John Martin's Notebook

Faithful unto death

Every time Christians suffer, we see in them the truth that Christ suffers too. Their blood is his own and their tears his very own and into this fellowship we are invited to share, writes Francis Omondi, chair of Trustees CMS Africa in a newly published article, Read it all

Free for what?

Nelson Mandela once said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Terry Jones, the would-be Qur’an burner from Florida has not been without his supporters in this country. Few have dared to support him unequivocally. Most have tried to make the point that freedom of speech is on his side and they claim (unfairly I think) that in a politically correct Britain it is in diminishing supply. Well, in Kashmir at least 15 Christians are dead, a Christian school, built by the sacrificial gifts of UK people is just ashes. A beautiful Mogul-style church has only its walls standing, its roof and interior having been torched. Attempts were made to burn a nearby Christian hospital was foiled only by a combination of sudden rain and pleas that it was essential to healthcare, particularly mothers and babies. All this happened without the threatened Jones bonfire. It’s hard to imagine the scale of repercussions if he had gone ahead. Not just in Kashmir but in Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Malaysia, just to name just a few countries and where Christians are a tiny minority. Freedom. The debate about how Christians handle their freedom is as old as the church itself. It was a boiling problem in Corinth. The presenting issue was divisive: should Christians eat meat offered to idols? It's possible that the central market in Corinth had various shrines and the normal pattern for local butchers would be to approach one of these pagan altars and make a token offering of the meat. Now for some Christians, especially those of Jewish extraction with a long tradition of poking fun at idols, they had no supernatural power and hence presented no problem of conscience. For others, perhaps people who had once bowed to these idols, to eat such meat would be to defile one's self. St Paul’s advice to the Corinthians in this matter is apposite. He himself probably sided with those for which marketplace meat was no problem. But he counsels doing without for the sake of those of tender conscience: “Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Corinthians 8.9) He boldly says if necessary he would go without meat altogether rather than cause a weaker person to fall. Terry Jones has the freedom to do what he likes. He has the freedom to noisily protest about 9/11. But Paul's words apply to him with compound interest. In this instance it's not a matter of fragile consciences, it's a matter of fragile people, folk who are politically weak, unable to defend themselves when communal violence and anger erupts. As a fellow Christian Jones, tragically, was deaf to their predicament. Terry, you need to repent in sackcloth and ashes. Maybe start planning what you are going to do to make amends, though sadly, I think that will be beyond your powers.

UK Christianity has bottomed out

Christian Research is saying that UK Christianity has 'bottomed out' after years of decline in church attendance, report.

Let me offer six comments:

1. Much of the change is down to the vision, energy and expansion of black majority churches. It's well summed up by a comment from a friend with wide connections in these churches. "There came a time when they decided they should no longer be singing 'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen', but songs looking positively to the future."

2. A mood of corporate depression has lifted. When I came here to UK 30 years ago, if I said, "Do you know they do such and such in church in Australia?" the predictable, weary, reply would be, "That would never work here!" There is a different positive mood about, despite so many critics.

3. UK churches are more confident in themselves. For years churches here lauded third-rate ranters from elsewhere, giving the impression that only the exotic was worthwhile, not sufficiently valuing home grown preachers and teachers. In Alpha UK has a significant export of its own.

4. The penny has dropped that people are in church because they want to be there, not because it's the expected thing. 

5. British Christianity has creatively adjusted to changes in the culture in ways that are studied and imitated all over the globe.

6. The tenor of research is more helpful. For years though it did not intend it, major reports by Christian Research seemed to take a perverse delight in saying how according to their projections UK Christianity was "a generation from extinction." It gave every cynic and every poison pen ammunition to bash the churches over the head.

On shoulders of giants: Max Warren

An African Christian leader gave this testimony. “One day, when I had just finished taking a service in the church, I came home to find my little son had been speared. He was dying in his Mother’s arms while she was vainly trying to push back the intestines which were protruding from the gash in his abdomen. Two things were uppermost in mind: distress at the loss of my only son, and fury against the perpetrator of the deed.

“’I must get away from myself and think this thing through before I do anything ’, I thought, so I went right away and knelt down to pray. At once I saw the Cross afresh, and my Savior dying there for me, and then suddenly I realized something else: the anguish of God the Father at the death of his Son, of whom I was the guilty murderer. I saw the spear that wounded his side, and then I heard his voice saying, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. I was quite broken down at the thought of what God had done for me, and all the feelings of hate and bitterness for the man who killed my son melted away.

“Meanwhile, the man who had speared the child had been caught. He was being held by a host of men all shouting at once, and holding spears, axes and knives, waiting for me, as the father of the child to give the word to dispatch. I walked up to them and told them to put their weapons down, then I said to the man, ‘As God has forgiven me, so I forgive you.’” Grace in the wilderness.

On shoulders of giants: John V Taylor

This extract from a JVT CMS Newsletter from March 1964 offers still-valid insights on lifestyle and lay witness.

"It is very doubtful," says [Mark Gibbs in] God's Frozen People, "whether we shall ever learn our duty as laity in the world, or show our neighbours anything of the love of God for them, without a great deal more hard work, late night travelling, dull social visiting, and even duller committees - and also more self-denial when it comes to status cars, expensive homes, wealthy holidays and so on."

We shall need to cling very firmly to "the ultimate meaning which shapes the penultimate sacrifice".

If we no longer notice that we are soiled and blunted by our involvement in the world, if we no longer thirst, inwardly and directly, for the living God, then, I suspect, we have ceased to live 'in Christ,' however much we may talk about 'holy worldliness'. But withdrawal is not the answer.

"To take a man out of the world will not make him unworldly," said Sir Kenneth Grubb recently in his presidential charge to missionaries of CMS. "Worldliness is a spirit, a temperament, an attitude of the soul. It is a life without the high calling, devoid of the end and the consumation of all things in Christ."Its motto for progress is 'forward', never 'upward'. Its goal is success, not holiness... Unworldliness is also an attitude of the soul, but, by contrast,with all this, it sets God always before the eyes, and fearlessly seeks to carry out his judgement in personal, social and practical life."

From Change of Address (Hodders, 1968)

Dr Harold Adeney OBE

Had the honour of giving a greeting on behalf of CMS at the funeral of the Rev Dr Harold Adeney, 95. Harold was in the great tradition of doctor-missionaries that is a big part of the fabric of what was The Ruanda Mission, now part of CMS. Before doing the General Secretary job he spent many years working in Burundi together with his doctor-wife Isobel.

Harold is pictured here with my CMS colleague Paul Thaxter during a memorable visit to CMS a couple of years ago. He spoke to the staff urging on them the importance of sharing their faith and gave an interview Listen now (MP3 11MB)  At that great age he was still bright as a button. The family explain that one reason was that right up to the end he always made a point of spending time with young people, listening to them and learning from them.

I managed to raise smiles at the end of my talk with the comment: "Now I'm sure the angel hosts, who over many years have rejoiced over sinners who Harold brought to repentance and faith, are finding him to be a sheer delight." 

 

The Pope and the Foreign Office

The brouhaha about the leaked Foreign Office memo where among other things it was suggested there might be special "Benedict" condoms created for the occasion invites some reflections:

1. There's a debate presently about whether or not Christians in this country are persecuted. But make no mistake. If a memo like this had been directed to a visit by a major Muslim or Jewish dignitary there would be all hell to pay. Why the double standard?

2. It's a symbol of how despite Roman Catholic emancipation being on the statute books for many years, there remains close to the surface in British society a strong anti-Catholic reflex. It pops up quite often. It's part of the cocktail in public discourse about abusive priests.

3. The Foreign Office group assembled to work on the Papal visit didn't contain a single Roman Catholic. How in the world, then, did the FO think itself competent to handle all the nuances and sensitivities that go with a visit such as this? 

This, alas, seems to be the culture of the Civil Service. I'm told, that when DEFRA was putting together a team to tackle the Foot and Mouth outbreak it rejected people with agriculture degrees and tried to make a virtue of it. 

We get the politicians we deserve. What can we say about the civil service?

Photo: The Pope in Sydney for World Youth Day.sachman75 photo stream

Mission Aviation celebrates a heroine

Pilots tell me that cruising at altitude can often leave you with thinking time on your hands. During the years 1942-4 several Christian airforce pilots cruising above the Pacific found themselves thinking the same thought: "How could the marvelous discovery of flight be harnessed to serve the mission of God?"

One such pilot was Betty Greene, a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. WASP aviators were assigned to non-combat duties. Even so many of their missions were hazardous.

The power of publishing forms part of her story. On being de-mobbed in 1944 she started writing articles in Christian magazines about how aircraft could play a part in mission logistics. The word got out and soon former combat pilots from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and USA were forming the Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship. The name didn't stick for long. After all the first flight of this fledgling body in Mexico had a woman at the controls. Betty Greene would later work from Mission Aviation Fellowship bases as far apart as Peru, Nigeria, Sudan and West Papua (picture above).

Stories of MAF are legion. Most notable is the story of the murder of MAF pilot Nate Saint and other missionaries in Ecuador in 1956. Its sequel was the return of a couple of the widows including Elizabeth Elliott to Ecuador to bring a reconciling gospel to the tribe who killed their spouses. As a boy these events left an indelible mark on my spiritual imagination. Travelling in Africa I've several times had the privilege of being piloted by MAF.

Why am I going on about Betty Greene? Well in her lifetime this modest woman never craved publicity and died of Alzheimer's in 1977. But last month she and the company of WASPS received the recognition they were due with the posthumous presentation of a Congressional Medal in Washington DC.

Westminster Declaration 2010

In eight years as editor of The Church of England Newspaper I was always keenly aware that what you don't print or support can reveal as much about you as what you do print or support. That thought keeps recurring as I've been considering whether or not to sign the Westminster Declaration 2010

What I certainly support

I unreservedly support the case of those who want to see marriage strengthened. Likewise I want to line up in unequivocal support of those who are fundamentally opposed to abortion and are deeply concerned at that its prevalence is growing. I'm a firm supporter of the Hospice movement and know full well that making euthanasia easier would seriously undermine it.

What I'm not so certain about

In recent months the phrase "persecuted Christians" has taken on a new meaning here in the UK. Yes, there are situations where Christians here are being called on to pay a price for conscience, like losing their jobs because they prayed with school pupils or wanted to wear a cross while at work. By all means support them. By all means let's safeguard the right to believe. Even so, let's keep a perspective. Jesus told us following him meant bearing the Cross, so persecution comes with the package. There is persecution of a far more acute kind in other parts of the world. Early Christians were sometimes required to join with their neighbours in throwing a taper on a fire to acknowledge the Divine Emperor or face death. 

What's missing

What really surprised me, however, is how the Declaration is silent about issues that really matter. Have Christians got nothing to say about honesty in politics? Threats to God's beautiful creation? Peace and reconciliation? The need to show concern for the poorest of the poor in our world even at times when we might need to be tightening our belts?

The other point is, of course, is that if I were to draft such a document, these points would be to the fore.

Photo Westminster Parliament: Flickr: Jacqueline Poggi

A truer story 2: white man's burden

As I said earlier, truth telling is a big issue when writing about the missionary movement.It's a big temptation to indulge in hagiography, to over-blow the big personalities and edit out uncomfortable stuff. I hope one of my contributions at CMS has been to be create a culture that's hard-minded about the way we write about mission and the people involved in it.

For CMS, one of the biggest challenges has concerned mission and empire. As Diarmid McCullough's TV series, The History of Christianity, has shown, as often as not the expansion of the faith has been linked inextricably with imperial expansion. Canon Max Warren (left) the great CMS leader, once called the British Empire "the beloved enemy."  Empire created mission opportunities, but people within the missionary movement didn't always get things right.

The scramble by the European powers for empire presented a huge challenge to societies like the CMS. One side effect was that in the period up The Great War 1914-18, around half the missionaries of CMS were being repatriated with ill health.

Most of them were afflicted with psychological maladies. What was happening? One theory was the impact of an ethos summed up in 'The White Man's Burden', Rudyard Kipling's poem, written in 1899.

The first stanza goes thus:

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Read it all

CMS discourse was not exempt from attitudes summed up in this awful piece of doggerel. CMS's antique book collection contains a children's' book written around the time when Kipling's poem was in vogue. In Dwarf Land and Cannibal Country by Albert B Lloyd, has a preface by the then CMS President who says: Mr Lloyd ... "has been bearing his share of 'the white man's burden' of ruling, civilising and Christianising the 'silent peoples' of whom John Bull carries no less that 350 millions on his back. The duty is not a light one, but it gives an outlet for the energies of our people, an object worthy of an imperial race, a call to put forth the highest qualities of the Anglo-Saxon character."  

Now CMS works in a post-colonial ethos and the Anglicanism in which we are rooted is struggling to work out its place in a post-colonial world. More of that soon....