How Long, Lord?

Sunday’s Epistle reading started off as a nightmare and turned out to be a wonderful gift.

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:23-29

Last week yet again I had words flung at me due to the fact I happen to be made in God’s image as a female not a male.  This, as any female will tell you, is nothing new.  It is certainly nothing new for me in my ministry, but when I then looked up the readings to prepare my sermon rather than filling me with the hope they have done in the past they filled me with despair, for the church is still far from reaching that goal 2,000 years on.

Back in the 1980′s when I told my father that I had been accepted for ministerial training he was horrified and walked out of my flat and didn’t speak to me for some time.  I knew he wouldn’t be happy about it as I knew his views on woman even reading in church, but nevertheless God had called me and I was obeying that call.  In time he came round and gifted me a lovely communion set when I was deaconed and a white chasuble when I was priested.  After receiving at my first celebration he told me that he had been wrong and God had shown him the error of his ways; it was one of the most moving experiences of my life.

As I smarted from last weeks words and actions and read those words from Galatians my father was there beside me giving me strength not only to carry on, but reminding me of the power of God’s words and faith in Christ.  All things can and will be made new, somethings will just take a little longer than others.  I echo, with all my heart, the psalmist cry of ‘How long, Lord.’

Over on Lesley Fellow’s blog she used ‘mitregate’ to reflect on the wider prejudice in the church it is unfortunately true that prejudice still runs free and the views that my father expressed many, many years ago are still alive and well in churches up and down the land.  What I had been struggling with is why such words and actions are somehow acceptable in Church when in the secular world they would be stamped on from a great height.  Lesley hits the nail on the head, a big part of the problem is the institution, the institution of the church which allows such prejudice to go on, and even gives it a theological smokescreen.  Let us talk not of theology but of respect and justice.  Would any priest ever dream of speaking to a Rabbi, or Imam with anything other than respect?  I certainly hope they wouldn’t.  What if the Rabbi was a female would that make a difference, again I doubt it.

Recently at our General Synod we discussed the Gender Audit, well actually we didn’t, it got sidetracked into a request for inclusive language liturgy.  In the paper it refers to a group I had never, to my knowledge and shame, heard of before ‘The Elders’, this group have wise words for the church if only the church would listen.

“Religion and tradition are a great force for peace and progress around the world.
However, as Elders, we believe that the justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a higher authority, is unacceptable.
We believe that women and girls share equal rights with men and boys in all aspects of life.
We call upon all leaders to promote and protect equal rights for women and girls.
We especially call on religious and traditional leaders to set an example and change all discriminatory practices within their own religions and traditions.
The Elders are fully committed to the realisation of equality and empowerment of all women and girls.”
The Elders, 2 July 2009.

Who are ‘The Elders’?  You may be wondering, well you can find out about them here, but basically this is their mission statement

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

While there have been lay people throughout my ministry, like my father, who have been wary of a non-male priest I now encounter that less and less.  It is from within the priesthood itself that the majority of prejudice manifests itself.  Why is this?  I don’t know.  This isn’t about theology it is about justice no one; Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; should be belittled.

I am lucky, with the memories of my own father, with the support of Hubby and colleagues, and with my faith I have survived, for a time I wasn’t sure I could.  However …

How long, LORD, will you forget me? For all time?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I think such sad thoughts? All day long?
How long will my enemy win?
Look! Answer me LORD.
My God, give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.
My enemy will say, “I beat them!”
My enemies will be very happy when I fall.
But I will believe in your love that never fails.
My heart will be very happy because you make me safe.
I will sing to the LORD.
For the Lord is so good to me.
Psalm 13

Is It A Coincidence?

Is what a coincidence I hear you ask.  Well two items of mail I received and the answer I would give is – I think not.

Over the weekend I heard my letterbox flap and deposited on the door mat was a free calender in a plastic sleeve.  I know, because I was looking into it for the church, just how much such things cost to produce even if they are produced in high numbers, as I know this one has been.  One of those long thin calenders taking up picture page and a date page for each month.  This particular calendar also has a couple of extra pages with information on, and has been hand delivered to every house in South Lanarkshire for and by South Lanarkshire council, not really free at all then but paid for by the local taxes.  Okay so for each household the cost might have come in at under a pound, but add up all the households.  I wondered at the time how many of those calenders would end up like mine being put straight into the recycle bin, or worse still for those who live in flats and have no household recycling end up in landfill.  I decided I had to lodge my objection to it all, they had thoughtfully included a page for telling them what we thought of the calender!

However a second piece of mail has now also arrived, from the local Dementia Group, who have had all their funding from self same council removed, as apparently continuing to support them can not be justified, despite all the good work they do!  Now I doubt the group knew when they posted their letter of the effect the timing would have.  Here is the council wasting money on one hand by some kind of self promotion and removing money on the other from those who need it.  I for one would rather they had given the money to the Dementia Group so that their work could continue than send me a calender which I don’t want or need.  Which made me wonder how many other groups out there have had their funding cut or lost it altogether so that this calender could be produced.  I suspect the defense would be that the money comes from different budgets, well in that case the budgets need to be reviewed, for in my view that calender is most certainly not a justifiable way to spend tax payers money!

Oh dear, I feel a crusade coming on!

Fair Trade?

I had no intentions of making an every day post today, way too much on, but Sainsbury’s has driven me to it, and with today being Good Friday I just can’t let the day pass without saying this.

I had make a quick trip to Sainsbury’s and saw for sale fair trade roses, nothing wrong in that you might say, in fact nearly two years ago I bought 200 fair trade roses from Sainsbury’s for our wedding day, I can’t remember the cost of them, but I do remember they were dearer than the other roses that were on sale, however I made the decision to buy fair trade.  Today the roses are priced at £10 for 40, yes I didn’t make a typo and you didn’t misresd it, £10 for 40 roses.  I am sorry but no matter how hard I think about it I can’t see how that can be fair trade.  There is the shipping, the packing, the supermarkets profit included in that 25p a rose price, just how much is the grower getting?  While buying lilies at a florist earlier in the week I saw they had beautiful long stem cream roses, okay they are long stem and demand a premium, but they were £8 a stem while their cheap roses were priced at £5 a bunch (I don’t know how many were in the bunch for sure - 5 or 6 I would think, where they came from, or indeed whether or not they were fair trade).  I wish I had looked to see if they had any non fair trade roses in Sainsbury’s now and seen what the price they were, but I am afraid I was in a rush and didn’t.

Has the supermarket buyer done with those in Kenya (for that is were those roses come from) what they are doing with farmers in Britain and beat them down on a price, because the only other option, once they had been grown, was to let them rot in the fields, I hope not, however if that is the case why has Sainsbury’s been allowed to stick a fair trade label on them.  Increasingly I am starting to think that rather than the fair trade label being an information label for the customer; it has become a promotional label for the supermarket.

On a day like today I can’t help but wonder whose blood is being shed on the thorns of those roses.

Questions

What is Justice?

Some young friends go out for the day; they have some fun and a few laughs, but no drink, no drugs. On the way back home they sing along to a CD in the car. The front seat passenger isn’t wearing a seat belt, the driver is young but not inexperienced, the young friends are having a good day and life seems pretty near perfect. Suddenly the speeding car clips the pavement and the next the driver knows is pain as they wake up in hospital. The driver admits that they were speeding, not having slowed down enough having just left a 70 mph limit, they know they made a silly careless mistake. Asking about the friends in the car they discover that the front seat passenger is dead, the physical pain is over taken by emotional trauma. Eventually the physical scars start to heal like the emotional ones never will, the young driver will forever live with what happened, will never be able to speak and laugh and have days out with that friend again, can not attend a good friends funeral or face that friends parents, all because of a mistake they made. At court they admit their fault in the accident, admit to speeding and reckless driving, and await the verdict knowing that they need to now face and deal with the consequences of their actions. The judge decides to make an example of them, wanting to send a message out to all the wilful young drivers who don’t so much make mistakes but purposefully drive recklessly. So added to this young driver’s life long sentence of having to live with what has happened the judge ups the ante to dangerous driving and gives a three year jail sentence stating that it is as a deterrent to others.

Is that justice?

When that three years is up will it have worked as a deterrent, indeed who will it deter next month, next week, tomorrow, today? The boy racer who thinks he is invincible? The drunker teenager who doesn’t even hold a licence? The driver who doesn’t see any need for insurance as they will never be caught? The rushed business man weaving precariously in and out of traffic while on his mobile? The white van driver who decided the other day to take the risk and turn in front of a bus, only to discover too late he couldn’t? The driver’s out there, who in their heart of hearts, know that they shouldn’t really be driving but continue to do so – my father was one such driver? The drivers who on an almost weekly basis drive too fast and miss the corner at Flatmoss farm, not far from here, and end up in the fields? Will it deter any of those people who sit behind a wheel of a car and knowingly, not by a mistake for we all make them, but knowingly put their own lives and ours at risk?

In three years the young driver will be back home, wiser but still incarcerated, not by prison bars but by personal torment, would that prison sentence have achieved anything?

Justice – according to the dictionary is – ‘the administering of a deserved punishment or reward’.

Is three years deserved?

Sex v’s Justice

I know this story is somewhat late to post, but last week in-between all the myriad of things I was doing I made a note of it so I could post it when I had the time as I wanted to say something about it. The story is about Father Leon in the French Pyrenees and you can read it here.

The Church seems to get so caught up in legalism when it comes to sexual issues and forgets all about justice and love, but isn’t that what we are supposed to be all about? Sexuality is something that the Church often gets pilloried for talking about as if sex and is nothing to do with love, nothing to do with God, and certainly nothing to do with the Church. That, in my opinion is a cop out, if we are about people and justice and love, then surely when injustice touches on someone’s sexuality the Church should be there, as much as it should be when injustice affects someone’s, poverty, freedom, illness, the list goes on.

Some may cry, as they have indeed done, that Father Leon has broken one of his vows, however priests are human and far from perfect. If he hadn’t been open about his relationship then he would have still broken vows, different ones, would that make it any more right? Father Leon has made a brave stand, however I don’t see the Roman Catholic Church making any U-turn because of it. I struggle to see how anyone can be called to preach love, forgiveness and wholeness while being denied those things themselves, whoever they are and whoever they love.