John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

John’s Notes: Can Jeff Bezos save me?

Clapham and District Village Newsletter, October 2024

Can Jeff Bezos save me? The Amazon oligarch is investing millions in anti-ageing research which aims to “make 90 the new 50 by 2030”. His delivery service brings the world to my door in no time: which is wonderful, except when his courier leaves the package on my step in the rain, forcing me to go through the whole vexing ‘returns’ process again.

Maybe Elon Musk can save me? The Tesla billionaire is developing a self-driving car which will get me to Morrisons without my having to steer, accelerate, brake, or navigate. His Twitter once kept me in good conversations with friends, colleagues, and interesting influences: but now X embroils me in a chilling world of paranoid conspiracies about the NHS being part of a genocidal ‘hygiene dictatorship’.

Or perhaps Richard Branson can save me? The Virgin magnate is funding spaceships which in future will let me escape this exhausted earth and take a trip to the Moon, or to live on Mars. I loved his early work, especially ‘Tubular Bells’: but my Virgin Broadband box keeps recording unrequested TV programmes from BBC Wales.

It resonates with me that Jesus never presented himself as a messiah. When his closest disciple Peter called him that name, Jesus said, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ and described himself instead as a ‘son of man’, a ‘suffering one’. Meaning that his affinity is far less with the tech oligarchs, and far more with the ones who feel - and are made - powerless in the face of all this invasive technology.

To me, this makes the ‘son of man’ one with the 17-year-old first-time driver whose insurance company threatened him with debt collectors when his car’s black box reported him as driving his 18-year-old VW Polo at 540mph. It makes him one with the treasurer of the little rural church pressured to pay ridiculously inflated electricity bills because the smart meter readings bear no relation to reality. 

He’s one with those exhausted by the ceaseless task of displaying their public face on social media to keep up appearances; and he’s one with those who worry about what the corporations are doing with all the data about them extracted by their mobile devices, their Alexa or Siri, their TV set and digital doorbell; he’s one with those troubled about which emails are genuine and which ones are ‘phishing’ to flush out our bank account.

Digital technology now dominates education, the social security system, seeking job opportunities and signing up for cheaper gas and electricity. ‘Digital poverty’, not being able to afford to interact with the online world, is many people’s everyday experience. Through groups like Church Action on Poverty and the APLE Collective, people at grassroots are seeking to redress this balance.  

We all benefit from the good side of digital tech, but it can cause people to feel alone in this world, it can separate us from others, it does make people vulnerable to the whims of the powerful forces of the corporations which rule our lives. Which is why it is good to see how many people, from the margins, are working hard to rebuild community, to unite with others to resist all which frightens or diminishes us.

The Woman in Red: A Celebration

Kate Bush discovers that her birthday coincides with Emily Bronte's, and the result is Wuthering Heights, the 1978 song which in time has led to The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, a now annual worldwide gathering largely consisting of women dressed in red rehearsing, then performing, their recreation of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights video. As at Clapham on 28 July this year. 

In turn discovering that this date comes in the same week as the feast of St Mary Magdalene, another woman portrayed famously in red, and one year since the passing of one of rock's most highly regarded scarlet women, Sinead O'Connor, who sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" on her 2007 album, Theology, not to mention all sorts of Magdalene connections involving Lady Gaga and FKA twigs... I put together an hour-long prayer-presentation on the theme. Click The Woman in Red: a Celebration for all the content.

Cover images from top:

Emily Brontë painted by Patrick Branwell Brontë, c.1834. Wikipedia

Catherine Linton portrayed by Orla Brady in the 1998 ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights. www.imdb.com

Kate Bush. TV Times / Getty Images

Mary Magdalene: Indwelling Peace by Sue Ellen Parkinson. www.sueellenparkinson.com

Lady Gaga: still from the Bloody Mary Official Music Video. YouTube

Miriam on the Shores: Dancing Monk Icon by Marcy Hall. AbbeyOfTheArts.com

A Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever event. Facebook: The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever

But, yes, they did speak evil

What Vennels says in Ella Barron's Guardian cartoon may or may not be partially true. But they really did speak some evil of the innocent sub postmasters.The topic of my talk this week, Among a people of unclean lips, in God, there is no condemnation.

David Peace: 'The establishment is quite fragile'

“I’ve never thought for a minute that the establishment is invincible. I don’t believe that at all. I actually think it’s quite fragile.” Alex Niven, ‘Culture Needs to Change Politics’: An interview with David Peace, Tribune, 29 April 2024.

The ‘bogus baptism’ debate and the angels attending us

 

- from Private Eye 1617, 16-29 February 2024. My talk this week, In our wilderness, angels minister to us, taking inspiration from James Cone's interpretation of the lives of the African-American slaves and their Spiritual songs, The Spirituals and the Blues, An Interpretation, considers if we can follow Jesus out from the wilderness of this world into the dawning of a whole new age.

GOD IS SICK OF US NOT LEAVING THE MUNDANE

John’s Notes: Clapham & District Newsletter, Oct-Nov 2023

A plaque on the wall inside the Church of Saint John the Evangelist on New Briggate, Leeds, reads: SIC DEUS DILEXIT MUNDUM. Dick Bonham translates this as GOD IS SICK OF US NOT LEAVING THE MUNDANE. Dick was a theatrical producer of ‘ghost nights’ inside St John’s when he guided me around the ‘redundant’ church some years ago, and he was being playful. I was amused to discover that the Latin dictionary translation is GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, which struck me as meaning almost the opposite.

I’ve been revisiting that day, in preparation for a talk I’m giving to Clapham’s Age UK group on 4th October. It was 19th September 2007, during a two-month-long deliberately slow walk I made from Hull to Liverpool, loosely following the motorway which connects them, which I called ‘Walking the M62’, and is the topic of my talk. 

My Leeds city tour was hosted by Dick and others from his theatre company, whose particular schtick was to create activities and events encouraging the general public to take a fresh and creative look at the world immediately around them, whether in Leeds city streets, or the hamlets of England along The Great North Road, or Cornish coastal towns.*

We connected on my M62 walk because our intentions were similar: to discover and celebrate the awe and wonder latent beneath the surface of everyday life. I was then living in a housing estate parish, one of those places which suffer from the lazy assumption that all these ‘little boxes’ thrown up in the 1930s, ‘all made out of ticky-tacky’, ‘all look just the same’ and must be therefore the location of very humdrum lives. A mere scratch beneath the surface gave the lie to that, of course, and this was confirmed in a series of ‘Parish Walks’ I did with locals and visitors, where conversation and observation brought the place to life in rich and unexpected ways.

You don’t have to Latinise or spiritualise this observation: that the minutiae of everyday life has significance and value, wherever we are; and intentionally exploring the life under our very noses is so unexpectedly enriching, we miss out if we don’t do it.

 

* See these blog posts for more on this: God is sick of us not leaving the mundane, September 19, 2007; To the edges and back, November 20, 2006.

A Ready Man

I recommend A Ready Man: Hugh Stowell Brown, preacher, activist, friend of the poor, Wayne Clarke's well-told story of an influential man of Liverpool and the world, about whom I knew little before reading this book.

Wayne Clarke, A Ready Man: Hugh Stowell Brown, preacher, activist, friend of the poor. Click image for an author signed copy, £4.99 from Wayne's eBay store.

Wayne rightly places Brown front and centre, but the book is enriched by the chapter on Wayne's search for, and recovery and restoration of, the statue in Brown's honour (Having once been abandoned to the floor of a barn in Croxteth Hall Farm it now sits proudly in its original position on the site of Hope Street Baptist Chapel).

This is a remarkable achievement, particularly in our era where the prevailing instinct is more concerned with removing or moderating monuments. Brown was no slave trader, and what strikes me most about his monument is that it was 'Erected by the Citizens of Liverpool'.

His endorsement of frugality, teetotalism and education was clearly an inspiration to the city's aspirational working people, who gathered in great numbers to hear him, and I think that his sermon which Wayne reproduces as an appendix, 'Penny Wise and Pound Foolish' feels as fresh and relevant to today's self-combusting consumer society as when Brown first preached it.

 

 

 

If there’s time for the loud, there’s time for the quiet. If there’s time for the fast, there’s a need for the slow

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.163, 4 June 2023

I think our having grandchildren around this half-term week, and my upcoming birthday, have combined to get me brooding over my age.... and being encouraged by what the next generation are achieving. One whom I’ve been thinking of is Sarah Corbett, who I used to chat with around the kitchen table of her home in the vicarage of St Peter’s, West Everton, when she was a schoolgirl and I was a community worker alongside her mum Jane. Sarah’s dad Henry recently retired after over forty years of ministry in one of Liverpool's lowest income communities, and Jane went on to become West Everton's city councillor and a Deputy Mayor. Sarah has said,  "All we ever do around the kitchen table is talk about religion and politics."

At the age of three Sarah joined her local community squatting in social housing to save them from demolition (they won), and with her parents she later visited South Africa to learn about the Peace and Reconciliation work of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. She became a professional campaigner for NGOs including Christian Aid and Oxfam GB, and the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID). But something wasn’t quite right. In 2008, Sarah, a self-described introvert, "burned out from too much confrontation, and, doubting the effectiveness of many elements of conventional activism, starting looking for alternatives." She discovered craftivism – a term coined by American writer and crafter Betsy Greer in 2003 – and decided to have a go at creating her own craftivism projects.

Craftivism is a combination of 'craft' and 'activism'. There are limitless possibilities to what craftivists do, including hand-sewing positive messages to post to MPs, crafting colourful mini-banners for public display, helping kids create bunting expressing their  desires to improve the world, and leaving crafted Valentine’s cards for people to find, containing messages inviting them to ‘brighten up someone’s day’.

Sarah says, “If there’s time for the loud, there’s also time for the quiet. If there’s time for the fast, there’s also a need for the slow. In everyone’s heart is a desire to change things for the better – it is essential that there is an activists toolkit that is as diverse as humanity.” Sarah’s unique ‘Gentle Protest’ approach to craftivism gained a following of friends and strangers around the world who wanted to get involved. And so, in 2009, the Craftivist Collective was born.

Today the award-winning Craftivist Collective has thousands of members, who Sarah supports by developing tools and projects that they can undertake as individuals or by organising their own small group 'stitch-ins'. Sarah has also delivered events, talks, workshops and events to over 12,000 people around the world. Her first book, A Little Book of Craftivism, came out in 2013, and she has since published a more in-depth guide, How to be a Craftivist: the art of gentle protest. In July 2022 Sarah was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths, University of London for her "contribution to design activism and public engagement.”

This week Sarah sent news of her plans to publish The Craftivist Collective Handbook, which “is going to be a beautiful, hardback book of 20 craftivism projects and tools to help you on your journey as a positive and effective change-maker. Each project explains ‘How To’ create these ethical craftivism projects, and just as importantly ‘Why To’, so that you can fulfil the potential of your campaign with both a strong strategy and mindful process.” Being a full-time craftivist is hardly lucrative, thus Sarah’s request for supporters to finance this project. If you’re interested to read more about craftivism, or to donate towards Sarah’s work, please click over to the Craftivist Collective website.

A duty to the truth

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.160, 14 May 2023

Why are farmers in southern Malawi switching from maize to pigeon peas? The answer is simple. They are increasingly losing their livelihoods to droughts and floods. To adapt, they are turning to pigeon peas, a tough crop that’s better able to withstand extreme conditions. Although farmers can now earn a more stable income and better feed their families, they’ve had to say goodbye to culturally important maize-based dishes. Imagine our having to give up fish and chips because our potato supplies have run out.

Jen Bishop and her husband started to grow pigeon peas in 2016. Today, they grow two acres of it. They’ve used their increased income to send their son Innocent to university. But now erratic weather patterns, caused by the climate crisis, threaten their financial stability. Because when it does eventually rain, it rains so hard that it causes flooding and damages the peas.

In March 2023, Cyclone Freddy caused heavy rains, floods and landslides in almost half of Malawi. By 20 March, nearly 500 people had died and over half a million people had been displaced. Freddy washed away part of Jen’s field. She lost the equivalent of two bags of yield, worth at least £79; vital funds which she’d planned to use to pay the secondary school fees for one of her children.

The climate crisis is robbing Jen’s children of their prospects. ‘It’s a price no child should pay,’ say Christian Aid. ‘This is loss and damage. It’s the scandalous loss of life, livelihood, land and culture. And those most impacted are left to pay the repair bills themselves.

Meanwhile, polluters continue to burn fossil fuels, profit from the poison they produce, and turn their backs on the damage they’ve caused. It’s time for polluters to pay up to repair what they’ve damaged.’

At the COP27 climate talks in 2022, governments agreed to create a Loss and Damage fund to compensate communities affected by climate-change-driven losses. But right now, the fund is empty. Campaigners including Christian Aid are asking that the UK Government make polluters pay into this fund - the companies who cause loss and damage whilst generating massive profits and enjoying great wealth. [1]

Is it right for Christians to protest? I’ve been turning this question around in my mind a lot since last month, when my good friend and erstwhile colleague Revd Mark Coleman was imprisoned for public nuisance, having taken part in a central London road-block on an Insulate Britain protest last October. At his Crown Court trial in January, Mark’s three character witness statements read to the court were from his bishop, the former mayor of Rochdale (where Mark was parish priest before taking early retirement due to Parkinsons), and an imam. Each was positive about him, he said, and, ‘I particularly liked the imam’s comment that I had a “duty to the truth”.’ [2]

I have told Mark that I respect and admire his course of action, a sacrificial witness to the truth of a global situation which connects those in fuel poverty in the UK, with Jen Bishop, affected by crop-destruction in Malawi. But I’ve also admitted to him that I am unsettled by his actions, for reasons I can’t quite explain. 

Maybe this present crisis ought to unsettle us, and shake us into action: whatever that means. For a few that will mean taking to the streets in peaceful protest; for a few more that may mean writing to those in power to ask for changes in law to protect people and the planet; for others, supporting campaigns which do this work; and for many more of us it may mean simply praying: giving thanks that governments have agreed to create a Loss and Damage fund; and asking that the UK Government make polluters pay into this fund so that affected communities can repair physically, culturally and emotionally.

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate said: ‘In a time of crises, we must reveal the heart of Christ. We must reveal the love of God. We must reveal His grace towards humanity. We must use our voices. We must stand by our values and do something for communities on the frontline of the climate crisis.’

 

Notes

[1] Christian Aid Loss and Damage Campaign.

[2] Mark Coleman, I have a duty to the truth — even if it puts me in prison. Church Times, 5 May 2023; Rochdale News: Insulate Britain supporter Revd Mark Coleman jailed for vowing to continue in civil resistance. Rochdale Online, 21 April 2023.

 

 

 

Means of survival

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.157, 23 April 2023

Everyday I think about dying,
about plague, war, famine,
global warming, the end of the world.
It helps keep my mind off things.

It made me happy when my selection of Roger McGough's verses were well-received, among the many excellent presentations, at last week's Poetry, Prose, Pies, Peas and Puddings evening. So here's a couple more. 

Survivor, above, typifies McGough's quiet wit and gentle wisdom. The last line's playful reversal offers us release from the anxiety of living in a broken world we feel helpless to change, whilst quietly suggesting that it's enough that we deal with those 'things' which test us every day. Echoes of Jesus' soothing end to the Sermon on the Mount:  “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

In another poem Roger McGough expresses gratitude towards his Liverpool-Irish Catholicism, in celebrating one thing which helps him get through each day. We might relate to this too....

To Religion

Thank you, Religion, for helping me believe
that I am living a charmed life.
Touch wood, no disasters so far. I've

more friends than foes, four children and a wife
who is always at the heart of things.
Pay my dues and chance a prayer to keep them safe.

In times of despair an alarm bell rings
and I wonder if perhaps it's all a con.
But then somewhere within, a small voice sings.

Mumbo jumbo? Before I can tell, it's gone.
Brainwashed? You're in my DNA? We've
no idea. Against the odds we soldier on.

People cleverer than me think I'm naive,
that God is dead. That when it ends, it ends.
But thank you, Religion, for helping me believe.

'Survivor' is published in Roger McGough, Collected Poems, Penguin 2004.
'To Religion' is published in Roger McGough, That Awkward Age, Penguin 2010.