Reply to Rachel - The Church is its own worst enemy.

 Hi,

Just read your blog post, "You're welcome, you just can't play".

The Church is really its own worst enemy and never seems to learn from its mistakes. Not only is it getting more and more out of touch with society as a whole but it is also getting further and further away from the teachings and practice of Jesus. In addition, in times of dwindling congregations it is forcing into exile many of its best teachers. How stupid is that?

This has happened to Diane and I twice. In the first instance the words "beyond reproach" were also used and sex was the basis of the complaint. (Why is the Church so obsessed with sex?). After 17 years loyal service to the Church as a Reader, and having been abandoned by my wife, I met Diane who had similarly been left by her husband and moved in with her. Within a couple of weeks the rector was round for a chat, demanding confirmation that we were sleeping together. He then pointed out that, as a Reader, I had to be beyond reproach and, as I was now committing adultery, I had to resign, not only as Reader, but also from the PCC, the Choir, and anything else that could be considered in any way to be "leadership". We were still welcome to attend church - just not do anything! (i.e. "you're welcome but you can't play").

I politely explained that we were not, in fact, committing adultery. The original ten commandments lists adultery along with other commandments forbidding the depriving of a man of his rights - murder (the right to life), stealing (property), coveting (thinking about stealing), bearing false witness (reputation), adultery (wife). In this case Diane's husband had voluntarily given up his wife and walked away, refusing to return. To strengthen the case he had even visited the rector to confirm that he had no intention of returning to his wife, he no longer wanted her, and that he fully approved of me taking his place. However, the rector was not to be swayed. In his view we were still committing adultery as a formal divorce had not yet been finalised. 

We sought a divorce as soon as possible and stayed on at the church thinking everything would be alright once we were married. We got married as soon as possible after the divorce - literally within a month of the decree absolute. (We had to allow three weeks for the banns to be posted). However, there was no attempt at reconciliation or reinstatement so, early the following year, we sadly left that church. The organist, who had left after 3 or 4 years service, was dispatched with a big ceremony and loads of leaving gifts. The best that could be managed for my 17 years + was about three lines in the parish magazine thanking me for my service.

After about three years unsuccessfully trying other churches we finally settled at another church and I resumed my Reader ministry. I served here, very successfully, for 11 years until, during a clergy vacancy I had to write a blunt letter (jointly with the churchwarden) to a member of the congregation who was hassling the pre-school who used our hall and causing them a great deal of stress. The situation had reached crisis point and the person concerned refused all attempts to discuss the situation in person, making the letter the only way of trying to resolve the matter. Unfortunately, unbeknown to me at the time, this person had a narcissistic personality and reacted very badly to the letter. He made a complaint to the local bishop about me, claiming that I should not have written the letter and that it caused him to have a breakdown. As I am sure you know, narcissists are often in denial about reality and full of "fake news" (e,g, Donald Trump).

Unfortunately the bishop believed his version of events, refused to listen to my evidence, and refused to contact any of the four good witnesses I offered him who would have supported my side of the story. He summoned me to a meeting at his house and produced a pre-prepared letter of reprimand (obviously with no intention of considering my side of the story). We therefore had no option but to leave that church and, as the bishop has oversight of all the Anglican churches within commuting distance, we not only had to leave this particular church but the Church of England as a whole. We are now settled with a local URC church and have to start all over again making new contacts, growing new friendships and try to offer some kind of ministry.

This is no way to encourage the mission of the Church despite that being the main focus in all the church press. From the above you can see that I fully sympathise with your position but can only offer two positive points :-

1.)   It is the church hierarchy who cause the trouble, not the vast majority of the normal church members.

2,)  There is a church out there somewhere who will love you and encourage your ministry - you just have to find it. However, (as illustrated above) when you have found it don't expect it to last forever. Change of leadership often means change of attitude.

  

Donald Trump and Fake News

In view of Donald Trump's propensity to issue "fake news" all the time as true and to deride the true news as fake, I have found the following scriptural warning against him. This is from the Book of Enoch which was widely circulated among the early Christian churches, although it didn't quite make it into the final draft of the bible.

"Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for you shall have no hope of life. Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards their neighbour. Therefore they shall have no peace, but die a sudden death."
[Enoch XCVII: 14-16]

Watch out Mr Trump!

A quote of Napoleon Bonaparte is also somewhat relevant:

"In politics, stupidity is not a handicap."

We are getting there ....... slowly

"Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels

At midnight on Wednesday (10th June 2020), the country will have gone two full months without burning coal to generate power. The current coal-free period smashes the previous record of 18 days, six hours and ten minutes which was set in June last year."

Right to Die

I have long harboured the suspicion that most Americans are quite mad. I have also harboured a nagging doubt that that might be being a bit disingenuous to Americans as a whole.  Donald Trump, of course, proves my first case, but he is just one individual and I really need a bigger sample size to scientifically justify the hypothesis. Further evidence has, however, emerged this week in the following press clipping emerging from America.

“Speaking at a rally outside the San Antonio City Hall, Bexar County, Texas, Republican Chair Cynthia Brehm made the outrageous claim that the coronavirus pandemic is a Democratic hoax.

A viral video from Texas shows a Republican Party leader speaking at local rally calling the coronavirus panic a hoax being perpetrated by Democrats with the goal of hurting Donald Trump, then encouraging people to take off their face masks.

She was speaking at a political protest against continued restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus. Brehm said that a requirement to wear face coverings is a violation of people’s constitutional rights and hinted that the coronavirus panic is being manufactured by Democrats in order to hurt Trump.

“So, take off your masks, exercise your constitutional rights. Stand up, speak up and vote Republican.”

After Brehm made her wild remarks, those Republicans attending the rally began to shake-hands and hug each other, deliberately violating the social distancing guidelines and potentially placing everyone they come into contact with at risk.”

This woman is clearly deranged and steps should be taken now to ensure that she is not allowed to stand for election on the grounds of insanity.

Americans seem obsessed with their “constitutional rights”, whatever they might be. Of course, they have a “right” not to wear a mask if they don’t want to. But that doesn’t make it a good idea …….. any more than the fact they have a “right” to carry a loaded weapon but it is not a good idea to go around shooting people.

A large proportion of Trump supporters claim to be evangelical Christians but they don’t seem to have much idea what Christianity is all about. The example Jesus set was that we must not insist on our “rights”, even if we have them…….

Philippians 2:5-11 (New American Standard Bible (NASB))

⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Jesus was obedient to the point of death. Americans, it seems, cannot even be obedient enough to wear a face mask to protect themselves and others from a potential death sentence. Their "right" to die is more important!

Public Transport

"London's transport system was given a £1.6 billion government bailout yesterday after Sadiq Khan, the mayor, threatened to cut bus and Tube services."

Yet in the government's official briefing, people who can't work from home are being encouraged to return to work but, if at all possible, do not use public transport.

Not really joined up thinking is it?

Man is the Virus

There is a new theory going around than Man is the Virus rather than Covid 19.
On a global scale that is worth thinking about.
Many viruses are beneficial to man in that they infect and destroy harmful bacteria. These are called bacteriophages and are actively used in some therapies. The bacteria are harming man so viruses are used to kill off the bacteria. On a global scale man is harming creation - so could it be that creation is trying to save itself by introducing a new virus to kill off a few thousand people and reduce the damage being caused? Comparative photos of normally polluted cities before and during lockdown show clearly that the virus has been very effective in some places in reducing pollution levels. Covid19 virus has also been isolated from large particles of air pollution which keep it airborne for longer than it would be otherwise. Conclusion: reduce pollution and the virus will not be able to spread so rapidly.

Inger Andersen (Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Programme) - 

     "Nature is sending us a message".

Duchess of York:  "Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms....... like the spoilt children we are. She gave us time, and she gave us warnings. She was so patient with us. She gave us fire and floods, she tried to warn us but in the end she took back control."

Lockdown Birthday Party

I attended my first online birthday party yesterday. An interesting concept but a necessary one under the current lockdown restrictions. It was my grandson's 2nd birthday. He was too young last year to understand the concept of "birthday", but he's definitely got the hang of it this year. Despite only being 2 he has all the necessary vocabulary - "happy birthday", "presents", "balloons", "cake" etc. And, unlike most boys, he is extremely tidy, tearing off small pieces of wrapping paper from a very large present and handing them individually to his mum for safekeeping.

The idea was we would organise a family Zoom conference with all his relatives to watch him blow his candles out, sing him Happy Birthday and then eat our own cake that we had pre-prepared. Unfortunately our cake wasn't quite finished in time and his aunt could not make a cake because her grocery delivery was not due until the following day. Still - as lockdown birthdays go it wasn't bad!

Locust Plagues

If you thought coronavirus was bad enough, think yourself very lucky you don't live in East Africa at the moment. At the beginning of April a local pastor there reported the arrival of a huge swarm of young desert locusts estimated to cover 100,000 acres (by comparison, the whole of Tendring District is only 83,392 acres). This would therefore be a cloud covering everywhere from Colchester to Harwich and beyond! There has already been a huge plague of locusts in early 2020 which devastated the crops of East Africa. This second swarm is allegedly 20 times as bad. The insects are all young adults which eat more than their older counterparts and will live longer. They have arrived just as the new plantings are beginning to shoot and are stripping everything in sight.

Social Distancing in the Church of England

Despite the fact that the term "Social Distancing" has only been coined in the last few months, Martyn Percy reports in this week's Church Times that the Church of England has been practising it since 1662.

He refers to the Sunday 8.00am Book of Common Prayer eucharist -
"Minimal eye contact with your neighbour. Sit at the back of the church and apart from others, ideally in your own designated pew, despite there being plenty of room at the front. No exchange of the Peace or any other awkward gesture or unnecessary physical proximity is required. A nod to the priest when you leave, perhaps - no handshake, lest one be corralled into a rota for making the coffee or mowing the churchyard."

By this continued ritual the church consecrates social distancing at the beginning of every week.

Why we shouldn't eat bats

¹³ ‘And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹⁴ the kite, and the falcon after its kind; ¹⁵ every raven after its kind, ¹⁶ the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; ¹⁷ the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl; ¹⁸ the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture; ¹⁹ the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.     [Leviticus 11:13-17]

¹¹ You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, ¹³ the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.      [Deuteronomy 14: 11-18]

Apart from the zoological error of classifying bats as birds, both these passages clearly indicate that bats are considered unclean and must not be eaten.

Bats are about the most pathogen-laden animals in the world. Bats can carry up to 5,000 different pathogens or more. In recent decades there has been a great increase in the number of human infections associated with bat viruses. Nevertheless, bats are regularly eaten in many parts of the world, including China.

So far, it is believed that the current coronavirus pandemic called COVID-19 originated from bats at a “wet market” in the megacity of Wuhan, China. It is also thought that one or more pathogens were transmitted there from bats to humans. All kinds of wild and exotic animals were sold there until the government shut this market down.

Studies have shown that bats can carry hundreds of different types of coronavirus and that the COVID-19 genome is at least 96% the same as the genome of a coronavirus in bats, making it fairly certain COVID-19 came from bats.

After the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003, which was believed to have been caused by people eating bats, China was criticized for not outlawing the eating of bats. But when COVID-19 was discovered to have originated from bats at the wet market in Wuhan, China responded (in January 2020) by banning the eating of bats.

So don’t be fooled by the preachers telling us that the pandemic is God’s judgement on mankind for some other sin. It is nothing of the kind. It is the natural consequence of ignoring God’s laws in the first place.

Pandemics in Bury St Edmunds

I have just discovered an intriguing article outlining how the town of Bury St Edmunds dealt with various pandemics in the past. The procedures seem remarkably similar to those being used to combat the coronavirus pandemic we are dealing with at the moment. Relevant extracts are quoted below. The full article can be found at:   https://drfrancisyoung.com/2020/03/17/how-bury-st-edmunds-dealt-with-past-pandemics/

“Plague returned in 1589, causing the Feoffees of the Guildhall Feoffment (who informally ran the town in the absence of a Corporation) to erect tents to house plague victims. The houses of infected families were boarded up to prevent anyone entering or exiting, while the parish constables were paid to take food and other necessities to the afflicted.”

“Bury’s worst ever outbreak of the plague occurred in the summer of 1637, when 10% of the town’s population (about 600 people) died within nine months. People remained in their homes and trade came to a standstill; contemporary accounts describe grass growing in the streets. It was during this outbreak that St Peter’s Hospital on Out Risbygate was used as a ‘pesthouse’ (quarantine for those infected with the plague) while the bodies of the dead were buried in the pit opposite.”

“The ‘plague stone’, which is now located outside West Suffolk College is reputed to have been where people were required to wash their coins in vinegar in a cavity in the stone before they entered the town during 17th-century outbreaks of Plague.”

“Bury was not affected by the infamous outbreak of plague that devastated London in 1665, largely because the Corporation implemented strict measures to prevent any contact between Bury and London and sealed the gates of the town.” 

“Even in the Middle Ages, it was well understood that self-isolation was a way to protect the population at large from infectious disease. However, by the 17th century the social classes dealt with epidemics very differently, with the poor barricading themselves in their houses in the hope of escaping infection while the wealthy left the town for the countryside. In one respect, the wealthy who fled were right that the close quarters living of early modern urban life contributed to the spread of disease, but by leaving the town they also ended up infecting other places if they themselves were carriers of the disease. For most, all they could do was wait out the pestilence while trying to have as little contact with others as possible.”

St Edmund - Patron Saint of Pandemics

Further to my comments yesterday about re-instating St Edmund as Patron Saint of England, I was unaware that two attempts have already been made to achieve this. Research reveals that -

"An attempt was made in 2006 to have St Edmund reinstated as patron saint of England. A petition was handed into Parliament but it was rejected by the government.

In 2013 another campaign was launched to reinstate St Edmund as patron saint. This was the ‘St Edmund for England’ e-petition, backed by the Bury St Edmunds based brewery, Greene King."

What is even more intriguing is the fact I have just discovered that St Edmund is considered to be the Patron Saint of pandemics!  You may ask why? Further research reveals the following -

"The idea of invoking St Edmund’s protection against infectious disease springs, essentially, from his instrument of martyrdom – arrows. In the Bible and in Christian tradition, the metaphor of arrows is used for infectious disease. St Sebastian, the Roman martyr who was tied to a tree and pierced with arrows, was invoked against the plague from an early date, and St Edmund occasionally appears alongside St Sebastian in medieval depictions, suggesting that a popular tradition of St Edmund as a plague saint existed in medieval England. However, no evidence survives that St Edmund was thus promoted by St Edmunds Abbey, even though the monk John Lydgate (Edmund’s biggest late medieval promoter) wrote about the plague.

Instead, the idea of St Edmund as a plague saint took off in the French city of Toulouse in the 17th century. Since at least the late 15th century, the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in the city had claimed to be in possession of the body of an English royal saint who came to be identified with St Edmund (a strange claim, given that Edmund’s body had been in Bury St Edmunds since the 10th century). In 1631 the city was ravaged by a terrible outbreak of plague and the Consuls invoked the saints enshrined at Saint-Sernin. When they invoked St Edmund, the plague came to an end – securing Edmund a place as one of the holy protectors of the city of Toulouse. "

So what better time than now, during this period of lockdown, to call for St Edmund's reinstatement as our patron saint?

Time to Ditch St George?

George was a Roman soldier, thought to have been born into Greek nobility in Cappadocia – modern Turkey – in 280 AD. He is said to have served the Emperor Diocletian as a Tribune in the province of Palestine.

A proud Christian, George refused to renounce his faith when Rome later chose to purge its ranks of outside influence during the Great Persecution.

He was imprisoned, tortured, dragged through the streets of the Palestinian city of Lydda and finally beheaded on 23 April 303 AD, rather than apostatise.

All very good but, as far as we know, he never visited Britain. So how did he come to be England's patron saint?

Well apparently George’s martyrdom inspired King Edward III to make him England’s patron saint in 1327 – replacing the local favourite, St Edmund.

George is also honoured as the patron saint of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal and Serbia; of the regions of Aragon and Catalonia in Spain; and of the cities of Beirut, Genoa, Istanbul, Moscow and Venice.

It seems to me he is spread a little too thinly! In view of the fact that we have now "Brexited" perhaps we ought to leave him to all these other countries and petition for the return of St Edmund.

Bad News and Good News

A recent study has shown that parents dropping their children of at school by car increases the level of fine particulates in the area by three times. Some of this even gets into the classrooms nearest the road. Fine particulates are the ones that can do most damage as they can be inhaled deep into the lung.

When schools are open again perhaps it is time to start making the kids walk or cycle to school (or if it's too far, go by bus). I know they don't like it but it will help save their health and the planet.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a huge drop in demand for petrol and clothes. This has caused prices to drop - obviously bad news if you are a producer but great news for customers as the rate of inflation has now dropped to 1.5%.

Austria and Sweden have each unplugged their last coal-fired power station from the grid. Belgium has already done so, and at least a dozen other European countries plan to do so by the end of the decade (the good news) ........ but scientists say it is already too late to prevent the rapid loss of sea ice in the arctic during the summer months (the bad news). The loss of large amounts of ice-cover, and therefore reflectivity, mean that the arctic will warm up even faster than before (the even worse news). However, it does mean that more ships from northern Europe can use the route along the north coast of Russia to reach the Far East, which is 40 per cent shorter than the normal route via the Suez canal. (a bit more good news).

Today is Earth Day

Earth Day (April 22^nd) was initiated in 1970 after a huge oil spill in California prompted 20 million Americans (10% of the population at the time) to take to the streets in a mass protest demanding more environmental awareness. It has been held on April 22 ever since, which makes this year its 50^th anniversary. With climate change now getting rapidly out of control it has never been more relevant.

We started Lent studying the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book, “Saying Yes to Life”. If you stopped reading it when our meetings were curtailed due to Covid19, I urge you to finish reading it now and look up some of the many internet references it provides, particularly those relating to A Rocha.

Also look up www.earthday.org and learn more about Earth Day.

The good news coming from the Covid 19 pandemic is that pollution has been greatly reduced. Almost all flights have been grounded, offices closed and cars taken off the roads. Estimates put the potential drop in CO2 emissions (over 2019 figures) at 5.5% globally (7.5% in the US.).  In Delhi, Bangkok and São Paulo residents have expressed disbelief at the unusually clean air in cities usually choked with pollution. But this reduction in emissions is still way off what we’d need to prevent 1.5 degrees Celsius of global heating. To hit this, global emissions would need to fall by 7.6 per cent every year this decade.

See:  www.wired.co.uk/article/coronavirus-climate-change for more details.

The coronavirus outbreak gives us a chance to refocus our priorities in a concerted effort to reach net zero by 2050.