Month: July 2008

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Public action

We talk too much. We read too much. We hear too much. So much so, that we have lost the art of doing, of acting either as individuals or as a people. We no longer understand what it is to belong to a people who acts, who has “public action” of its own. We are no longer liturgical. For in our vernacularism and modernisation and reform, the very nature of the leiturgia – the nature of what is truly the work of the people – has been lost.

Today we seek to comprehend and explain and decide what we do in our churches but it is utterly questionable as to whether our people experience the liturgical revelation of Almighty God.

In fact, let’s drop the adjective “liturgical” and use Hemming’s words which assert that the liturgy is nothing less than “the ordinary and continual revealing of [God’s] truth”. If this is so, it cannot be a forum for our own self-expression. It cannot necessarily be within our immediate comprehension or subject to our didactic commentary. It must be experienced, indeed lived, as worship of Almighty God – as opposed to being “enjoyed” as a form of Christian activism – in order to begin to grasp something of what is being communicated in it: the very life of God Himself.

Alcuin Reid Divine Worship

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Insulting Turkishness

The experiences of apostates in Muslim countries are blatantly at odds with their rights as guaranteed under international law. Most Muslim nations are members of the UN and have ratified international human rights treaties. However, these nations and the international community have failed in their duty to uphold the rights of apostates by neglecting to guarantee their personal safety and their full and fair participation in society.

In Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran, where the death penalty for apostasy is not codified, death remains a real possibility for the apostate on the basis of their application of shari’a. In other countries where shari’a is used to govern personal status matters, such as in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Yemen, apostates face serious penalties, such as the annulment of marriage, termination of citizenship, confiscation of identity papers and the loss of further social and economic rights. Apostates are also penalised under other laws, such as ‘insulting Turkishness’ in Turkey, the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, contempt of religion in Egypt and treason in Iran.

Apostates are subject to gross and wide-ranging human rights abuses including extra judicial killings by state-related agents or mobs; honour killings by family members; detention, imprisonment, torture, physical and psychological intimidation by security forces; the denial of access to judicial services and social services; the denial of equal employment or education opportunities; social pressure resulting in loss of housing and employment; and day-to-day discrimination and ostracism in education, finance and social activities. The affect of all this on the personal lives of apostates and their families can be significant and far-reaching. As the number of apostate communities has significantly increased in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia over the past twenty years, human rights abuses have been more regularly reported.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide

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Couple penalty

The UK tax system is unusual in that it takes virtually no account of either marriage or family responsibilities. Most other countries’ systems explicitly recognise both. Tax credits do, of course, take account of the financial needs of children of one parent, but in the case of two-parent families they ignore the needs of the second parent. This is one of the reasons why the Government has failed to meet its child poverty targets.

Care reports Couple Penalty and Taxation of married families

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Removing difference from the public forum

Today ours is an increasingly diverse society in which we can observe the fragmentation of shared values and the emergence of extremist action, with profound on-going effects. In response to this emerging situation, our society has, on the whole, remained with its same priorities and pushed forward with the cause of the individual and of personal autonomy as the central values on which to build. The logical consequence of this is a particular and radical understanding of society itself. In this view, society as such exists to keep the peace between people of quite divergent views. Society’s task, basically, is to protect us from each other. In fact this is the core ‘credo’ of a secular, liberal society: society is the peaceful coexistence of potential or real enemies. This thinking underlies much of our public culture. The ‘social cohesion’ currently being sought is, it seems to me, based on this premise.

Yet this premise is, of course, quite inadequate. It is inadequate simply because it does not reflect the concerns and culture by which most people actually live. Up and down our society, in families, within friendships, even as neighbours, and in the very notion of civic friendship within many towns and villages, we seek for something far more than ‘protection from each other’. We share dreams and ambitions; we gather round mutual interests and enthusiasms; we appreciate ‘good things’ together; we still share, in these groups, patterns of thought, or at least profound instincts, about what is to be held as good and wholesome, and what it not. Within all these groups there is a great deal of shared perception (or moral belief) about what is ‘the good life’. These values, and the reflection that carries them, continue to be handed on from generation to generation, adjusted and enriched as that is done.

Yet these patterns of moral reflection, for that is what they are, are often marginalised by being unrecognised, disowned or sentimentalised within our public culture. Hence they are gradually being eroded. They are, in fact, being replaced by a static appeal to the opinions of a supposed majority or of well-organised pressure groups. ‘Political correctness’ is a typical and central expression of this process. And within political correctness, as a method of establishing a public moral culture, as many examples how, reasoning is minimised as a way of making moral judgements. In fact we can say that in forming our public culture we have moved away from rational ethics, the detailed discussion of difference, into a public strategy that is determined simply to control all expressions of difference, often removing difference from the public forum, for difference is seen as a potential point of conflict.

The roots of this thinking, and the project of social cohesion that flows from it, lie in a profound misunderstanding of the human person.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham Social Cohesion and Catholic Education (PDF)

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How to pray 4

An exhortation and litany to be said during processions, used to pray for God’s favour during times of troubles

Let us make our prayers, and supplycations, rendrynge and gyvyng of thankes for all men, and namely for kynges, princis, and al other set in chief dignitie and high roumes, that by theyr godly governance, their true faithfull and diligent execution of justice and equitie on to all their subjectes, our heavenly father may be glorified, the common welth may be daily promoted and increased, and that we al, that are theyr subjectes, may live in peace and quietnes, with al godlines and vertue, and our christen princis & heades in unitie and concorde emonges them selfes, ever callyng uppon theyr heavenly father, whiche is the king of all kynges, and the lorde of all lordes, which shall judge without respecte of persone, accordynge to every mans doing or workes, at whose hande the weake shall take no wronge, nor the myghty man not by any power escape his juste judgement

We make prayers and supplications for kings, princes and all who have been set in authority. We can pray to God for them, and we can do so publicly, so that all who who are in authority know that this is what we are doing. And we can also make our petitions known to these princes themselves. We can petition them to provide us with what almighty God has given them for our sake. Although we may address our prayers to God at all times, we may do so in particular when no other authorities will listen to us. We can ask God to allow those he has set in authority over us to hear his Word and to hear our prayers. We can encourage them to call upon their heavenly Father for grace to give us what we need. In this way the common wealth may be daily promoted and our heavenly Father glorified.

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Processions

Ascension, procession and prayer – all somehow connected. If only someone would tell me how.

Public Christian devotions became common by the fifth century and processions were frequently held, with preference for days which the pagans had held sacred. These processions were called litanies, and in them pictures and other religious emblems were carried. In Rome, pope and people would go in procession each day, especially in Lent, to a different church, to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries. Thus originated the Roman “Stations”, and what was called the “Litania Major”, “Romana”, or “Major Rogation”. It was held on 25 April, on which day the heathens had celebrated the festival of Robigalia, the principal feature of which was a procession.

Pagans on the march? Well, we imitate them in everything else. Perhaps we Christians should also lumber to our feet? Perhaps if we just take the initial risk of taking our worship briefly out of the church building, we will discover that this is in fact the imitation of Christ. Perhaps then we will find that we can go rejoicing around the city, mark its bounds and ask the Lord’s protection on it. Maybe we should even wheel out a few bishops and get them to bless, pray for, repent and lament before the city, and then bless the city again.

Prayer and procession are connected, you say?

The word “Rogation” comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning “to ask,” and was applied to this time of the liturgical year because the Gospel reading for the previous Sunday included the passage “Ask and ye shall receive” (Gospel of John 16:24). The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by fasting in preparation to celebrate the Ascension. A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of “beating the bounds”, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year.

Ah yes, but we Anglicans don’t do this. And you can’t make us.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced plans to mount an unprecedented mass walk of bishops and other faith leaders through central London during the forthcoming Lambeth Conference to demonstrate the Anglican Communion’s determination to help end extreme poverty across the globe. Rowan Williams will be joined by approximately 600 other archbishops and bishops.

Apparently we Anglicans do go on processions then. What does an Anglican procession look like? Like that, I see – everyone holding banners and singing their hearts out. Well, you will never get us Evangelicals to do that. We don’t do processions.

The March for Jesus began as ‘City March’ in London in 1987. It was formed in the seedbed of friendship amongst three church groups, Pioneer, Ichthus and Youth with a Mission, and the worship leader Graham Kendrick. Over the next three years marches spread across the UK, initially in 49 centres, which then spawned hundreds of small marches. Marches then spread across Europe and North America, and finally across the world. In 1994 the first Global March for Jesus covered every time zone and united over ten million Christians from over 170 nations. It is estimated that, by the final Global March for Jesus on 10 June 2000, over 60 million people in 180 nations had marched for Jesus.

March for Jesus? It is always us who are doing things for Jesus – lucky old Jesus. Or it is perhaps the Lord who marches in triumphal procession (Psalm 68; Eph 4.8, 2 Cor 2.14) – and if he catches us up into his procession then we are the lucky ones? With or without the Pelagianism, apparently we Evangelicals do have processions after all. We usually call them festivals – Spring Harvest, Soul Survivor – and we hold them out in the country. But then it is not really the countryside that needs praying for, is it? Perhaps London, somewhere between Abbey and Cathedral, would not be a bad place to pray and process, I mean, march, I mean, walk.

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Intra-family gifts and love

The central role of intra-family gifts
This leads us to the other essential feature of family economics, but one which Becker’s “neoclassical” theory omits. Like Adam Smith, Becker presumes that all economic transactions, including those within marriage, are essentially self-interested efforts to maximize one’s own utility or satisfaction. Now, family members do acquire their incomes mostly by exchanges with those outside the family. But the “division of labor” within the family, as Aristotle and Augustine pointed out, occurs mostly by personal and joint gifts, not exchanges. We all need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, and transported, whether or not we earn income. Our income therefore typically exceeds our consumption during parenthood and the “empty nest” (i.e. after children have left home), while consumption exceeds income during childhood and old age. This involves extensive gifts, not only from parents to dependent children but also between husbands and wives and from adult children to aged parents. … Without government social benefits, the retirement gap could be bridged only by love: a gift from someone (most often one’s adult children) whose own consumption and utility are thereby reduced.

Why do people have children?
Becker answers that children provide parents satisfaction as producer or (in modern economies) consumer durables. But this theory is not very accurate. In what I call “neo-scholastic” economic theory, parents have children for one of two reasons: because they love the children for their own sakes, and/or love themselves and expect some benefit from the children. … Becker’s theory cannot accommodate this fact, since worship, like marriage and fertility, involves another kind of sacrifice of valuable resources by the giver.

John D Mueller Demographic Winter

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Gather, walk, kneel

More from the world’s greatest living evangelical. If he wasn’t so good I wouldn’t keep quoting him.

The first action, therefore, is to gather together in the Lord’s presence. This is what in former times was called “statio”. Let us imagine for a moment that in the whole of Rome there were only this one altar and that all the city’s Christians were invited to gather here to celebrate the Saviour who died and was raised. This gives us an idea of what the Eucharistic celebration must have been like at the origins, in Rome and in many other cities that the Gospel message had reached. In every particular Church there was only one Bishop and around him, around the Eucharist that he celebrated, a community was formed, one, because one was the blessed Cup and one was the Bread broken.

The Eucharist is a public devotion that has nothing esoteric or exclusive about it.

The second constitutive aspect is walking with the Lord. This is the reality manifested by the procession that we shall experience together after Holy Mass, almost as if it were naturally prolonged by moving behind the One who is the Way, the Journey. With the gift of himself in the Eucharist the Lord Jesus sets us free from our ‘paralyses’, he helps us up and enables us to ‘proceed’.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20: 2-3). Here we find the meaning of the third constitutive element of Corpus Christi: kneeling in adoration before the Lord. Adoring the God of Jesus Christ, who out of love made himself bread broken, is the most effective and radical remedy against the idolatry of the past and of the present.

Pope Benedict Corpus Christi 28 May 2008
Solid nourishment, these homilies.

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Concern

From its initial growth as part of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, CCFON is now establishing itself as an independent body – complementing the work of the LCF but speaking with its own voice. Today is our first day in this new season. Today is a day of change when we commit to continue the work God has begun and to seek to take it to still greater prominence in the ‘Public Square’ in our Nation. Many of us are concerned about the state of our Nation – the instability in our social order, the breakdown of the traditional family unit and assault on historic values. This has arisen because we have abandoned God’s laws which are good for all mankind.

In abandoning God’s laws for a just and fair society we have seen the weakening of the rule of law and the rise of discrimination dressed up as equality. We call upon Christians everywhere to stand with us in the effort to win back our country for Christ.

Christian Concern for Our Nation and Christian Legal Centre – and there are resources on marriage & family – imported – since we don’t seem to have a David Blankenhorn or Douglas Farrow of our own. Here’s Iain Duncan-Smith Men are being erased from family life

I spend a large amount of time visiting housing estates and too often I find them full of young mums and no men. The local community groups always tell the same story – young men without any sense of responsibility, no family ties. With few fathers around, the young boys find other role models: the drug dealer or the gang leader. But it isn’t just young men who suffer: girls do too. Studies show that it is from a father that young girls learn about empathetic unconditional love. Without this, vulnerable girls who have no father are more likely to be flattered by male attention and to be drawn into early sex, which is often regretted and unprotected. It seems that the system conspires to break homes, then does its best to lower the life chances of those it is meant to care for. The benefits system is set so that if you are a couple living together, married or otherwise, you will have to work three times longer than a lone parent to get above the poverty line.

Have you seen Dad.Info?

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Truth is no defence

Truth has always been the journalist’s best defence as they seek to expose the failings of politicians, governments or societies leaders. Against a torrent of highly paid lawyers, journalists have always been able to rest on truth. Truth, as the Good Book says, will set you free. Except in Canada.

Those complaining don’t ever have to prove that hatred and contempt actually occurred, just that it is likely to have happened or will happen in the future. Except that due to the nature of Canada’s human rights laws, those complaining don’t ever have to prove that hatred and contempt actually occurred, just that it is likely to have happened or will happen in the future.
As if being accused of causing something that may not actually have happened is not bad enough, a recent filing by Canada’s Justice Department in another case stated quite boldly “truth and fair comment are no defence”. The fact that what you write may be true or simply be a fair journalistic comment, won’t help you fight those charges.

Free speech on the ropes