Monday 24 March 2014

Civil Partnerships


Many of you don't know me (I have to say that it has come as a genuine surprise to me that other people from around the world read this), so perhaps I had better explain a little about me and my church situation.

Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme United Reformed Churches (URCs) have been thinking for a couple of years or so just what it might mean to really adopt the concept of “Everybody Welcome” in our churches. As part of this process, both churches positively voted to accept Civil Partnerships in church and this summer we will welcome what may be (due to a confusion over the Same Sex marriage debate) the ONLY Civil Partnership ever to take place in a church (I use for this the definition used by Churches Together in England and Wales). It was not our intention to be ground breaking, or especially controversial, but simply to say that whoever you are whatever you sexuality, you are a child of God made in his image and you are welcome here.

It is somewhat of an understatement to say that I have been surprised by the responses. I have been in (other) churches where people would not look me in the eye or shake my hand. I have had people leave my service in tears and I have had people almost wanting to "touch the hem of my garment". That isn't the response I usually get on Sunday mornings!

For me personally, the experience of walking beside people who have been rejected in other churches, (and almost inconceivably for me the families of gay people who have been judged because they have a son/daughter/brother who is gay), has been salutary to say the least.

It is only when you are forced to look into your own world through someone else’s eyes that you see your own set of prejudices for what they really are. Let me say of word of support then for the two young women (I will not name them) who have bravely taken a stand to say that whatever their previous experience of rejection in church, they still believe that they are accepted and loved by God as they are, Personally I am very proud of them, and also of my own folk who stand beside them also.

Jesus was constantly being drawn into the world of sexual and gender judgement, and always refused to make the judgement which was expected of him under Jewish law.. He did not judge the woman by well who had had all those "husbands". He did not judge the woman caught in the act of adultery (you will note that the man was not similarly held up for public ridicule and censure ) but rather invited her accusers to examine their own conscience.

 On the other hand He was caustic about money, how people hoard it and use it.

 So: Jesus didn't want to talk much about people's sexual misdemeanours but had lots to say about wealth and faith. We do the reverse I am afraid and I am left asking about where the centre of our values come from.

What do you think?

Take Care

Alan

Friday 14 March 2014

5 Questions about power

I couldn't let the day pass without thinking about Tony Benn. This is the man who famously, if you recall, left Parliament to "concentrate on politics".  His politics divided the nation as succinctly as his great protagonist Margaret Thatcher, and I have no intention in this blog, of leaning one way or the other. Nevertheless they both, in their own ways, changed not only our political landscape, but more far reaching, the way that we understand the use of power.

My own journey has to a large degree ( no pun intended) entailed life long higher level education, and in two very different contexts, namely sociology and theology I have come across Tony Benn's now famous 5 questions about power.

The correct quotation runs as follows:

“The House will forgive me for quoting five democratic questions that I have developed during my life. If one meets a powerful person--Rupert Murdoch, perhaps, or Joe Stalin or Hitler--one can ask five questions: what power do you have; where did you get it; in whose interests do you exercise it; to whom are you accountable; and, how can we get rid of you? Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system.”

Tony Benn Commons Hansard [16 Nov 1998: Column 685] Volume 319 Debate on: European Parliamentary Elections Bill , from 7.20 pm

These 5 questions, I would suggest should daily be on our lips whether we consider the Russian annexation of Crimea (not a straightforward issue), American use of intercept intelligence or on a more mundane level, our relationships with our neighbours.

You see, power is not always obvious. It is held under the guise of concern, (yes also of theology), of doing things "in our best interest" , in the interests "of the country", even of the release of political prisoners, but as Tony Benn reminds us "Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions ( how can we get rid of you? ) does not live in a democratic system.

I must remember that when I next chair a church meeting,

People say to me that I don't speak directly about God much. I'm sorry I thought I was doing just that. If you believe, as I do that however it happened, that we along with all life, in this galaxy or the next;  bear the thumb print of the creator; then our relationships with each other, me with you, you with your neighbour, we with the proto stuff in Alpha Centauri, all exercise, and act under the influence of the power we can exert. But we are left asking the question, "in whose interest?

Best wishes and Take Care

Rev'd Alan Poolton


Wednesday 5 March 2014

Greetings from Cyberspace

Hello everyone, I write to you from the puzzling arena of cyberspace. Its not that I am too old for this stuff, I have after all owned every generation of computer from a "286" to this i5 machine, its just that I promised my children that Facebook would be their domain, not mine.  What has caused this "about face" ?

I do believe that for the first time since the advent of the printing press , the WAY that people communicate with each other is changing fundamentally.

There are obvious exceptions, but it seems to me that the instinctive way people communicate is broadly as follows:

I am in my 50s.

People 15 years or so older than me phone me

People of my age email me

People 15 years younger than me text me

People 20 years younger than me use Facebook.

The young people in my youth group say "have you not got an App?"

What really startled me was when Louise (our community worker) recently bought a new phone - she chose a package with very small text and speech allowances, but a LARGE data package - because though for many, texting is too new, for Louise it is too old fashioned.

How can we communicate when we all use different methods?

6 years ago I was blessed to spend part of my sabbatical in Jerusalem, sharing the Orthodox Easter with Christians from all over the world. One of my Episcopalian colleagues (I am a United Reformed Church minister) from the borders of America and Canada told me an astonishing story. (You have to remember that this was pre financial collapse days). His diocese had been left some money, and rather than spend it on the usual boring things, they decided to commission a future thinking IT firm to tell them what the future would look like. To their surprise, the guy turned up with a senior executive from Wal-Mart (USA) and a load of IT kit. It was the first presentation of "smart" glasses. You put them on, looked at someone and instantly the facial recognition system kicked in with the persons name ( a godsend for me) - "Hi......  great to see you, tell me, how is ..... your son and little........" - the drop down menu on your specs fills in the info.

My friend was astounded, he had seen nothing like it. "When will this be available?" he asked - 5 years was the reply. Silence. "And how much?" asked a timed voice. 5 dollars was the answer.

This is my attempt to communicate with those outside of my email generation. It would be good to know that we can still talk though.............

Reverend Alan Poolton