Mixing it

I am in Leicester from yesterday until Saturday night leading a Meissen Delegation Visit. The EKD is focusing this year on 'tolerance' and interfaith issues, so we have a group of English and Germans learning about (and experiencing) interfaith co-existence in an English city.

Very pertinent that we arrived here as the murder of a soldier in Woolwich continues to shock. Yesterday we introduced the Germans to the 'Leicester story' – with quite a lot about Richard III – and ended the day in a Sikh gurdwara.

Today we will be joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the EKD at the St Philip's Centre in Evington – a centre setting the pace for faiths working together (not just talking) in this complex city.

It is purely coincidental that we set the theme of the Meissen Delegation Visit a year or two back and we were only able to tie in the Archbishop of Canterbury once he had been appointed and agreed it. The murder in Woolwich changed the context in so far as the Christian response to it and to the fears of the Muslim community are concerned. Our primary concern has to be for the victim, his family and friends, those serving in our armed forces who do the will of our political leaders, and the community who witnessed these shocking events in Woolwich – the desecration of 'home space'.

But, Muslims have responded with unequivocal outrage to this murder. Yes, there is a fear of copy-cat behaviour on the part of other unhinged fanatics; and yes, there will be some who perversely see such brutality as justifiable in the name of some bizarre jihad. But, the response of Muslims has been immediate and straight – and this needs to be strongly encouraged.

Several newspapers this morning are urging Muslim leaders to be more proactive in addressing hate-preaching and the radicalisation of Muslim young people. They are being exhorted to take more responsibility for addressing some of the serious issues in their own communities. And that is OK. The question, however, is whether the rest of us will encourage them practically as they face this task, standing alongside them in these difficult and challenging circumstances.

The coincidence of the Woolwich murder with this Meissen Delegation Visit sadly adds an immediate emphasis to looking at what we are doing in the field of interfaith work in England – our response offering a cases study in how the English church responds to the immediate in the context of our long-term commitment to the common good.

The rest of today will help us look at both English and German interfaith perspectives. No hard questions will be ducked and the talking will, as always, be generous and straight.

 

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Woolwich

A soldier is attacked in Woolwich and brutally murdered. The men who did it seem determined to be caught. Seeing the footage, they look familiar – speaking with the same deluded dysfunctionality that is not uncommon in some inner-urban areas. Criminal.

But, why is this being deemed a terrorist attack? If someone did something similar whilst shouting about being Jesus, would it be seen as criminal or terrorist? And would the EDL response – to attack mosques – be paralleled by attacks on churches by angry atheists? And would anyone try to legitimise or explain it, rather than simply condemn it outright?

The labels we attach, the language we use and the framework within which we understand such phenomena are shaped by the unarticulated assumptions we bring. Does anyone seriously think these guys are motivated by Islam any more than the Provisional IRA or the UDA were motivated by a rational reading of the Gospels?

In a week framed by Muslims taking responsibility for crimes such as child sexual exploitation in their own communities and the appalling murder of this soldier in Woolwich, it might be worth pausing to examine the assumptions behind the language and the judgements of those politicians and reporters who are doing their best to articulate what this attack represents – and to question whether another narrative might be more appropriate. At a time such as this we need wisdom.

In the meantime, behind the horror, we pray for the family of the murdered soldier, the people who witnessed this dreadful, violent crime, and those now dealing with it both socially and politically.

 

Sandford St Martin Awards

The annual Sandford St Martin Awards (for excellence in religious broadcasting) will be presented at Lambeth Palace on Monday 3 June 2013. The shortlisting was not easy this year and the quality of submitted radio and television programmes was very high. A nice problem to have. Here's the list:

TELEVISON NOMINEES

ANGELIC VOICES: The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral (Wingspan Productions for BBC FOUR)

This film follows Salisbury Cathedral's choristers as they go about their daily lives, discovering their history and singing some of the most loved music under the direction of choir master David Halls.

ARENA: SISTER WENDY AND THE ART OF THE GOSPEL (CTVC for BBC 2)

Sister Wendy Beckett became a star when she travelled the world telling us the story of Christian art, but revealed little of her own extraordinary story. This programme seeks out the 'real' Wendy, who, at 82, talks frankly, humorously, and profoundly about her life and spirituality for the first time.

DAVID SUCHET: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL (CTVC and Jerusalem Trust (Episode 1) for BBC ONE)

St Paul transformed the fledgling Jesus movement into a new global faith. In this programme, David Suchet takes a very personal journey to uncover how an obscure Jewish sect from the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant force in Western civilisation.

GOODBYE TO CANTERBURY (BBC Factual Arts for BBC TWO)

This film makes public Archbishop Rowan’s reflections as he leaves office and says a public last farewell to the cathedral that was his HQ and home for the past 10 years. Beginning with the saving of the cathedral from German bombs in 1942 he delves back in time to reflect upon the historical and spiritual influence of this “mother church of England”.

ISLAM: THE UNTOLD STORY (Maya Vision for CHANNEL FOUR)

Historian Tom Holland explored the origins of Islam. His journey led him to an exploration of a very contemporary fault-line: the one that runs between science and religion, history and faith.

THE HIDDEN ART OF ISLAM (Quicksilver Media / BBC Religion & Ethics for BBC FOUR)

At the British Museum a collection of artefacts from the Muslim world includes an art form not usually associated with Islam: portraits, depictions of human figures and tableaux showing pilgrims performing the most important pillar of the Muslim faith. Rageh Omaar sets out to find if human depiction is the source of controversy, which forms of art are acceptable for a Muslim and why this artistic tradition has thrived.

THE PRESTON PASSION (BBC Religion and Ethics / BBC Drama for BBC ONE)

Fern Britton presents this ambitious project involving 3,500 residents of the Lancashire town creating a Passion play with a difference. All intercut with three pre- recorded dramas — Pilate, Mary and Jesus — based on in Preston past and present.

STRICTLY KOSHER (ITV Studios for ITV 1)

Chris Malone’s affectionate portrait of Jews living in Manchester – hailed by critics and audiences alike. It explores life in Manchester's Jewish community featuring family, food and festivals. From footballing rabbis to Holocaust survivors, rag trade entrepreneurs to Jewish mothers, this series stitched together a tapestry of experiences to create a picture of life today for Britain’s observant — and not so observant — Jews.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY (BBC Religion & Ethics for BBC TWO (Episode 1))

This programme took a behind-the-scenes look at one of Britain’s most historic institutions. Each episode explored the inner workings of the Abbey, following clergy, choirboys and lay people including a plumber, librarian and Press Office “tweeter.

4thought.tv 2nd series Anti Semitism (Waddell Media for CHANNEL FOUR)

This series seeks to reflect upon and address matters of faith seriously and each of the speakers was a passionate believer. A powerful insight into issues of anti- semitism.

RADIO NOMINEES

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED – GET ME TO GETHSEMANE (BBC Radio Wales)

Focusing on one woman’s journey, this programme tells how Gauri Taylor-Nayar’s dying husband urged her to lead Cathays Community Methodist Choir as a focus after his death. “Get me to Gethsemane” tells the story of the choir’s preparations for a performance, Gauri’s bereavement, music and faith, and the moment she realised what Gethsemane had to teach about the Resurrection.

BLASPHEMY AND THE GOVERNOR OF THE PUNJAB (Goldhawk for BBC Radio 4)

Following the case of Asia Bibi, a Punjabi Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, Goldhawk discovered that being accused in Pakistan is enough to put you in prison, and many face death threats despite no trial. They wanted Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab and blasphemy law campaigner, to front the programme, until he was gunned down in a parking lot. This programme tells the story.

EASTER AND CHRISTMAS DIARIES (BBC Radio Four Extra)

An innovative real-time telling of the passion story in bite-sized dramas across the preceding week, told by well-known characters and those on the edge of the story. From the disciples talking about trouble in the Temple, to Mary, mother of Jesus, describing the crucifixion, the passion story is made real.

ECHOES OF EASTER (West Sound Radio)

Fifteen different episodes “from our reporter on the spot in Jerusalem” interviewing the many characters caught up in the drama of the Crucifixion.

ERIC LIDDELL; THE SPIRIT LIVES ON (BBC Radio Scotland)

Eric Liddell, famous Scot, Olympic hero who would not run the Olympics on a Sunday because of his faith but went on to win gold. This programme hears from those few remaining who knew Eric in Weihsien and whose faith has been influenced by his memory.

THE ESSAY; THE CASE FOR DOUBT (CTVC for BBC Radio 3)

Five contributors make a case for doubt, political, religious, scientific and self-doubt. This programme focuses on religious doubt, by scientist and author Madeline Bunting.

HEARING RAGAS (BBC Bristol for Radio 4)

Hearing Ragas is about the near death experience, altered perceptions of the Divine through suffering, and the power of music to reach us in inexplicable ways. It is violinist Prof Paul Robertson’s remarkable story of the India ragas he heard from within a coma, and the healing effect Sir John Tavener’s music had in his recovery.

HEART & SOUL : CANADA REAL (A & M North for BBC World Service)

Canada Real is a dirty, drug-infested shanty town just 30 miles from Madrid. But deep inside the Canada, just off the dusty road where dealers conduct their business through car windows, is a church, home to Padre Augustin, parish priest of the Canada. John Laurenson meets him and sees how he offers hope to the people.

HEART AND SOUL; JAPAN, HOPE AMID THE CHAOS (CTVC for BBC WORLD SERVICE)

As the first anniversary of Japan’s devastating tsunami approaches, Reporter Gerry Northam tells how the Shinto faith of the bereaved and homeless has been tested, and how they are stoic in the face of such terrible circumstances.

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER (BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Drama, London)

Testament stories revisited and set in present day pre-Christmas London, introduced by Rev Dr Giles Fraser. Tom Wells sets the Parable of the Sower in a Secondary School lunchtime science club, where Ellie D is inspired to test the parable using cress.

THE PULSE PASSION (The Pulse, Whistling Frog Productions)

A series of short drop-ins made for the Pulse of West Yorkshire using personal testimonies based on five major themes from the passion story

On Remembrance Sunday Anna Magnusson hears from those who experienced the Arctic Convoys and the people who witnessed the drama off Scotland’s shores: stories that seek to capture the enormity of the sacrifices made and express the heartbreaking tenderness the shared humanity of compassion and loss.

 

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Religious broadcasting (again)

I published a piece in yesterday's Guardian Media Blog on religious broadcasting. The comments that follow on the Guardian site are predictable, if not very rational. Here's the text:

Mention the words “religious broadcasting” in polite company and you can feel the slightly embarrassed echoes of Songs of Praise and Thought for the Day float away into the ether. It's not a great theme to introduce in chat-up lines at parties either.

Which, of course, is a tragedy.

There are two problems here: (a) the word “religious” has become popularly associated with concepts such as “tedious”, “dangerous” or “problematic”; (b) the word “broadcasting” seems to leave out all the social and digital media that now grab the first bite of most people's engagement.

The latter is easier to deal with quickly. As the Olympics opening ceremony proved, there is still a place for the mass shared audience experience, even if many of those watching are also tweeting their reflexive responses to what they see on their screen.

The former is a tougher nut to crack. Before 9/11 religion was seen in the west as a disappearing phenomenon; post-9/11 it was seen as a growing problem.

The truth, however, is that religion encompasses the whole of human experience and cannot be shunted off into some corner reserved for private opinion or “weird stuff”. And it isn't simply about what people “believe”.

Excellent religious broadcasting matters because it plays on a broad field that encompasses politics, economics, ethics, art, drama, sport, biography… and anything that has anything to do with human life, motivation or collective living. Religion not only shapes how communities organise, but also is integral to any understanding of why people are who they are and do what they do in the ways that they do it. And this space should not be reserved for people who claim to be religious (in any sense); it brings into play anyone who is interested in why the world is the way it is and what makes people live the way they do.

It is possible to argue that the world needs more, not less, religious broadcasting. At a time when mutual incomprehension (partly in the light of fundamentalisms) causes difficulties, there is a massive need for good programming that interprets, explores and explains human motivations – especially when they have roots in particular religious world views, practices or rituals.

In one sense, this shouldn't need to be pointed out. This isn't about special pleading for minority interests or finding excuses for broadcasting no one wants to watch. On the contrary, it is simply to recognise (whatever particular world view I or others might hold) that religion is massively important to the world and needs to be understood and interpreted.

I chair the Sandford St Martin Trust, a charity that promotes excellence in religious broadcasting and awards the most prestigious prizes in this field. The quality of submitted entries for 2013 is extremely high. Many of the shortlisted programmes were not made in or for a religious category. But, like the Olympics opening ceremony, they are driven by or include themes that are simply incomprehensible without some understanding of religion (as an economic or political motivator, for example) or religion as a factor in history.

The field is wide open for commissioning editors to cast a wide and creative net, awakening curiosity and digging deeply into the shape of human experience. We need more. And we need more confidence to be shown in scheduling such material.

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Compassion

Yesterday the Guardian published a short blog post on religious broadcasting, so I guess I should post this.

This is the text of this morning's Pause for Thought on the excellent BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Show. I thought of doing something on the agonising banality of Eurovision, but just couldn't muster the enthusiasm. (I like Bonnie Tyler, but the song is a disaster…)

This is a terrible thing for a Liverpool fan to admit (and I do so though gritted teeth), but I admired Sir Alex Ferguson's speech last Sunday. He had just finished his last home game as manager of Manchester United and was thanking the crowd for their support. I actually heard it in the car and found it quite moving. The speech, that is, not the car.

The bit that got me was when he said that in future he would be able to watch the team instead of suffering with them. Bang on, Sir Alex.

When you identify closely with people in whom you have invested yourself, you can't help but experience what they experience. You laugh with them and you suffer with them. What they feel, you feel with them. The usual word for this stuff is 'compassion' – which literally means 'to suffer with'.

It's brilliant, isn't it, that we have the capacity to do this – to go through what someone else is going through with them. Even if you can only watch from the sidelines. Like seeing the care poured out on a dying friend by family and those around her who can't save her for her children, but can love her through the ending.

This is also how I think prayer works, believe it or not. It isn't about getting things or twisting God's arm; no, it's about being drawn in to the experience of those for whom we pray so that we see through their eyes and hear through their ears. Which is why prayer seems to be mostly about changing the person who does the praying.

Anyway, compassion amounts to more than the the cost-free “I really feel for you…” Real compassion draws you in and you get wounded.

Well, cheer up! Saturday's coming and we'll all be suffering together: all the nul points at the Eurovision Song Contest, watching Man United swagger, and – for those wonderful fans of Bradford City – agonising for promotion at Wembley.

Feel for me, please.

 

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Beauty and beasts

Yesterday saw the return to planet earth of the Canadian commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield. During his time orbiting our little planet he has sent some extraordinary photographs of space, the ISS itself and the planet. I came across him on twitter and was hooked.

Looking down from a great height grants a new perspective to the viewer. Tied up in the detail of living in a big and complex city, it is easy to lose sight of the 'big picture' and the meaning of it all. I was only 10 when Apollo 8 took the first human beings out of earth's orbit and sped them around the moon and back. They became the first human beings ever to see the earth in its entirety from space – and their photographs became the most beautiful and iconic images ever seen. Looking back at the earth changed for ever the way we saw our life on and exploitation of the earth.

Chris Hadfield did something similar in that he gave access to the mystery of meaning by capturing views from a great height in such a way as to put the preoccupations of daily living into a larger context. He posted hundreds of mesmerising images on twitter and then did a David Bowie cover video before returning back to Kazakhstan in the Soyuz capsule. If he ever gives up being an astronaut, he clearly has a fantastic career ahead of him in media and communication.

There's nothing original in all of this. It just brings to my mind the words of the Psalmist who, looking at the starry sky at night, asked: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, who are we that you are mindful of us, human beings that you care for us?” (Psalm 8) Confronted by the mystery of the enormity and beauty of the cosmos, why do we think we even matter?

Well, there is a time and place for such contemplation and the writing of such poetry. But, look down again and we are caught up in the mystery of human fallibility and the limitless capacity of human beings to do appalling things to one another and to the planet. It is sometimes hard to hold onto the beauty in the face of the horror. Events in Syria easily blend into 'big stuff' that we cannot comprehend and so push to the back of our consciousness; feeling helpless, we filter it out – even reports of a rebel eating the heart of a government soldier.

Yet, here is the rub. That heart belonged to a person who is a brother, a son, a husband, a neighbour. The death and post-mortem abuse of this person changes for ever the lives of individuals and communities. Even in the context of the enormous cosmos, we still think that what happens to a unique person matters. Why?

This has been brought home to us in England most acutely by the stories of intentional, cruel, exploitative grooming of young girls by gangs of men. The trials in Oxford that concluded yesterday beg huge questions about a society that claims to be civilised whilst allowing such behaviour to continue for so long. And every individual girl or boy involved matters infinitely. It is hard – though vital – to hold onto the beauty and meaning of the universe and human life whilst staring human cruelty and exploitation in the eyes.

The best commentary I have read thus far is by the BBC's excellent Mark Easton. He puts his finger on the sensitive question of whether we just find it too hard to address some questions when 'community cohesion' or 'race' are involved. He is dead right. And just as racism is an evil to be exposed and rooted out, so is a refusal to name things for what they are. The element the media and politicians (in particular) need to pay attention to in these matters is language and category: the fact that someone is a Muslim does not mean that Islam is what drives him to abuse young girls or boys; the fact that someone is nominally (or tribally) Christian does not mean that it is Christianity that makes them behave atrociously. As I noted in an earlier post, ethnicity and religion should not be confused: they are not synonymous.

What lies under all this is an uncomfortable anthropological reality: the human propensity to commodify anything we can lay our hands on. We turn people into objects for exploitation, sale or entertainment (look at the tabloid media, for example); we turn the earth into a Swiss cheese, forgetting that the one thing not being made any more is land and what lies underneath it. Child sexual exploitation powerfully dehumanises both victims and perpetrators; the victims need to be defended and liberated, the perpetrators need to be held accountable and be reminded that moral accountability – integral to human being – demands justice. People are not commodities.

The great Bruce Cockburn puzzles over this stuff – the contrast and tension between the beauty of the cosmos and human being on the one hand and the inhumane bestiality of some human behaviour – when he writes:

Amid the rumours and the expectations and all the stories dreamt and lived

Amid the clangour and the dislocation and things to fear and to forgive

Don't forget about delight…

 

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Ground rules

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the fire that killed 56 and injured over 265 people during a football match in Bradford. The city marks the event each year, led by the Cathedral.

These sorts of scars remain for generations. I remember coming back to Bradford for a six-week parish placement at the end of my first year at theological college in 1985. There were men in the church who had to go to Pinderfields Hospital almost daily to get their burns treated – one of them whose head had been 'melted' by dripping bitumen from the roof.

I had studied modern languages at Bradford University from 1976-80, so knew the city well. I had come from Liverpool where, later, another stadium disaster would scar a city and the nation. In 1989 96 people were crushed to death in the now infamous (and ongoing) Hillsborough debacle. Only now is justice beginning to be done, whilst the families see some light at the end of a cruel and unnecessarily long tunnel.

Both these disasters led to radical re-thinking about the design and construction of football stadia. Safety became the priority – which makes it boggling that the well-being of the paying customers had not been previously. Going to a game in England these days is a totally different experience from thirty years ago. OK, I still miss being able to stand on the Kop at Anfield (rather than sit, that is), but you generally feel safe and that the signage, etc has been seen through the eyes of the punters.

Perhaps none of this would have happened had these two stadium disasters not happened. We learn from what goes wrong. But, the changed rules about ground construction and crowd safety came at the cost of considerable suffering on the part of people who in 1985 and 1989 set off (or watched their family go) to watch a footie match. The scars will not heal quickly.

 

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