the puerility of our cultural references. This is not something we should be proud of.

It is why some of us are concerned to promote the learning and effective teaching of modern languages in the UK – and to urge a history curriculum that moves beyond the easy dramatics of the Nazi period and allows Germany to grow up. I wonder what any young Brits might understand of the thinking going on in Berlin about the Euro and the EU this week – incomprehensible without some understanding of German post-war development, economic structure, political sensibilities and cultural engagement.

When Alan Craig wrote his ridiculous article he obviously didn’t consider the reality of the Nazi experience in Europe or think about how his spurious and offensive comparison might be interpreted. Or maybe he did – which is far more worrying.

Suffice it to say, despite its name, the Church of England Newspaper does not reflect the Church of England most of us know. It should apologise.

The delayed publication of the latest report by the St Paul’s Institute shows that, even if the City was unaware of it and the Occupy protesters ended up on the cathedral steps more by accident than design, the Church was already well underway with serious questioning of the values that drove City culture in the 25 years since Big Bang. The Value and Values report (subtitled Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today) was published yesterday.

Contrary to the press accusation that this report had been ‘suppressed’ for a couple of weeks, it should by now be blindingly obvious what criticism (of naff timing and incoherent process) would have been levelled at the Church if it had gone ahead and published according to the schedule. Given that the report is fronted by both Dean Graeme Knowles and Canon Dr Giles Fraser, it would have been kind of hard to put it out with both of them in the process of resignation.

Of course, that inconvenient truth won’t satisfy those who revel in selective amnesia – the same condition that slates the Archbishop of Canterbury for questioning the values of our dominant economic and political culture, then forgets he had done so when the later story breaks and they can’t get him to feed the hungry media machine with further repetition.

Anyway, the report makes clear that there are some good people in the City – people who are already sensitised to the disconnect between the Square Mile and the real world. Indeed, the report makes clear that many of those who work in the City do understand the reasons behind the rage against perceived injustice. It highlights the way technology has dehumanised financial transactions. It recognises that reward has become divorced from work and that the Big Bang created a failure to drive value with values that assumed a common humanity. Money has become an end instead of a means to a greater end that we choose.

I was once asked to give an after-dinner speech at London’s famous Mansion House to a company of insurers and financiers. These people, among whom there was a plethora of motivations, had raised enormous amounts of money for a range of charitable causes and I wanted to recognise this and thank them for it. But I also wanted to reconnect this generosity with a humane appraisal of the transaction. I think I said something like:

this is not a case of the strong giving to the weak, but of the ‘weak who have’ giving to the ‘weak who have not’.

(I finished by quoting Jesus who said “it is easier to get a needle through your eye than for a rich man to pass a camel”… or something like that, anyway.

The point is that wealth can create a security that hides basic human frailty. We all weep and bleed and feel lonely in the universe on a dark night when our relationships have failed or we find ourselves wondering what it is all about. What unites us is the common humanity that has somehow got lost in the scrap for money.

Perhaps the Church is in a good place to stand between the City and the rest of the world. We ‘do’ people and we ‘get’ the people who live in both worlds. It is our business – confusing and compromising though it sometimes feels – and a church that follows Jesus Christ (who opted into this compromising and material world) can do no other than stand where the fault lines fall and try to hold it all together.

Read the report and the critique that concludes it. This wasn’t a craven cathedral at all – it had opened itself up to judgement. The tragedy is that the protestors didn’t turn up just a few days later, once the report had been published.

Naturally, the theme arose from the events in London and elsewhere and the questions raised by the Occupy movement. Away from the heat of the particular (how St Paul’s Cathedral was handling the ‘crisis’, for example), it was possible to take a step back and ask some of the important questions about money, markets and morality. The programme can be located here, the particular discussion coming over half-way in.

It seems to me that the key to discussing these issues lies in nobbling the assumptions behind the language we use. Markets are never ‘free’ in the sense that they are neutral: they are shaped by human choices, values and priorities. The question is: which choices, according to which priorities, derived from which values, shaped by which assumptions about who we are and how the world should be?

John Milbank spoke of the ‘disconnect between the City and real people’, but this disconnect also exposes the vacuum in identifying and shaping the moral framework within (and from) which our financial business should be done. This is not anti-capitalist. Rather, it is a recognition that capitalism needs effective regulation, a shared set of moral values, a framework of mutual accountability and honest language.

City workers were asked if there is a moral framework within which the City or the markets operate. Odd question. Of course, there is – there is no neutral space shaped by value-free (or self-evidently noble) morality. The question simply has to do with the questions I cited above. I was a little unnerved to hear City workers saying things like, “We work incredibly hard” and “We are just doing a job”. I can think of other (incomparable) circumstances in history where such disclaimers are disallowed.

Anyway, I have to go to work on the sabbath. There clearly needs to be a more general debate within society about who shapes the moral framework for our business and economic life and how we better engage wider society in ownership of those choices. But, for this there has to be a growing experience of mutual responsibility at every level, reduced abstraction of economic life, a rehumanising of business, and a re-definition or re-articulation of public economic morality.

And we need to re-examine the connection between individual moral choosing and the common moral framing of our common life. After all, the economy exists not for the sake of the market, but in order better to shape our common life for the common good.