Columns (March 2010)

Green Links
Rural Affairs
View from the Lantern
Christian Aid

by Janis Irvine

Life, the Media, the World, whatever… Things can be confusing at times. There have been a few reports recently concerning aspects of climate change that have done little to garner public support or, to put it into modern parlance, have done little to change hearts and minds.

First there were the ‘acquired’ emails from the University of East Anglia that suggested data relating to climate change had been corrupted by a university scientist in some way. As a key part of Britain’s scientific research on the subject, any irregular reporting from a trusted body such as this was certainly going to muddy the waters somewhat. Then there was the ‘sexed up’ information regarding the Himalayan glaciers that stated these would have melted by 2035. Meantime we have had heavy falls of snow across Britain this winter, the likes of which we have not seen for 20 or 30 years, and this has made many people sceptical. Climate change ? What climate change?

Those people, and there are still many, who have yet to be convinced of the reality of climate change will, quite naturally, grasp any information which will lend weight to their own views - some would say hopes - on the subject. Others have a foot planted firmly on both sides of the argument and are ready to be pulled in either direction depending on the strength of advice received, while yet others have been fully won over by the arguments but find it hard to work out how to put their acquired knowledge into the practice of daily living. Theory and practice are often difficult partners.

As many will appreciate, no scientific story of such magnitude as climate change is going to be straightforward. Scientists are not one breed of people. Many of them will be funded by an outside body and therefore provoking an element of ‘he who pays, calls the tune’. Other individuals will have pursued a course of research that may have taken many years before a result is seen. Only then can the data be disseminated, and then it must be independently reviewed by a peer group of scientists. I imagine that with climate research, different scientists could conceivably concentrate on studying the effects of change within a very narrow area, with some researching various aspects of a particular subject such as Arctic ice sheets, or Russian permafrost, Iceland’s ice depths, or Australian drought patterns.

Given this scenario, it was always going to be many years before all the acquired results came together to paint one big picture and before a consensus could be reached by scientists throughout the world. As I see it, a consensus means an agreement by the majority. In other words, there were always going to be some scientists who would wish to disagree with the majority. That is the way of human nature — scientists are all different people, just like they are in any other field of work.

Such major disagreements have been replicated down the centuries. There was a time when people thought the world was flat and that if you travelled far enough you would fall off the edge. If you had never travelled beyond your own village, how would you know otherwise? Through time, people accepted the general consensus that the Earth was in fact round, and today even people who have never travelled beyond their own shores will accept this information as fact.

Modern medicine has gone through a similar sort of process, and in fact still does. In the end, for those of us who are not doctors, or explorers or scientists, all we can do is accept the received view of the majority. Climate change is a massive subject, a frightening subject, and it is one which mankind has never had to face before. Or perhaps more precisely, mankind has never had to accept that we are actually to blame for climate change. Of course history tells us that climate change has happened quite naturally before, and continues to change naturally in cycles, but not in the time frame we have seen over the past 150 years.

So, when we read of this or that report regarding anomalies, corrupted or ‘sexed up’ evidence etc. etc., perhaps we ought to see it as part of the long story of scientific research, rather than evidence that climate change is not happening. It is something to read about or hear on TV, but it is not something deserving of too much consideration.

After all, there are far more important things we need to be giving our time to — like learning just how to put all that theoretical knowledge into daily practice!

Rural Affairs

by Archdeacon Peter Robinson

What is distinctive about ministry in the rural church?

Re-Shaping Rural Ministry: A Theological and Practical Handbook
by James Bell, Jill Hopkinson and Trevor Willmott (eds),
Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2009 paperback (160pp £14.99)

This is a book of creative, helpful and insightful essays and I recommend it without reservation to all stakeholders in the rural church. If the question of distinctiveness is not quite answered it is certainly opened up in a hugely effective way.

The seven essays are written with the conviction that not only is the rural setting in danger of being marginalised from mainstream national life, but that it is also the most rewarding contexts for ministry at present given the complex challenges faced. By implication the church has many resources – in its people and traditions, in the scriptures and in theological reflection – which are helping to meet these challenges.

The essays cover the rural context, the distinctive values and practices of the rural church, the leadership models required for a thriving rural church and a discussion on vocational pathways. It is impossible to do justice to them all, but let me mention three that might be applicable to rurality we are familiar with in Newcastle Diocese.

First, our own Rural Affairs Officer, Dagmar Winter writes with a colleague from Ripon and Leeds Diocese, Lesley Morley, about the rural church’s pastoral ministry. It is a timely reminder of the church’s long term commitment to the countryside, in contrast to an increasing number of short term projects. ‘Relationships, respect and credibility’ need to be built over long periods of time but as the countryside changes rapidly authentic pastoral care must include the provision of theological resources to enable communities to manage change, and especially the inevitable change of the stipendiary priest’s role.

Second, Anne Richards and Joanna Cox offer a series of reflections on lay leadership and development. They include some poignant case studies to illustrate the prophetic role of the lay person as well as their contribution to rural mission. They set out the case for lay and ordained to work, learn and train together and explore the opportunities that small congregations present for genuine collaborative ministry. In the rural setting the boundaries between church and community are fluid and this presents many opportunities for discipleship to be nurtured in exciting ways.

Martyn Percy writes about the theological education of our clergy and authorised lay ministers. He argues that the transformation sought by the rural church needs to be ‘natural and organic, rather than traumatically disruptive’; this will be achieved by a ministry of ‘patient nourishing’ which can be time-consuming and personally costly. Rural ministry requires the sort of wisdom that will be able to encounter and embrace local cultures confidently, yet also be able to discern what the church needs to be robust and resilient about. A theological education that can prepare our trainee ministers for these things will be fit for purpose.

There are many other things a reader will value about this collection. One is the range of metaphors and images from everyday rural life that are used to illuminate rural ministry. To take the rural church leader for example, she or he can be conceived as farmer, entrepreneur, storyteller, carpenter, parent, weaver and midwife – seven overlapping yet distinct gifting. Another is the imaginative way in which the scriptures are applied: yeast and salt are expounded to develop a profound understanding of the way the local church can respond effectively to its cultural setting.

This is a creative approach to the key practical questions of rural ministry and all the authors are to be congratulated on the high standard achieved. Although sometimes I felt that not all sides of an argument were acknowledged – for instance when education was discussed – and that not all types of rural were sufficiently foregrounded - for instance, I found little on rural coalfields – this suggests the need to apply these essays to our own rural settings. Each chapter ends with some well-formed questions to assist this process. I do hope that in parishes and deaneries, some might respond to the challenge!

View from the Lantern

By Canon Sydney Connolly

I think that my parents, when deciding what name to give me, their seventh child (out of nine), must have realised that they had not yet used my mother’s father’s name: Sydney Herbert. So those were the names bestowed upon me when, in due course, I was taken to the font. It was Bishop Alec Graham, many years later, who pointed out to me that my middle name was the same as that of the great friend of St Cuthbert.

I think that had escaped my notice because the Venerable Bede refers to him, in my version of his History of the English Church and People, as Herebert, rather than Herbert. He and Cuthbert were real companions in the faith. Bede writes that “there was a priest of praiseworthy life named Her(e)bert, who had for a long time been linked in a spiritual friendship with the man of God”. He “lived the life of a hermit on an island in the great lake which is the source of the river Derwent”.

St. Herbert’s island can still be seen to this day from the shores of Derwentwater at Keswick. Cuthbert and Herbert used to meet each year to talk of spiritual things. At what was to be their final meeting, Cuthbert said that he did not have long for this mortal life. Herbert, deeply distressed, asked God that whenever his friend’s death occurred, he too might die on the same day. Bede writes: “when they parted, they never saw one another again in this life, and on the twentieth of March, their souls left their bodies on the same day and were together borne by angels to see the beatific vision in the kingdom of heaven”.

Blessed are we indeed, if we have found such a companion in the faith to accompany us on our spiritual journey. In some calendars of saints, Herbert is rightly commemorated on the same day as Cuthbert, 20th March, and I like to make special remembrance of him on that day, too.

When Bishop Martin invited me to become an Honorary Canon of St Nicholas’ Cathedral in 2004, I was ever so slightly disappointed that I was not able to be installed in the stall dedicated to St Herbert. (It was already occupied!) Honorary Canons are given one of the stalls in the choir, each named after a saint or holy person. (I was placed in ‘John the Chanter’). Familiar names are there – Aidan, Oswald, Hilda – but also some less familiar – Eadbert, Theodore, Ethelwood. Each of the stalls has its ‘misericord’. These seats were, in medieval times, made especially for monks when daily services were often somewhat longer than they are nowadays. When the seats were upturned, a ledge could be rested against, providing a little comfort for aged or ailing (or perhaps even just lazy) monks. The misericords often bore elaborate carvings. Those in the Cathedral were created by Ralph Hedley, a local carpenter who, though born in Yorkshire, grew up in Elswick in the west of Newcastle. They were completed in 1889, some seven years after the diocese of Newcastle had been inaugurated. A booklet on our Cathedral’s misericords (available from the Cathedral shop) gives more information. It contains an amusing comment by Ralph Hedley’s great-grandson: “Misericords are protected by a series of defences which will defeat all but the most determined. First of all they are inconveniently carved on the underside of the seats. Each seat usually has a cushion which has to be placed elsewhere. For the benefit of the self-conscious, when the seat is raised it squeaks and creaks and, if let go, descends with a thunderous crash. During the day, misericords are difficult to see even if the church lights are on, almost impossible if they are off”. The stall of St Herbert, with carvings of musicians on its misericord, can be found at the altar end of the Canons’ stalls on the north side, appropriately right next to his companion in the faith, St Cuthbert.

New Canons – lay and ordained – are to be installed in the Cathedral on Palm Sunday, 28th March, at 6pm.

Christian Aid

by Judith Sadler

Unleash your talent!

This May, around 300,000 people will hit the streets of Britain and Ireland, working together to help end poverty. The millions they raise during Christian Aid Week 2010 will offer thousands of people around the world the chance to make a better life for themselves.

Christian Aid Week is Britain's longest-running fundraising week - a fixture in the calendar of many thousands of people each year since 1957. It is famous for the distinctive envelope that drops through the letterboxes of millions of homes each May. But Christian Aid Week is much more than the house-to-house collection. It's a time for the whole church to grow the movement that is fighting poverty and injustice.

This year, Christian Aid is encouraging you to think about your talents, and how you can use them to help the world's poorest. If your talent is cooking, why not hold a Fair-trade dinner party, run a cake sale, or auction off your skills?

If your talent is musical, you could organise or perform in a concert, host a karaoke night, or get sponsored for every hour you practise in Christian Aid week? If your talent is gardening, think about a plant sale, offer to help your neighbours in return for a donation, or raffle a basket of home grown goodies! If your talent is artistic, you could have a craft fair, organise a poetry evening, or a sponsored knit-athon! If your talent is sport, hold a football tournament, a space hopper race, or commentating
competition!

Inspired? Still stuck? Head to www.caweek.org for more ideas and to order resources to get you started.

Amazingly however, it's hard to beat 'house-tohouse' collecting as a means of raising enormous amounts of money in a very short time. So, if you want to add your effort to this nations-wide movement to eradicate poverty, please do contact us and we will put you in contact with your nearest Organiser.

The local office can support you in your own fundraising events and we can help raise awareness in your church by providing speakers, preachers and a youth advocate. You can reach us at: Christian Aid, 391 West Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE15 7PY. Tel: 0191 2280115 Email: newcastle@christian-aid.org