UK church attendance 2010…

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According to Christan Research, church attendance figures in the UK which have been falling for years, appear to have stabilised.

This follows on trends reported on previously- here for example.

This from the Telegraph–

The figures show that in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, a long-term decline in weekly Mass attendance ended in 2005 and the figures have been broadly stable since. In 2008 there were 918,844 attending church each week, up from 915,556 the year before.

Within the Church of England the researchers found “fairly steady attendance” over the past decade, with 1.145million attending services each week in 2008, compared with 1.2m in 2001.

However this does not include the higher numbers who go to church at Christmas and Easter, nor those who have joined the Fresh Expressions initiative.

Here are some graphic illustrations, from The Church Mouse blog–

I am not sure how to read these stats. Church attendance numbers have fallen for so long in the UK that it almost seemed as if church as an institution was doomed here- but the reality is that there was always going to be a residual group who will continue to attend.

Does this mean that this group are to some extent the serious believers- and that the nominal attenders have been winnowed out? I am not so sure…

I think that church has a way to go yet in finding ways of engaging with our cultural context- a lot of steps forward, and no doubt a lot of steps backwards too.

But lest I become too maudlin, this is indeed a good story for the life of faith in these islands. Because although my concept of ‘church’ is much greater than buildings and institutions- they can be very useful, particularly in our climate!

Scottish Children’s Panel- can you help?

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I was asked to give a shout out about the Scottish Childrens Panel service- who are trying to recruit new members at the moment.

For Scottish based folk who might be looking for a way to volunteer and help protect and support the most vulnerable members of our society- this might be a life changing experience. Literally.

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Potty road trip…

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I am just back from a road trip with a couple of friends- we drove down to Derbyshire in a rattly rented van to fetch a load of pottery equipment bought off ebay. A 7 hour drive each way, with an overnight at Michaela’s mums, and a few pints in the evening.

This included loads of glazes, clay, kiln furniture and not one, but TWO kilns.

Oh- and one of them weighed half a ton.

So there we were, Simon, Paul and I, along with two of Michaela’s uncles (The fantastic Ken and Phil- men who are used to hard work!) faced with a winding garden path, steps and low garden walls. Two previous potential buyers had taken a look and decided that fingers, toes and vertebrae were more valuable than the kiln.

But we were not to be so easily put off!

So about an hour of weedling, scraping, levering and hammering later, it was in the van and on the way up country. The unload was fun too (thanks Andy!)

We just need to empty our cellar of all the accumulated junk, install a new electrical circuit, and then people can get potting.

Not me- I have other gifts.

And anyway- I will be in traction for a few weeks…

Blogging the Qur’an day…

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So, Terry Jones has suspended his decision to burn a pile of Korans on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. (if you missed his madness- see here.)

His stated motivation for calling off the burning was because he had received assurances from and Imam that a planned opening of a Mosque close to the site of the atrocity was being reconsidered. Thankfully, this does not seem to be the case- after all, what better place would there be for a Mosque in this age of religious division and warfare?

In response to all this, Andrew Jones (alias Tall Skinny Kiwi) called for people to blog verses from the Koran as a way of encouraging understanding and tolerance between the faiths. A much better thing to do to commemorate the terrible loss of life that happened on September the 11th, 2001.

As a friend of mine said, there is some scary stuff in the Koran- as there is in the Bible.

But there is also much that is beautiful.

So here are my verses-

Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for Allah knoweth well those that do right (3:113-115 AYA).

And unto thee (Muslims) have We revealed the Scripture (the Qur’an) with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah hath revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come unto thee.

Nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: Because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant (5:85 AYA/82 MP).

What is going on here?

It is difficult for people outside a faith tradition to make pronunciations on Scripture, so all I will say is that these verses would suggest that followers of the Prophet are not placed in enmity of their Jewish and Christian brothers by the book- rather they are placed in a position of respect. Honesty, piety and humility are regarded as signs of the presence of God.

Ancient Persian poets…

For those of you who have never read any of the Sufi poets, can I suggest that these too might be a way of engaging with the rich traditions of searching for the Divine that forms the bedrock of Islam.

This is ancient poetry that flowed around a culture as a source of spirituality and wisdom.

There are a few hints of this beautiful tradition below-

Rumi.

Say who I am

I am dust particles in sunlight
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, stay.
To the sun, keep moving.

I am morning mist,
And the breathing of evening.

I amwind in the top of a grove
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman and keel.
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parot in its branches.
Silence, thought and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute
A spark off a stone, a flickering
in metal. Both candle
and the moth crazy around it.

Rose and the nightingale
lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift
and the falling away. What is
and what isn’t.

Sanai.

Streaming (excerpt)

When the path ignites the soul,

there is no remaining in place

The foot touches the ground,

but not for long

The way where love tells its secret

Stays always in motion

And there is no you there, and no reason

The rider urges his horse to gallop

and so doing, throws himself

under the flying hooves

In love-unity there’s no old or new

Everything is nothing

God alone is

Attar.

The Newborn

Muhammed spoke to his friends
about a newborn baby, “This child
may cry out in its helplessness,
but it doesn’t want to go back
to the darkness of the womb

And so it is with your soul
when it finally leaves the nest
and flies out into the sky
over the wide plain of a new life.
Your soul would not trade that freedom
for the warmth of where it was.

Let loving lead your soul.
Make it a place to retire to,
A kind of monastery cave, a retreat
for the deepest core of your being

Then build a road
from there to God

Let every action be in harmony with your soul
and its soul-place, but don’t parade
those doings down the street
on the end of a stick!

Keep quiet and secret with soul-work.
Don’t worry so much about your body.
God sewed that robe. Leave it as it is.

Be more deeply courageous.
Change your soul.”

Divisions in the Catholic Church…

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On the eve of the Pope’s state visit to Britain, I thought it might be helpful to give some thought to an overview of the Roman Catholic church in these islands…

It has not been an easy time for the old Church- child abuse scandals, involvement of priests in terrorism in Ireland and some rather difficult pronouncements by the Pope, who appears to be intent on winding back a lot of progressive forces within the wider church.

There was a really helpful programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning, which I tried to listen to on my drive to Bute. I say ‘tried’ as you lose radio signal at different parts of the route.

However, you can listen to it all here.

The programme is particularly helpful as it was clearly made from an inside perspective- through discussion with real people- lay and clergy- who represent the wide spectrum of positions within the Church.

Well worth a listen in particular for those of us who are not familiar with some of the tensions present within this venerable old institution- from those who would take the Church back to before Vatican II, right through to those who see the future of the Church as needing to respond to a changing world on all sorts of issues, from homosexuality, to woman priests and a change on totemic issues like contraception.

Incidentally, there was great hilarity in our house this week, as we realised that our wonderful 10 year old son had been mishearing our pronunciation of the word ‘Pope’. Somehow whenever he had heard the title of the Pontiff, he had thought that the word being used was ‘Poke’. Chuckle.

Burning holy books…

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So, some mad pastor who leads a church of 50 people in Florida (rather fatuously called the ‘Dove world outreach centre‘) has raised a political storm over his ‘International burn a Koran day‘.

Apparently God told him to do it.

Check him out (Is that President Bush behind him in the picture being supported by the heavenly angels?)

Their website seems to be down, but there is a whole lot more nonsense on this Facebook page.

What is significant is not that some people are bonkers enough to think that this is a good thing to do- even a Christian thing to do- but rather that we live in times that such an act might be so inflammatory as to require statements by the President of America, our Prime minister, the Pope and many others.

There will always be idiots like Terry Jones. People who believe that their perspective comes straight from God. They are dangerous only in as much as they can be seen as an extreme version of a much wider world view that is prevalent across conservative Christianity.

I fear that this is true. Anyone who has spent time in conservative evangelical circles will be used to descriptions of anything that is not overtly Christian as being ‘of the devil’, or even ‘Evil’. Islam is described as ‘a deception of the devil’. Islamic terrorism is then a viewed as a natural consequence of an evil religion preaching hatred and violence. Any suggestion that this violence has to been seen in a context of global conflict, injustice and poverty is regarded as tantamount to getting in bed with the devil.

I simply do not concur. Anyone who has read the Sufi poets, or has any understanding of the effects of Imperialism and globalisation over the last 50 years can not simplify this issue to a dualistic good/evil issue.

The consequences of all this are likely to be more of this-

And more radicalisation, polarisation and intolerance.

In the name of God.

One thing that has become increasingly apparent to me is how we people of faith easily use our written texts like Asherah poles– we raise them high, as idolatrous objects of our worship. This was more or less the reason for this earlier post.

A few years ago, a friend of mine proposed an installation where we would burn a Bible. He wrote a poem that summed up the reasons for doing it- here. We never did it, as it was simply too controversial for our context, but I still think that the idea is interesting and provocative.

Because we do not worship the words in the book, we worship the Word, another name for Jesus, who had little tolerance for religious bigots.

Our anniversary…

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Taken in Robin Hood Bay, outside the cottage where we had our honeymoon 20 years ago…

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary.

I can scarcely believe it.

We were young together Michaela and I- she was lovely and kind, I was awkward and mercurial, but she saw something in me that others did not.

And who I am today is formed out of what we became together. Her tolerance, my dreams. My wide horizons, her warm fireplace. Her hospitality, my shyness. My creativity, her nurturing. Her mothering, my fathering.

And lots of love.

Science kills God. Again.

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1st collector for BBC News – Professor Stephen Hawking says no Go…
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The news is strangely full of Steven Hawking’s statements about God and the beginning of the universe. It is suggested that he has changed his mind- about the lighting of the fuse of the Big Bang. He has suggested that the origin of the universe did not need a Creator, as it would have happened anyway.

Strange because it seems such an old argument- the old conflict between faith and science. Why on earth is it all news again? Perhaps it relates to product- Hawking has a new book to hawk.

But there is quite a bit of this around at the moment I think. Richard Dawkins has a series on channel 4 trying to evangelise the atheist gospel of purity through enlightened scientific knowledge. Dawkins has an ego the size of France and I am not sure many people are very interested in his ranting- any more than they are interested in Christians who use the same style of rant to propagate their own evangelical crusade, but it does seem strange that there is a renewed interest in these issues.

I wonder if it is at least partly because of the uncharted territory that physical sciences are finding themselves in at present? All those nano particles and Hedron collisions.

So we see God used even by scientist to explain things that they can not (Who remembers the so called ‘God particle?) until they believe that they now CAN understand, and so God is pushed back again. I have heard this kind of God described as ‘The God of the gaps’- he exists only to deal with that which we have not yet fully explored, then we have not more need of him.

But science and religion are like air and water. They do not mix, but are strangely made up of similar molecules. One can contain a little of the other, but only for a while before they are forced apart again.

One deals with how, the other why. One with process, the other with meaning. One with macro and global, the other with micro and personal. One with text books, the other with human encounters.

I am not a scientist- but I need science. And scientists- whether they know it or not- need poets.

Today, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year. A time when Jews remember Creation.

Before which there was nothing.

And poem was yet to begin.

Ways of life…

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I love this image- if it is yours, sorry I pinched it- from here…

Ways of life

.

For some life is lived in the measuring

Of every moment

In raising high the cup of experience

And drinking it dry

.

Life too is like a dark forest

A dark green shadow

Oozing out its fungal fingers

Spreading secret spores

Unnoticed

But irrepressible

.

Life may be a blazing flare

Across the stormy night sky

Burning an arc into the retina

Should you look its way

.

Life too is an ember whose glow

Was borrowed by proximity

Given

Then gone

.

Or life may be a bubble

In a clear blue stream

Dancing with the bouncing pebbles

And waltzing among the weeds

.

Then rising

.

Detained briefly by the surface tension

Going through

.

And beyond