Beauty, calm and birdsong

It's a perfect summer's evening sitting in my garden after a glass of red wine and supper on the terrace. The swallows are flying and other birds are singing gloriously, the sky is turning that wonderful blue it goes just before the sun begins to set. Soon the bats will come out and the sky will begin to turn purple around the edges. There's a bit of noise from the airport and road, a lingering smell of someone's barbecue but the lush thunderstorm-fed greenery and the birdsong easily win out. A time for calm and unwinding, thinking and simply drinking-in this beautiful urban rural night. The first clouds are just turning pink and the blue is changing as I write. I feel blessed.

Word of the day "la parentalité"

Friends in Geneva are expecting a baby, to be born soon. Babies born in Switzerland are not automatically Swiss citizens unless their parents are Swiss. This baby's mother comes from a country which does not allow women to pass on citizenship to children born abroad, the father is from a country which allows him to confer citizenship to his child only if it is born in that country, he also has British citizenship but this can't be given automatically to his child as the father was not himself born in Britain.
If the child was born in France or the US it would naturally get citizenship. More shocking to me is the idea that male citizens of some countries can pass on citizenship to children born outside their country of origin but women can't. So much for human rights!
So our friends may enter into "parentalité" (parenthood) without knowing what nationality their child will have ...

Linking to a time for everything ...

We've just got our copy of le lien - the link for the wonderful Protestant bookshop in Paris Un temps pour tout - a time for everything. The few pages in le lien always have something in them that I want to read. This time it's Claude Hagège's Dictionnaire amoureux des langues. It wounds wonderful and I'm looking forward to getting a copy and reading it - even if it is 729 pages long!
It makes my other choice Claude Lanzmann's autobiographical Le lièvre de patagonie sound like an easy read at only 558 pages!
Anyway what are you reading this summer and what is your favourite bookshop?

Name the Campaign! Enter the Food Campaign Slogan Contest

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) is searching for a slogan for its new four-year campaign on Food. We are looking for individuals, church and school groups, organizations, and community forums to use their creativity and experience to suggest the new slogan.
The EAA’s slogan for its trade campaign was “Trade for People, Not People for Trade”. For HIV and AIDS for the last four years it has been “Keep the Promise”. A campaign slogan should be:
Catchy and memorable
Relate to the overall approach of the Food campaign
Ideally indicate a Christian or faith-based connection
Work in different languages (although you don’t necessarily have to come up with the translations!)

Suggestions can be entered on the EAA website – and everyone can indicate their favorites before the final decision is made.

The creators of the winning slogan will be recognized on the website and in the EAA bulletin, and will receive Food for Life – a new cookbook compiled by the Lutheran World Federation. With over 100 recipes from individuals and communities in 23 countries and regions, Food for Life – which also contains table blessings and stories – gives insight into different cultural and religious backgrounds, and sheds light on methods of food production and the ways in which people cope with scarcity and adapt to climate change.

Individuals are also invited to submit drawings, songs, or cooperative games that may be used in the Food Campaign. Although not part of the contest, all such submissions will be credited to their creator if used by the EAA.

Word of the day une perle rare

I've posted my meditation from last Friday's beading, remembering and leave taking.

In French the phrase une perle rare meaning a precious pearl, a rare jewel or stone, and it’s also a way of referring to a person. Calling someone une perle rare is a way of honouring their uniqueness, their beauty, their contribution – it’s a way too of saying they are brilliant and fabulous! ;-)

Une perle is also the way you refer in French to an ordinary bead and not only precious pearls. Beads are also used in many cultures and religions as an aid to prayer a way of focusing. What are the rare pearls in your culture? How are beads used to help communication or spirituality?

Meanwhile some of you may be inspired to help David Ker with understanding the biblical text about not casting pearl before swine.

Jan Hus and Jan Palach remembered as we celebrate truth not institutions

This morning we had an unusual treat for a Tuesday in the chapel. A very talented ecumenical Czech choir from Sumperk sang for the service and for invited members of the local Czech community and diplomatic corps. The service was led by Sarah Motley, an Anglican priest who has just finished the Masters in ecumenical studies at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, and sisters who are part of the Bossey ecumenical spirituality project . Ms Belkys Teherán of the WSCF offered us a sung meditation on the reading from Romans 15. Belkys comes from Colombia which is one of the countries we are praying for through the ecumenical prayer cycle this week.

Towards the end of the service a Czech member of the congregation spoke briefly and passionately in memory of Jan Hus - many of the choir are from the Hussite Church - who was burnt at the stake on July 6th 1415. As he remembered Hus he said "we are here to celebrate truth not institutions" evoking also the memory of Jan Palach who chose to burn himself to death in 1969 to protest at the institution of Soviet communism and tanks following the crushed Prague Spring of 1968.
It was powerful to think that we were praying, singing and listening to celebrate truth ...

Simon says ... read my new blog

My good friend and former colleague Simon Oxley has started a new blog called Simon Says ...
I'm not sure I shall ever quite understand any of the references to Manchester City once the footie season gets started but so far it seems quite good. Really of course it's just a great way of not doing the research he's supposed to be concentrating on.

Word of the day "le non dit" - what have you left unsaid today?

"Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The quote above comes from Simon Barrow's twitter feed. It says alot about how silence is also something that can be heard, about how choosing not to say something, not to offer support, not to say what you think, feel or want is actually to say something very powerfully. To do nothing is actually to do something and to do it powerfully. This is about resistance and can of course be positive and negative.

In French the phrase "le non dit" - that which is not said - is about the rather Latin habit of not always saying things directly, about learning to read silences, about silences saying something; in very verbal cultures it is also about trying to tease out what has not been said despite the flow of words. In English we might say something like "there is alot that is being left unsaid".

But at another level it also made me wonder what is it each of may have left unsaid at the end of a day? What words of love, encouragement, hope have we left unsaid - do we always expect people to read between the lines to understand that we care about them? Sometimes though there are other things we have left unsaid - acts of injustice we haven't spoken about, fear we have let eat away inside us, unclear or painful situations we can no longer find words for let alone resolve, peacemaking we have been too tired to begin.
These few words of Bonhoeffer's can take us in many directions ...

Hope ... the difficult vocation

I have just posted the liturgy from this morning's service to the the docs sections and also my colleague Angela Schnepel's meditation on hope from which this is an extract:

To have hope is not a personal decision but a vocation. God tells us to have hope. So we have no other choice. That is why hope is so important. Hope is like a motor which takes us forward. Hope tells us to carry on, to continue our work in spite of the financial crisis and all other difficulties.

Bernie Ecclestone wrong about Hitler

I got very cross the other morning listening to reports of Bernie Ecclestone having said that "at least Hitler could get things done". You can read the interview with Ecclestone here.
I suppose Ecclestone won't have had time in his busy life making millions to have actually do something as challenging to his ignorance and boorishness as read, for instance Ian Kershaw's brilliant two volume biography of Hilter.
The Third Reich was not a dictatorship that was particularly efficient, decision-making and power were exercised in a social-Darwinist way, with everyone trying to curry favour with and please the mercurial leader who had a rich, highly industrialised and well-educated country at his disposal. Thirteen years of that way of "getting things done" left the country in ruins, millions systematically annihilated, further millions across Europe killed in war.
We must counter the myth that in difficult times we need "a strong man" to bully us through. Difficult times are crucially times for more democracy not for more dictatorship. Leadership is not always about telling others what to do, it's much more about building alliances, convincing others and saying "together we can make a difference", not "I have all the answers just do as I say".

Celebrating humanity and Walking with Walt Whitman

We are having a quiet restful day after our open house party all day yesterday. We are eating leftovers, relaxing and listening to the new internet radio. You too can listen again to Walking with Walt Whitman

Stuart Maconie meets devotees of Walt Whitman in Bolton and explores the history of the town's unlikely yet enduring relationship with the American poet.
A group of devoted fans established the Whitman Fellowship from 1885 onwards, and, although he never visited the town, Whitman developed strong ties through his correspondence with members of the group. Today, Whitman devotees gather for the annual Whitman Walk, to recite his works and share from Whitman's Loving Cup, a gift presented to his followers in Bolton in 1894.
Stuart joins this happy band of walkers and Whitmanites to discover why the poet is still celebrated there, nearly 120 years after his death.

It was a great programme with lots of real people reading Whitman's poems outside. It spoke to me of the democracy of poetry and words. One reading in particular helped me reflect on spending time with so many friends yesterday, the physical and emotional pleasure of being in human company.

To stop in company with the rest at evening is
enough,

To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breath- ing, laughing flesh is enough,

To pass among them, to touch any one, to rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment—what is this, then?

I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it, as in a sea.

There is something in staying close to men and women, and looking on them, and in the con- tact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well,

All things please the soul, but these please the
soul well.

Beads, remembering, friendship and hugs

On Friday evening a group of friends were invited to a special time of farewell for a colleague who is going "back home". This happens alot in Geneva, people stay, build friendships and then move on. The international population is very transient. Goodbyes are not often as powerful as this and it's easy with a constantly moving population to get a bit nonchalant about parting.
On Friday as we gathered we had prepared beads and strings. We each added a bead and a memory to a red string for our friend and we listened to her and to one another. We told stories, old fairy tales, tales about one another, we cried a bit and laughed and sometimes sang and remembered good times and difficult times. We each also created a thread of beads for our friend to take home.
One of us told about how in her culture beads are often used as a way of saying things without words. A woman might leave a string of black beads on the pillow as a way of saying to her husband "we need to talk".
We talked about life and families, work and friendship, values and how painful it is to hide who we are for the sake of our work. That group of people will never gather in quite that same way ever again. It was a time of authenticity, a time of farewell. I got a sense it helped all of us to reflect on our lives and on our work, but it also helped us to pick up the thread of our lives and to move backwards and forwards into the future. Saying good bye is not easy at all. Watching others leave when you remain is also hard. For leavers and remainers the beading helped to find more understanding of how all of us are moving on even as we stay put. We hope our strings of beads will say something beyond words about the love and friendship we have shared.

Suddenly noticing beauty

Waiting for the bus this evening I suddenly noticed how very beautifully formed one of the enormous pine trees was. The branches and greenery looked perfect against the midsummer late evening sky and the way the point tapered upwards just really pleased me aesthetically. I must have tood at the stop hundreds of times and not noticed that tree in that way before. So tonight I drank in its beauty and gave thanks that I had rather longer than usual to wait for the bus.
We want the world to change but often we need to change the way we see things.

Twenty years ago today

It was a Sunday and the previous day I had gone to the ordination of three female anglican friends who were ordained deacons in the Church of England at St Paul's Cathedral in London - we had trained together in Oxford. I was about to be ordained to the word and sacrament of my church, they were not sure when they would be ordained to the sacrament of their church. The photo of two of them was on the front page of many newspapers embracing one another in joy the day the Church of England finally said yes to women priests several years later. By then I was in France.
But twenty years ago today I was staying in Hackney, in Dr B's Greenwood Road flat. In the morning I went to the eucharist at the wonderful St Michael and All Angels London Fields, where the priest and his female curate always made a point of dividing up the liturgy in a way that meant that he only ever said those bits that canon law prescribed had to be said by a priest - they did that week in, week out for years as we waited for women to be ordained to the priesthood. And they say resistance is pointless, what do they know?
Anyway before church a group of us set off for birthday breakfast (for me) at the Colombia Row flower market, cream cheese bagels and big mugs of coffee. Just before I set out I received a phone call from Dr B saying "oh do be back at 9.30, I should be able to phone you then" - I was a bit peeved. Remember that - the days before sms and mobiles and the internet?
So I rushed back from my early morning birthday breakfast to speak to my beloved. Unlocking the door to the flat I thought to myself, that's strange that looks like Stephen's jacket. And there he was, he'd been phoning from Dover not from Brussels and had taken the overnight boat to spend my birthday with me. We rushed off to church together and arrived only 5 minutes late, after he'd told me about the difficult time they'd given him at customs, a single man carrying strawberries, champagne and and a packet of condoms but not much else. Very suspicious.
Nearly half a lifetime ago and much to give thanks for.
Seven weeks later on the night we discovered I could get over the Berlin wall and he could not we got engaged ...
Read about the wonderful murals at St Michaels and All Angels here.

Remembering the past with mixed feelings

Dr B has been writing about the 20th anniversary of the first symbolic cutting of the iron curtain in Hungary and also about how the economic crisis is making it hard for many Hungarians to look to the future with hope.
Sometimes, often even, anniversaires are bittersweet occasions.

Sometimes ... praying really is the only useful thing I do

In recent years I've quite often heard myself say something along the lines of "the only useful thing I do in a day is pray".
I suppose it expresses something quite deep inside me about the transitory nature of anything I might do or contribute to, perhaps it also says something about how spirituality holds things together for me. And on days when I feel that I haven't really prayed it also reminds me to continue with the useful useless activity of prayer.
This evening I've been thinking about the final verse of Psalm 90 in French. In the français courant version I have internalised it ends "donne à nos travaux un résulat durable; oui donne à nos travaux un résultat durable" which would translate into English as something along the lines of "grant that our work may last". The Traduction Oecuménique de la Bible has "consolide pour nous l'oeuvre des nos mains". So then I started looking at the English translations and I was really rather disappointed, nothing I've found there really speaks to my soul in the same way as the French does. The English translations seem to me to be either too opaque and old fashioned:
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us:
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us;
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (King James)

Or to be embedded in a concept of religious success which put my theological hackles right up, I really didn't like either of these:
Lord our God, treat us well.
Give us success in what we do;
yes, give us success in what we do. (New Century Version)

And may the Lord our God show us his approval
and make our efforts successful.
Yes, make our efforts successful! (New Living Bible)

Anyway here is the TOB version once more:
Que la tendresse du Seigneur, notre Dieu, repose sur nous tous!
Fais prospérer pour nous l'ouvrage de nos mains!
Oh oui! fais prospérer l'ouvrage de nos mains! (TOB)

And here are two English versions I suppose I can live with but they just don't quite mean the same to me as the French does.
May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands. (Today's New International Version)

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands. (New King James)

So tomorrow morning I shall go to chapel and we will read the whole of Psalm 90 including this short verse "So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart". Perhaps it is the longing for wisdom of the heart that makes me feel that prayer is the only useful thing I do ...

Lover of Islam - Believer in Jesus Christ

One of the interpreters I contacted today for an interreligious meeting told me about this book by Paolo Dall'Oglio Amoureux de l'Islam, croyant en Jésus Christ. It was published earlier this year and sounds fascinating - though being a linguist the interpreter who told me about it said she felt the French could have been a bit better edited but that it was a passionate and fascinating read.

Dall'Oglio sees his work of reconciliation with Islam extending in the future toward some kind of mediation between all the warring parties in the Middle
East. "This is very delicate," he says, "but everyone knows that we cannot continue to use religion as an excuse for violence of all kinds. We have to find
a way to break through the infernal circle of fear that we feel, all of us."
Where does one put the focus? Dall'Oglio says it is clear that people in every religion have to dig deep into their own roots to find the rationales for dealing with everyone in justice and peace. He has found those roots in both the Old and New testaments. He has found them in the Qur'an. People who don't go to their roots, but follow only the letter (of whatever sacred text), he says, are the real troublemakers in this world. "Follow them and we are doomed."

The book is published by les éditions de l'atelier. You can find out more about this Roman Catholic, politically committed publishing house here.

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will?

While reflecting on and re-reading parts of Candide this weekend I've also been thinking a bit about optimism. I'm a naturally optimistic person (though in a general and not in a philosophical sense) but I do have a tendency, as do many optimists, to fall into cynicism at times when optimism seems to no longer work.
So do you tend to pessimism or optimism and what do you think of Gramsci's maxim?