Personal Review of 2012 part II

The decision to head off for a new adventure in Sunderland meant slowly letting friends and colleagues know that after 23 years of 'always being there', it was finally time to leave Bradford. I had 3 months notice to work through, so I deliberately set about making sure that it was a proper ending. Big parties, and lovely walks in my favourite places.

The Month of May saw local elections, and in Bradford, several Respect candidates upset the political apple cart once again. Everyone worried that Respect would 'bus in' councillors from further afield, but actually they simply went for the best local candidates who could sign up to their broadly left manifesto.  A few friends stood, and sadly lost, but many excellent new councillors appeared in the council chambers. Even a few labour councillors secretly cheered at the demise of the autocratic former city council leader.

May also saw the surprise election of Francios Hollande, a left wing president vowing to end the era of 'austerity' by promising investment and social improvements.  After economic right wing coups in Greece and Italy, finally some hope on the European front at long last.

June saw 'The Big Lunch' street party on Ashgrove - our most successful community event ever, with hundreds of people turning out to celebrate Bradford's diverse culture, and hardly a royalist in site. In a lovely turn of events, the group of trainee clergy who were helping me for the day were mostly from Sunderland! It gave me some great contacts for my journey to the North East.

The other interesting early Summer event, was the occupation of the Westfield site. The protest camp was aimed at the failure of Westfield to develop the city centre site, and it was met with strong support by local people. Because of George Galloway's support for the occupation, most of the local councillors condemned the action. Along with the 'occupy Menwith Hill Camp' that also sprang up during the summer - it seemed the natural way for the 'occupy' movement to go. Small, autonomous actions that showed up the failings of the Capitalist and Military rulers. Unstoppable and inspiring.

June also saw my last ever Street Angels shift - a project I had seen come to fruition over the last 5 years. It was sad to do my last evening with the gang - but I did feel I was getting ready to let go - and the current chair, Matt Dowson is a very capable chap. June also saw the third (and my final) 'Walk for Justice' to show solidarity with 'Sanctuary seekers' (sanctuary as opposed to the derogatory term used by the government; 'asylum seekers') This walk between Bradford and Leeds has been a real joy, allowing some quality time with people who have endured so much to come to the UK for safety.

June also saw the coup in Paraguay, bringing down President Lugo, the only fully blown Liberation Theologian to have ever been elected to power. On a happier note - Bob Diamond, chair of the corrupt Barclay's Bank was finally forced to resign. Lugo probably didn't get the kind of golden handshake that these corporate criminals get away with.

In July, there was a final party at Desmond Tutu House, and a beautiful service at SoulSpace. There I was presented with some wonderful bunting - each piece made by a different member of the church. It was all very moving, and I wept heavily during the final Eucharist. The end of an era.

I managed to avoid all of the Olympic fever by departing for a superb and much needed family holiday in Uruguay. It was a very special time, filled with many walks, good family fun, horse riding and even some drawing time.

Back in England, the last act of the summer was heading to the Greenbelt Festival, which was as inspiring and joyful as ever. August over, all my goodbyes said - it was time to head to Sunderland

A Personal Review of 2012: Part I

January began with an assault on the surviving occupy camps around the UK, and it was inevitable that the London camp would end in a mess. Many made noble attempts to keep it going as a statement against some of the cruelest excesses of Capitalism - but it was not to be. Locally, we were battling to save some vital services for severely disabled people, but the cuts seemed relentless and were clearly hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

The early part of 2012 saw some important work exposing the role of the US spy base at Menwith Hill - and my admiration for those at CND increases year on year. Dominic at the Yorkshire and Humberside office just impressed me over and over again - certainly in my book, he was one of the activists of the year.

March saw the airing of the Channel 4 documentary 'Make Bradford British', which many in the city had dreaded. (it did have a terrible name!) It turned out to be quite humane, and honest about the city. Many of us saw the programme in a positive light, and my blog title 'Make Britain Bradfordian' was even adopted by some of the participants.  Bradfordians could be proud of being flawed, but open to the possibilities of change and hope.

March also saw the opening of the new pool in the city centre - which was a triumphant act, and coincided with the opening of the much needed 'Home Made' art store and community centre.(which Cat and I helped paint!) Bradford felt like it was on the up. The city was also attracting international attention because George Galloway had chosen to stand for the Respect Party at the by-election caused by the previous incumbents alcohol related illness.

In early March, a few weeks before the election, a local Respect Party activist, suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Abu Bakr was young and well liked. I had known him through the Palestinian Solidarity campaign and he, his wife and their newly born child were regulars at Desmond Tutu House. I remember going to the wake at the local Mosque, to pay my respects to his family. George was there, and was clearly hurting. He had even considered cancelling the campaign. It was Abu Bakr's wife Kauser, who urged everyone to carry on - to make Galloways election a tribute to her husband. And so it was to be. I was at the Respect HQ with Sarah Cartin when the news of the huge victory became known. It was a momentous occasion, and my blog about the reason people abandoned the big three parties became the most read piece I had ever written, partly because the then Chair of Respect, the wonderful Salma Yaqoob kept retweeting my blogs on the subject.

The retweeting caused mayhem in April as Salma helped make my April fool blog, (suggesting Galloway was turning the much loved Odeon building into a 'Turkish bath and mosque') become the biggest scam I had ever orchestrated. I was on a high.

April was a great month. Our church organised a very special foot washing service in the new mirror pool for Maundy Thursday, and Bradford felt like it was sending me off with a terrific high.

Later in the month, I was to have an interview with Sunderland University for the post of Chaplain. When I went to have a wander around the city before the interview, something wonderful happened. I had never been to the place before, but something deep inside felt absolutely right. I finally felt that God was actively working alongside me on the next stage of the journey.

All would be well, I simply had to have a little trust and a little faith. Surely not too much to ask from a priest!

Preaching on 'The Magnificat' (Mary's radical song)

Advent Sermon based on the Magnificat, preached 10am; 23rd Dec 2012 in Sunderland Minster:

My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
Because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid;
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
Because he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
And his mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of his mercy
Even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

In a few short days it will be Christmas itself – not Advent, the season of waiting, but the big day where we focus on the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus. The Incarnation simply means; God becoming one of us, so that we are completely and utterly connected to God. No more is God a big thing up there or out there – but intimately, God becomes one of us.

And the passage we have just heard from Luke, makes it all a bit clearer how that actually happens. You know the old saying, behind every God Man, is an amazing woman – and here in Luke chapter 1 v 39-56, we have the scriptural evidence.

We have this coming together of these two great women, Elizabeth and Mary, at the time when God is being knitted together in the womb – both women are going to help bring up extraordinary people who will change the face of the earth.

Elizabeth, has already had the strange story of thinking that she wouldn't ever have kids, then suddenly becoming a mum late on in life. We know that she is a righteous woman, blameless, and that she is the one who perhaps most powerfully shapes the person of John the Baptist. John becomes the great revolutionary from the desert, who challenges the people with power and begins saying ground breaking things like 'whoever has two coats must give to the one who has none, and whoever has bread must share it with those who go without'. Behind John is his mother Elizabeth, with her trust in the Lord and her absolute love for God.

Mary and Elizabeth meet up and spend 3 months together. Mary, is quite obviously an incredible woman. I'm not interested in 'Mary' the woman of myth, depicted in such a saintly, virginal way in certain art and literature. I'm fascinated by the real, down to earth Mary who recognises that God is at work in her life, and then strives to do the best she can. A woman who may well have  had to bring up most of her children on her own, as her husband Joseph simply disappears from the story. According to some stories, Joseph was killed by the Roman's, as were thousands of his country folk at the hands of the occupying army.

And here in 'the Magnificat', in this most extraordinary of songs (the church calls them canticles because it needs a fancy name for everything) in this great song, we get some incredible hints at who this woman was, and what she really was about;

“My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in the Lord my Saviour”

Firstly we see that she is a great poet and mystic, these are intensely beautiful words, timeless and wonderful. She is a woman of great joy and she knows that God is at work in her and she rejoices. Her very being is one that tells of the great goodness of God, her very soul magnifies the Lord, she makes him known in the world and she rejoices in that.

We also know that she was someone who spent time listening to scripture and the holy words of her faith – she knows her traditions well – this song is based on the song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel – and she sings it to Elizabeth, knowing full well that it is also the story of another woman who didn't think she would have a child, but then goes on to be honoured by God with the responsibility of bringing up a great leader.

Mary is also a wise scholar. She adapts scripture to make sense of her situation, she updates it. This is not a copy of Hannah's song, but a modern retelling of it. Over the years, she will help Jesus to make sense of his traditions but help him to not be a slave to it, something that we all desperately need to be able to do!

In the song, we also see her humility as she talks of the lowliness of herself as his servant. She is humble, but not passive, she recognising that God has done amazing things for her and for all the 'lowly ones' of history.

Then we see the revolutionary words of a peasant women 2000 year ago. She reveals that God is the one who has brought down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

So from the very start of Jesus life – he is exposed to the radical teachings of this woman, who knows what life is really about, and will sing to Jesus radical songs as he grows, keeping him on the straight and narrow path of God's justice and peace.

Jesus knows from the very start that society is an unfair place, that it does not reveal the way that God wants the world to be. Hence his life is spent calling for revolution, repentance, a turning from the ways of this world and then building God's kingdom, where there will no hungry people any more, and an end to inequalities.

I think we often fall into the trap of believing that Jesus was born with super human powers, and that he already had within him the memories of the beginning of the universe and even the knowledge of the end of it. I don't think that that is what an incarnational God is all about. Jesus, has to grow up, has to learn wisdom, scripture, humility and what it is that God needs of him. And Mary is the one who does it.

It is up to each of us as parents, each of us as educators who deal with children, who have this great responsibility of bringing God into this world, one child at a time.

It is perhaps because of this that we feel the suffering of the parents of the 20 children of Sandy Hook Elementary School who were so brutally slain. We give thanks to the brave 6 women who died trying to protect these little ones. Dawn Hochsprung, the head teacher who rushed to the scene and tried to stop this man slaughtering the innocents. When the shooting started, it was another saintly Mary that jumped in to care for the little ones. The school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, ran to the scene and tried to rush the man with the gun, and died in a hail of bullets. She was a dedicated educator driven by her faith. Her husband William told the media “she considered what she was doing to be God's work – that is all you need to know about her.”

Our duty is to bring up our children and the children around us in a way that constantly reminds us that God's love is the only reason for our existence, and that everything in our bodies must yearn for God's kingdom of love, despite the horrors of this world. Mary Sherlach was willing to give her life for that belief.

The 'Magnificat' will help us to do this. We should long to be poets and mystics who rejoice in our souls, and tell of Gods love for us, and do so with humility and dedication. We should not shirk from saying that God is about changing this world completely. It must turn away from being a place of greed and hunger, where violence rains down on the little ones in Syria, in Pakistan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We must stop being nations that run by the strength of the barrel of a gun and put an end to a world where powerful people can do as they please.

This Christmas it all ends. Instead, we must turn to a God whose power is demonstrated not with a sword or a gun, but through a child, born in poverty, and raised by the radical songs and wisdom of a peasant woman 2000 years ago.

The United States is addicted to guns, and there is only one cure...

There is a sickness at the heart of the United States of America. As we watch the disturbing pictures of the killing spree in Newtown Connecticut, it is hard not to cry. As a parent of two young children, the thought of such a terrible ending to such innocent lives is almost too unbearable to cope with.

Yet despite the choked up reaction of Barack Obama, and the rhetoric that 'words are not enough', it is hard to imagine anything much changing in the US. They have more Gun stores than branches of McDonald's. They sold over 2 million guns in November 2012 alone. There are almost as many legal firearms as people in the US (311 million people)

The gun carrying culture is enshrined in their constitution, and, perhaps even worse, is entrenched in the US psyche. And as the incredible 'Bowling for Columbine' documentary by Michael Moore tries to show, the problem is so much deeper than just a few disaffected kids who have watched too many violent video games. US society and internal/foreign policy has been based around killing and destroying for well over 150 years. It is no wonder that they as a nation have been involved in or have been responsible for more wars than any other nation since 1900.

The US government is seemingly addicted to war, and while that continues, then the belief in the importance of 'bearing arms' will forever be part of the 'American way of life'.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Even the biggest drug/alcohol/gambling addict has an opportunity to change. The answer is almost always a total cessation. For an addict - there cannot be a partial 'cut down'. So if we see gun ownership as an addiction, the answer is not to 'tinker' around with minor gun control. There needs to be a full reversal of gun policy - heading towards  a virtual zero tolerance of weapons of mass destruction being in the hands of any citizen.

It is unlikely that Obama will have the wisdom or the power to make such a stand. He is having to deal with the first major block to any addict making a serious attempt at recovery: Denial.

The CofE must embrace same sex marriage

The government has played a very clever card. On the back of the the widespread public distaste at the failure of the Church of England to pass legislation on women bishops, it is now seeking to appease its own members who are opposed to gay marriage, by stopping the C of E from ever conducting such marriages. This helps them pass the legislation by keeping ultra Conservatives happy, whilst putting the blame squarely at the feet of the already unpopular C of E institution.

This is a terrible blow to all of us who are pushing for the opportunity to be able to perform same sex marriages within the Anglican tradition.

I had hoped that the legislation coming might lead to that eventuality. It seems correct to allow churches to make up their own minds, even if the process seems tortuous. I can cope with the fact that Quakers and Methodists are quicker of the mark on social justice issues, mostly because they 'pave the way' and make it easier for the larger denominations to eventually catch up.

The proposed legislation though, would never allow us to 'catch up' with our more progressive friends. It would be 'illegal' for us to ever perform same sex marriages, despite the fact that nearly 45% of clergy are not opposed to the idea.

It would eventually lead some of us to 'push the bouondaries' of the law and risk losing our jobs, or even facing convictions. This is truly absurd, and needs to be resisted by all, regardless of their position on gay marriages.

To exempt the Churches of England and Wales from the possibility of opting to perform same sex marriages will just lead to many of us eventually leaving for more progressive Anglican shores, or joining other denominations. This is crazy. I am an Anglican priest. I am proud of the fact that the Holy Spirit has moved in our Church and helped us to move from positions of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination.

It does take time, and the move to ordain female bishops shows these frustrations. Change though is possible, and we will see female bishops in 2/3 years. We cannot allow this government use legislation to stop the Church of England from ever allowing some of it's diocese's, parishes or clergy to endorse same sex marriage.

I hope that those in the leadership of the C of E will recognise that their position must change. Otherwise we will lose another generation, as our institution looks more and more irrelevant and unkind. It does not bode well for us that the 'nasty party' can easily pass us off as the 'nasty church'.

Why we should boycott Starbucks despite their 'kind offer' to pay some taxes.

How very nice of Starbucks to offer to pay some money to make up for the fact that they are an evil tax evading corporation. I guess £20 million is something, considering that they allege to have made a loss for the last 14 out of 15 years trading. Oh, and apparently, despite a turn over of nearly £400 million last year - they didn't pay a penny in tax over the 12 months of trading (nor have they for the last 3 years)

In fact, they have only paid just over £8 million in corporation tax over the last 15 years. By some estimates, they have managed to avoid almost £300 million in taxes over that period, so the offer of £20 million over the next 2 years is peanuts. If I were to offer to voluntarily pay under 10% of the tax I owe - then I would soon be on the way to prison.

Corporations such as Starbucks, Amazon, Boots, Barclays, Topshop, Tesco and Google seem to be getting away with murder. Murder? Well, because these big boys find ways of not paying taxes, and their friends in the ConDem free market party aren't doing much about it, then it is the poor who are paying the price - sometimes with their lives. If you cut spending on the Health service, then people die - especially poor people who have worse access to services already.

I recently had to step foot in a Starbucks. I was a guest at one of those churches who think a 'fresh expression' of church means meeting in a shop that denies access to unions for its staff, and happily avoids paying taxes. I was very courteous, but everyone kept offering to by me a drink, and I kept refusing. How can we condone their behaviour? How could any Christian or indeed any sane human being think that Starbucks behaviour is at all justifiable?

The answer is to boycott until they pay their corporation tax in full. (a measly 21% due to this governments Autumn budget, making the rich pay less whilst squeezing the poor) This payment should include back pay in taxes for the last 15 years.

The Tory argument, is that if you force them to pay their taxes, then they may go and do their business else where. Good, let them go. it might make more space for smaller, local and ethical coffee shops. Ones that are more likely to pay their taxes and employ more people.

UK Uncut are planning a day to highlight Starbucks tax avoidance this coming Saturday. It is perhaps why Starbucks have eventually made this very public offer to pay some tax at last. I'll certainly be looking out for my nearest expression of disgust at these moral criminals. Let's protest at these outrages and boycott Starbucks along with the rest of these greedy corporations, until there is some tax justice!

Remembrance Day blues

Watching the events over the last week or so unfold have reminded me why I hate what has become of Remembrance Day: The virtually one sided slaughter in Gaza (130 Palestinians and 3 Israelis dead): The failure of UN peacekeepers to prevent horror in the Democratic Republic of Congo: In Durham Cathedral, another funeral of a British soldier dying needlessly in Afghanistan.

War is wrong, war is never a solution. The red poppy, which I cherished as a child, taught me to remember the dead of 2 world wars, in the hope that the horror would never happen again. Since the Iraq war, increasingly, it has taken on a more sinister role, and as become somehow connected to patriotism and a glorification of current conflicts.

In Sunderland, which holds the biggest remembrance day parade outside of London, my decision to wear a white poppy was met with shouts on the streets, even though I wore it with a red poppy intertwined.  The Military flyby at 11am was met by gasps of joy from the crowds, but I couldn't help but feel the terror of those being bombed by such jets around the world.

The white poppy has been around since 1933. It is a symbol that says that we need to strive for peace, not glorify war. In the age of relentless bombing of civilians in Gaza, and of butchering in 22 wars around the world - it is imperative that we all work for peace and put behind us the symbols of war. We need to reclaim the red poppy as a true act of remembrance - never again should we endorse the evils of war. We also need to assert the white poppy, so that we all oppose conflicts, and oppose all those who profit from such conflicts.

White and Red worn together should not be a problem for Sunderland. After all, the city's footballers model on the fields of honour every week!