headwayyouth- phil smith's blog

Buy Nothing Day

Unfortunately I did buy something in fact, I bought a lot of things, which is a shame as I recognise that consumerism really is a massive problem, both in my own life and in the wider context of western life. In response to this problem I suspect the church should really be a leading agent on buy nothing day, so perhaps I should feel especially guilty.

Good news is that we don't need to wait a whole year to show our discontent. Just stumbled across Buy Nothing Christmas on the internet (which has a great youth study guide)

"This Christmas we'll be swamped with offers, ads and invitations to buy more stuff. But now there's a way to say enough and join a movement dedicated to reviving the original meaning of Christmas giving.

Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites but open to everyone with a thirst for change and a desire for action.

Buy Nothing Christmas is a stress-reliever, and more people need to hear about it. You can change your world by simply putting up one of the posters (or make your own) in your church, place of worship, home or work. Be sneaky about it if you have to. The point is to get people thinking. It's an idea whose time has come, so get out there and make a difference!"

I'd love to say I will go against the grain and won't buy anyone anything this Christmas, but I suspect I will. I guess it would work in a tight knit community but actually the people I buy presents for I rarely see and so buying them something creative is an important expression of my appreciation of them, so instead ethical gifts get the thumbs up from me... which isn't surprising as ethical consumerism effectively pays my wages!

On the lighter side of things I also stumbled across  Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. As this video nicely demonstrates, Rev Billy does a mean impersination of Benny Hinn but changes the message of health, wealth and prosperity, to a message against consumerism and particularly against multi-national capitalism. I'm fairly sure he's taking the pee but if uber-charismatic Pentecostal churches catch on to the whole Make Poverty History thing perhaps this will be the result. Don't know if that scares me or excites me!

Greenbelt Blog

Sorry for not blogging much this week, my computer died (fatal registry problem to the fellow geeks out there) so I've had to reinstall everything. Getting there now though!

Traidcraft are likely to have a significant presence at Greenbelt next year so I've been busy doing a bit of research into what we could offer. In the process I stumbled across the GB-Blog which i never even new existed but will be adding to my newsreader (when it's reinstalled). Also enjoying photos from this years festival.

Priest Idol II

Really enjoyed Yaz's post on Priest Idol last week- and the comments that followed. Since she's in the States this week, I thought I'd give some brief musings on this weeks episode before I head off to bed.

In particular, I found the way clergymen (and they are all men!) have been portrayed by Channel 4 v frustrating. All the clips of James McCaskill (left) were of him looking a) weak and vulnerable b) stupid c) praying/reading his Bible. I agree with Yaz's post last week that he is out of touch, that was highlighted by the fact that he did an Easter procession through the streets and considered it a positive, proactive move by the church, but channel 4, in my opinion have over-emphasised that with there clever production; here we have one thick, ignorant vicar, listening on an invisible, inaudible God, talking to stubborn, grumpy colleagues, but it's okay because the cool and trendy marketing guys are coming in to save the day! The Yorkshire Times nicely describes the woeful position of the church,

"Up until the PR people got there, St Mary Magdalene at Lundwood, South Yorkshire, was a typical last outpost of the Church of England on the frontier of Godlessness – struggling to keep a regular congregation of about five.
Then it became Church Lite and was reborn and now more lost congregations look likely to find themselves being wooed back into the pews with snappy slogans and giveaways as the promotional formula tried and tested in Lundwood is taken up by churches elsewhere."

I'm not buying any of it. Yes, clergy are out of touch, perhaps this one especially, but the majority aren't thick and the majority (who have read a book on evangelism in the past forty years) don't need some PR company to instruct them on the importance of being relevant.

Despite the extremely negative picture the series has painted of clergymen, it has raised some interesting points especially about tradition. Looking forward to next weeks episode where Church-Lite opens it's relaxation room....

Wait video-liturgy

Really loving this vid from Kester and all those at Vaux. Well worth a download!

Homosexuality and all that...

Some nasty pasties (pictured left) have sent the archbish a rather harsh letter highlighting their thoughts on the sexuality issue. In response Row (first name terms) replied;

"If this letter is a contribution to that process of debate, then it is to be welcomed, however robust. If it is an attempt to foreclose that debate, it would seem to serve very little purpose indeed." In other words, not only are you being nasty pasties, you're also being silly-billys. Well said Archbish!

If you're interested in this issue Ruth Glendhill has a good summary on her blog and there is a quality article , by Rev. Giles Fraser, in today's Guardian looking at the issue from a post-colonial perspective;

"When the Church of England takes responsibility for keeping the Anglican communion together, she is continuing to act as the ecclesial wing of a colonising power, still shouldering 'the white man's burden'. The responsibility has become agonising because she has conceded the authority to dictate policy to some of the former colonies who are turning it against others, perhaps even Mother Canterbury herself!""

Homosexuality and Football

Very tired of the whole homosexuality debate, hence very frustrated to see that there is a report on the schism caused by this debate in pretty much every daily newspaper today (Telegraph, Guardian, Times). Can't quite see why this is the subject to cause so much division in the church and not the resurrection, the virgin birth or the importance of social action. There is much disagreement about each of these issues, but that hasn't caused division, so why this? Can't help thinking it's to do with misunderstandings and a great deal of naivety!

It is likely that the debate will come to ahead this summer at general synod so I was humoured to read this article by Ruth Gledhill, which reports that business is likely to be suspended so that member of the general synod will be able to watch the World Cup final. Moreover, "The General Synod was told last night that there is “full expectation” of England making it to the final. This is owing, they were told, to the biblical precedent of the symbolic value of 40 years, the period the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness and, incidentally, the length of time since England most recently won the cup."

I'd love to be a fly on the wall if it goes to penalties!

Jesus gifs

Got these pictures in an email today. Don't think they were meant to be funny, but it made me laugh! How big are jesus' hands!

First day...

I had forgotten how odd it was starting a new job until today but now i remember. Very bizarre, but very, very good! The team I work with all seem great, my supervisor seems bob-on (though I have to say that because they know i run a blog!) and the work ethos is incredible. Having been overworked in a v stressful environment for a couple of years it's so nice to work somewhere that has a concern for my well-being... though it does highlight to me how much local churches are lagging behind on this issue.

It was also encouraging that Traidcraft are continually thinking not just about how they grow but how they can become more effective and ethical. I was fortunate to hear Paul Chandler, the CEO, talk about the development of the organisation today and when he talked about the growth of the company he talked not about the sales or profits, but the amount paid out to producers, because that is the focus of the organisation. Similarly he spoke of the importance in being about more than fair-trade products (which would lead to Traidcraft being squeezed out of the market by Nestle and Tesco); the importance of community development, best practise and environmental concern.

It all made me smile lots!

On a separate note it was the reunion for Highway Projects last weekend at which i led a meditation using images from the Middle-East (Download highways.ppt). A few people specifically asked for this picture I used from the last U2 tour so I thought I'd upload it in case anyone else might fancy a copy (left click for pop-up window).

Trade and Aid

After a month of [much needed] recovery tomorrow the new job begins. I have to confess to being a little bit nervous; maybe the job title is just a cover-up and I'm going to be the tea boy, maybe I'm going to uncover the fact that fair-trade isn't as fair as i imagine, maybe I'll get bored of working a fairly regular 38 hour week and quit after a week so that i can go back to working evenings and weekends... or maybe not!

To get in the ethical/political mood myself and zoe (and the in-laws) went to watch Constant Gardener on Friday night and it was good. It wasn't as good as I'd expected but it did highlight specific problems with the pharmaceutical industry and more generally issues related to the power of multinational industries and in that respect it's well worth watching.

About two-thirds of the film is based in Kibera, a slum just outside Nairobi, which was bizarre because that was the scene of my third year placement while i was at Cliff. Spending a month in the slums of Kenya was an incredible experience. It was the most difficult thing I've ever done and I don't think i could do it again, but I'm glad I went because it means when i hear about poverty or justice, it's not about random images off the TV, it's about those orphaned kids that i had the pleasure of meeting.

On a separate note there was an incredible article in today's Observer Food Magazine about a Ugandan entrepreneur who is organising the production and processing coffee and really making trade work to transform some of the worlds poorest communities (check out the rwenzori coffee website for more details). Rugasira's dream is for a chain of Good African Coffee Shops in South Africa, Britain and Uganda, and that people in those places would be able to talk to growers online... it's like fairtrade gone extreme... wonderful!

Iraq and all that...

The discussion regarding Iraq continues on "Eight reasons why liberalism isn't all that bad!", thanks for all who have contributed! As you may have guessed, I'm not a supporter of the war in Iraq, which is at best a bloody mess but recognising i've been a bit negative recently now is not the time to explain why. Instead, let me direct you this video of the misdeeds of American soldiers put to music (45mb but worth it!) and particularly to Bare Knuckle Politics, a news blog with uncensored pictures, video and reports that you won't find elsewhere- beware it can be quite graphic, but maybe that's a good thing!