Children, Jacko and God

Twitter and Blogger Unfinished Chris writes some good stuff.  His entry on putting God in boxes is spot on, I couldn't agree more.  There is something about the way "traditional" religion is practiced and marketed that makes God seem so small and partisan.  That was very obvious listening to interviews by the Orange Order in N Ireland just now on the Sunday programme.  Is there a facet of the human mind that is programmed to take something huge and magnificent and put it in a drawer?  One of the problems is that real issues don't get much of a look in on the Sunday hour in Church.  Dry sermons on abstract ideas don't do it for me.  I want to hear about things that matter to my life here and now, like Iran, child abuse, youth crime and climate change - but then I was told the other day by someone pretty high up that the Catholic Church doesn't do issues.

Ok, well don't do issues directly, but deal with them somehow, through stories, parables, painting, music - anything - but deal with them.  I loved Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror, the best sermon I have heard for years and years.

What's the problem with speaking out when there is so much to say?  Making this podcast on the horror of Baby P it seems to me that the Christian Church has a lot to say about child abuse. In fact Jesus was utterly hard line.  No soft talk of forgiveness and new start - he said if anyone causes little ones harm it is better they had a millstone put round their neck and thrown into the sea.  Fighting talk for a man of peace.  So has anyone said that from a pulpit recently?  Not in my hearing.  Of course - issues.  Oh well, back to the box.

Telling Tales

A Catholic priest friend of mine said something very interesting when we talked about how the message of Christianity has become diluted, changed, boxed in and irrelevant. He said its because we betray our heritage. We used to tell with passion the greatest stories on earth - the rights and wrongs, dos and don'ts, trials and tribulations of being a human in search of a God - now we just give out rules and statements. And that is it. Where are the stories that set the heart aflame with a desire to seek and to change? Where is the inspiration and comment on a broken world that gives hope? I go to Church most Sundays and never hear a story that sets me alight (sorry chaps!)

Telling stories is in our very genes, it is how we have always made sense of an unfathomable world. From our earliest times on earth we would have told each other great stories from simple tales to huge epics - but they all do the same job. Jesus was a master at telling tales. Listening to stories real or imagined, helps us relate and gets our inner emotions engaged, no encyclical on earth will do that for me. So - as we wait with bated breath for the Pope's new one due out on Monday, which is supposed to have environmental wisdom in it - I wonder if it will be magical interplay on words and imagination? Will it make us wonder about who and what we are and the quality of our relationships, that are often beyond the capacity of utilitarian language? Let's wait and see....

New podcast

I've just started a podcast on the horror of Baby P - not the incident itself, enough has been said - but how such evil can affect a whole community. Visiting the place where it happened was traumatic, emotional and felt so strange, I can't imagine what it must be like to live knowing that happened on your doorstep. The media is so good at giving us the horror but there is no real analysis, and certainly no spiritual comment. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but hope to have it ready in a few weeks.

Come Dance With me

A Poem written by Gregory Colwell-Hector 

Aged 7 and 5/6ths

Do I have a little friend?

Do I have a little friend?

Come and dance with me.

Do you feel me again?

Do you say 

That I have you

To stay

To stop me going here ever again?

This appeared on my son's white board in his room, I think it is lovely.

Baroness Scotland, trust, compromise and faith

The first day of the Churches Media Council conference looking at how faith fits into the media landscape.  Baroness Scotland gave the opening address and she was fabulous.  The title of her talk was Faith in the Public Space and she gave 3 reasons why she thought faith was essential to society.  The first - faith can help build and maintain a cohesive society based on deeply held values.  She believes people of faith can respect and honour each other but still old true to their own beliefs.  Embedded in each faith is respect and tolerance, and all people of faith need to put that into practice to bind together an increasingly fragmented society.

The second reason is that faith gives sustenance to public service.  All faiths have inbuilt a notion of service to God, community  and neighbour and it is often the faiths who are there with most marginalised and excluded.  They build social capital  and secure cohesion.

The third reason is that we still have a lot to learn.  Both banking and politics have to depend to a certain extent on honourable behaviour - which has been  shown to be lacking recently.  She quoted the Bible saying: Be conscious of God and always speak the truth.  She believes there is a deep thirst in society and that people desire to kneel before God and humbly acknowledge there is something greater.  She believes people of faith in the media have to be enablers of good news and allow people to see God working in society, and not to just reflect the negative.

This is a very largely paraphrased summary of her talk which was deeply personal, authoritative and wise - I was very impressed.

There then followed three short presentations on: What are the media dong to ...God (Mona Siddiqui), young people (Nims Obunge) and politics (John Lloyd).  Interesting talks.  Some of the main points I took away were that  people in politics teach us the great art of compromise, something we all need to practice - and that doesn't mean dilute your own beliefs.  The media is biased against young people, particularly blacks, and demonises them - but the media is largely populated by middle class whites, so how can we represent them?  The media carries a moral burden to report well and with standards.  That religion isn't given the same intellectual scrutiny as other subjects.

Lots of talking and debate, very enjoyable and interesting.

Bereavement - A Reflection

Here is the youtube link to the Bereavement programme that won a Merit award - and 2 golds.  If you think it could help anyone please send it on.  It is presented and written by Peter Hobbs and is a beautiful and moving reflection on loss.  Its about 6 mins long.

Reflections on the Rainforest by Anil Roberts - an Amerindian from Guyana

I met Anil at a Jesuit conference that was held just before the World Social Forum this year in Belem in Brazil.  Anil is an Amerindian and lives in the savannah area of Guyana, above the rainforest.  I talked to him about his life, his traditions, the way Guyana is changing and his fears for the future.  What this podcast shows is that conservation can sometimes seem exclusive and anti-people.  But unless we learn to live together, people and nature side by side, then something or someone will lose out (see my fox blogs!) 

Of course we have to protect rainforest, but we also have to protect the native peoples who have lived there for generations and who have invaluable knowledge that we can't learn through books.  I'll soon have another podcast which is a follow up conversation I had with an English Jesuit priest who lives with the Amerindians, you can hear his thoughts on his role as a Catholic priest in this fast changing world.  His thoughts on faith and the future are insightful and timely.

A huge and big thank you to James Broscombe for really wonderful photos, the latest is the one above.  His blogspot: - 2009 - A Picture a Day - well worth looking at.  

Thanks very much also to ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation) who sent me to Brazil for the Jesuit conference.

Seabirds

Forgot to say my Nature programme on seabirds went out on Tuesday morning and last night on Radio 4 

so if you want to hear it, here's the link...

Another Award

It was an honour to win a Merit Award at the Sandford St Martin Awards last night in the radio category. It was for my Bereavement programme, written and presented by Peter Hobbs and is a moving and beautifully written reflection on loss.  

Thanks to Tom Bigwood at BCfm for broadcasting the programme.

Dancing, peas and pots

Hmmm, might be changing my mind a bit about BGT.  I agree with the Today programme this morning that this can pitch people into such high stress situations that it can be too much, and there is no back-up.  The person who I felt most sorry for was the young dancer Aidan Davis.  He tried so hard, did 3 different acts, 2 in a very short space of time with no help - and Simon Cowell still criticized him!  Oh well, that is TV for you.  Onto lighter things - like peas!

The beautiful weather brought out the first 2 pea pods on my young son's plants in grow bags on the patio.  Such excitement! (They are there - honest).

And I like the fact there is a small buddha keeping watch over things.

And the first holly hock buds, and the lupins are starting to flower.  he is beside himself with excitement and anticipation.

So it was a feel good Saturday after all.