Protecting and Barring

Last week I attended training in the new vetting and barring procedures as a school governor. The session, organised by the local education authority, began with a short film produced by the Home Office and being shown nationally. This began with the story of a Church of England clergyman who had been given a post in a southern diocese despite two bishops knowing about his past abusing of children. This was not the most comfortable meeting to be wearing a clerical collar at as eyes naturally looked in my direction to see what I made of this. The next stories were of teachers and care workers, and the infamous case of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman at Soham, so the church was at least in the same boat, though of course it shouldn't be.

Coming on the heals of 40 years of cover up in Dublin by the Roman Catholic Church the new requirements to pass on information and to make it a criminal offence to employ anyone who is barred is not before time. We have a responsibility to ensure that those who work with children are not known to have offended. While these procedures will seem excessive to some and have been criticised we know that those who would abuse can be devious and very subtle in their methods. They will take years to set themselves up in positions of trust and to groom their victims. No group that works with children can be complacent.

These matters raise all sorts of emotions in us. They stir the protective parent and an anger that can be very strong. I can understand why the mob will turn on people accused and want to drive them out of the community. I can understand why Jesus said of anyone who harms one of these little ones that it would be better that a mill stone be tied round them and they be thrown into the sea! It also stirs the memories of past suffering, possibly dormant for years. Not surprising then that some would react by wanting to pretend it isn't as bad as it seems. With fight or flight, denial is the other side of anger.

But when denial is rooted in trying to protect the name of an institution above people, vulnerable people at that, then the point of that institution has been lost. Doubly so when it is a church! No institution is protected in the long run by cover up and allowing people to stay in positions placing others at risk. If anyone does this in the future they will deserve the prison sentence that the law now has in place as a sanction. I sincerely hope that no bishop will be so stupidly naive again.

The unintended consequence of all of this is that it can shake our trust of the stranger and even the friend. There are easy ways to carry on though and it is simply to put in place normal common sense. When things don't add up ask questions. When they don't look right push until they do. If the same person keeps popping up, ask why. If what you would expect to be normal safeguards are being curtailed, ask why doubly! My experience is that if it smells there is usually something rotten lurking and it is worth pursuing until you find out what. But the innocent need protecting - children and adults. The mob are not always right, especially when they don't know the difference between a paedophile and a paediatrician!

Choosing for ourselves

There seems to be a bit of an advertising war breaking out over religion and humanism. Following on from the bus ad by a group of secular humanists ChurchAds.Net have come up with an imaginative poster campaign for bus stops, which I blogged about in October. Now the humanist group has launched another campaign this time with the slogan 'Please don't label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself'.

This might at first seem like a noble sentiment. After all the right to choose your own religion and indeed to leave one freely is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. People do that all the time and democratic minds are outraged when people face persecution for doing precisely this. I frequently meet people who have been damaged by oppressive religious bullying - often at the hands of Roman Catholic nuns it has to be said, but not exclusively - and this leaves them very wary of anything that smacks of religious pressure. It can take a great deal to break free from the psychological effects which can induce guilt and all sorts of fear. Good religion does not do this.

There is though a side of the ad slogan that I find misses the mark. It assumes that neutrality exists and that to be secular is to be neutral. No one grows up neutral. We all belong to social groups and are shaped by the assumptions of the culture that forms us. This includes religious beliefs and no religious belief.

Where I do agree is that as we grow up we have to make our own decisions and faith has to be made our own if it is going to continue to be a dynamic part of our life. As the Evangelical Alliance has said God has no grandchildren, only children. In other words we may inherit all sorts of cultural baggage, but there comes a point when we decide where to put it - in the living room or in the attic. The same goes for faith. It doesn't happen on its own though and to give no faith is as much controlling as to expose children to a faith perspective. If faith is valid it will still commend itself even when freedom to choose is allowed. Sadly too often it comes with baggage that doesn't help. But don't be fooled, bullying can come in a secular humanist guise too.

Money, money, money

There is a sense of inevitable doom about what Adair Turner said on the BBC News channel earlier this afternoon. He is the head of the Financial Services Authority. Speaking at the CBI conference he said that not only can he not promise to a 10 year old that there won't be another financial crisis in his life time (the 10 year old's) but there will be another one in 50 years time. In other words if lessons have been learned from the credit crunch then they will only be temporary as arrogance and greed combine with depressing certainty.

Do not put your hope in the 'uncertainty of riches', are wise words from the first letter to Timothy in the New Testament (1 Timothy 6:17). Sadly riches look pretty certain when they are plentiful and they bring power that can make its holders feel invincible and exempt to the rules everyone else has to abide by. Money makes things happen and the collapse did not come immediately on the heals of reckless behaviour. So people learnt that they could get away with it; that wrapping up bad debts into an investment product appeared to be a really clever ruse. It was only later, when one part of this house of cards wobbled loose, that the whole house came tumbling down.

Bank statements and balance sheets are as much of a spiritual document as the rule of St Benedict and writings of Mother Julian of Norwich. They show up in very mundane transactions of daily life and work the values we live by. Profits made through exploitation show a disregard for the dignity of those abused. Income derived from deception shows cynical contempt for the plight of those lied to. Looking for salvation in gold will ultimately always lead to disappointment.

Our trading needs values that extend beyond the bottom line of what makes money. We need values that are linked to what that money is for. Without that we will come unstuck (again) as we have seen. Adair Turner knows how human beings work and the corrosive effect of greed. 'The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil' (1 Timothy 5:10) especially when it is allowed to take precedence over human worth. He knows that the greed will in our fallen world inevitably return. This is a spiritual matter and therefore a moral one too. Money connects us to one another - even when we think there is no link - and it connects us to our ultimate values too.

Women Bishops

I have held off commenting on recent developments for women bishops because I have been trying to see which way the dust was settling. It has been like being in a cartoon dust cloud and that doesn't make vision very clear. But today the Revision Committee, which is looking at how this can be made to work, issued a statement saying that effectively they have reached stalemate - in other words they can't find a way forward that will satisfy those in favour and those against and they were in danger of proposing something that would just make everyone angry.

This means that the status quo will dominate. That is, the diocesan bishop - be they male or female (in the future) - will be the one from whom all provisions flow. I can't see how anything else could have integrity to it. If anyone is not in communion with their bishop then they are in another church in all but name. If there was an automatic opt out from a woman bishop this would in effect make women bishops second class bishops and that would not do. Equally for those who don't accept that women can be bishops to have authority ultimately going back to her means that they have to accept that she is legitimately in post and for those who believe this is impossible that is not easy. They can have a visual screen through relating to male bishops who look after them, but behind the scenes there is a woman in post which they have to accept.

For many people this is utterly baffling. They just don't see what the problem is. My 16 year old son regards it as being like boys in the playground at primary school avoiding girls because they have the lurgy and he just thinks the opponents should grow up! That is a young person's view and it is the view of most of the population who see it as a clear equal opportunities issue and the theology is just a smoke screen.

I find myself in a troubled position. I am a full supporter of women as bishops. But I have also been inspired and nurtured in my faith by some priests from the Anglo-Catholic end. The church would be impoverished without them as would my own spiritual development have been. There are some women who will make those not sure dive for cover and some men need to stop prissying around and get a grip. Equally there are highly talented women priests who will make excellent bishops. There are outstanding people on both sides of this debate and there are people of limited ability too!

I suspect that we are coming to a cross roads where there are some immovable principles and everyone is going to have to decide if they can live with them or not and if they can't we will have to part company. One of those immovables for me is that the diocesan bishop is the diocesan bishop and there cannot be a full opt out from that - to do so destroys the nature of the church. Bishops are a focus for unity and relating to them is not optional. This is why women bishops is actually different to women priests.

The Pope may have helped some find a way out through his Personal Ordinariates. For some this will not do - those whose marriages are regarded as 'irregular' by the Roman Catholic Church and former Roman Catholic Priests who have become Anglican Priests. More significantly it won't do for those who see their Anglican identity as being both Catholic and Reformed. Actually anyone who doesn't see this doesn't really fit in the Church of England any way, so this may be the point at which they come to terms with where they really belong. For those who do have a strong Anglican identity but can't accept women bishops the charitable move is to provide for them, but not at the cost of fostering a view that there is a question mark over the validity of the women's orders. That just won't do.

Keeping the lights on?

The government has announced 10 sites for new nuclear power stations. The argument is that without them the lights will go out. Fossil fuels and renewable energy cannot provide our energy needs for the longer term on their own - not without completely wrecking our carbon footprint targets. As it stands that may well be the case, but I can't help wonder how long term nuclear power really is?

These new power stations are needed partly to replace decommissioned nuclear power stations. Those power plants can't just be demolished, the reactors and nuclear 'residue' has to be controlled and stored for, well a very long time! If we fast forward several centuries, how many decommissioned sites do we want to leave dotted around the country? It seems that this is not a sustainable way to behave for the future leaving nuclear material that has to be looked after and maintained.

Nuclear can only provide a short term solution to energy needs. The longer term must involve energy reducing measures - better insulation, designs that harness the suns rays and generally cutting down the power we use by turning things off when not in use, let alone asking whether they are needed in the first place - and also the development of renewable energy - solar, wind, wave and ground source heat pumps.

We are only temporary custodians of the earth and have an obligation to live in harmony with it and sustain its ecosystems. Living to excess and with no regard to the consequences for the future - ours and the impact on future generations - is just not living as faithful stewards of creation.

There is also a big question to be faced when conservation legislation meets the green agenda. At the moment anyone living in a listed building will know that they can't put in double glazing because it is deemed to affect the historic character of the building. That must be challenged so that a compromise of sympathetic measures can be introduced. After all each generation has always adapted our heritage buildings for their needs and no one has sought to moth ball them. The stakes are just too high here!

Remember, Remember...?

Remember, remember the 5th November... ? According to a report many people don't remember Guy Fawkes, gun power, treason and plot. The absence of 17th century history from the curriculum means that bonfire parties have become separated from recalling the foiling of Roman Catholic plots to assassinate King James and Parliament. Children no longer go round asking for a penny for the guy - well get real, a penny won't get you very far and what is more you can't buy fireworks under 18 any way! Life has moved on.

My preference is to light up the sky with fireworks and a bonfire to celebrate this season of All Saints - of the power of light over darkness, hope over hatred and fear, of vision over intrigue! So the dislodging of Guy Fawkes doesn't bother me that much, though the loss of history teaching of a turbulent period does.

I think most people have an innate sense that lights in the dark sky are a hopeful thing to do. As winter approaches and the light dims it is a good counter to otherwise encircling gloom and the sheer fear and negativity of halloween, which seems to have taken over as the big festival. I'm not a fan of halloween, because it doesn't celebrate anything. A bit of spooky fun is fine, but beyond that it just leaves me flat.

So tonight we will light our bonfire and light up the sky with fireworks for hope and thanksgiving for the kingdom of God which holds us and guides us in our journey of faith and trust in God's goodness: the true light in darkness.

Happy Birthday M1 !

I forgot to sing happy birthday to my local motorway as I chugged along it earlier. The M1 is 50 today! Mind you this bit is the younger brother, being the extension built just a few years ago to link the main section with the A1.

Motorways are a necessary ill. Without them our towns and villages would choke up and grind to a halt - even more than they are doing at the moment. But the more congested the motorways become, the more we widen them and that in turn seems to attract more traffic in an almost endless cycle. It isn't of course endless, there is a limit and there is a limit to how much we can add to emissions for the sake of the planet.

What is a shame is that the same investment that goes into roads doesn't go into rail. And the news that the high speed line that is going to be built is going up the West rather than the East did not go down well in Leeds.

Of course the next 50 years will probably see the development of green fuel - hydrogen or electric. So we may look back in 50 years time driving electric cars or hydrogen powered ones with regular trams and local rail lines connecting with mainline networks. There could be price incentives to get us out of our cars onto this cleaner, safe, comfortable public provision. Allow me a birthday wish!