Have you done your poo test?

This blog has never been afraid of pushing at the boundaries and taking on taboo subjects. Today I've decided to break a real live  taboo and write about the bowel cancer screening programme currently underway amongst NHS patients over the age of 60.

Let me start by declaring an interest: I am two thirds of the way through harvesting the samples at the moment. The process is disgusting, but I'll describe how I am doing it later. I received my test kit about four months ago and have just been putting it off and putting it off. I didn't take the test when it was sent to me first time round in 2008.

A couple of days ago I "googled" the subject. It was something that no one else talked about and I was hoping to find some helpful hints on collecting the samples. However I was horrified to find that men are more likely than women to suffer bowel cancer but considerably less likely to take the free test. Overall nearly half the test packs are not used by the recipients, representing a massive waste of money and missed opportunity.

All the evidence is that the earlier bowel cancer is detected the more likely it is to be treatable. Already the programme has detected 7000 cancers and led to 40,000 polyps being removed, preventing thousands more cases

The bowel cancer screening process has been running for several years. Everyone over 60 now receives a simple test kit every two years. The recipient has to supply six tiny samples from three separate bowel movements. The samples are then posted to one of five regional test centres where  they undergo a  faecal occult blood test.

What put me off taking the test was collecting the samples. It all seemed a bit messy. I suspect that is the same with many other men. It means being close to waste matter in a way that we haven't been since nappy changing days.

Actually now that I'm underway it isn't as complicated nor as messy as I thought.

A big welcome to 5772

As the sun sets, I wish my Jewish visitors a happy and peaceful new year.

Methodists everywhere continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Methodists and job losses in the defence industry

What should Methodists think about the arms trade?

My friend John  on Facebook rather than his blog (where I hope he posts soon)  has expressed concern at the recent statement by local Methodists in Brough following job losses among staff at weapons manufacturer BAE. Another friend, Robert, recently wrote an impassioned post about the arms fair in London that led to some challenging exchanges.

I must say that I share John's  surprise to see the local statement on the national Methodist website.

Our local  church issued a similar statement after the deaths during the  riots in Birmingham and it was not accorded a similar status, despite being supplied to the website owners. This suggests - by accident I hope - a greater concern at national level  for job losses in an Anglo-Saxon community than the deaths of three Asian born men in the inner city.

Nevertheless the statement  does show a local church responding to a problem that affects its own members and the community in which it serves in this case the massive job losses amongst those employed in the defence industry.

When I was younger there was no problem for me with the arms trade. I was against war, a committed pacifist and therefore the use of force and the production of arms was wrong. Previously I have described the process and events by which I moved from that position. 

Once you accept that force is an option then you have to accept that armaments are needed. Romantic ideas of poorly equipped guerrilla movements overthrowing superior force are great as fairy tales but when confronting someone with a gun the most effective response is a bigger gun. And so begins the arms race.

The first responsibility of any state is that it should be able to protect its population. This means that it must be able to make or procure weapons. Making weapons has always been at the cutting edge of technology whether it was making swords or computer controlled drones. So there is a legitimate market in weapons.

It is our lot here in the UK to have developed a technical base which is able to produce some of the most sought after weaponry in the world. That same technical base can produce some of the most advanced medical equipment. That is the wonder of living in an advanced industrial society.

So should we somehow say that making weapons is so wrong that we are not prepared to support our own industries? That somehow we are not appalled that thousands of highly skilled jobs are being lost? That sizable investments are going to be lost?

I think this is a discussion worth having. I find it difficult. My tentative conclusion is that making the weapons is not the issue, its the destination and the deployment. That owes more to creating an ethical foreign policy than opposing the arms trade/defence industries.

Methodists in a previous generation would have joined this discussion with great gusto. Sadly I don't believe that is the case today.

Oh the joy of being the church treasurer.....

As the Connexional financial year ended on 30 August I'm now making up the annual accounts. So far the trial balance is £1417.83 out. Help!

Our harvest hope

Yesterday I led a harvest thanksgiving service at a local United Reformed Church. I had carefully organised my sermon to focus on the wonder of God's provision in Exodus 16 and the concern of Jesus at the shortage of workers for the harvest in Matthew 9.

But I started by talking about farming and began to stray a bit "off message". Having been brought up in Hackney and lived most of my adult life in Smethwick - neither noted for their modern day farms - I suppose a lot of people would think I have little to say about agriculture. My forebears were resolutely industrial and we can find no evidence that anyone from our family has worked the land since at least 1800.

I know that these days we are supposed to bore our congregations with dire warnings of climate change. Or even - quite rightly - point out that not everyone in our world shares in the harvest.

Nevertheless my five years as a member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee really opened my eyes to the wonders of what humans can do with God's provision. I visited many farms in the UK, but also in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Holland, Slovakia, Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Israel and Taiwan.

These farms varied from high tech farms owned by multi-nationals through to tiny  family run organic farms with a lot of variation in between.

As I made my way round these farms I noticed the sheer ingenuity that turned the creation into a source of food.

When I was a child the United Nations used to warn that two-thirds of the world's population were starving. Across Europe, the Indian Sub Continent and much of Asia there were massive refugee problems. There still are problems, but not on such a great scale.

We often beat ourselves up wondering where the world is going. However modern agriculture and the global markets have delivered good cheap food in abundance. And for that we should be grateful.

There is still much to do. We need to make the global players more responsive to need. We need to encourage balanced diets. We need to support and promote fair trade. But we still need to give thanks.

Methodism's new hymn book

When it comes to music....well, let's say that I failed at "O" level. (Though I don't regret taking the course because it introduced me to the Brandeburg Concerto No 5 and Claire du Lune)

So I haven't said too much about the new Methodist Hymn Book "Singing the Faith".

However Fat Prophet in Walsall has something to say (he's an organist so makes some very practical points) as does Minister Dave Faulkner.

There is an alternative to financial meltdown

Yesterday shares fell on the world's stock markets. Today has been "jittery" with the FTSE 100 falling below the 5000 mark. We hear that millions of people who have money invested in pension funds and ISAs have lost out.

But there are some companies that seem completely unaffected. Search the columns of shares and it is impossible to find them. How did John Lewis fare on the markets today? What about The Co-operative Group  or Scott Bader the multi national chemical company? Why aren't these companies contributing to the stock market woes?

The answer is that they are various forms of co-operatives or mutual enterprises. They are not dependent for their reputation on panicky external investors but on their own resources. The employees of John Lewis and Scott Bader are the shareholders. They are able to take out what they put in. The Co-operative Group is owned by us, its customers.

During the banking crisis it was no accident that one of the safest banks to emerge was the Co-operative Bank (which is, incidentally, now led by a Methodist minister).

The priorities of a mutual enterprise or co-operative are very different from those listed on the stock exchange. More co-operatives, more mutuality, would lead to a far more stable economy.

John Restakis, author of Humanising the Economy, recently said:

"In the history of bad ideas with huge consequences, the idea of the free market is one of the worst"

and

"a co-operative economy is not only capable of outperforming a capitalist system economically, both for individuals and for enterprises, but even more so for social outcomes".

Warley Woods is England's favourite park - official

Congratulations to the Warley Woods Community Trust. The 100 acre woods have just been voted England's favourite Green Flag park.

It is such a privilege to live opposite such beautiful parkland right here in the heart of the industrial West Midlands. We are particularly blessed  as our house overlooks that part of the woods officially designated ancient woodland, which means that it has been woodland continuously since 1600. It consists mainly of oaks that were coppiced and used in the Birmingham leather trade around Digbeth.

The rest of the park was landscaped by Repton to enhance a country house and provides some stunning views. Behind our house is Lightwoods Park so we are actually surrounded by greenery. Sometimes it is worth counting our blessings.

Sad news from the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe

The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe has split following allegations of ballot rigging in the vote for Bishop.

The Zimbabwean reports:


The United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe has split, with a rival faction rechristened The Methodist Revival Church.

The split was catalysed by a massive vote rigging scandal that secured a bishop-for-life status for the incumbent Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa in July last year. There have been howls of protest from outraged parishioners ever since, leading to the latest split.

The new church was launched in Harare on Sunday, attended by thousands of parishioners.

The MRC is led by the newly enthroned Bishop, Phillip Mupindu and reverends Ngonidzashe Mukarakate, John Chinyerere, woyoungoziwa Murauro and Gift Mudambo.

Mupindo was handed a spanking new Range Rover at the launch.

Confessional politics

When I served as a Member of the European Parliament  I occasionally asked myself whether I was  "Christian politician" or a "Christian in politics"? The reason I asked that is because when you are a Christian politician many people are very keen to tell you what you "ought" to do and believe.

This crossed my mind as I read the extraordinary and unpleasant blog post of Conservative MP Nadine Dorries about Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron.

Nadine is colourful and tenacious. Her own words explain why. Last month she tried to amend the law on abortion. Her amendment will best be remembered for David Cameron's tasteless and sexist joke at her expense. 

But her references to Tim Farron beggars belief. He decided not to support her amendment. Nadine Dorries saw this as part of a career driven personality problem. She seems to assume that MPs of faith should have supported her amendments on the basis of faith.

She says: "I'm sorry to have to do this to Tim, but he is not being entirely truthful, either to himself or the faith he professes to have......Tim disappeared into the night...... I spoke to Tim because he’s a Christian and a member of Christians in Parliament. I asked for his support.......We do conviction politics a little more seriously over on our side of the House......Tim Farron, puts being President/ potential leader of the Lib Dems before his faith.......his faith may simply be a vehicle of convenience......Some with a stronger faith than Tim may say he’s been blinded by ambition and sold his soul to the devil."
 

Although I write a public blog and preach I'm aware that my faith is an intensely personal thing. In politics it isn't always easy to reconcile what you believe with what is possible. It is often impossible to reconcile what others believe you should do as a Christian with what you actually have to do.

Once certain Christians knew I was both an MEP and a Christian I found a queue a mile long wanting to tell me how I should vote. Some were welcome, the Evangelical Alliance for example, were excellent in their support and briefings.

Others seemed to assume they had the right to tell me what I should think about abortion, homosexuality, Europe as "the beast", and countless other subjects. Few actually engaged in discussion, which actually is helpful. It always seemed to be "You are a Christian, you should do this: ......." And if I didn't do "this" but decided to support "that"....well, I clearly wasn't a Christian. I do know that on the morning I lost my seat there literally was a cheer in the office of one "Christian" organisation.

So I actually find Nadine's comments quite offensive. If she has a problem with a fellow Christian MP she should at least have begun  with a Matthew 18 meeting. If she believes that all members of the "Christians in Parliament" group should have voted in a particular way, she should then take it up with them. When I chaired the equivalent body in the European Parliament none of us would have dreamed of telling each other how to vote.

To publish such an awful post under the heading "Tim Farron - outed", which in itself has inappropriate connotations is clearly wrong. And just what are non-believers to make of this spat? "See how they love one another" ?

Paying for Thatcher's legacy

Almost exactly to the day 44 years ago I picked up a half filled suitcase, got on a bus and went off to university. I left behind a maisonette on a council estate in Hackney.

Yesterday I took one of my children back to start the new term in London. With a few friends they were going to live in a former council maisonette on a council estate just three miles from the home I left in 1967.

Between them they are to pay £24,000 for a twelve month contract.

The "right to buy" has been the biggest con trick the Tory government of the 1980s pulled on working class people. Sadly some people, even on the left, think it was a wonderful gesture to encourage working class owner occupation.

That maisonette would have been bought for between £15 and £30,000. It is now in the hands of a property company who let it out on a commercial basis. Comparable properties are now being sold for nearly £250,000. It is nothing to do with owner occupation and every thing to do with property speculation. Nor has it anything to do with providing the low cost family housing needed in central London.

The local council was forced to sell a valuable community asset at a knock down price, a family has been denied a home close to where the work is, a group of students are being exploited. And the universities ducked the need to provide affordable student accomodation.

Thatcher has a lot to answer for.

The Palestinian state

Efforts will be made later this week to change the status of the territories under control of the Palestinian Authority. This has already led to some interesting exchanges. Hopes that the UN will formally recognise a new Palestinian state will be dashed if the US and UK use their Security Council veto.

The Palestinian Authority will go to the United Nations and request UN membership and international recognition of an independent state of Palestine based on the 1967 cease fire lines which many in Israel believe are indefensible in their present form.

The United States of America have announced that they will use their veto against any motion of this kind at the Security Council, meaning that the PA will most likely then turn to the General Assembly to ask for its status to be upgraded from ‘UN Observer’ to a ‘Non-Member State.’ This will require a two-thirds majority to pass but it is felt that there is a strong possibility that this will be achieved.

Nothing will change on the ground and this is a symbolic measure designed to isolate Israel. However there is a risk that it will raise unrealistic expectations that could lead to increased levels of violence at the expense of both peoples.

Eventually there will be some form of Palestinian state. Israel and other parties are committed to a "two state solution" with security for both states within mutually agreed and respected borders.

However the recognition of a Palestinian state at this time in a non-starter.

Firstly which Palestine is to be recognised? The government based on Judea and Samaria or the one based in Gaza? It would be foolish to recognise a state which clearly does not have authority over its claimed national territory. Especially as the state based in Gaza makes it quite clear that it supports the elimination of Israel and the extermination of its people.

Secondly, there needs to be a clear definition of the borders of the new state. The current lines are little more than cease fire lines and have never reflected the reality on the ground. There is still a great deal of talking to do, part of which must be a resolution of the dispute over Jerusalem - claimed by both the Israelis and the Palestinians, the securing of access between Gaza and the West Bank, and the protection of the Jewish population in the area of the Palestinian Authority.

Thirdly, the declaration of a Palestinian state will be a violation of previous UN resolutions and the Oslo accord which prohibit unilateral action by either party.

Negotiations between Israel and Palestine should restart in earnest. Attacks against Israel itself and Jews settled in Samaria and Judea should be stopped by the Palestinians themselves. Areas of agreement should be identified at an early stage, with the more complex issues explored in depth. The Oslo accord, which I  personally had the opportunity in seeing in great detail when speaking with both Israeli and Palestinian politicians  in the 1990s show that progress can be made.

It is time for negotiations not megaphones.

I do hope that our own church leadership tread with extreme care if asked to comment on this issue. As a denomination we have focused solely on "the occupation" and there is no mandate from conference to support the establishment of a Palestinian state at this time. Any statement about this week's events will be a purely personal expression of opinion and should only be issued in the name of the President or Secretary of Conference.

Did Wesley really say that?

Methodists are fond of quoting John Wesley - especially in sermons and on the social media.

But an American church historian is expressing concern that we are often putting words into the mouth of our venerable founder.

In 1996, the General Conference chose these “Wesleyan words” as its motto: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.”

“It’s a nice saying,” said Dr. Heitzenrater. “But it’s not Wesley.”

Similarly, United Methodists can find the “Rule of Life” attributed to Wesley in the lyrics of a hymn (Worship & Song, No. 3117): “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” An earlier edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations credited those words to Wesley, Cokesbury stores once sold a paperweight with a short version of the quotation, and many United Methodist pastors cite this as a favorite quote on their Facebook pages. But, Dr. Heitzenrater says there’s no evidence that Wesley wrote those words. 

But be reassured, Dr Heitzenrater does say that Wesley said the following popular quotes:

1. The best of it all is, God is with us.
2. I am always in haste, but never in a hurry.
3. I look on all the world as my parish.
4. Beware you be not swallowed up in books!
5. Read the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly. Steadily spend all morning in this employ, or, at least five hours in four-and-twenty.
6. A Christian abhors sloth as much as drunkenness.
7. The more labour the more blessing.
8. Fervor for opinions is not Christian zeal.
9. Can anything but love beget love?
10. Do a little at a time that you may do the more.
11. I have often repented of judging too severely, but very seldom of being too merciful.

Our hearts and prayers go out to miners' families

It has just been announced that the fourth missing miner at the Gleison Colliery in South Wales has been found dead.

During the day it feels as if the whole nation was willing good news only to have those hopes so cruelly dashed.

British Methodism has a long and proud history of working with mining communities and we all know how hard this will be for the families, friends and colleagues of the four men.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all who have been touched by this tragedy. May they rest in peace.

Cross post on Harry's Place

Nice to have a cross post on Harry's Place, the left of centre Jewish community blog.

They shoot donkeys don't they?

Anyone who has been to the Middle East will know just how important the humble donkey is to the economic welfare of many rural people. It was a donkey that took Mary to Bethlehem and a donkey upon which Our Lord rode into Jerusalem to embrace the cross.

We hear little in the Methodist Church about the Arab Spring and the events in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria, despite a surge of interest last year about the alleged misbehaviour  of Jews in the Holy Land.

In this video we see the raw power of the despotic regime in Syria depriving a village of its livelihood. The content may cause offence to some viewers. It is worth reminding ourselves that there are some big issues in the Middle East about which we are strangely silent. If this is what they do to animals what do they do to people?

Who really wants peace in the Holy Land?

"the key hindrance to security and a lasting peace for all in the region is the Occupation of Palestinian territory by the State of Israel, now in its fifth decade." Report to Methodist Conference 2010 "Justice for Palestine and Israel" par 2:1.

PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews

"The Palestine Liberation Organization's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews" according to USA Today. Now haven't we heard that said about somewhere else?

Vintage Red by John Kotz: book review

When I heard that John had published his memoirs I immediately bought a copy. I expected lots of nostalgia from my Hackney childhood and my  first faltering steps into politics. I enjoyed reading about my adopted Labour Party family but was thrilled to find that one member of my real family even had a cameo part, more about that later.

John provides lots of nostalgia for me personally, but some magnificent and important lessons for the wider Labour and progressive movement.

John's story starts in the overcrowded and inadequate housing of 1930s Hackney, then the centre of one of the biggest Jewish communities in the world. He recalls overhearing the conversations around the kitchen table of the persecution of Jews in Germany and the Spanish Civil War. For him that decade culminated in his evacuation from London.

He returned in time for VE Day and the momentous 1945 General Election. His description of the Labour and trades union movement is mouth watering to modern day activists. Youth clubs, friendly societies, the co-op, trades unions and political activity worked together to bind and build a community with active, articulate and engaged  young citizens. These young people worked alongside those who had been present at the birth of the Labour Party and they wanted to continue building a democratic socialist society.

This they did, as far as they were able, in Hackney, a rather despised, unfashionable working class borough in east London. They became active in the Labour League of Youth and then became borough councillors. People like Martin Ottolangui, Eddie Millen, Wally Wayman, Bob Masters, Lou and Sally Sherman, Stanley Davis to name but a few, and of course John Kotz himself, were giants. These were in the days when councillors were unpaid and many paid a price in terms of employment and promotion for their political activities.

The Labour Party of 1950s Hackney set about repairing the war damage and providing affordable rentable accommodation for all. They expanded facilities such as libraries and  public baths. They valued cultural activities that children and young people could learn and enjoy. John is rightly proud of the directly provided meals-on-wheels service that became a template for other progressive boroughs. It included Kosher meals for the elderly Jewish population, so Hackney  was practicing diversity long before it entered the political mainstream.

John's story is a case study in how to use local councils to build municipal socialism. John also tells at first hand of the bitter industrial disputes which erupted in London and the attempt by Oswald Mosley to relaunch his racist policies, thwarted by a united and decisive Labour movement.

But John is honest about the things which disappointed him. As leader of Hackney Council at the end of the national local government dispute of 1979 he was shocked to find that local unions remained on strike because they expected Hackney to settle above the national agreement. He clearly felt betrayed as Hackney had been in the forefront of those authorities arguing for a better national settlement and thereby supported the strike.

Then there was the ultra-lefts of the 1980s. Many came from middle class backgrounds and had only recently arrived in Hackney. Most had little experience of running local government in working class areas. Some went on to become hard right Blairites. They almost run the borough into bankruptcy with the collapse of the very services that had been built by a previous generation of Labour councillors.

John charts the embrace of Tory policies during the Blair years and shows just how far Labour now has to go to win electorally and regain the trust of our people. His final chapter is entitled "Still an optimist". At the age of 80 he says "I still have faith that ordinary people when faced with the problems of capitalist economics, world poverty, wars and the need to deal with the problems of climate change, will seek a better way for everyone to live a fruitful and peaceful life"

But I must mention the one paragraph featuring a member of my family. In 1968 there was an earthquake in Hackney when the Tories briefly  took control of the council. Let John take up the story:

"When Labour was in control of Hackney, we used to fly the red flag on May Day  to celebrate International Workers Day. When the Tories won control, one of the first resolutions they passed was to destroy the council's red flag. The Tories searched every room, desk, and cupboard in the town hall for the flag, but never found it. In the subsequent council election of 1971, we won back every seat. At the count, after it was clear Labour had won, a town hall porter  came to me with a brown paper parcel and said "Councillor Kotz, I think you may be needing this." It was the red flag.

The town hall porter?  He was Uncle Mick married to my mother's sister Marion. An example of working class solidarity.

I would urge anyone involved in Labour politics to read this book. Every page has a lesson for today about building the world for tomorrow.

Vintage red: the story of a municipal socialist John Kotz, Manifesto Press Price £9.95 ISBN 978-1-907464-06-5

Update:  Nice review in the Morning Star

Smethwick to be recreated as a parliamentary constituency

Smethwick may once again have a seat in its own name in the House of Commons. The boundary proposals published today will recreate the old seat augmented by the inclusion of West Bromwich central ward (see proposal 35).

Smethwick first had an MP in its own name in 1918. The main battle was between the Labour candidate, who won, and Cristobel Pankhurst of the Women's Party who was subsequently given a "coupon" by the Tories and in effect became their candidate. In the 1920s the Labour MP was a defector from the Conservative Party, Oswald Moseley. The 1945 election saw it hold the record for the shortest lived parliamentary career of all times. The winning Labour candidate was killed less than 24 hours after being declared  elected.

In 1964 things turned ugly and the Tories won on a vicious racist campaign. Prime Minister Harold Wilson urged MPs to treat the newly elected Tory as "parliamentary leper". Then came Andrew Faulds who was most famous for his portrayal of Jet Morgan in BBC radio's Journey to the Centre of the Earth. The seat was abolished in 1974 when it merged first with Warley East and then with Warley.

Interesting days ahead. I think John Spellar MP is odds on to be the Labour candidate, though he will have to move his constituency office which is located in the Old Warley Ward. That's off to be part of Birmingham Harborne (see proposal 4).

Don't mess with bloggers!

I love this story from New York where a PR firm tried to take advantage of a group of bloggers.

Love thy neighbour - it can be very hard

Loving our neighbours is a fairly important theme of the teachings of Jesus. In fact he sums up the whole of the Judaic law with just two sentences, one of which is about neighbours and harks back to the injunctions in Leviticus 19 . In Mark 12:31  Jesus makes is clear that loving our neighbours  is as important as loving God! But I notice that few of our hymns celebrate our neighbours.

That may be because it is harder to love our neighbours than love our God. With God we have a certain amount of latitude. I would not be the first to say that we can make God in our own image. However with our neighbours it is a different matter. There they are, certainly not transcendent, in all their humanity and the evidence suggests that they are not all than lovable. Above all they are just like us and sometimes we find it hard to even love ourselves.

The HSBC bank has recently released a fascinating survey on what we Brits think of our neighbours. Alas it is hardly out of the pages of the Bible - Old or New Testament! I have a feeling that much could be found in similar surveys in most other countries and cultures.

Here is the UK the survey found that one in six (16%) of people have complained to their neighbours directly about a grievance, one in ten (10%) have complained about one of their neighbours to other neighbours and more than one in twenty (6%) have gone so far as to call the police to complain about them.

Top gripes include:

1. Being noisy early in the morning or late at night (28%)
2. Playing loud music or learning musical instruments (23%)
3. Stealing parking place on road (20%)
4. Being nosey / interfering (19%)
5. Poor upkeep on their gardens / house exterior (18%)
6. Being noisy in their garden (18%)
7. Having parties (16%)
8. Noisy children / trampolines / balls coming over fence (15%)
9. Pets (14%)
10. Always wanting to speak to me when I'd rather not (11%)

There's a wealth of sermon material here! But I wonder if the average churchgoer is the one complaining or the one causing the nuisance? I doubt if it is that clear cut.

Ten years on and America is hard to find*

It was shortly after two in the afternoon that I switched on the office TV to watch Tony Blair's speech at the TUC conference in Brighton. Just as it was about to begin there came a newsflash that there had been a dramatic air crash in New York. Soon after came live coverage of a second crash. Then we knew it was a terrorist attack.

As the afternoon unfolded my little office gradually became crowded as colleagues gathered to watch the unfolding drama. As we were an acute hospital I went down to the A&E department to warn them that something terrible was happening in America and wondered if a co-ordinated attack could be launched on London which would have knock on effects for emergency services throughout the country. Our turn was to come a few years later.

Immediately there was a massive outpouring of sympathy  for the Americans. At the time I was writing my book about Francis Asbury and was in daily contact with libraries and academics in the US. I just wanted them to know how upset we were. That evening I joined my friend Ian, often a contributor to the comments box on here, at the Old Comrades Jazz Club. The mood was sombre and the music chosen to reflect the occasion. We were is a state of shock and I know that younger people will recall this as their "Where were you when you heard Kennedy was shot?" moment. It will be remembered for many years.

There were several things that discomforted me in the ensuing hours and weeks. I didn't feel that the US President George Bush was up to the occasion. His first reaction was to tell the world that the US would find "the folks" responsible. The disappearance of Vice President Dick Cheney is the stuff of legends. In times of crisis leaders take responsibility and risks. This did not seem to be the way the Bush White House were handling things.

Many Americans will  say that they are a "Christian country". Some believe it to be the most Christian country on earth. So this attack became a case study in how Christian people would respond to aggression.

Within days America - aided and abetted by some of our own politicians -  began an orgy of hate speech that matched anything the jihadists were saying. Americans seem to live in a perpetual Superman movie with a belief that there is always someone wanting to take over the world. Once it was communists, then it was new agers, on September 11 it became Islam. The discourse of American public life seems to have been set by Hollywood drama rather than by the Christ many Americans claim as Lord and Saviour.

Bringing the perpetrators to book would take careful police and intelligence work. This was discarded into a lust for revenge and collective punishment. The wars on Iraq and Afghanistan did little to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. The same outcome could have been achieved in other more surgical ways. In different circumstances the regime of Saddam Hussein could now be meeting the same end as that of Ghaddafii and Mubarak, with America seen as a model rather than an ogre. But then, well, Saddam would have held on to the oil for a few years longer. 9/11 seems to have been the excuse to go into Iraq to protect business interests rather than keep New York safe.

This was all made worse by the US government's appalling treatment of suspects. The bizarre legal status of detainees at Guantanamo and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib made a mockery of any idea that the US was a bastion of the rule of law. These wars and abuses did little to promote the US as a role model for countries and peoples seeking democracy, freedom and civil rights.

The tragedy was that much of this was seen to be done in the name of Christianity. Bush in one unguarded moment even referred to the wars as a "crusade", the equivalent of a holy war.

After 9/11 the Americans had the entire world on their side. The warped logic of Osama Bin Laden was there for all to see and he was isolated.  Within months that sympathy was blown apart and lost.

The Christian response would have been to pray carefully for the perpetrators and then seek justice. This may have been a little slower but it may have actually saved many lives, both US, British, Iraqis and Afghans. It would have been free of the hate that characterised US public life. It certainly would have celebrated the rule of law by demonstrating that  Western Judeo-Christian  values can triumph when under great pressure.

History will view these last ten years as a decade of wasted opportunity and a time when Christianity demonstrated its powerlessness in the United States.  Just where were the Christians in the aftermath of 9/11?

* with apologies to Fr Daniel  Berrigan SJ.

"Abortion is always an evil, to be avoided" - the Methodist view (though keep it quiet)

It can't come as a surprise to hear that MPs have rejected a move to make women seeking abortion  have independent counselling. 

The MP proposing the move wanted to strip non-statutory abortion providers from fulfilling the role of counsellors. This   would be handed over to counsellors independent of those providers. It is worth noting that the provision of abortion is one area that has proved a boon to the private health sector. There's a lot of money to be made for very little risk.

The position of the British Methodist Church is quite clear, though I'm not certain that we would automatically have  supported the proposed change in the law about counselling. I'm not aware that we have made any statements over the last few days (and haven't had time to check as business has been a bit brisk).

Anyway this is where we stand:

....abortion is always an evil, to be avoided if at all possible by offering care to single mothers during pregnancy, and the adoption of their children if, at full term, the mother cannot offer a home. However, the Statement also holds that there will be circumstances where the termination of pregnancy may be the lesser of evils. These include situations where the embryo is grievously handicapped, the pregnancy is the result of rape or the health, mental or physical, of the mother is at risk. 
 
At what stage does an unborn fetus become a person?
 
The result of the coming together of human sperm and ovum is obviously human. The appearance of the ‘primitive streak' (the beginning of the neurological system) after some fourteen days is an important stage. However for many weeks after this event, natural abortion will continue to bring about the termination of over 50% of embryos. 

Fertilisation, implantation and subsequent development are parts of a continuous process. It is simply not possible to identify the single moment when a new human person begins. The right of the embryo to full respect clearly increases throughout a pregnancy. 

Should there be a time-limit for abortion?
 
It would be strongly preferable that, through advances in medical science and social welfare, all abortions should become unnecessary. But termination as early as possible in the course of the pregnancy may be the lesser of evils. If abortion were made a criminal offence again, there would be increased risks of ill-health and death as a result of botched ‘back-street' abortions. Late abortions should be very rare exceptions. To refuse to countenance abortion in any circumstances is to condemn some women and their babies to gross suffering and a cruel death in the name of an absolutism which nature itself does not observe. 

Counselling and pastoral care should be available to the mother and, where the father is known, to the father. The mother should be told clearly of the alternatives to termination.

Beware of core funding by subsidy

It is interesting to read a short item on the  Methodist Ecumenical News blog about Christian Community Projects in a time of cuts. Like many Christians I am a little wary of taking money from public finances because it normally comes with strings, some of which may not be helpful.

It is helpful though to know that there is a recognition of problems ahead.

Many churches, not just Methodists, have built up a portfolio of publicly funded projects on their premises. When this is over and above the work of the church there is no problem if the funding is cut, except of course for the recipients of the project.

But there are many churches who will face a real problem in coming years, if not months.

I hear too many stories of churches which are effectively funded by the public. I won't go into details but I am aware that they are dependent for running costs on external funding. Sometimes this may be a little wider than the public purse, with lettings to several outside businesses and organisations all of which bring cash but may even cause reputational and spiritual problems. One Methodist Church in West London boasts on  its website that it hosts yoga classes!

The problem with external funding - over and above the reputation and spiritual issues - is that a congregation can become too dependent on the income. Basically in order to be viable every church and its members needs to understand that there is no cache of money or income stream which will ensure its long term survival.

Project funding and rental income give members the wrong idea. They assume that the church will always be there. They have no care to ensure that core funding comes out of the collection plate, for which they themselves are responsible.

The result is that when the funding stops the reality is all too obvious for all to see. Complacent financial management and miserly giving combine to demonstrate the real bankruptcy of the church.

If the collection plate can't sustain a church's core costs then that church is not sustainable. It is time every circuit in the land understood that. In future weeks we will see chickens come home to roost. The bonanza of the last decade is over. Expect to see an acceleration in church closures.

New encouragement to evangelise

I gather from Peter Phillip's blog that there is a new evangelism website from the Methodist Church - a very welcome initiative.

I must admit that I haven't been able to find it on the official website or any announcement but  a short 110 second introductory video is already available.

It looks good and I look forward to seeing the rest of the resources when they become available.

TELL.SHOW.BE. - English from Tell.Show.Be on Vimeo.

Worship in schools

Today's report from the BBC that two thirds of parents report their children are not having a daily act of worship in their schools is hardly a surprise.

One of our children went to a very successful local comprehensive and the headteacher refused point blank to allow any religious activity on the premises. This was despite protests from some parents and comments from Ofsted.

She was, of course, breaking the law, the 1944 Education Act I recall  requires schools to hold a daily act of worship.

Perhaps the most pertinent point I make is that the requirement comes from legislation dating back to 1944  - a well meaning  but disastrous act which, incidentally, consigned me to a secondary modern education - and  things have changed considerably since 1944.

Even in 1960s East London the workings of the Act were being tested to breaking point. Our school was spread over five sites and the logistics of moving people around for "assembly" meant they happened on a rotational basis and certainly not every day.

Then there was the issue of exactly what form the worship should take. A large proportion of pupils, in my form a majority, were Jews. This meant that we would only sing hymns which omitted Jesus and rarely used the New Testament. During Christmas and Easter periods the local rabbi would come in and the Jews would have a separate assembly. This wasn't exactly bringing the community together.

The quality of the worship, often led by people we knew to be atheists, was hardly inspiring. I still shudder at the interpretation put on the story of the talents  during a "Christian" assembly by a deputy head teacher who hated both his work and his charges. On that day I found it particularly difficult to concentrate - the day before I'd been given four strokes for insolence by the man talking about Jesus.

As a parent I did attend worship at the Roman Catholic primary school that my children attended and found it inspiring and well thought out, but this seems to have been an exception - and  several of the teachers were Methodists!

About 15 years ago I found that local schools in my constituency - I was in politics then - would ask me to come and speak at assemblies. These were great opportunities to meet potential young voters but also provided material for local newspapers. I sat through several "acts of worship". By and large they were dire.

My worst  experience in the constituency was when a headteacher held up a "picture of Jesus" and pointed out how handsome he was with his blonde hair and blue eyes! Other teachers looked distinctly uncomfortable as they led an act of worship for which they had no appetite. Lots of them droned on about environmental issues - no wonder young people are cynical of climate change warnings.  The theology was distinctly "iffy". There was one that was superb - but that was a one-off led by a local vicar who came in once a term.

I discussed school assemblies with one of the local chief education officers. As it happens she was a very old childhood friend who attended the same church as me, but by then was an atheist herself. She could see the value of assemblies but found the requirement for worship offensive and divisive. I rarely meet anyone in education who sees any value in school worship.

So I'm left wondering what the point of a daily act of worship is? It can be divisive. It can be counter productive. It can be damaging when led by people who themselves do not even believe in God.

Now I have no problem with schools teaching religious studies. I can't see how anyone can function in contemporary civic society without have a basic grasp of  Biblical history and concepts. That is a perfectly legitimate function of a good education system. But an act of worship led by someone who doesn't believe? I think it best left to the local headteacher in consultation with parents and governors. Time to review the 1944 requirements.

Fiji Methodists need practical support

 During my week away I missed this story that requires a little more action on our part. I've just written to my MP asking for the Foreign Office to intervene. I am wondering if anyone else would be interested in a vigil outside the Fijian high commission at Hyde Park Gate? It isn't much fun being picketed, even by a bunch of tea swilling, hymn singing, British Methodists!

Our own church press release lays bare the persecution. This could get very nasty.

The Fijian government has banned all Methodist Church meetings except for Sunday worship in an unprecedented crackdown on religious freedom. This includes house groups, women’s prayer fellowship, choir practice, mid-week communion and youth fellowship, as well as the Church’s governance meetings.

Having withdrawn the permit for the Church’s annual Conference the evening before the event was due to start, the interim government has now notified the Church in a letter from the Fiji Military Council that all other meetings of the Methodist Church are forbidden. All Methodist ministers are also forbidden from leaving the country for any meeting. 

The Church is responding with prayer and fasting. A planned press conference had to be cancelled last week because of the fear of further arrests. The Methodist Church is the largest faith group in Fiji and the only group to receive this treatment by the Government.

Some unexpected new neighbours

On our return from holiday we were surprised to see a row of caravans at the bottom of our garden. I did wonder if I had had too much sun and was seeing a mirage harking back to my week at Bovisand!

But once I turned on my computer I found the local social media full of the news that this was a group of travellers.

I'd like to say that I just shrugged my shoulders and thought "live and let live" but I did feel a sense of outrage and insecurity. Whatever we would like to say, strangers living a very different lifestyle do raise anxieties.

So I was challenged by  this article in today's Daily Telegraph.

Jewish leaders have thrown their support behind the Dale Farm illegal campsite, claiming that the planned eviction has echoes of anti-Semitism. 

All night prayer meetings here in Birmingham

Apparently the days of the all night prayer meetings did not die with the absorption of the Prims into the present connexion.

This morning we had a wonderful sermon from Adjit a trainee deacon at a nearby Catholic Church. He focused on the power of prayer. He bore witness to some of the great things that he has seen as a result of prayer meetings especially in healing. As he is a doctor, his references to healing were all the more powerful. 

There was one little detail that especially encouraged us: Apparently each weekday a group of Catholics from  India meet in a Birmingham church for prayer. They start at 10.00 pm  and continue until 5.00 am the following day. That's 35 hours of prayer a week. Numbers vary from 5 to 20.

Perhaps as Methodists we should remember the importance those who created Methodism attached to overnight prayer meetings? Our Catholic friends from India may be showing us the way.

Let us go for it - time to LIVE the gospel

We were all hoping for a quiet and peaceful summer break. No chance. August was just a few days old when our major English cities were rocked by riots.

Our little church in City Road, Birmingham turned out to be at the centre of one of the most terrible and notable events - the deaths of three young men run down by a car as they sought to protect family businesses on nearby Dudley Road. For a few hours the community held its breath as if waiting for catastrophe. We thank God for the courage and calmness of a bereaved father who made it clear that the victim's families were not seeking revenge. In just a few moments every single stereotype about our Muslim neighbour's concept of justice and retribution was challenged and changed.

We are a small church in one of the poorest corners of urban Britain but it was left to us to represent God's love and British Methodism at this most dangerous of times. We issued an immediate statement expressing our shock at the killings but our admiration for the families' response. We placed a floral tribute on the makeshift shrine on Dudley Road. Paul our Minister (above) led us to join the peace rally held in the park opposite our buildings. We offered our facilities to the rally organisers should they have needed a back up.

In the face of so much violence and aggression, and at a time of incredible tension, we as a church instinctively responded in a positive way. There was no need to wait for a lead from Connexional headquarters, no need to hold a committee meeting, we just got on with it. Much to our astonishment our seemingly puny response made the front page of the Methodist Recorder, even using photographs taken by me. How much we would have preferred such a public mention to be in happier circumstances.

Over the last few years I and others have felt utter despair for the future of our church in particular and Methodism in general.. The denomination's dysfunctional structures and appointments seem to militate against maintaining a Methodist presence in  areas such as Rotton Park and Winson Green. There are those who think that Methodism should simply pack up and leave the inner city. But our church is part of a diverse hard working community that  is battered on an hourly basis by poverty, violence, drug dealing, pimps, and all the negatives that make urban life uncomfortable for many Christians. Didn't John Wesley say that we should not simply go where we are needed, but go where we are needed most?

However we can now see that our seemingly mad vision of replacing the roof on a 100 year old building was inspired by God. We know that some came close to mocking us. We know that many of us face really very heavy and very personal spiritual attacks. But the events of August 2011 have shown  that our community is crying out to hear and experience the Gospel.