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Memories of Maggie

Strange as I reflect on my memories of Margaret Thatcher, and reading the tributes being paid by politicians and world leaders.

I have to declare that I was not a fan! She came to Warwick once, and I was in the crowd to watch. Sure, there was quite a bit of Maggie-Maggie-Maggie, Out-Out-Out, but it did feel as if the press had sent their War Correspondents rather than those who might cast a critical eye over the changes being forced upon education.

I do recall pre-Thatcher, and it was not very nice. I can still see the black and white tiled coffee table we had in the sitting room with a candle on top, alight because of the Three Day Week. The strength of the Unions did seem to be disproportionate, and the language of the interminable debates and interviews was from another world.

Maggie was very strong on their being no alternative to her policies.

And so while the reduction in Union power may or may not have been a good thing, the destruction of industry that went with it does seem, with hindsight, to have been too much of a price to pay. Whilst many of her policies were ground breaking, I do not think she fully understood the different historical values of the working classes, and that still has profound effects today in the shallowness of the political debate over benefits and employment.

And so whilst I wish her and her family no ill will I hope and pray for a move on from the effects of Thatcherism and its black and white solutions to very complex social issues.

A smorgasbord of little thinks

Some things which have made me think/smile/laugh in last few days.

Cities genuinely do "do your head in", reducing your ability to concentrate and, therefore, reduce levels of attention span. Interestingly it is not TV or computer games which do this. I love watching clips of Parkour...

...and Danny Macaskill...

...as evidence of adapting of mindset to an intensely urban environment - walls and railings cease to be means of controlling the flow of pedestrians, but instead become challenges to self-expression. Indeed Banksy also redefines a wall from a barrier to a canvas, and he seems to do that quite successfully for others! How are we doing this mentally? Is that in itself a bad thing? It certainly will represent challenges for the stand up/sit down for an hour and listen style of Church.

A good joke from Steve Tilley;

the definition of Deanery Synod - a group of people waiting to go home

which again makes me wonder about Church meetings. You have to be there, the argument goes, in order ot have your say - but realistically I confess I have sat through endless hours of meetings because either (a) I like the person in charge and don't want to cause them any offence, or (b) I have felt that my non-attendance would cause additional hours of argument about why I hadn't gone. Neither of these reasons have anything to do with the Kingdom of God.

In Anne Applebaum's excellent 'Iron Curtain' she quotes a Hungarian joke of the 1950s

The definition of socialism: an incessant struggle against difficulties which would not exist in any other system

which probably had to be spoken very quietly at the time for fear of reprisal, but captures beautifully the unquestioning nature of life within such a regime.

Emotionally charged day

I have just had to go for a run to try to clear my head a little.

I have spent today at a Domestic Violence Awareness training day, and it was a real emotional roller-coaster. The prevalence of DVA across the social and economic spectrum is just awful - the thought of people 'living on high alert' (to use the phrase) because of fear of having violence in one form or another done to them is just so sad. And also the realisation that this is a thing to which Church or "decent neighbourhoods" are not immune.

I was particularly struck by the video 'Leaving' (I can only find a trailer on YouTube)

The story of one girl who was subject to a horrible time of abuse and violence was also moving. She had guts to stand up and tell that story!

The statistics nationally are horrible, but the reality that this will be affecting people nearby is even worse.

Religion, statistics and evidence

2000 years ago a census got a bad press, and there has been a buzz these last couple of days over the detailed analysis of the most recent UK Census from 2011 and the various results.

One headline is a dramatic reduction in the number who answered the question about Religion as Christian. Little surprise, maybe, but a big drop none the less. The BBC has the data graphically and also allows a comparison from 2011 and 2001 by region.

We all recognise the reduction in numbers and influence that mainstream Christianity has. The Church of England data about attendance which suggests that Monthly Attendance dropped from 1.7 million in 2001 by about 63,000 in 2010. This is nowhere near the percentage drop in number recorded in the Census data, so kneejerk rhetoric such as this article Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society actually contain almost nothing that looks like evidence to substantiate his arguments. If the number of people no longer claiming to be Christian is due to the nature of some large Evangelical Churches then why is that drop almost totally made up of people who clearly don't go to Church anyway? If the Church of England "has been taken over by evangelicals", thereby "repelling people", then why are those Churches often the largest in an area? Evidence please, Mr Sanderson.

Sanderson also commends the work of the New Atheists such as Dawkins and Hitchins. I welcome difficult questions as they force us to think carefully about what we actually do mean, but my experience is that the arguments raised by these intelligent men are not reflected in the soundbite responses people give in conversation. Science has not disproved God, as many claim, but I do accept that Dawkins et al have created a vocabulary of suspicion which allow people to dismiss a religious dimension to an issue. Evidence please, Mr Sanderson.

But the problems are not all one-way, as research also shows that just because somebody does not tick the Christianity box on the census form their motives cannot be assumed to be united.

So where do we go from here? 

The Christendom model whereby the nation could be won top-down has been falling apart for some time. Local Churches need to be loving their local communities - Mission has to start with relationships. Institutional Churches need to be brave enough to put their money where their theology is and make this happen. Local Churches need to step up to the mark too and get their noses out of the service books.

The media doesn't help. Religion is still an issue of great importance to the majority of citizens in the UK, and yet where are the links to articles about religion on major media outlet web sites? Why, when a issue of religious interest is published, does a very small organisation like the National Secular Society have to be invited to respond as a means of achieving balance?

But most of all beware statistics. When, in 2001, 71.7% claimed a Christian faith we should never have used that as evidence for anything because it was inevitably going to be lower. Similarly 59.3% doesn't mean a huge amount either because census questions are such blunt instruments.

The interface of Values and Vision

You have probably picked up my preference for all things Apple. And why not - the stuff is wonderful.

A fascinating extract from a longer article in Fortune magazine about the Apple culture. Apple has made some awesome pieces of kit, and the way in which the iPhone has changed the smartphone market is astonishing. Any one of several of the large players (Nokia or Microsoft) who already were well entrenched in that market could have come up with the relatively simple ideas that the iPhone brings - but they didn't, or couldn't, make the necessary giant leap that was needed to reinvigorate and reinvent that market. There is also tremendous concern amongst investors about Jobs' health, and therefore whether Apple can sustain itself in this way should the worst happen and Jobs have to step down permanently.

Now clearly you need Vision to make something that really works, but what brings about the creative processes necessary? I think the ideas this piece articulates are about Values of the organisation. What I admire here is twofold.

Firstly there is an almost ruthless sticking to the Values. To speak as freely as Jobs did with those who were thought not to have done a good enough job or to get to the almost completion of a project and then invest as heavily as is required in order to bring the best possible completion, rather than be driven by market or investor demands is brave.

Secondly the huge investment in bringing in outside experts in order to define the Values of the organisation so that they can be transmitted and thereby preserved.

The place of Vision in this equation is, I would say, in terms of then identifying various individual projects which can be completed beautifully by the organisation that is shaped by the Values.

All this is admirable whether or not you make computers, widgets or, quite possibly, the Kingdom of God.

A sort of prayer by video

Good to catch up with colleagues last night, but we were both a bit concerned by the tiredness and beaten up-ness around. Not that it might help very much, but I always find David Allen interesting (nothing spiritual in this, but some good sense on working practices).

 

 

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We laughed at our daring in asking the man from the Diocese who had to come to sort out a dripping cistern if he could pop a new whiteboard up for us, which he kindly did. I am therefore writing lots of things on it that I need to do. I think Red might be the colour for things that I'm not going to do next year! 

Posted with love.

 

Man cold

Been down with a...

 

...which has been pants. I hate being ill.

On the mend now, however, and head is starting to clear.

Had an awesome few days beforehand with Prof David Catchpole lecturing on the Gospel of Matthew. Lots to take in and wrestle with, particularly the idea of a community in a degree of crisis (caught between the Jews who had excluded them from the synagogues and the Gentile Christians who were abandoning almost every aspect of Jewishness in the new Christian faith).

Also reading a hugely scary yet interesting book by Peter Oborne - The Triumph of the Political Class (I think there was something at Greenbelt which is where I think I bought the book). In particular some of the work on the current need for a party to be seen as "modernising", and how this is projected as the removal of elements which could be regarded as "Establishment", not least the influence of the Church.

On this day...

By chance I came across the weekly notice sheet for the 7th November 1971. Some highlights...

What makes resisting temptation difficult, for many people, is that they don't want to discourage it completely. (Franklin P. Jones)

Habakkuk 1:1-14 was read in the morning by Mr R P Harries and he was also on the Sidesman's rota.

There was also breaking news that the man who came to look at the bells declared that one of them was from the 17th C so we were invited to take pride in a 300 year old bell.

There was also a concert coming up where they hoped to raise the £29.50 required for some work on the windows.

Thought you might be interested.

Miner thoughts

Praying for the 33 miners - quite some achievement to survive. No doubt there'll be plenty of reconstruction type documentaries in the days ahead (assuming they get out alive).

Woke Saturday night with that horrible half-dream that I was stuck in the mine too. Yuk.

The end of the party

Have found Andrew Rawnsley's book

"The End of the Party" (Andrew Rawnsley)

absolutely riveting. I think it should be recommended reading for anybody in any sort of leadership role - it has it all! The gamble everything on one outcome risk-taking of the final years of Blair, and the aversion to any sort of risk-taking in the short era of Brown. Squabbles for leadership and shifting loyalties, and the background working of the devious spin doctoring we grew accustomed to. Of particular poignancy were the impacts upon the two wives involved, Cherie and Sarah - no defined role, but enormous expectation upon their involvement.