Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fake (fake) Christmas…

Posted on by
1

I noticed this news article today concerning the conviction of two brothers who ran a spectacularly bad Christmas theme park in the New Forest.

They were convicted of misleading advertising.

Although in the eyes of the media they are guilty of something far worse- the trampling on the dreams of Children, robbing them of their innocence in the run up to Christmas 2008, and in so doing, bespoiling  the true meaning of Christmas in the name of grubby money making commercialism.

I find myself laughing out loud.

No one wants to upset kids at Christmas, and this does seem to have more than a dose of Faulty Towers about it, but does the irony of all this not smack you between the eyes?

The crime here was miss-selling Christmas product.

Or you could say being crap at monetizing Christmas.

They faked a fake Christmas.

Because this side of all the hype and the expense of another  Christmas (or Xmas) then we have to say that meaning,  as ever, was hard to come by for most of us in the mess of it all…

And to be honest- is this really any better at conveying meaning of any kind?

Happy Birthday to me…

Posted on by
5

The blog has been quiet for a few days because I have been busy helping a friend fit a kitchen. But today I am taking a day to do nice things, because-

…today I am 44.

Thanks for your good wishes friends!

Next year things will be changing again- which is no bad thing. Quite how and when is unclear, but change they will.

This time last year I nearly finished the adventure at the age of 43- which brings home the blessing of the road ahead, uncertain as it will surely be…

Aoradh meditations, Psalm 55- Sunday…

Posted on by
Reply

SUNDAY

But as for me, I trust in you.

I made a choice to hope-

Despite all evidence to the contrary

To believe that despite the pain of birth

Life is just so beautiful

That despite our capacity to kill and maim

There is still such tenderness in your touch

And despite my lack of grace

Grace remains

Walk with me

Through the mess of my uncertainty

And whatever this life will lay down

I am no longer afraid

I am for you Lord

Aoradh meditation, Psalm 55- Saturday…

Posted on by
1

SATURDAY

20 My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.
21 His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.


Somewhere along the climb up the greasy pole

The creases in his suit

Became sharp enough to cut me to the bone

.

Somehow power became more important than people

Strength was celebrated over weakness

Efficiency overwhelmed humanity

.

He sees no grey

Just black and blue

This man will decide the fate of thousands

.

Because of him buildings will scrape the sky

And on his bidding bombs fall on children

If his ends require it

.

Because each time he squashed a spirit

It became easier

And each time his ends could always justify his means

.

But there was a new covenant made

That has no interest in productivity

And seeks to win no wars

.

Rather it is a covenant for the humble

Of grace, kindness

And love

Aoradh meditations, Psalm 55- Wednesday…

Posted on by
Reply

WEDNESDAY

6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
7 I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;[c]
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”

.

There are days when I would exchange my world

For a cave

Wrap me up in shadows

For darkness put out

My light

.

Carry me away

Over these monochrome mountains

Why would I stay?

What more could you want from me?

Aoradh meditations, Psalm 55- Monday…

Posted on by
Reply

The next week’s meditations will be based around Psalm 55.

A cry of Lament.

Here it is in full…

Psalm 55 (NIV)

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David.

1 Listen to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my plea;
2 hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught
3 because of what my enemy is saying,
because of the threats of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering on me
and assail me in their anger.

4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
7 I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;[c]
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”

9 Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they prowl about on its walls;
malice and abuse are within it.
11 Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.

12 If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.

15 Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
for evil finds lodging among them.

16 As for me, I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
18 He rescues me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.

20 My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.
21 His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.

22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.
23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

Cheerful huh?

One third of all of the Psalms are written as laments- expressions of grief or sorrow- cries of pain and abandonment.

Does this strike you as a strange thing to form such a large part of the canon of hymns handed down to us from the ancient followers of JHWH?

Perhaps this says as much about us than it does about them. Because we tend to flick past these songs of Lament, and focus instead on the resoundingly optimistic songs- the ones that promise love, salvation and personal fulfilment.

I think this misses the point. They are there for a reason.

I recently heard one dominant stream of Christianity described as ‘Moralistic Therepeutic Deism’– a watered down faith that sees God as a kind of ‘divine therapist’, who serves as some kind of combination life coach/rich benevolent uncle- as long as we keep certain moral codes. Particularly the ones about sex.

But is this the God we encounter in the pages of the Bible?

There is certainly a flavour within many of the Psalms that would suggest that God is their God- theirs alone. He would save them, smite their enemies. Israel will prosper as long as it righteousness is found at the core of the Holy Nation.

But alongside this is a fear of the unknown mysterious YHWH. The jealous God whose very presence can spell death and destruction. If they got it wrong- even inadvertently- then enemies would pour through the gates of the city murdering and pillaging. And they did. The salvation they prayed for was very immediate- and could never be commanded or taken for granted.

Confusingly (and astonishingly) this same God however was capable of such tender love and mercy- sustaining the life of the nation like manna on desert dew.

The glimpses of God we see in the Psalms always feel to me to be just that- glimpses. Almost as if the ancient Hebrews are describing an elephant after glimpsing only it’s toenail, or the tip of it’s trunk.

We Christians believe we have seen a little more of the Elephant- we have a hindsight perspective given by our encounter with Jesus after all…or perhaps we just looked from a different direction- given the mess we often make of it all.

These songs of lament remind us that life is unpredictable. We are vulnerable- every one of us- from shooting stars or congenital heart disease or undeserved reputations. There will be wars and terror threats, and wrongful imprisonment. Our loved ones will pass away and leave us in a sea of grief. There is darkness in the human condition- but also great light.

And they also remind us that this God we serve is not a tame God. He did not make us and set us on our paths merely so that we may be more fulfilled within our already comfortable lives.

Perhaps he made us for adventure.

For mission.

For service to the other.

Above all he made us to love- particularly those whose song is currently one of lament.

Photographs of hope for Egypt, and the rest of us…

Posted on by
1

Michaela pointed this out to me today- which had somehow passed me by-

(Egyptian Muslims raising the Bible & Quran side by side while forming human shields around a church)

It relates to two events in Egypt over the past couple of months.

Firstly, on Christmas eve, thousands of Muslims turned up at Christian Coptic Mass(the 7th of January) services across the country to offer themselves as human shields to protect the Christian worshippers from the threat of suicide bombers.

This in the wake of a brutal attack on a church service on New Years Eve (which left 21 people dead) Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon, organised the event behind the slogan “We either live together or we die together.”

Then, in response to this act of solidarity and peace making from Egyptian Muslims, during the recent street protests, Christians formed another human shield to protect Muslims praying in the street-

Hallelujah.

A little parochial politics…

Posted on by
Reply

I added a link to an excellent local news website to my blogroll recently. I found myself visiting ForArgyll frequently, as they seem to be committed to a muscular, opinionated kind of investigative journalism that often makes for interesting reading. Whether or not you agree with their comment, they seem to be committed to holding our local government to account in an intelligent and committed way.

And although many of you probably care little about the politics of Argyll- the county in which I live and work-I thought it worth reflecting on how the economic crisis is working itself out locally.

I work for the local council, and whilst it would not be appropriate for me to discuss detail of the financial situation the social work department is facing, it is no secret to say that it is frightening.

Argyll and Bute council is one of those few local governing bodies that has been governed by coalitions of mostly ‘independent’ councillors for years. Political parties tend to be minorities in any administration. Whether this is a good thing or not is a point of debate, but it is very hard to know what individual representatives stand for. It also means that the representatives often lack a wider context of support, political affiliation and even scrutiny by national political organisations. And things can become very parochial indeed.

Overall, Argyll is home to around 60,000 people dispersed across remote islands and large rural areas. Our largest town, Helensburgh, has less than 20,000 people- and often feels like part of a Glasgow rather than the Highlands. We are an ageing population-  not just in terms of more older people, but more OLDER older people. Our school rolls are shrinking and all services tend to be marginal in their cost effectiveness because of the dispersed nature of the population they serve.

Into this context will come savage cuts.

But at present, no one seems to have a clue what is going to be cut, and how the council will balance it’s budget. It has already been a total dog’s breakfast- with all sorts of allegations flying around.

The council took the decision to close a number of local schools, in order to save money, but then effective campaigning pointed out that the calculations of savings on which the closures where based on were totally wrong- this because of the grant allocations from central government and a whole host of other things. Oh- and the council is supposed to consult on these closures, and they had failed to do so. Chaos ensued. The Scottish National Party councillors who were then part of the ruling coalition (one of whom was the education spokesperson) withdrew from government, and since then we have had much politicking to form a new ruling group.

Meanwhile, the executive and the administration are coming under increasing fire- not least from ForArgyll, whose probing questions have centred around-

  1. The role of the council leadership in negotiating a way of calculating allocations of central government money to local  authorities in Scotland. Our council leader appears to have participated in this debate, not understood it, and the end result is that Argyll were hit with an extra £5 million of cuts.
  2. Resignations of leaders, and their future electability.
  3. Poor administration- for example unmanageable agenda’s at council meetings, resulting in absolutely no meaningful discussion or debate of key issues, or as ‘For Argyll’ put it- We lost the will to live shortly before the end of the interminable and rambling Executive Committee and escaped to fresh air and a world that slowly righted itself. It is hard to describe to anyone who has not been there, just how deadly and cock-eyed these occasions are. Logic, reason and genuine discussion simply do not penetrate the fog, the artifice and the blindly defensive fortifications.

I have worked for the council since 2002, and these are chaotic times.

Meanwhile, over in the health service…

This is the front page picture from our local paper. It features a friend of mine, and local Episcopal minister, Andrew Swift, taking part in a campaign to save the local hospice.

This has caused unprecedented local ill feeling- the hospice was formed as a result of considerable local fundraising, and in partnership with the local Health Authority, who have now decided to close it. This is related to their own financial crisis, but has been spun out over a long period of time, with lots of allegations and counter allegations.

First many local GP’s issued a joint letter of protest.

Followed by a joint statement from local ministers- represented ably by Andrew as above.

Local passions are running high.

In the middle of all this, I find myself asking whether some good will come from all this?

Optimism is not really my natural condition, and there is much to fear as we face an uncertain future, locally and nationally.

But local engagement in politics, and a shakedown of old hierarchies and hegemonies- these things are good I think. They are a gift that comes with crisis- and the promise of real change.

Elections are coming…

Finally- local political quote of the week-

The leader of the Council is one of Dunoon’s councillors, Dick Walsh. When questioned about the closure of the hospice (and possibly relieved that he was not in the firing line for a change) he had this to say-

“The hospice will close over my dead body.”

 

The end of success culture?

Posted on by
1

Interesting discussion on the radio this morning about art, led by graphic designer Neville Brody. Brody was scathing about how art has been domesticated and even emasculated within our culture-

When was the last time you encountered any culture that you can say was really dangerous, that actually challenged anything?” so questions the Anti-Design Manifesto launched by the graphic designer Neville Brody. The former art director of The Face and Arena magazines has now taken over as head of the Royal College of Art’s Visual Communications department, where he plans to challenge the norm. While graphic design has become heavily associated with commercial art, Brody insists it’s a discipline that was born out of social engagement and the desire to give form to ideas and feelings, and that this role is needed more than ever in the digital age.

I am not well placed to agree or disagree with Brody’s assessment, but he suggested that for the last 20-30 years (since Thatcher,) the dominant ideology of our culture has been success.

All other ideas were swept away before the desire for success.

Tools to aid success became the most popular subject of study in our universities.

A successful life within this world view means wealth, choice, holidays, and personal happiness. We bought the idea that these things were available- almost by right- to all of us.

Success has to be quantifiable- and this usually means money. Art is not the only thing that we have monetised.

But there is a change in the air. The fluctuations in the economy increasingly dictate the kind of success we attain and for many of us, what we have strived for is simply not attainable nor sustainable.

There is a hunger for deeper, more spiritual ways of life.

And if people like Brody are right, then this might become a time of protest and challenge of the old dominant success-driven culture, and a time of new ideas…