I expect readers of this column noticed that my sin of omission last month, was to forget to write it!
My mind had been filled by problems associated with renovation of an upstairs bathroom and by having to empty the office beneath it. This emptying-out led to my fending off a wife intent on disposing of years of something she calls rubbish, but which I call critical paperwork that might come in handy. Therefore, this past month has been a maelstrom of intense activity and delicate diplomacy.
Thankfully, things at home are returning to normality. What is not normal however is the state of Christian churches in The West. Evangelistic churches are expanding but attendance at liberal and status quo ones is declining.
Christianity today feels like it must have felt during its formative years when the secular authorities each had their own gods and were keen to keep the status quo against the revolutionary threat which followed the death and resurrection of Jesus, or Yeshua as he is known to Jews.
Today, these pantheistic old gods are making a come-back under the guise of ideas such as diversity, equality, inclusivity and various ‘rights’ granted by humans to themselves, other creatures and to nature itself. Add to the list a fear of climatic Armageddon and these gods attract followers. G. K. Chesterton hit a nail on the head and was paraphrased as saying, “When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes in anything.”
I am not trivialising the problems facing the churches by the brevity of my summary of its opponents. These problems go to the heart of our Judaic/Christian Civilisation, and we appear to need a positive active political and spiritual leadership, rather than a managed drift on an ebbing tide.
But speaking of positivity; a web guru from Dymock has set up a page called pastoralguide.uk. Type that into Google and see over two hundred Views from the Pew, plus a growing number of short talks on topics for the enquiring mind. Topics are explored from a broad historical faith perspective. I also try to add humour and common sense into a world in which not all have learned that history did not begin the day they were born.
The words ‘common sense’ brought to mind the radio show Gardeners Question Time. Once chaired by Worcestershire born Freddy Grisewood (1888-1972), one of his regular panellists was Ralph Wightman who became well known for coining the phrase, “The answer lies in the soil.”
Ralph saw that, ’Answers to problems must first be ‘framed’ within a context.’ However, to frame a solution within an inadequate context will not resolve anything. For example think of a child being swept away by the River Severn’s current, the immediacy of the moment, rules as irrelevant, any comment about ’excess rain in North Wales.’ Similarly putting numbers into a spreadsheet and then extrapolating twenty years ahead, takes no account of changes that will naturally occur or what human intervention will achieve during that same period. (Such spreadsheet modelling is different from forecasting; however, both may have a kinship to prophesying)
Earlier mention of prophesy and Armageddon reminded me of a handwritten sign ‘The End is Nigh’ and a street preacher who dramatised the ultimate battle between the powers of good and evil. Fortunately, ‘Good’ will triumph and it was whilst looking for a reference in a family bible that an old newspaper-clipping came to light.
The cutting reminds us that, no matter how confident we may be in the content and context of our own certainties, future eyes may see things differently.
The prayer below was amongst the papers of Yorkshire born Joshua Ward MP, (1685–1761) Best remembered for his invention of Friar’s Balsam, he writes:
“O lord, thou knowest that I have mine estates in the City of London, and that likewise I have recently purchased an estate in fee-simple in the County of Essex. I beseech Thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fire and earthquake, and, as I have a mortgage in Hertfordshire, I beg Thee likewise to have an eye of compassion on that county.
As for the rest of the counties; Thou mayest deal with them as Thou art pleased.
Amen.
View from the Pew 