John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

The process of historical remembering: that is what Holy Week is about

Churches Weekly Newsletter: No.154, 2 April 2023

Jesus was no innocent victim, lest we forget. His crucifixion was the outcome of his dedicated mission to promote the values of the kingdom of God over and above the values of the Jewish religious establishment and the Roman Empire, which dominated his society. He constantly challenged the priests for the way their regulations crushed the ordinary people; and his heresy that there was a greater God than the Emperor called into question the hegemonic power of Rome. 

Whilst his crucifixion aligns him with every other victim of political killing through history, his resurrection has always offered hope to people whose lives are blighted by such powers. Hope, and the impetus to work for change-for-the-better in the world. If we forget this history we reduce Jesus' mission to something abstract, spiritualised, and uprooted from his - and our - lived experience.

Historical remembering and forgetting is a current issue in our public life. Whether the subject is war crimes, or slavery, or empire-building genocides, or corporate injustices, the 'debate' is too often reduced to a push-and-pull between those who say 'we should leave the past in the past', and those who want to kick over the statues.

The Christian gospel insists that we can't remain neutral on this. For the Jesus tradition (informed by the prophetic works of the Hebrew Scriptures) is clear where it stands on the ground between the poor and those who oppress them. The Jesus tradition is rooted in history, and it demands that we open our eyes to what we know. 

“You already know enough. So do I,” writes Sven Lindqvist on the first page of Exterminate All the Brutes, his exploration of the consequences of European imperialism. “It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.” This is no easy task, complications and discomfort abound as we peel back the many layers of our thorny histories, as we trace back the capital in our homes, churches and businesses to its potentially immoral sources, and process how to respond to what we find.

The gospel warns us that if we travel such paths there may be crucifixions along the way. But the gospel does not stop at crucifixions. It insists on resurrections. The hope is that the process of historical remembering can bring to life new ways for us to flourish on this earth together. The process of historical remembering: that is what Holy Week is about.

Every hour an ever more satisfying discovery

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.153, 26 March 2023

Pippa Foulds, Couched and knotted. From facebook.com/pippafoulds/photos

Gillian Hazeldene, John Cage: Begin Anywhere. From gillianhazeldine.co.uk

 

Our Afternoon Fellowship is blessed to have gifted local people taking time and care to generously share their interests and crafts with us each month. This week Pippa Foulds described to us her journey from having been a lawyer to now being an active member of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN), teaching and undertaking commissions of all kinds in many places, worldwide. 

Pippa works with Durham Cathedral Broderers, and was appointed Head Broderer at York Minster in 2018. She showed us examples from a number of private commissions, commercial, ecclesiastical and conservation, and described in detail her restoration of the white altar frontal at Austwick Church (which will next be on display on Easter Day). Starting by taking a pair of scissors to vintage (if threadbare) silk, to crop out the needlework designs to be restored (onto new silk), must require quite some nerve. The meticulous work of creating, or re-creating, detailed shapes and forms clearly requires a steady hand and keen eye.

Pippa also showed us her work on one of the pictorial panels on ‘The Magna Carta, An Embroidery’ for artist Cornelia Parker, on ‘The Hardhome Embroidery’ for HBOs Game of Thrones, and of her project for RSN at Burberry’s Makers House, among exhibitors described as "some of Britain’s most exciting creators, (showing) the innovation and inspiration behind their work.”

The image above, of a recent piece, shows how Pippa’s interests in embroidery are now embracing more experimental forms. I found myself reflecting on how this mirrored Jilly Hazeldine’s presentation to the Fellowship in January, where she described a similar ‘journey’ which she is making from conventional, into increasingly abstract, styles of lettering, as demonstrated by the image above. 

“With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling / We shall not cease from exploration,” wrote T.S. Eliot in Little Gidding. Eliot was describing the progress through life of an engaged Christian faith, but his words might equally express something which artists and craftspeople who love their work also find to be true, and which we may each find true with whatever it is we’re passionate about. If we love something in that deep way, then every hour we spend with it is a time of ever more satisfying discovery.

Our warm welcome

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.152, 19 March 2023

They come, they come; we may not always see their face, but this is their space.

Their space to breathe, their space to be.

They come, they come; in times of joy and times of sadness, shedding tears of grief and gladness.

Their space to breathe, their space to be.

They come, they come; keep the doors open wide, welcome them inside.

Their space to breathe, their space to be.*

It was encouraging that despite heavily falling snow and sub-zero temperatures, there was a high  attendance at our Deanery Lent Meeting at Settle Parish Church on Tuesday evening. It's clear that many want to engage with the Lent series' exploration of the interaction between 'Rural Life and Village Church'.

We considered 'Our Warm Welcome' to all those who visit our churches: tourists on a day out; walkers; people visiting graves; members of the congregation; families; guests to weddings, funerals or baptisms; local school children, their teachers, staff and parents; people looking for a place of peace or solitude; elderly visitors, young children, and visitors with restricted mobility. 

The Very Revd John Dobson DL, Dean of Ripon, gave an informative and stimulating presentation about how the people of Ripon Cathedral are working out their mission to be 'a mother church of the diocese ... proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom to the region'. He helpfully linked the cathedral's 'welcome ministry' to that of our parish churches, for whilst there are differences in scale, of course, there are many similarities. Many of us left the meeting keen to find ways to further extend our welcome to all.

Dean John reminded us that Jesus came ‘that they may have life, and have it abundantly…’ We should be proud of, and give thanks for the abundance of life which overflows from our churches: in their worship, in their history, in their life-in-community today. We can be grateful for the many opportunities which our churches afford, to extend a warm welcome to all. May each of us know that we can play a part in willingly welcoming all who are looking for something in these places for which we care, so that they will be blessed to find that something in them.

* from the excellent Welcome Guide from Exeter Diocese which 'helps churches look at their buildings with fresh eyes. This guide is full of lots of ideas as to how we can warm up our welcome and show our churches are open to all.' Recommended.

Home by Warsan Shire

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.150, 5 March 2023

Warsan Shire reads her poem 'Home'. The complete poem follows:

Home

By Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you would not be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one would put their children in a boat
unless the sea is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
wants to be beaten
wants to be pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one's skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe it's because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.

i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hungry
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home

unless home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here

 

(Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her full-length debut poetry collection.)