It's 'Us', not 'Them'!

All too often when we speak about migrants and refugees we begin to use the plural; ‘Them’. Them seems to be a summation of the issue, it rolls up the problem neatly into a well-ordered little bundle that can be labelled them in reference to ethnicity, religion, or origin and so many other ways humankind finds of differentiating between its own species. Often we do this instinctively from learning, and for the majority mean no harm; but the moment we do think of those in need as them then we have a problem for we begin to dehumanise the situation; we begin to dehumanise ‘them’. For at that moment they can just become a problem to solve, a numbers game, and those separate and very precious life stories that each person has are lost.

The truth is, the them is actually us, for we are them. In any other circumstance we could quite easily finds ourselves the ones in need, the faces in the crowd. Just imagine that all of your life story, everything that you are, have been, have achieved should in the matter of a minute suddenly account for nothing. You just become a number, a lost soul in a sea of lost souls – them wondering around wanting someone to listen. But those who seem to have power, those who are organised the together ones, the ‘us’ ones, they are so busy dashing around throwing blankets out taking names, they do not give you the time of day. Then when you say you have skills that could help they say you can’t for different reasons, but you know it’s because you’re not one of ‘us’.

We are no different we are all the same made in God’s own image. If we think we are then we are no better than those who supported apartheid in South Africa. Or the Nazis, or just about anyone who thinks they are better than others, and goodness knows the world is rife with it. But the real problem are those desperately trying to save their lives, is that such a crime?

Light your candles, pray your prayers for those who are reaching out to us their sisters and brothers, and take action. Write and lobby your politicians and remind ‘them’ that the refugees are all ‘Us’!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24583286

Light a Candle for our Dying Sisters and Brothers ... they need our help!!!

How do we start to even imagine the desperation of our sisters and brothers from across the oceans, from across the continents, who seek to get themselves and their children away from wars, and away from those that would do them great harm? How do we respond? How do we truly respond? The truth is we respond badly, we cannot deny this because the death toll speaks for itself. We respond so often by just looking away or by tutting at the TV when we see so many people crowded into boats screaming for help and shouting at those trying to save them. Perhaps we even fall for the line that some politicians spin that it is their own fault for getting themselves into that predicament in the first place particularly those dashing to get onto trains and Lorries heading for Great Britain. Yet we choose to forget sometimes the great evil that they have faced and now run away from. Of course no can be allowed to threaten a driver with a violence that is not right at all. But the truth is the world is looking in the opposite direction when hundreds and thousands of people are dying day by day in boats and on land as they try so desperately to just find a life that they can lead in safety. Not even a life of great wealth not necessarily a life with the TV in a big house; just a life of safety is all they want.

This must stop these are our sisters and our brothers we cannot look away! We can no longer think that it is somebody else's problem! It is not it is ours. Yours and mine.

This morning as I watched the TV it reported that thousands of people had died in boats that had sunk or that they had been crammed into, and then that seventy one bodies have been discovered in a lorry in Austria. These were people being smuggled through the continent. Yet the biggest story seemed to be the stock markets and how much money two men who were investing in stocks and shares had made or lost this week;  there was of course the other big story about how one cooks beef burgers. We have it so badly wrong; so very very badly wrong. This is our problem. It is our problem, I cannot restate that enough. We must remind our MP’s constantly, we must lobby them all of the time that these people are us! There is no difference, the only differences is where they were born. They may have a different language, a different colour to their skin, but why should this separate them from us; this is just a convenience, a convenience for us, for humankind which has always been a opportunity that we have exploited so that some can get richer while others get poorer, some live and while some others will die. Well this must end.

Today I light a candle it may seem a small gesture but I light it in prayer and prayer is never small gesture! I light it for each one of those that have died because they are my brothers and my sisters, they are my father's and my mother's, they are my sons and my daughters; though I will never know them in this life I love them truly! And live with a heart that is breaking, and therefore I will keep this light burning and it will burn always, always until we get it right. We may only get it right when we learn to be true human’s true humanity.

When Christ was on the cross when he was there dying, he turned to one of the prisoners being crucified with him, though this man had failed in life Christ said today you will be with me in Paradise for that man was his brother. If Christ can reach out if he can do that, so can I, so can you. And so can our governments and it is up to you and me to force our government to take action now, not tomorrow, now. We must save lives today.  

Let us also all light a candle say a prayer, or just stop and think for a moment, about those who need us right now. Let us all lobby our MPs and our governments and let us the people save the people, let us stand tall and rescue ourselves, because we never know when we too may be in a situation when we are the ones at sea.

Human Rights, Jesus Style

The UK general election surprised many pundits as we ended up with a majority government, many say that it does not matter who gets in really, but does it? Shortly after the election I was sitting in my study reading an Oxford undergrads paper on human rights, and I must say she has done a very good job of it. Next read some case law involving the Human Rights Act, not quite so gripping as the former reading material. Some of you very sensibly are asking; why, what is wrong with this man, has he nothing better to do with his time? Well no actually this is what I do, so get used to it.

            Many of my friends know that I that I am a keen student of law, more sad facts, and also a disability advisor and campaigner. So human rights sit at the very heart of everything I am and do. As a Christian I know all people are equal and have the same rights as each other regardless of where we are born, our skin colour and the many differences God has gifted us with. Of course this also includes our religion and indeed denomination within that religion. Yet we still seemingly have to create laws to establish that very basic fact of equality. Abraham Lincoln in the 1860’s when dealing with a war, and ensuring that at the end of the war slavery would be no more, had to turn to law. At Gettysburg after such terrible loss of life he said of the United States “… a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. We must note that women’s full equality in law had yet to come. But Lincoln was a true politician, perhaps even one of the first of his kind. He understood before so many the importance of the role of politics in the everyday life of citizens; and he knew that the outworking of politics was by law, and in law; and that it was in law that all people could achieve true equality.

            How does this fit with the UK’s recent general election? Well the current Government promised before gaining power that if it was returned it would sweep away the Human Rights Act and replace it with something different. Many of us who are either academic lawyers or practice law worry about this. Even though it was not mooted in the Queens speech the threat is still there, so fortunately for the present nothing is happening, however we watch with concern. Particularly those of us who are also ‘disabled’ for we have lost much over the past five years, to lose some legal protections is something very much to worry about.

           

Jesus saw through all of this, He recognised the importance of equality, that imbalance could

Ability, different ability, differently-abled and disability

It is now three years since I realised that I was ‘disabled’, i.e. physically when I tried to run for a bus I just stopped still, completely. It sounds funny, and I guess it was, at first. But up until that point I had been a very active person cycling, running and walking. My main love being walking, of which I aimed to do at least 25 miles per week, OK a little excessive I know! And so I always took full ‘mobility’ for granted.

Until a fluke accident I had never contemplated ‘disability’ or as I would much rather describe it; ‘becoming differently abled’. But here I am, now having to mobilise with two walking sticks. Though this I can only do for a for short distances as standing is so very painful, and so using an electric wheelchair (no not an electric chair) and a mobility scooter are my preferred modes of getting around.

On a matter of discipleship and carrying the Gospel to the people, I think that the good folk of north Wolverhampton perhaps see something many others would not, a priest in black shirt and ‘Dog Collar’ tootling around on his mobility scooter sharing many a good day with the people he meets. I do think it a great shame that we do not see many priests out and about in their clerical wear, for some reason it does not seem vogue anymore to dress like a ‘vicar’, or is it too ‘Roman’. All nonsense, it is like the stole, the yoke a priest and deacon bears from the time of ordination, it becomes a symbol that we are the Church right there in the midst of the people. Oops, getting off track … back to disability …

                But what is ‘disability’? Well it is only when we really think about it, I mean; ‘Really’ think about it do we realise that it is a ‘dis’ word. Dis means less than, and when coupled with ‘ability’ it means less then abled. OK we may say that sounds reasonable as a definition; but No there is so much more to a person than whatever it is that has created an impairment of sight, mobility, hearing or any other functionality. So for example when I am in my wheelchair out with my wife why do people insist on talking across me and asking my wife, ‘would he like coffee or tea?’, ‘is he ready to come through and see the doctor?’, help me I think, it my back that has stopped working not everything else. Anyway, there is no such thing as the perfect human being, let’s face it even Jesus cannot claim that; because He was also of God and it would be cheating a little in this context anyway, so theologians hold on to your ink. But if we are to take Genesis as read then God created us, and we were ‘Good’ – not perfect, but good. We are in His image but that is the Spirit the glorious self that loves, has faith in God and hopes for a better tomorrow. But today we live in bodies that are good and so are likely at times to change, to break, to age to wear out. Not only may they change but some of us may be born in a way that some would describe as ‘different’.

                What is this difference? Difference is that which humans ascribe to that which falls outside of the average, or perhaps we might use a mathematical term and say the ‘mean average’. The mean average would be made up of the majority of people, and those who are ‘different’ would fall outside of this mean average. Well of course this is a man-made construct and allows for total nastiness towards those who do not fit into this ‘average’ and this is where we as a race get ‘mean’ from.

Unfortunately we end up using the term disability because it is the word used in law. But this should not stop us using it with great care. But it is society that decides if a person is disabled, because it is society in the form of our churches, shops, schools, theatres, sports stadia, etc. that create the facilities for people to get in and out and around. Also to use the facilities fully, or at least experience as much as can be within ‘real’ physical constraints. Now I say real. Two years ago my wife and I made it to the top of the Acropolis in Athens with the help of some wonderful guides; now if that can happen, well go figure.

So many of our places of worship need to stop and think long and hard. I am a husband and father, and son and brother, I am a priest; and oh by the way did I mention I am also mobility impaired. The last bit does not define me at all I only mention it in case I come to visit your church because sometimes  we do have to move things around a little, that’s fine.

Church; People, Buildings or what?

We hear the word church all so often, it rolls off the tongue with little thought to the true meaning, especially within the ‘church’ setting’. I have always had it in mind that church with a capital ‘C’ is the people, the worshiping community, those that follow Christ and share the Gospel.

Church with a small ‘c’ is the building, the place the Church (the people) come to meet to share in prayer and praise. In the Acts of the Apostles and also in many of the letters in the New Testament we read about people meeting in each other’s homes. Well it is likely that those who were Roman would have had much more space than most have in our humble homes to accommodate large numbers, if large numbers did actually come together. But over the centuries as the Christian faith grew and the need for larger spaces became inevitable, church buildings were erected, like the synagogues of the Jewish people, for people to meet and worship together.

Now as time passed some of these structures have become extremely elaborate and adorned in great wealth; not quite the Christian message, and certainly not the humble path the wondering Jewish teacher named Jesus had in mind I am sure, particularly in a world where so many are starving to death. Of course today we have inherited these buildings and in many cases have to try and maintain them with little finance coming in.

So we have to ask, what is the priority the building or the people? The church; or the Church? Do these often ancient and beautiful buildings serve the purpose for which they were once built? Or are they now relics of an age when the rich were truly masters of the poor and demonstrated their wealth in these great monuments that they hoped would become their lasting marks upon the world. Is it time that we followed in the steps of St Francis of Assisi and turned away from worldly wealth and turned to heavenly wealth? Maybe Pope Francis himself has seen this mismatch in the failure of the church as a worldwide body to serve and look after the poor, because it has become so heavily laden by the weight of the worldly good it possesses.

As a Priest my Church is the next person I meet in sisterly and brotherly love and friendship, it is the person who I will kneel by because they need my prayers; it is the person homeless and just needs me to buy them a warm drink and a sandwich.

Assisted Suicide

Some of you will be aware of the proposed law change to assisted suicide. It is for everyone a most distressing issue and I pray about it constantly and share these thoughts with you with great care and consideration for all people touched by this terrible issue.

 

I write as a husband and father as well as being a disabled man who lives in constant pain; I write also as a priest dedicated to God's service and the Gospel. I also write this as one who journeys very often with people who are also in great pain and discomfort, some who are facing their own deaths. I also write as a campaigner for disability rights and as an academic lawyer. All of this I try to balance constantly when praying upon this delicate and distressing issue. I ask you also to read this in prayer …

 

So as you can see this issue is close to my heart. When someone says to me 'I want to shut my eyes and just let all of the pain, all of this disease, go away', I know, I understand. I feel their sense of despair their want of peace, often a want not just to be pain or disease free but actually to be in the presence of God; because they are ready. Yet so many people will then say to me; ‘but isn’t it a sin father to want to die’? Is it? To look on God’s face, to see behind the darkened mirror, well as a Christian I too want to see God. Last year as I lay waiting to die with my family all around me, peace prevailed; all was well, I was ready to go. But then I recovered, and I was thrust back into a life of disability, pain and stress; but I have a strong loving family who would do anything for me, and never judge me in my weakened state. So is it a sin to want to die, well I guess we cannot help what we want, and wanting peace and wanting God seem logical.

 

Now I have lost friends to suicide, the shock of each one comes over me as I write this now. And each one was such a waste. Is it a waste to take a human life prematurely through suicide under any condition? If not how do we begin to untangle what is not a waste and what is? When is a person no longer worth fighting for? Because if society has a law that allows suicide then it has decided that a certain group is no longer worth that support.

 

But as a campaigner for disability rights I worry that life may be cheapened, by a change in the law, perhaps not immediately but in time as people begin to say 'well others take their lives when they get like this'. The point is, I believe, is that we are forgetting to be a caring society, and that many of our true issues are down to 'self'. Perhaps more money invested in better care and medical research would have stopped the need for this? But when so few hold so much what chance do we have unless we shout louder, No, Stop! These are people. Everyone counts, everyone has a story to tell, a life lived, everyone has human rights and it is our duty as Christians to stand for those rights. The right here that is most important is not the right to die, but the right to live with dignity and it is this that society is failing on.

It is also something we fail as a church to follow. Our church is not our building we all know this, so why do so many older people tell me that they never see any one from their church family? Forget grand mission statement for growth if we cannot even look after our own church grandparents. We the church are part of society, we are part of the vote on assisted suicide, see below, but we cannot be moralistic unless we are truly God's family.

 

From the Church of England Media Centre

 

https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2015/07/churchgoers-urged-to-voice-concerns-over-assisted-suicide-bill.aspx

 

Churchgoers urged to voice concerns over assisted suicide Bill

16 July 2015

For immediate release

Churchgoers encouraged to contact MPs over assisted suicide Bill

Churchgoers are being encouraged to contact their MPs to highlight the risks involved in proposed legislation to legalise assisted suicide.

James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle, has asked that parishioners either make an appointment to see their MP or write them a letter expressing their concerns about a Private Member's Bill to be debated in the House of Commons on Friday September 11.

The Bill is expected to seek to grant physician assisted suicide for mentally competent, terminally ill adults, who have six months or less to live.

Bishop James, the Church of England's lead bishop on health care, said the proposed legislation, if passed into law, would have a detrimental effect both on individuals and on the nature of society.

He said: "Our concern about this proposed legislation is rooted in our practical care for the most vulnerable in our society. In our communities and through healthcare chaplaincy, the Church of England cares daily for the elderly, the ill, the dying and their families.

"If this Bill is passed we will have crossed a line that will make the future very uncertain and dangerous for a significant proportion of the most vulnerable people, including the elderly and those living with disabilities.

"This is a key moment for all of us as we decide what sort of society we want to live in and what future we want for our children and grandchildren, one in which all are valued and cared for, or one in which some lives are viewed as not worth living.

"I ask those who are happy to do so, to contact their MPs, either by making an appointment to see them in person at their constituency surgery, or by letter, to make it clear that they oppose this Bill."

To hear a full interview with James Newcome on the Assisted Dying Bill listen here:  https://soundcloud.com/the-church-of-england/assisted-suicide-01

End

Notes

Contact details for MPs can be found on the Parliament website. Entering a postcode will give details of who your MP is and how to contact him/her: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

Blog by Rev Dr Brendan McCarthy, national adviser to the Church of England on medical ethics
http://cofecomms.tumblr.com/post/124147858482/caring-for-the-vulnerable-in-a-compassionate

More information on the Church of England's view on assisted suicide  https://www.churchofengland.org/our-views/medical-ethics-health-social-care-policy/assisted-suicide.aspx

A Church in Trouble

I am by nature an optimist, which is as well as only for months after ordination, when I was 47 years old, I received an injury which eventually lead to a major change in my ability to walk, it also left me in constant pain. Anyway to add insult to injury, (pardon the pun) having been forced to retire on medical grounds, I found myself celebrating my 50 birthday then within a month I had the first of eight strokes. All changing me a little each time. But I remain upbeat at 51 years of age even though I cannot longer follow my great passions of walking and cycling. So you would think there was little that could get me down.

Well there is. This total dysfunctionality within God’s church, this ability to fall out over everything instead of loving and praying for each other. Why do we have to fear what the other person or persons will do next? We all have to acknowledge that we are each destroying God’s plan, we all have to understand that unless we stand by each other regardless of whether we agree with each other Satan wins. This is not to say that we compromise what we believe, but surely in love standing shoulder by shoulder we will find the truth. I am differently abled to the person I once was, or if you prefer in common parlance; I am ‘disabled’; now there are those in my own church the Church of England who would hold that I am like this because I am a great sinner, well yes I am. But I am also a human created in God’s image and God created us all to be ‘Good’ – not perfect.

Entrenched type Conflict has no place in God’s church, so shame on those who do not see and understand this. We have to move forwards together, instead of this petty childish behaviour that we see when some complain that yes I knew the law then I entered a same sex marriage but now it’s unfair that I cannot minister so I am leaving, don’t go! Stay! We love you, We need you! You must stay and be heard it may be that the Holy Spirit is speaking through you. Or maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking through the Bishop and in time you may hear, but if you leave how will this get sorted, but we still love you. And what about the silly complaints about what a woman bishop might do; or some saying it’s not fair that a woman bishop cannot do this or that. Heaven help us, literally.

I either walk using two sticks, or on a bad day have to use a wheel chair, now I cannot recall seeing a bishop recently in a wheelchair, with a guide-dog, or even an NSM bishop. I see a lot on the front of the Church Times running around playing cricket, and inside in fine robes meeting royalty. But I am not running around complaining, no, I am staying and praying for God to lead us through this unholy mess. But let us not forget He does answer us through each other, synod, PCC’s etc. the fact we do not like the response is part of our growth in faith should we choose to live and learn by that response. Amen