Child for Life

So England shares the fate of other footballing nations like Andorra in being knocked out of the European Championship. In the event it was Croatia which hammered home a crushing defeat, English hopes having been kept alive to that point by a ‘sterling’ performance from Israel. Now English heads hang low as the nation realises it can’t perform in Europe.

The fact is though it isn’t just in the national game (or obsession) that we’re at the bottom of the rung. 2007 marked the publication of a damning report from the United Nations children’s organisation UNICEF. In a survey spanning twenty-one industrialised nations – most of them in Europe – the U.K. (not England alone now) ranked last in the quality of life for children and young people, well behind Greece, Poland and the Czech Republic among others. Mercifully Croatia didn’t feature on the list. Only one other nation, which enjoys a ‘special relationship’ with us, showed any comparable performance.

As well as ranking last overall, UNICEF placed the UK bottom in terms of the quality of relationships for children – both with their families and with their peers. The UK featured bottom on the list in respect of risky behaviour including substance misuse and sexual health. With all these findings, is it any wonder that children and young people feel worse about themselves in this country and are less happy than in any other nation?

Of course, UNICEF’s findings are open to challenge. Were the data up to date? Were the comparisons fair? Perhaps not and perhaps as a country we don’t deserve to be at the bottom of the pile but wherever in real terms we are, we are clearly nowhere near the top.

The true measure of a nation’s standing is revealed in how well it treats the most vulnerable, children among them. At Christmas we’re invited to respond to the One who makes himself vulnerable, as the child awaiting hospitality and love. The child is not just for Christmas – he is for life. May you know his peace this Christmas.

 

Fr Andrew

 

 

                                                

The Revd Andrew Wickens
Dudley Education Chaplain
Diocese of Worcester
01384 214487
awickens@cofe-worcester.org.uk

 

Fair trade begins at home

Just a few weeks ago the Office of Fair Trading accused Britain’s leading supermarkets of creaming off excessive profits by together fixing the price of milk and other dairy products. Hard on the heels of a wapping £270 million fine to British Airways for rigging fuel surcharges, the supermarkets are set to face a similar sum from the regulator.

We as consumers have been paying more for our pint but farmers complain that they have not benefited. In fact as we celebrate Harvest, it’s sobering to consider just what pressures British agriculture is facing. Some of those pressures are just perennial hazards for British farming. So the weather is only reliable in being reliably unexpected. But this year has seen unprecedented weather with much of central England besieged by the worst floods in living memory. Hay and silage for animal feed was lost. Crops were washed away. And the autumn vegetable crop in some cases never got planted because the fields were waterlogged.

Meanwhile farmers have lived with the spectre of foot and mouth once more. Memories are fresh and nerves are raw after the 2001 outbreak. In that year much of the UK shut up shop as far as farming was concerned with a ban on livestock movement, footpath closures and the hideous scenes of mass slaughter. A crisis of those proportions seems to have been averted this year but the fear of foot and mouth for farmers has been palpable.

Weather and disease are natural hazards but it’s hardly natural that grain is the same price on markets as 20 years ago. It’s market pressures which leave farmers with just 8p in the £ from sales of food in this country compared to 50p half a century ago. And it’s those same pressures that have resulted in farmers facing one of the highest occupational risks of suicide.

That’s why this Harvest we alongside other parishes are drawing attention to the work of the Farm Crisis Network, a Christian charity which offers practical support to those who bear the consequences. Fair trade extends beyond chocolate and coffee. It extends as well to locally grown produce. Fair trade isn’t charity – it’s about giving just deserts – but it does begin at home.

Fr Andrew

Drayton Manor Park

It seems that the younger you are the more fearless with it. On Saturday 28^th July, we went with the Junior Church to Drayton Manor Park to have fun – stomach churning, gut wrenching fun! Only it was often the youngest amongst us who were ready for the thrills and (not to many) spills that were part of the adventure. We all paid to get in, even if it was only to spend the day acting as umpire and holding coats, lunchboxes and accessories for the those game for the rides. Personally I think there’s something to be said for paying NOT to go queasy but there you are – each to their own. And if you wanted to prepare to meet your maker there was ample to choose from – Apocalypse (a superfast, openair lift that drops you out of the sky), Pirate Ship (a real sense of being out on the open seas – bring your own paper bag) and for those who just like getting wet Stormforce 10 (shooting around up and down in a lifeboat). Thanks to Hilary and Anthea for organising the day. Any suggestions for next year? Please forward.

Fr Andrew

Sing to God a hymn of gladness

This month sees the launch of a new hymn book at St James – New Hymns and Worship Songs. And at services on 2^nd September there’s a chance to sample the new collection. Inside there are the familiar stalwarts of Songs of Praise such as Great is thy faithfulness as well as Wesley’s And can it be. Neither hymn is in our existing book. There are modern worship songs that have won a place in people’s praise – Be still for the presence of the Lord and Majesty to name but two. And there are some surprises. You’ll have to look (and wait!) to meet wage earners, the black madonna, not to speak of the elephant and the fuzzy wuzzy bear. There’s passion from Martin Luther King’s We have a dream speech adapted and set to music. And there’s power in Patrick’s Breastplate taking us right back to the dawn of Christianity in these islands. None of these are to be found in Hymns Ancient & Modern New Standard – what we’ll now inevitably start calling ‘the red book.’ If you’re wondering what will become of O Come all ye faithful and Praise my soul the king of heaven, the answer is the new book isn’t replacing the red book – we’ll just start using them together as we’re called to make a joyful noise to the Lord.

Music and hymnody also accompanies us at the month’s end. Our flower festival draws on harvest hymns transformed into floral arrangements. Harvest is a magical time midway between the August Bank Holiday in high summer and Bonfire Night with the depths of winter about to start. In the space of a few short weeks the seasons change and Harvest marks that point of transition – all is safely gathered in before the winter storms begin. That change and contrast is marked for us this year in flowers. We hope at some point over the weekend you’ll join us to enjoy the peace and beauty of the church for a few minutes, to experience some stunning music from our own choir and the Pearl of Africa, from schools around us, not to mention inspiring harvest praise. Look for further details in the magazine. You could even bring a friend with you!

Fr Andrew

Come ye faithful people come

Welcome to St James for our soon to happen glorious flower festival. Harvest is a magical time midway between the August Bank Holiday in high summer and Bonfire Night with the depths of winter about to start. In the space of a few short weeks the seasons change and Harvest marks that point of transition – all is safely gathered in before the winter storms begin. That change and contrast is marked for us this year in flowers. We hope at some point over the weekend you’ll join us to enjoy the peace and beauty of the church for a few minutes, to enjoy some stunning music from our own choir and the Peal of Africa, not to mention from schools around us, not to mention inspiring harvest praise. Look for further details in the magazine. You could even bring a friend with you!

Fr Andrew

Discovering God's welcome for all

Thanks to a generous personal donation, we now have a new noticeboard standing sentinel over the churchyard wall on Wolverhampton Street. I say this in the hope that some of you reading this may already have noticed the change! It’s the same colour as before – if you haven’t already cast your eye over it then please do so.

Every church wants to be a welcoming church – or at least thinks it does – but are we? And do we welcome people on our own terms or on theirs? It’s one of the striking features of the gospels that time and again, Jesus reaches out to accept people who were treated as outcastes, untouchable. Hand on heart, few of us have gone the extra mile to do that.

So I’m not easy with saying “we’re a welcoming church.” While some, if not most, may find us so, the bonhomie and sharing may lead to others feeling shut out. If the church is to build trust in community then it has to be willing to speak the truth and avoid offering platitudes.

So we don’t claim to be a welcoming church. But the noticeboard does declare what I think we’re about at St James’s – discovering God’s welcome for all. Let’s face it, any organisation, club or society should have an open doors policy with welcome for all. As the church we’re to do that and more – announce God’s welcome for all – the saving purposes of the God who has made us and begin to live that life together.

At St James’s, we’re not just to announce that welcome – we’ve also to discover it for ourselves. Pilgrims to the shrine of St James at Compostela went under the sign of the scallop shell. The journey across Europe to the remote north-western corner of Spain was long and arduous. But the journey itself was part of the discovery as well as the basilica and shrine and journey’s end.

As pilgrims ourselves we need to find God’s welcome and then learn to share that welcome with others. Meanwhile, travel well!

Fr Andrew

 

Visit to Holland House

If you’ve never been before, Holland House is the Diocesan retreat house at Cropthorne deep in the Worcestershire countryside. Churches Together in Dudley is holding its annual day at Cropthorne on Thursday 9^th August.

The coach will leave Central Methodist Church at 10.30 a.m. and return at around 5.45 p.m. The cost of the coach trip is £6 for adults and £3 for children over 5. You can either bring a packed lunch or order a lunch for £8. To enjoy a relaxing day in the house and garden, please respond directly to Pauline Crewe  on 01562-884966.

Coach places are limited so do book soon if you wish to join the day.

MAKE ROADS SAFE

It’s good that the Church Wall at St James has been repaired recently. But traffic at the island continues to be dangerous especially for pedestrians. What we know as a local issue is also a global issue and will be discussed by the United Nations in November this year.

Did you know?

·     Someone is killed or maimed every 6 seconds on the world’s roads.

·     Every three minutes a child is killed on the world’s roads.

·     Road deaths in poorer countries are set to rise by 80% by 2020.

·     Road crashes are the single biggest killer of young people in Europe and the US.

·     Only HIV/AIDS kills more young men worldwide.

·     Road crashes kill on the scale of Malaria and Tuberculosis.

 

If you want to be part of the campaign then sign the MAKE ROADS SAFE petition when you come to St James.

 

Fr Andrew