When a Methodist examined homeopathy

I was interested to read today's report on homeopathy  in The Observer headed Are these remedies really a cure or a waste of NHS money?

Homeopathy is often presented as being some sort of traditional, pre-Christian era, natural form of healing. In fact it was the product of the theories and research of one Samuel Hahnemann , a German doctor whose life spanned across the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today homeopathy is big business across much of Europe and, which is the point of The Observer article, is now making headway into the National Health Service and costing us, the taxpayer, millions of pounds.

However there is absolutely no scientific basis to show that homeopathy actually works, the key word being "efficacious".

Until 1998 I really had little to do with the subject and rarely gave it a moment's thought. As a Christian I took a keen interest in the healing ministry and had seen and heard of "miracles" as people with real problems and illnesses were helped by prayer, the laying on of hands and the anointment of oil. Sometimes I felt that I was seeing little more than vaudeville show making a feature of people with real needs who would go away hurt and disappointed. On other occasions I saw wonderful healing, especially of the spirit, as a church gathered round to support an individual.

However in 1998 I suddenly found myself confronted with homeopathy in a way that meant I had to take the whole subject very seriously. I was a member of the European Parliament's Agricultural Committee and we were being asked to express and opinion on the use of homeopathy in veterinary practice with a view to an EU wide directive.

Conventional

Now I could understand how humans could be "healed" by the use of placebos but I couldn't see how this could be translated to animals who presumably had no idea whether the medicine was conventional or homeopathic, in fact not even making a link between their illness and their treatment.

Jobs such as draftsman for minor reports were handed out on a taxi-rank principle. I hadn't written a report for some time and it was my turn to do some work, so I found myself in the unexpected position of drafting the committee's report.

This rang alarm bells in the homeopathic industry. Like most lobbying organisations their trade association had already drafted a report for the draftsman (it happens all the time). What should have happened in their view, is that I would take their fantasy report and use it in my final version. The industry's main worry that I was British - they would have preferred someone from France, Germany or the Benelux countries where homeopathy is better established. When they found out that I was an evangelical Christian they went into overdrive, even lobbying to get me replaced as draftsman.There are many evangelical Christians who consider homeopathy as little more than witchcraft

Opinion

When I met the various representatives I thanked them for offering to supply the draft opinion but said I would do my own research which they offered to facilitate.

My first stop was a massive homeopathic factory in Baden Baden. This was no hippie enterprise. It was big business with laboratories, production lines, well paid workers and lots of people keen to speak with me in perfect English.

My second stop was one of the few homeopathic vetinary practises in the country. I spent the day with a very down to earth vet and even sat in on the consultations. These surprised me. A few weeks before I'd been to seen my own GP about a waterworks problem. I had an extremely intimate examination together with a discussion about my symprons. I was in and out within three minutes.

However I noticed the vet spent about half an hour each with a series of overfed cats accompanied by doting, well dressed owners, usually of retirement age. My solution would have been to put the cat down and refer the owners to the Cat Protection League for a stray. No way. These owners were prepared to pay for a specialist homeopathic vet and the "medicines". They obviously cared for their animals and I could see how lots attention could help the health of an animal, even with the placebos of homeopathy.

Extraordinary

Later that afternoon I went on a farm visit. This turned out top be quite extraordinary. It was at the time of the controversy about fox hunting. This farming family were very much local people. They weren't middle-class, spoke with a strong local accent, and were a typical tenant farming family. The previous weekend they had been on the pro-fox hunting march in London so they were no tree huggers.

However they were absoltuely convinced that the homeopathic medicnes the vet had proscribed were douing their animals the world of good. If the medicines weren't working then they stood to lose a great deal of money - sick animals can't be taken to market, sold and slaughtered.

My conclusions, written as was accepted practice in the third person,  were as follows:

"The draftsman is well aware that homeopathy is well established in certain Member States such as Germany and France, but much less so in other countries. Without wishing to go into the question of the effectiveness of homeopathy, this does seem to be an issue which should be left to individual Member States to decide in the fullness of time.

Authorised

"To impose, at this stage, a requirement that homeopathic products which are registered and authorised in a country which has a well-established tradition of homeopathy should be accepted in all other countries, may have a counter-productive effect. While there is always a good case for improving transparency and clarity in matters such as these, in order to improve the single market, this process should not be forced on Member States in such as way as to alienate consumers.

"Some homeopathic remedies use dangerous chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and silica which naturally must give some concern about residues both on farm land and in the food chain. However, these "mother tinctures" are substantially diluted so it is claimed that they are harmless in use whilst remaining effective. Treatment is often on the basis of trial and error, with constant adjustments during the therapeutic period. How homeopathy works remains a mystery, though some claim that the sustained shaking of the mother tinctures during dilution sets up a molecular reaction in the body.

"Most of the evidence in support of homeopathy is anecdotal rather than scientific. During the course of his research, the draftsman felt that the critical factor in the therapeutic programmes may well be linked to the holistic and time consuming diagnosis rather than the simple application of a medicine. The draftsman came across some counter-anecdotal evidence to suggest that homeopathy, whilst having its advocates, does have its detractors and disappointed users....

Objective

"....The draftsman is not sympathetic to the objective of making these products subject to tests and clinical trials but it clear that the judgement of these "appropriate experts" will in fact be completely objective evidence in the scientific sense. It may therefore be wrong - and indeed dangerous - to suggest to the public that these medicines have been scientifically proven in the conventional sense."

The phrase which sticks out all these years later is that  "the critical factor in the therapeutic programmes may well be linked to the holistic and time consuming diagnosis rather than the simple application of a medicine."

I think this may be how real the Christian healing ministry takes effect. People feel valued when prayed for and have lots of love and care. For example I can see how there were so many people in the early chapters of Acts who were healed - for the first time they had full stomachs, others caring for them and a real sense of purpose for their lives. If you were a hungry Greek widow in Jerusalem an improvement in health and well being would be inevitable once you had joined a Christian community. I'm sure the same thing happens to those who join churches where the healing ministry in practiced and celebrated.

Nevertheless we have to be open to a supernatural intervention, I don't think we can say that about homeopathy.

Strangely though I felt that my experience as a Christian had helped, rather than hindered, my attempt to understand homeopathy.

Preacher's block

Just getting ready for tomorrow's service. I'll be working to the lectionary so will be looking at two of the most wonderful chapters in scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

I've been thinking about the Corinthians reading all week. My mind is going round the issue that I think a lot of Christians find very difficult - how do we love people we can't stand? It is always easy to love the lovable, but there are many people who just defy love. That is as true in the Church as it is in any other walk of life.

Many Christians try to handle this by acting in a phoney, almost sickly way. I can't put that sort of behaviour on. Yet I think back to my most productive Christian experiences and the one thing I remember is the love and affection between believers. A really loving Christian in a really loving Church can  touch people in a way that all the sermons and exhortations in the world never will.

Jesus once "emptied himself of all but love" (I can find the phrase in the hymn but can't find the scriptural basis) and changed the whole of human history. We will never be able to be so empty or so full, but just taking a hesitant step and seeking the emptiness that only has room  for love may be the start.

I sat down earlier to see if I could crystalise my thoughts. This seems impossible. January was one of the busiet months for my business since I launched in 2003. My mind has been set hard on delivery. Tomorrow I'm going to have to find time to sort out invoices and expenses. I can't say that the controversy on the Methodist blogsphere about blogging has helped.

I often get writer's block, especially if I am trying to put down a grand strategy. I keep writing a few sentences, then delete them, then start again. In the old days I would be surrounded by crumpled sheets of paper taken from the typewriter.

Preacher's block though is very different. I won't be able to tear anything up when I am thirty seconds into the address tomorrow.

So I feel very thrown back onto the sheer grace of God. I don't like being in that position. I certainly don't like it when I hear an unprepared sermon that someone claims was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Ironically the reading from Jeremiah actually promises that God will put words into the preacher's mouth, so possibly I need not worry.

I'd be interested to hear how other preachers handle preacher's block. Meanwhile, I'm off for my cocoa and an early night. Perhaps a good night's sleep will help........and if you want to hear a badly prepared sermon pop in on Sunday at 11.00 am.

From Smethwick with regret

When I first came to Smethwick in the 1970s one of the great stabilising institutions in the community was the Mitchells and Butlers Brewery at Cape Hill.

Thousands of local people worked there, many in very skilled and well paid jobs. By and large M&B pubs were well run and binge drinking was rare. Brew XI was an excellent pint and rumour had it that the very local pubs got the best of the batch.

On a Sunday evening we could smell the hops being processed as we left church. It was a homely cabbage type smell. Although in a different market, making a different product, there were many similarities in the way in which M&B impacted on the local community with the chocolate makers Cadbury.

A few years ago the money men moved in. The brewery was closed and the jobs were gone. The land has been sold off for housing. Brew XI is still produced but it in not a patch on that which was brewed in Smethwick.  M&B now run several chains including the All Bar One brand which seems dedicated to pouring alcohol down the throats of young people. Aweful places, try to avoid them.

The Spectator (thanks Ian G for the link) carries a story that sums up the story with the headline "How the brewers of Smethwick became the plaything of Barbados billionaires." In recent days those who watch the financial pages will be aware of the chaotic scenes at the annual shareholders meeting.

Now I fear that Cadbury's will end up going the same way. Why is it that a good sized profitable business can so easily be destroyed by shareholders who have no stake in the communities that have worked to create the value they so want to buy?

Here in the West Midlands we have seen seen countless good businesses bought, the land sold off for housing with a complete disregard for the community around the factory and the community in the factory.

Methodism was largely created by the people who worked in those factories and lived in those communities. Sadly we are now so detached that we have so little to say.

An Island Parish: David Easton's book

I've had a few hits this morning seeking the book David Easton is writing on the spiritual history of the Isles of Scilly.

This was mentioned in last night's edition of An Island Parish.

I suspect that when published it will be a best seller. I don't have David's email address and contact details so I can't find out whether it has yet been published.

If anyone knows anything, please let me know and it will be mentioned of this blog with a link to Amazon or whatever forum he uses to market the work.

If you wish to read more about the Island Parish programme click the tag "An Island Parish" below

Trains at Milton keynes

What is is about Milton Keynes? Why is it that during the last month about 2 out of every 3 trains running between Birmingham and London are delayed by "signal problems in the Milton keynes area" or " an engine failure on a proceeding train at Milton Keynes". Has anyone got the answer? I'm off for an early night

Blogger Beware! The Methodist Church will issue a fatwa

One would have thought that a paper headed "Social Media" would have celebrated the encouraging, diverse and energetic way in which some sections of the British Methodist Church could embrace the new communications technology to proclaim the Gospel.

Such a paper would look at best practice for using youtube, facebook, twitter, church websites and even blogging. It would encourage the church to take ourselves into the 21st century. It would want to demonstrate to young people that we really are alive and ready to put ourselves where they are.

This week the Methodist Council - our last but one governing body before conference - will discuss a paper headed "Social Media". Far from being an exciting exploration of social media it is a miserable, petty, ill thought out attempt to stilfle discussion within the Church.

The front page of this sad document says it all:

"The guidelines paper sets out how staff or officers of the Church should behave when using social media.
The goal is to ensure that the Church and individuals engage positively with social media but do nothing to harm the reputation

"All involved should do nothing to bring the Church into disrepute. Members of governance bodies have particular responsibilities in how they report from or during meetings.

"Breaking the guidelines repeatedly would be a disciplinary matter that could lead to dismissal.

"The paper discusses online defamation as one risk.

"Bringing the Church into disrepute is already grounds for a complaint against anyone in the Church. This paper makes clear that online media could give rise to such a complaint.

"Failure to address this could lead to reputational damage to the Church."

The author of the document claims to have consulted  "A selection of existing Methodist bloggers". I certainly wasn't "consulted"  and those that were didn't share their involvement in the consultation. It would be interesting to know who comprised this "selection" and why the wider Connexion were not invited to comment.

The paper drones on for a solid 26 pages, about 18 of which are all in the same negative vein. At the end is a wonderfully patronising guide to emailing. There are just three paragraphs that suggest social media may actually be a positive benefit to the Church.

Some of the comments are just silly. At one point Methodist Bloggers  are told "Don’t do or encourage anything illegal or improper"

However the all time favourite must be the sentence that really gives the game away.  It refers to public  discussions "as moderated by the Methodist Recorder". Ah they were the days, when Methodists could only express a view through the pages of the Recorder, who could then be relied upon to "moderate".  

 Those days are gone. The issues we need to address are transparency, legitimacy, and building relationships within the denomination. The days of a handful of well-connected people being able to control internal discussion and decisions are in the past.. No amount of "guidelines" and "disciplinary action" will stop that. If countries like China and Iran are struggling to stifle online discussion how on earth does anyone think the Methodist Church can?

But the real weakness of the paper is the complete failure to look at the many very complicated issues that can arise with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Basically anyone can set up a page on many of these sites. For example a single church member could set up and own a page on facebook for Tat Bank Road Methodist Church. Last time I checked the British Methodist Church hadn't even registered and protected our own corporate logo (the one that I have put provocatively at the top of this page and which I have no right - or every right - to use) so they could even make it look official. There is one Methodist facebook group that does use the logo and another that doesn't. The Methodists in Britain page on LinkedIn doesn't use it.

Then supposing someone sets up a page for the Tat Bank Road under 15s youth club. Who is responsible for that? Should adults be allowed to join as "fans". Is it permissible to post pictures of young people at camp for example?  Several young people in the circuit have asked to be my "friend" on facebook. I don't think thats appropriate and I have told them. I fear certain other adults won't take the same approach. Online grooming is a real danger. There are huge child and vulnerable person protection issues here, and yet the paper on social media focusses on blogging - probably because one or two feathers and egos have been ruffled in Church House.

If we are going to have a paper on censorship sent onto to Methodist Conference by the Methodist Council let us  call it by that name. Please don't display to the world how little the Methodist Church knows about social media and how much we fear it.

The best course of action would be to withdraw  this paper from Thursday's meeting and invite others to contribute. They may even have a word with me. In my day job I have been writing guidelines on the use of social media (each never more than one side of A4 paper) for nearly ten years. Not only that, I've had to sort out solicitors letters and even instigate disciplinary action on two occasions: I'd really caution any organisation against taking that course of action.

The prospect of the Methodist Church issuing fatwas against bloggers will hold us up to ridicule.

Time for a sense of proportion and time to be positive about the new opportunities that await us.

Sharing our faith in the 21st century

We went on a very encouraging training course today. It was held at City Road Methodist Church but attracted people from right across the Birmingham District which stretches all the way down to places like Evesham.

The course was a pilot to test new materials and resources being put together by the Connexional team. Our District Evangelism Enabler, Michelle, ably led us through the materials.

It was not always easy. Much of it was very challenging - both to those who had a classic "Evangelical" view of conversion to those who possibly were actively hostile to that view. What it wasn't is a simplistic "do it this way and the pews will be full". Issues such as twenty first century concepts of spirituality were tackled head on together with the view that we each have a story that can lead others to a living faith.

We did the course all in one day and at times I felt hurried, possibly as well, because we did come to a handful of possible "flashpoints". Nevertheless everyone had a chance to have their say and the small group discussions were clearly very animated and inclusive.

These materials are in development and I hope that our contributions were helpful, we noticed that Michelle was taking detailed notes. However I'm sure that  the more involved in the development  work the better. If you would like to host a course at your church contact your district evangelism enabler. It won't be a waste of time - thats a promise.

An Island Parish: "allo luv"

I'm beginning to feel that the exposure of Methodism on the BBC's An Island Parish may turn out to be OK after all. Last night's braodcast showed District Chair Steve Wild in action.

I swooned when he said to a complete stranger in the airport "allo luv" - exactly the greeting he gave my mother-in-law, wife and daughter when we accidently met in Polzeath last August.

David Easton is seen preparing for his departure and being positive. The new Minister looks as if he is up to the challenge and clearly sees God's hand in the new stationing. Let's pray it works out.

Can you imagine Steve Wild as President? Just what Her Majesty will make of the traditional loyal greetings from Methodist Conference when it begins "allo luv"!

If you wish to know more about this story click the label below marked "An Island Parish"

Haiti: Should we give? How should we give?

"During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) ²⁹The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. ³⁰This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul." Acts 11:27:30

The British medical journal The Lancet has caused quite a stir by raising questions about the recent efforts to raise funds for the people of  Haiti following the earthquake. Last week we had a retiring collection at City Road Methodist Church for Haiti which we sent to the Methodist World Mission fund. I felt reassured that the money we gave would be funneled through our own agencies and get to people at the front line. We were responding to the Biblical example of the Christians in Antioch.

I must admit The Lancet article struck a real chord:


"Some agencies even claim that they are 'spearheading' the relief effort. In fact, as we only too clearly see, the situation in Haiti is chaotic, devastating, and anything but coordinated."

"The aid sector is undoubtedly an industry in its own right and, unpalatable as it might seem, scrutiny of motives and performance was justified.

"Large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations are often highly competitive with each other," The Lancet said.

"Polluted by the internal power politics and unsavoury characteristics seen in many big corporations, large aid agencies can be obsessed with raising money through their own appeal efforts.

"Media coverage as an end in itself is too often an aim of their activities. Marketing and branding have too high a profile.

"Perhaps worse of all, relief efforts in the field are sometimes competitive with little collaboration between agencies, including smaller, grass-roots charities that may have better networks in affected countries and so are well placed to immediately implement disaster relief."

A couple of years back business took me to the  headquarters of Oxfam on the outskirts of Oxford. It was a massive modern building housing about 500 workers - one of the most luxurious working spaces I had ever seen. The ample car park groaned  with comparatively  recently registered cars. This was not a workforce that was struggling to make ends meet. I was struck by the youth of the workforce: there seemed few people over 40. For all intents and purposes Oxfam is just another corporate business. Like any corporate business it it can afford the luxury of boardroom battles and Oxfam does not enjoy a reputation for good working relations.

During the Copenhagen climate change conference I noticed that Oxfam was busy running a number of stunts designed to get their logo on the television or in the newspapers. I wonder how many of those involved in these stunts were all expenses paid members of staff from that corporate headquarters in Oxford? Perhaps they were volunteers who funded themselves? Somehow I doubt that.

I regularly read Third Sector magazine and know more than most some of the "tricks of the trade" when it comes to fundraising. I also realise that businesses like Oxfam derive a great deal of their income from us as taxpayers. However over the years I've become wary of the televised interview with the corporately tee-shirted "aid-worker".

So when there is a big disaster I feel a real dilemma. Do I really want to feed the pockets and corporate egos of businesses like Oxfam or do I try to help in some other way? Fortunately this time the Methodiist World Mission offered a way of helping. At other times it isn't so obvious.

But why wait for a real disaster until helping those in need? The whole point about Haiti is that the country has been a disaster for many years.Surely we should have been doing more before the earthquake?

And when disaster strikes should we really leave it to a bunch of over paid hippies in luxury offices in Oxford to sort it out? This type of humanitarian disaster needs a military style response with governments around the world standing by with contigency plans. I'd rather pay as a taxpayer than support a business the like of Oxfam.

Media sensation: Christians enjoy sermons!

Fascinating bit of news from the academics at Durham University. According to the BBC they have unearthed radically different ideas about sermons following some research:

Nearly 100% of churchgoers "look forward" to sermons but only 17% think preaching changes the way they live, according to a survey.

Researchers at Durham University found 60% of churchgoers felt sermons gave them a sense of God's love.

Evangelical Christians looked forward most to sermons, with Roman Catholics wanting to be educated, Baptists converted and Anglicans entertained.

But different dominations disagreed on the ideal length of a sermon.

Many Anglicans wanted a sermon to last less than 10 minutes - although up to 20 minutes was fine if there was no "waffle" - while Baptists were happy to sit through at least 75 minutes. Catholics wanted their homilies to be completed within 10 minutes.

Baptists and Catholics were more enthusiastic about the Bible being mentioned in sermons than Anglicans and Methodists.

Sadly Methodists only get a walk in part in the BBC story. I'm surprised we are seen as being less enthusiastic  "about the Bible being mentioned in sermons". Is it possible to give a "sermon" without mentioning the Bible? I'm quite astonished at that line.

One other aspect of this story that makes me think is the nuance of surprise in the BBC's treatment that churchgoers actually look forward to sermons. Isn't that an essential part of our worship? It is a core activity. Why shouldn't we look forward to sermons. Where have these people been.

I always look forward to sermons....well sort of....except when I'm giving them....and when **** ****** preaches.....then I try to work out how many different numbers are represented on the hymm board....I got 8 6s one week.....sorry, I digress.

A covenant service at Westminster

At the start of what looks like another very busy week (no blogging!) I had the real pleasure of attending thr Covenant and Communion Service of the Parliamentary Methodist Fellowship this evening.

The congregation came from much wider than the Westminster village and I sat with a lady from a Methodist Church in Bow and a Minister from Streatham.

It was held in the high Anglican venue of the Parliamentary Chapel. We even had no less than eighteen totally redundant candles. It was a bit spooky saying the Covenant confession as Big Ben struck six.

Nevertheless the singing was just amazing. Over 150 Methodists going at Love Divine really makes the spirit move. I warmed to the organist who played Here is Love during the communion call. I wanted to start singing, as did one or two others.

Martin Turner, the Minister at Westminster Central Hall gave a cracking sermon. His point was that the Old Testament lesson (Deuteronomy 29:10-15) was about the corporate or national response, the New Testament, (John 15:1-10) was about the individual. Many Covenant Services are about the New Year, this one had a little edge.

One point Martin made that I especially appreciated was that when the people of Israel were drawn up in the Deuteronomy included amongst them were the "aliens" - a real remider that God is inclusive, as we should be too.

Afterwards we had a cup of tea and cake and I met one or two readers of this very blog. Alas a 5.45 start this morning and the promise of another tomorrow meant that I had to leave earlier that I would have liked.

All in all a good evening and  one service that every Methodist should make once in a lifetime. Let's pray for those who carry our name into the Mother of Parliaments.

Sitting next to a representative of the poorest nation on earth

Just over a decade ago I was a member of the parliamentary assembly established under the Lome Convention to bring together parliamentarians from the African, Carribean and Pacific nations with those of the European Parliament.

The ACP nations sat in the aphabetical order of their nations. The EP members sat in alphabetical order of their surnames. I therefore sat between the representives of Jamaica and Haiti.

I had noticed on my first sitting that the hospitality was extensive - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then I found out why: many of these nations were so poor that their representatives had been booked into the very cheapest hotels available in Brussels. The apparently lavish hospitality was provided to ensure they could eat.

I spoke at length with the delegates from Jamaica and Haiti. I was inspired by their commitmet, humbled by their optimism and ashamed at the grotesque wealth I saw every day in Europe.

So I am saddened by the news of the earthquake in Haiti. A poor nation now even poorer.

The Methodist Church is mobilising to help. We have already sent £20,000 in cash. If you would like to join in helping the reconstruction please donate here.

An Island Parish: David Easton could be Methodism's Susan Boyle

I watched last night's edition of An Island Parish. Most regular readers will know that I don't really think this series has covered British Methodism with glory.

However I was really taken with the scene where David Easton, then on Scilly, now at Aberysthwith, gave a short talk about the power of seeds. I really felt that the Spirit moved in those wonderful few sentences.

Now I'm wondering. David is probably Britain's most famous Methodist Minister. I know that in many ways that means very little, but he certainly has the profile. From the obscurity of the Isles of Scilly, two or three hundred people arrive on this blog from search engines every time An Island Parish is broadcast.

David is a bit like Susan Boyle: coming from nowhere and doing something quite remarkable.

So I want to make a revolutionary suggestion. Instead of future elections for President of Methodist Conference being dished out to yet another lacklustre District Chair on a buggin's turn next basis, why don't we nominate David Easton? An ordinary Minister in such a role would do Methodism a power of good.

If you wish to know more about this story click the label below marked "An Island Parish"

The wrong City Road

Today I was sorting through the post at church. There was a letter addressed to one of Methodism's most illustrous luminaries at "City Road Methodist Church, London". Royal Mail is their wisdom had redirected it to us at City Road Methodist Church, Birmingham. I think that had something to do with the power of google. I just love the idea of someone confusing our little church with Wesley's Chapel on City Road, London. I wonder if there is a prophetic word there somewhere?

If only the Methodist Recorder would See It Right

It has been a hard week travelling up and down our white and pleasant land. Lots of train delays have meant that I've spent longer sitting around looking at the snow than I would like. So little time for blogging.

Last week I mentioned the re-design of the Methodist Recorder. I actually like the style which is very much 1980s and will be acceptable to many readers.

However I would have hoped that a religious newspaper staffed by professional journalists would have wanted their paper - redesigned or otherwise - to actually be  be readable by their readers.

For a large number readers there are key bits of the Recorder that are now unreadable. Putting black type on purple is one sure way of losing a significant numbers of readers, yet this is exactly what the Recorder have done over two weeks for the excellent five part Lent series (see page 15 today and try to read the boxes).

Surely someone at the Recorder can take time to study the brilliant  "See it Right"  products from the Royal National Institute for the Blind?

Perhaps all these late trains have made me a little grumpy. More blogging at the weekend.

Book Sale at Quinton

A second hand BOOK SALE and Coffee Morning is being held at Quinton Methodist Church, B62 9AU on Saturday 16th January 2010 from 10am -12.

About 100 boxes of books on all subjects will be on sale priced between 20p and £2 each book!!

Admission is £1 which includes tea or coffee and a cake.

You will be most welcome.

Covenant Service encouragement

We almost had a full congregation at today's Covenant service. Quite rightly many of our elderly members stayed at home, the streets around the church are covered in snow and ice.

Nevertheless we felt encouraged with a renewed sense of commitment and community. We've been especially heartened to welcome Methodists and other Christians who have moved into Birmingham from India.

Our church is changing and growing. If you live in Birmingham and are still looking for a church, please drop by one Sunday. Our congregation is international with people from the UK, Cornwall, the West Indies, Africa, especially West Africa and well as our growing Indian group.

Will money and sex derail peace in Northern Ireland?

If there is one prayer that should be raised in every church in these islands on Sunday it is for the politics and people of Northern Ireland.

There are some who can barely conceal their delight that two leading evangelical Christians have become immersed in an increasingly seedy sex and money scandal. I now know enough about both politics and religion to understand the wisdom of Jesus's encouragement for the person without sin to cast the first stone.

No one should rejoice in the discomfort and painfully embarrassing revelations about Peter and Iris Robinson. I met Peter ten years ago and I know how much he has moved to ensure the peace process will work.

Nor should anyone take delight in the revelations that emerged just before Christmas about the family of Gerry Adams At least one other person, apart from me, sees the awful symmetry of these two affairs.

In many other circumstances a political sex scandal actually means very little except to those intimately involved. Very few indiscretions actually come to light and make it onto the front pages. When they do, there's usually a political motive. Little tit-bits are picked up, evidence stored and then released when it suits someone.

That is why I question how both these sets of allegations have emerged now. Someone out there wants to destroy the Northern Ireland Assembly, destroy power sharing and return to the days of violence.

What today is tabloid titillation may be tomorrow's return to the days of violence. Pray for Northern Ireland this Sunday. We are on a knife edge.

Roy Greenslade and Methodism

Leading Guardian media commentator Roy Greenslade has posted a favourable comment about the "makeover" of the Methodist Recorder. I think I will leave commenting until the new design has bedded down a bit (in the meantime please, please, please don't reverse white out of purple!).

However what caught my eye about Roy's comment was a little line at the bottom, one I hear so many times:

"I was a practising Methodist until the age of 14"

Why is it that we loose so many talented people?

Changing weather and climate change

Having spent most of the week travelling to and from and then around London and the West Midlands I've seen plenty of weather.

It feels very much like it did during the occasional big freezes of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The mother-in-law of all big freezes was the 1962/63 winter. I remember walking home on Boxing Day in the snow. None of us realised that it would still be around nearly ten weeks later. I made a small fortune clearing paths and entries for people. Where there's a problem there's a potential profit!

By the way we only had three days off school and that was because the coal stock was exhausted in early March. Myself and several other "volunteers" spent an entire day taking the coal from the kerbside to the boiler house. I particularly remembered it because we were, even for London in the early sixties, a really multi-racial bunch. The school was my only experience of central heating. I didn't have central heating at home until I moved to my present house in 1994.

The great thing about 1962/63 was that the snow actually fell as snow and then settled. The one thing you learn as a child in East London is that large urban areas have their own micro-climate about 2 or 3 degrees higher than the surrounding countryside. This temperature difference was plotted in the school geography books of the time and discussed by every London schoolboy. This  normally meant that when snow was falling in the South East, London, especially East London, would be honoured with sleet or cold rain. We'd look at envy when we saw newspaper pictures of kids in Harlow or Guildford having the time of their lives on sledges: if we were very lucky, it would fall in the early hours and stay around until lunchtime by which time the micro-climate had caused it to become slush.

In 1962/3 London was one of a handful of cities in the world that had a population in excess of 8 million. Since then urbanisation and population growth mean that many other cities the size of London have been built across the world together with their own micro-climates. The raw edge of winter is reduced a little and in summer the concrete, steel and tarmac absorb the heat and exaggerate the temperature.

At the same time lifestyles have changed to place more pressure on resources. In 1962/3 we would heat just one room at home with coal. We would bath once a week (mind you we were thought to be "posh" because our post war council prefab had a bath!), we would  change our underwear once a week, after the bath, and have two or three school shirts which were washed at  the weekend. We had just one television, no computers, no telephones, none of the electricity guzzling "appliances" that are casually left on standby 24 hours a day in many modern homes. So I suspect the micro-climates of large cities have become more pronounced.

The reason I say this is that I fear that great swathes of sincere, very well meaning Christians, are allowing themselves to be hooked into an obsession about climate change that is actually replacing the gospel as the core activity of Christian experience. Obviously we have to conserve the world's resources and use them wisely. Obviously we have to take a precautionary approach when pumping minerals into the sky, as we have when the impact of acid rain became visible. But, and it is an important but, we shouldn't replace our reliance on our Creator with a near-pagan worship of creation.

The power of yes!

One thing I did manage to do in London this week was to go to the extended run of David Hare's play "The Power of Yes" at the National. It provides a first class introduction to the politics and economics of the "credit crunch". I hope that a shorter version will make it to the small screen before too long. I was with a friend who works at Canary Wharf (and came to the theatre drinking wine on the "clipper") so it all felt very close!

The spread of Methodism in Yemen

Food critic AA Gill on The Times reaches for a handy metaphore when bemoaning the lack of creativity in the British restuarant kitchen:

In Britain, all the really innovative food is made in cities. Well, one city. London. And chefs have had to beg and bribe, plead and perform, to get the peasantry to produce raw ingredients that haven’t had their beaks cut off or been chemically peeled. The evangelical conversion to modern British food has barely made it across the M25. It’s like the spread of Methodism in Yemen.

A demonstration outside a Methodist Church

Some fairly depressing pieces pop on youtube. This must be one of the most depressing. It shows a bunch of  people picketing a Methodist Church because they allege it is "pro-homo". I can well understand why the church goers seemed so surprised and ill prepared for the picket. This was clearly a difficult situation for them. The demonstrators demonstrated just where they were coming from - and going to - when they started shouting that the woman Minister should get her apron and oven gloves back on. I'm sure Susannah Wesley, the Countess of Huntington and Eliza Asbury, to mention a few of Methodism's mothers in faith, would have a thing or two to say about this approach.

I haven't been able to find out anything more about this incident. It would be interesting to know what provoked the demonstration and what was the outcome. It does however feature a clash of ideas that goes on throughout the Christian world but rarely in such an obvious way. I did feel for the woman who claimed she had been "born a Christian" and just didn't understand the concept of being "born again". There seem to be many in the Methodist Church who fall into that sad category.

I would add just one more word about this incident. I have a feeling in my guts that over the next few years Christian places of worship in the United Kingdom will come under similar public pressure and disruption though not nessecarily from other groups claiming to be Christian. A month or so ago Dave W reported some unpleasant vandalism at his church in Northamtonshire.  I'm aware of  recent incidents where buildings have been vandalised and a service disrupted. We need to start thinking through how we would cope with such external hostility. We now live in a rapidly changing environment.

Green Party back 24 hour drinking

One reason why the environment is in such a mess, and many nerves torn to shreds, is that people seem to have lost the basic commonsense of resting once a week and being allowed to get a good night's sleep.

No community can support a carry out drinks shop 24 hours a day, it is inevitable that customers will have to come from far and wide by car, creating a disturbance for its neighbours into the small hours of the morning.

So you would have thought that those bastions of environmental protection, The "Green" Party would understand when a local residential community like Bearwood here in Sandwell objects to a 24 hour drinking license.

Not a bit of it. In a tirade that could clearly shows they no nothing about the community they aspire to represent  the Sandwell "Green" Party have launched a stinging attack on both the local community and those we elect to represent us:

"Buying booze creates jobs, and may even create a buzz and attract students or god forbid, improve the living conditions of a pretty rubbish part of the world. Whingeing about problems that may or may not happen simply reinforces the message that Sandwell is backward, conservative and culturally stagnant."

That's the "Green" Party for you. They think that we're rubbish in Bearwood. The  think 24 hour booze improves living conditions! I hope those Methodists who tell me they are thinking of voting "Green" take note. In Sandwell you really have to be green to vote "Green".

An Island Parish - when is it on again?

For those who are wondering: the next edition of BBC2's An Island Parish is broadcast on Friday the 8 January at 20:30 hours in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and in Wales on Saturday 9 January at 19:00 hours.

If you wish to know more about this story click the label below marked "An Island Parish"

" A respected teacher, member of the Methodist church and a family friend – who would you trust more?"

The word "Methodist" has acquired very different taint in recent media coverage. According to Google News there are no less than 50 media stories linking the childhood sexual  abuse of England rugby football international Brian Moore with an official of his local Methodist church.

Today's Daily Telegraph  (this link contains some very unpleasant detail but an inspiring and encouraging message for those who have been abused) sums the story up in one simple sentence: "A respected teacher, member of the church and a family friend – who would you trust more?"

Why wash this item of Methodism's dirty linen in public on this blog? I'll explain. I am fed up with complaints about the need for Criminal Records Bureau checks on those who work with children. I get fed up with tabloid stories attacking the "elf and safety" brigade. I winch when I hear people say of safeguarding policies "this is political correctness gone mad".

The reason we need these checks is precisely to avoid young boys like Brian Moore being abused in our name. I know its a nuisance. I know that it inhibits our work with young people. But what sort of witness was this "respected teacher" and "member of the church" to Brian and the other youngsters involved?

Thankfully, largely due to the pioneering work of Methodism's own charity for children and young people Action for Children, we have been ahead of many other congregations and churches in protecting young people in our care. Let's continue to provide this protection and reject those that constantly attack our bureaucratic systems which support that protection, be it in the church or from the government.

Methodists compared with Muslims in The Times

John Sutherland an academic writes in The Times about the damage to the reputation of University College London following the news that  Abdulmutallab the would be Detroit bomber was a student there. At one point in the article he compares modern Islam (based an the reported complaint about the words of one individual) with Methodism in our heyday:

A couple of years ago (when Abdulmutallab was around the place), UCL allowed the Islamic Society to put on a show of Islamic art. A friend of mine, an eminent scientist, strolled in to take a look. Was he a believer, asked an obviously Muslim student. No, replied my friend, he didn’t believe in any god, as it happened. “Then,” the young man confidently informed him, “we shall have to execute you.” He wasn’t joking; he was predicting. He wasn’t going to draw a scimitar that minute and lop off the godless one’s head, but he implied that at some future point such things would happen. My friend laughed it off after lodging a mild complaint. It could, of course, have been Abdulmutallab who made the threat.

A hundred years ago, in that same gallery, a fervent Methodist might have told an unbelieving professor that he would, for a certainty, spend eternity roasting in the fires of Hell. That would have been something to laugh off as well. Not a reason to exclude Methodists from UCL. Nor even to keep a close eye on them.

There is, however, a difference. Death threats are different from damnation prophecies. Methodists may proclaim themselves Christian soldiers, marching as to war, but the fact is, they aren’t. It’s a metaphor. They have hymn books, not Semtex at the chapel door. Demonstrably, some Muslim students do now see themselves in a real war — not with a foreign foe, but with the society in which they are living. It’s not (always) metaphorical, as the Abdulmutallab event bears out.

A secular New Year

This New Year was very different. Instead of going to a Watchnight service we went down to London. On New Year's Eve we had a lovely mean at the best Portuguese restuarant in London, Domigos. As usual the Perieras family made us welcome and a good time was had by all.

The restuarant is almost next door to the Ealing Christian Centre who were holding a New Year service. It was so encouraging to see so many people making their way to church. What has this church got that so many Methodist churches seem to lack?

On New Year's morning we were up early to visit the London Wetland Centre as it opened at 9.30am. This is truly an impressive place created on the site of a redundant resovoir and attracting a wide range of birds into the heart of central London. I was especially pleased to see a Bittern. These are hard enough to see in more remote locations, to see it framed by Hammersmith Broadway was truly awesome!

In the afternoon we explored the London end of the Grand Union Canal at Brentford. This starts in Birmingham and we have walked various sections but never seen the point where the canal joins the Thames, opposite Kew Palace.

All in all a good break and healthy start to the New Year

Happy New Year

I will be spending the New Year in London. Normal posting will resume next week. I start a new work project in the new year and am looking forward to a triangular weekly commute between Birmingham, London and the North East. Should be fun!

Meantime - Happy New Year. My prayers are especially with those who have been out of work or had business difficulties. Hopefully we shall soon be over the worse of the recession and prosperity will flow.