Guantanamo video

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I am shocked and repulsed by this report of a 15 year old boy being interrogated while he is obviously in distress. The boys name is Omar Khadr and he may have committed a crime. We do not know of he has or not because he is still locked up in Guantanamo 5 years after being arrested without a trial of any sort.

He was arrested when he was 15. He is now 21. His youth has been stolen. His rights as a human have been abused.

Take in the magnitude of the reality of that statement. The BBC report seems to miss this and take it for granted. maybe this is a further illustration of the dull conformity referred to yesterday.

This lad, this son, has been locked up for 6 years without any trial and does not have any immediate prospects of release.

What sort of country allows this to happen? I’ve spoken about sanctions against Burma and against Zimbabwe – but what about the human rights abuses of the USA – dull conformity means no one even raises an eye!

To the American Christians who stay quiet on this, to all of us, Omar is created in the image of God too!

Lambeth Conference

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The Lambeth Conference starts today.
Pray for those bishops involved and particularly for Archbishop Rowan as he, with others, seeks the guidance and wisdom of God.
Archbishop Rowan is a great godly man and he needs to know the love and support of us at this time.

Dull conformity?

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Having time on my hands, combined with not being able to move that fast, means I am able to reflect and re-read stuff and contemplate while I am preparing things. (I have a few things such as achievement evening at school, leading worship on Sunday morning in Canterbury, that I am thinking and planning on).

While searching for stuff and inspiration I came across an old Steve Turner poetry book from 1992 called The King of Twist. The back cover quotes, ‘in these poems he takes on the fears and pressures that threaten to lead us into a dull conformity and explores the ‘wise madness’ that offers a way out’

I found myself not only distracted by the grittiness of his poetry but also by how uncannily appropriate some of them are for today despite being written 16 years ago – it goes to show how little progress we have made in reality. Does it mean we have drifted into a dull conformity, a dullness that no longer speaks out but chooses to stay, well … dull!?

Gun
What is a gun for?
A gun is for making things.
What does it make?
Orphans, widows,
grief …

Fathers
The father holding his dead child
in the smoking Beirut rubble
loves his child with a love
every bit as big as my love
even though he has no money
even though he has not read Shakespeare,
even though he was not born in the West.

celebrate the NHS

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Today I am quite thankful for being in the UK and having the NHS. It’s easy to take this for granted and in the UK it is not uncommon to moan about this wonderful socialist creation as we forget that in many other countries free health care is just a dream. Until the Labour government of 1948 introduced this people who could not afford it had no health care.

Today I phoned my doctor for an appointment and by midday had some better pain killers and a referral to Orthopaedics who my doctor thinks will want to give me a scan as I have been seeing my chiropractor for 6 months. She suspects a trapped nerve or something.

I have to wait for an appointment but that is still pretty impressive stuff.

This year is the 60th celebration of the NHS and I really believe it is something we should both be proud of and not take for granted. Next time I am tempted to moan I shall try to remember that this is a real privilege of living where I do.

Mobsby interview

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I can’t think of much to write today … so instead of reading my rubbish why not pop over to the Moot blog here and listen to Ian being interviewed on ‘The Becoming of G-d’.

After hearing the interview why not go and buy the book – its well worth the read.

frustrating emotions

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I’ve been a little more conscious of my humanity and frailty this weekend as I have put my back out and been hobbling around the house. This has meant that I have not taken part in any of the family or church stuff over the weekend – and so I have missed out on a beach walk and a church family event down by the river. I’ve been on the edge of things which has not been great.

It’s been quite a frustrating and painful weekend with me feeling pretty fed up and people coming near experiencing my frustration! It’s weird to reflect that those that I care most about seem to get the brunt of my frustration.

I guess this is a reflection of the fact that we feel less inclined to hide the reality of our situation from those we know that love and care for us. We don’t hide our true feelings from each other and so we expose ourselves, and those we care for, to both the best and worst of our behaviours.

If this is so – then it follows that genuine community (if a family is genuine community and I would say it is the best model) is not going to be the rosy atmosphere that some think it may be. As people in genuine community develop love and trust for each other, the personal guards drop and they become less inclined to put on a show of their behaviour. This means community will be messy and hard work, not a smooth beautiful ride as people sometimes seem to make out.

Community is not the answer to all life’s problems, in fact it will probably present a lot of life’s problems. I believe it is in the realities of situations like this, the rawness of genuine community relations, that the Holy Spirit can work authentically.

Messy but genuine!

Co-op help Burma

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Dear friend

Are you a Co-operative Bank customer?
If so, you could help us raise money.
The Co-operative Bank have a long track record of supporting human rights and this year it’s the focus of their Customers Who Care campaign. As part of The Co-op’s Defending Human Rights campaign, they’re making donations to five human rights organisations, including Burma Campaign UK.

You vote, They donate!

They are asking customers to vote for the organisation they would like the Co-op to donate to – the more Co-op customers that vote for Burma Campaign, the more they donate to us.

So please vote now and help raise money for the Burma Campaign – and it won’t cost you a penny!

Vote online here

or call Freephone 0800 994 311

Thank you for your support.

Anna Roberts
The Burma Campaign UK

strangers

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I had another great (but much drier) day in London today to meet up with a few people and spent some quality time with Simon at Flat White before having a fantastic buffet for lunch in China Town (YFC ministry is a tough life!)

After meeting with Simon I had arranged another meeting near the Tate Modern which meant I was able to pop in on The Street and Studio exhibition which runs until august 31. This a great exhibition and well worth the visit if you have a chance.

There are a whole series of photos called ‘strangers passing’. Photos have been taken of people walking along the street, some realising that they are being photographed, and some not. I found this room quite stunning in its simplicity. The anonymity of these people was quite intriguing and I found myself wanting to know more about their stories, where they were going, what they had come from, what the smile was about, what had caused them to frown.

This natural human inquisitiveness was awoken by just a few photos. I was struck also by how just the odd visit to London (or is it everywhere) can force us into the anonymity that I was uncomfortable with in the photos. It does only seem to be in London where I can travel in such close proximity with people and yet be universes away from each other as we avoid any eye contact like the plague! It is like we all think we are going to spontaneously combust if we dare to make eye contact with each other.

On the way home today I tried to look at people – but no one was having any of it, people would rather stare at their feet than make eye contact with each other! Seems weird that in the lonely city people chose to protect that loneliness.

exciting but sad

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The rest of my day in London had various highlights:

Meeting up with Richard for my last line management meeting. That was quite a sad experience but an advantage of leaving is that you get bought presents – and I am now a proud owner of Common Worship: Ties and Seasons, which I would not have bought but will be massively useful to me.

Following that I shot over to Flat White to meet up with father Jeremy – looking cool decked out in his priestly gear.

I then ended the day by meeting up with the YFC Leadership Team for a leaving meal near Cheapside. Saying good bye to each one of them at the end of the evening was an odd experience and not a particularly nice one. These people have been friends, encouragers and challengers throughout my time with YFC (some 14/15 years). It is sad knowing this kind of great relationship, in this format, is changing. During the train journey home it hit home that my time with YFC is at an end and while that is exciting it is also sad.

On rational days I can see God’s leading clearly in all of this. On sensitive days I have real concerns over whether, at 43, I have the energy to start something new and ‘from scratch’ all over again. I guess only time will tell!

Anyway – all at YFC … thanks for your massive contribution for forming who I am!

I’m not sure if that makes sense, but I know what I mean!

Every Organisation Matters

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I had a long day in London yesterday which started at the Commonwealth Club for the presentation of the Every Organisation Matters whic is the first ever mapping of the children and young people’s voluntary and community sectors and was undertaken by a

team from the University of Hull led by Professor Gary Craig as part of NCVYS and NCVCCO’s Speaking Out project.

There were some interesting headlines and I was particularly struck by:

The children and young people’s voluntary and community sector employs over 160,000 people in England – as many as 1 in 3 of all those employed by voluntary and community organisations – and generates income in excess of £1.5 billion a year.

Children aged 7-13 appear to be poorly provided for, with an emphasis on early years provision and a growing government agenda around services for young people leading to this transitional age group missing out.

Voluntary and community sector organisations need to be doing more to measure the long-term impact of their work.

I could not find out how the faith sector, and particularly Christians, contribute and figure in this, but there is an acknowledgment that it will be significant. I also find it interesting to note that the sector generally is not good at seeing what long term effects we have on the young people we work with. We need to collect more stories and shout a little more about what we are doping maybe!

I’m going to read the full report to see what else was discovered. The full report may be found via NCVYS here.