I58-Network

Deeply embedded in the religions of the Abrahamic tradition in this region, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is the sense of loving your neighbour as being rooted in the adoration and love of God, says Mark Beach. Despite the complexities of the politics and religious differences which are steeped in the recent tragedies as much as historical events of Palestine and Israel, this is a powerful resource for change.

Military checkpoints are a way of life for Palestinians in Palestine and Israel. Each day tens of thousands of Palestinians move patiently through turnstiles and narrow caged walkways to go to work, school or home. It is a humiliating experience.

For the Israelis, it could be said that the checkpoints are also indirectly a part of their daily life. It is their sons and daughters who watch as the Palestinians move through the checkpoints to go home, to work, school or worship.

Some of the checkpoints, like the barrier at Shuhada Street in Hebron, lead to an empty, abandoned street with shuttered shops and empty apartments above the street. Palestinians can go only a certain distance along the street before they are turned back.

The checkpoints also carry a metaphorical notion tearing at any sense of neighbourliness that might have been part of the familial and religious upbringing of those entering the turnstiles and those watching them.

Deeply embedded in the religions of the Abrahamic tradition in this region, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is the sense of loving your neighbour as being rooted in the adoration and love of God.

It is in this context that the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), delivered a sermon on the Good Samaritan this past Sunday, 29 August, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, located in the old city of Jerusalem. He spoke in the course of a day in which his WCC delegation saw firsthand many of the barriers that separate people.

The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 describes the qualities of life as it comes forward in "the great commandment to love your neighbour," Tveit said. The real question is who proved to be a good neighbour in this parable.

In the context of Palestine and Israel with their ever-present barriers and violence, all parties are deprived of fulfilling this purpose in life, to love God and their neighbour, he said. "Religion should not prevent us from doing that."

Despite the complexities of the politics and religious differences which are steeped in the recent tragedies as much as historical events of Palestine and Israel, the story of the Good Samaritan exudes a very simple idea of "loving your neighbour".

The story of the Good Samaritan is a story about a man who for whatever reason wanted to go to Jericho, Tveit said to the congregation at Church of the Redeemer. Along the way, his trip was interrupted by violence. "This story is perhaps more real than we want it to be," Tveit said.

When approaching a checkpoint in Palestine and Israel it is hard not to think about neighbours, neighbourhoods and being a neighbour. For Tveit, "in the end everything is about loving your neighbour."

It is a simple and perhaps naive message from the New Testament. How could such a message of loving your neighbour work in a context as complex as this?

Whom we should love is not so complicated, Tveit said. "Moral life is not very sophisticated: it is loving God, loving your neighbour and loving yourself," he said.

Empty streets, separated neighbours

The manifestation of years of violence within Palestine and Israel has meant empty streets with abandoned and shuttered shops, towering walls and razor wire fences meant to keep some people out and others in. In the end, it has meant neighbours separated, suspicious and in fear of one another.

As Tveit and his colleagues walked the empty Shuhada Street which divides the Palestinian Authority-controlled area of Hebron from the Israeli-controlled area, the silence of the street spoke volumes.

They walked with members of the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The ecumenical accompaniers are volunteers from WCC member churches around the world who accompany Palestinians as they encounter checkpoints, or Israelis as they confront the policies of their government bent on splitting neighbourhoods rather than linking them.

As the group moved along the street, two of the accompaniers were called back to the checkpoint to observe a situation where a Palestinian was having difficulty moving through the checkpoint. In the end the situation was resolved.

The ecumenical accompaniers are always on call. Only Saturday night, in East Jerusalem, members of the Jerusalem team were observing a demonstration of Palestinians and Israelis who were voicing their opposition to the illegal occupation of some Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers.

At a T-junction in the road and under the illumination of street lights, the protestors stood on one side, a group of settlers at one corner across from them and the police on the other corner.

Toward the end of the protest a man from the protestors’ side jumped into the street and yelled at the settlers, causing police to move quickly to intervene. Younger men came running from other directions and for a moment the potential for an escalation in violence was very real.

The ecumenical accompaniers observed and documented the unfolding events with cameras. They had seen all of this before. The situation subsided, and the groups went back to their respective corners until everyone went home later.

But along Shuhada Street in Hebron, which on maps is now a "red line", where were all of the people? Where was the neighbourhood? At one time the street was a bustling market area with traders and buyers.

"Our neighbours need us to love," Tveit said. "Religion is about loving God, loving your neighbour and loving yourself."

The sign of hope Tveit found in the story of the Good Samaritan was not any reported repentance on the part of those who passed by the wounded traveller yet refused to help him. "That would make a good story," he said.

"Our lack of ability for repentance does not limit God's ability to bring love and justice," Tveit.

The fact is, even in the face of checkpoints and the separation of neighbours, indignity and violence, "you cannot take away the truth" of God's love and justice, he said. The parable of the Good Samaritan demonstrated that a long time ago.

----------

(c) Mark Beach is director of communications for the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva - http://www.oikoumene.org/

Churches from a broad range of countries and traditions will participate with prayers and other activities in the Time for Creation over the next 40 days.

In a message honouring the Day for Creation, 1 September 2010, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has expressed his hope that the financial and economic crisis experienced by many societies would bring about "a powerful change in direction, to a path of viable and sustainable environmental development."

Churches from a broad range of countries and traditions will participate with prayers and other activities in the Time for Creation over the next 40 days.

In Christianity, 'creation' refers to the whole of the natural world and all life being received as a gift of God - it is quite distinct from the recent fundamentalist belief in 'creationism', which rejects modern science and theology in favour of a magical view of human origins; one rejected overwhelmingly by mainstream Christian denominations.

In 1989, the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I started a tradition of annual prayer for the environment when he proclaimed the first day of prayer for the environment on 1 September, the first day of the Orthodox church year.

Nowadays, 1 September is known to Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Christians alike as the beginning of the Time for Creation, during which churches and congregations are called to pay special attention to the responsibility of humanity for the whole earth and all that lives, grows and exists.

In 2010, the WCC proposes to extend the Time for Creation until 10 October, so as to join a global civil society movement celebrating climate solutions around the world on 10 October 2010.

As 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, many churches will give thanks for the dazzling variety of nature and pray for its preservation.

The World Council of Churches and the All Africa Council of Churches are asking Christians to pray especially for and with people in Africa, where biodiversity and human welfare are both threatened by climate change.

Prayers and other texts and ideas that can be adapted for local use have been made available via the WCC website: http://www.oikoumene.org/events-sections/countdown-to-climate-justice/ti...

[Ekk/3]

Reform group Unlock Democracy has launched a special version of their 'Vote Match' online tool for the Labour party leadership contest.

Non-partisan reform group Unlock Democracy has launched a special version of their 'Vote Match' online tool for the Labour party leadership contest.

On Wednesday 1 September 2010, Labour party members will start to receive their ballot papers to elect their new leader, and candidate to be the next Prime Minister.

Unlock Democracy says its initiative is intended to help them make an informed decision.

Vote Match is a short online interactive quiz designed to raise voter awareness about the policy differences between the candidates on the issues that matter to them. The website www.votematch.org.uk has now gone live.

This is the fourth version of Vote Match which Unlock Democracy has run since 2008. However it is the first time it has been tried for an internal party leadership election.

During the last General Election over 1.2 million people used the quiz to help them decide how to cast their vote.

Commenting on the launch, Unlock Democracy's deputy director, Alexandra Runswick said: "Vote Match is designed to be a quick, easy and fun way to find out what the leadership candidates think on the issues that are important to you."

She continued: “Because the election is being held using the Alternative Vote, as well as matching you to the candidate who most closely matches your views, Vote Match can also help you decide on your second and third choice of candidate."

Vote Match is a project of Unlock Democracy in partnership with the Guardian newspaper.

People are asked to answer a number of agree/disagree statements about policy, and then to rank them in order of importance to them. They then get a match based on how their answers compare with the candidates answers to the same statement.

These statements have been formulated with the help of leading Labour Party members and bloggers, as well as suggestions from members of the public who have previously used the site.

Unlock Democracy is a leading UK campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms. It was formed in 2007 and is the successor organisation to Charter 88 and the New Politics Network.

It is also becoming the successor body to Power 2010, which brought together a host of civic-based reform organisations in the run up to the 6 May 2010 General Election, including the think-tank Ekklesia.

[Ekk/3]

Young people should not be used as tools for political violence in Southern Africa, says the coordinator of the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe.

Young people should not be used as tools for political violence in Southern Africa, says Innocent Kasiyano, coordinator of the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe - writes Munyaradzi Makoni.

"It is a sad trend that youths are used as tools of political violence, and agents to instil fear in communities. That must be stopped," Kasiyano told ENInews.

The SCM official was speaking during the Sixth People's Summit, organised by the Solidarity People's Network, and held from 15 to 16 August at the Catholic Cathedral Hall in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

In Zimbabwe, the youth wing of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, which is in a government of national unity with the Movement for Democratic Change, has faced accusations of having been used to foment fear among those who oppose Zanu-PF, which held power from independence in 1980 until February 2009.

"The participation of youths should not only be limited to lower government structures," said Kasiyano, noting that there is a need to sensitise other youths in the region about their social and economic rights. He said the involvement of young people in decisions of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) would help develop new leaders. Kasiyano coordinates 36 SCM branches across Zimbabwe, with about 200 members in each branch.

Holding the Peoples Summit - a gathering of faith groups, civic organisations and trade union members - alongside the 30th SADC heads of States, also meeting in Windhoek, gave the students an opportunity to lobby on a number of issues, said Kasiyano.

"We want the leaders to allow youths bodies to monitor general elections in the region at least two to three months before the actual voting, to prevent violence," he said. He also suggested SADC countries should spend more on young people to fight poverty.

Kasiyano said young people must be part of the national healing process in Zimbabwe. This is also a recommendation of the Global Political Agreement that brought together Zanu-PF and two opposition parties after a period of serious political violence following elections that Mugabe's party lost.

"Young people were used in the violence; they must be fully involved in the national healing process," said Kasiyano, who is a Roman Catholic. He added that national healing is not enough, and called for a justice, truth and reconciliation commission, such as South Africa had after the end of apartheid.

"As part of civil society, we are not a government in waiting but we are there to fight for the voice of the marginalised to be heard," said Kasiyano.

SCM Zimbabwe groups students from 27 tertiary institutions and high schools, and focuses on conflict transformation, peace building initiatives, and leadership training. It has sometimes been strongly critical of what it views as excesses committed by Mugabe and his followers.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

[Ekk/3]

It is one thing to sit in a comfortable, safe environment and talk about the courage needed to embrace nonviolence in the context of active armed conflict, writes Garland Robertson. It is something quite different to embrace nonviolence personally in the face of great danger and to break allegiance with a violent company that actively pursues traitors. This is the story of one such person, a Kurd from Western Iran.

Sirwan appeared to be about 25 years of age, attractive in traditional Kurdish attire – a dark tan shirt with matching pants, a broad black waistband, and white shoes. He had read our Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) statement in Kurdish during a rally in Suleimaniya a few weeks earlier.

He brought to our office a report he had written on the conditions of Iranian refugees living in eastern Iraqi Kurdistan. He spoke of the desperate medical and nutritional needs of more than 800 struggling families forced from Iran. He talked of many dying, some returning home to live their final days in a familiar setting.

He wondered if we could arrange a meeting with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) agency in Erbil to introduce these issues and advance a plea for emergency assistance. We agreed to try, and also offered to accompany him on a visit to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) here in Suleimaniya.

He then talked about growing up Kurdish in western Iran, being recruited at age 17 by a Kurdish resistance party in Iran and taught to kill targeted Iranians. He told of specific assassinations he had been involved in, including following directions to kill the father of a close friend. He talked of friends and other soldiers killing themselves, unable to manage the images that haunted them after shooting others and seeing blood splash against the wall. He told of being passionate for and excelling in this activity and eventually attaining a high rank in the party, having multiple guards with him always. He spoke of how he had trained others to kill and to make bombs.

Then he explained why he decided to leave the party and try to influence Kurdish youth in Iran not to resist Iranian oppression the way he once had. He talked about forming, with a few others, a new alliance committed to nonviolently resisting his people’s suppression. He explained that very young people without much to do are easily persuaded by the violent parties’ recruiters. He informed us of a letter he’d received from a Gandhi foundation commending his decision, applauding the courage it required and affirming nonviolence’s effectiveness in accomplishing revolution.

He explained how resisting parties complicate the lives of persons who forsake their membership. He talked about how, in addition to reporting on the circumstances of Kurds in Iran, he is now also taking the risk of promoting the alternative alliance. He thanked us for listening to him and offering to help him meet with UNHCR and ICRC officials, then left our office for another appointment.

It is one thing to sit in a comfortable, safe environment and talk about the courage needed to embrace nonviolence in the context of active armed conflict.

It is a different thing entirely to commit to nonviolence when the choice means not only openly exposing oneself to unpredictable consequences by passionately working for peaceful revolution, but also breaking allegiance with a violent company that actively pursues traitors.

Sirwan is a courageous man, a hero for us all.

----------

(c) Garland Robertson is writing on behalf of Christian Peacemaker Teams - www.cpt.org

The Jubilee Debt Campaign is calling on the British government to exert pressure on international institutions to cancel Pakistan's debt.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign is calling on the British government to exert pressure on international institutions to cancel Pakistan's debt.

The Pakistani government is currently in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country’s most important creditor, to ask for debt relief for the disaster-stricken country.

The IMF is believed to be insisting that Pakistan introduces a value-added-tax system and removes energy sector subsidies in order to receive further loans.

A range of charities, church and campaign groups - including the Methodist Relief and Development Fund, Christian Aid, World Development Movement, SPEAK (the evangelical student justice campaign), URC Commitment for Life, Share the World's Resources and the Christian Socialist Movement - have joined the call for Western borrowers to take some responsibility for Pakistan's heavy indebtedness, largely run up under military dictatorships.

They argue that Pakistan needs an immediate freeze on debt repayments, expressing fears that the country's annual $3 billion repayments dwarf current levels of emergency aid.

They also expressed concern that international institutions like the World Bank, rather than giving grant-aid, had promised nearly $3 billion in new loans to Pakistan to withstand the disaster, which will only add to the enormous and unsustainable $49 billion debt.

Campaigners argue that it is inappropriate for the IMF to hold the country to ransom amidst the current disaster, and that the regressive taxation system and reduction in energy subsidies which they are calling for will both hit the poorest in Pakistani society.

They are calling on the British government to use their IMF and World Bank seats to call for an immediate debt freeze as a precursor to wider debt cancellation, and grant-aid, rather than loans, to aid the country's recovery and long-term development.

Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign commented: "The people of Pakistan have already shown their opposition to the reforms which the IMF is pushing on the country. It is unconscionable to use the disaster to continue arm-twisting the government on these reforms. The rest of the world has shown generosity in responding to the plight of the Pakistani people - the IMF needs to respond in a similar way and offer substantial debt cancellation to the country."

He added: "We also call on the British government to pressure the IMF and World Bank into cancelling current debts and offering grant-aid for the future. There is no point in putting money into the country today, if you're going to pull it out again tomorrow - it simply condemns Pakistan to a future of poverty and dependence."

the Jubilee Debt Campaign is pushing the British government to:

* Call on all bilateral and multilateral creditors to immediately institute at least a two year moratorium with no accrued interest on all debt service payments from Pakistan. All of Pakistan's resources should be directed at recovery, not repayment.

* Ensure that emergency disaster-related assistance, wherever possible, be in the form of grants instead of loans.

* Lead efforts to establish up-front funding for climate change-related disaster preparation. With early warning systems, risk analysis, and preparation, Pakistan could have dramatically reduced the damage caused.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign is a UK coalition demanding 100 per cent cancellation of unpayable and illegitimate developing country debts.

For more information, see: www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

[Ekk/3]

The Norwegian government has excluded the Malaysian timber giant Samling from its pension fund on ethical grounds.

The Norwegian government has excluded the Malaysian timber giant Samling from its pension fund on ethical grounds. Samling is logging the last remaining forests of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe in Borneo.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance sold its shares in Samling on the recommendation of its pension fund’s Council on Ethics, which investigated Samling’s activities and found evidence of systematic illegal logging and ‘extensive damage to forests and the environment.’

Announcing the divestment from Samling and two other companies, Minister of Finance Sigbjørn Johnsen said, ‘The decision to exclude these companies… is based on the Council on Ethics assessment that they are contributing to or are themselves responsible for grossly unethical activity.’

Samling has devastated much of the land of the Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo. The Penan rely on the forest for food and shelter, and its destruction by logging companies has left them impoverished.

In December 2009, five Penan communities filed two lawsuits against Samling subsidiaries. A case by other Penan communities has been pending since 1998.

One Penan man said, ‘Samling is trying to log all the trees in our forest. When they enter the area we will lose everything.’

Survival International’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘If all responsible investors, particularly those using public money, avoided companies which violate tribal peoples’ rights and destroy their lands, it would send a clear and long overdue signal to corporations around the world. These companies should simply be boycotted, so the Norwegian disinvestment is a very good step in the right direction.’

[Ekk/4]

The joint synod of Italy's Waldensian and Methodist Protestant churches has agreed to authorise the blessing of same-sex couples in church.

The joint synod of Italy's Waldensian and Methodist Protestant churches has, as the denominations' highest governing body, agreed to authorise the blessing of same-sex couples in church under certain conditions.

The Synod president, Marco Bouchard, described the 26 August decision as "a clear and firm step forward that needs to be placed into a context that will be better defined, especially the relationship between churches and homosexual couples".

The synod statement said, "The words and practice of Jesus, as seen in the Gospel, call us to welcome each experience and each choice marked by God's love, freely and consciously chosen."

Before the synod, a group of Waldensians including a member of the Italian parliament, Lucio Malan, took out a paid advertisement in the Protestant weekly newspaper Riforma, warning that same-sex blessings risked splitting the churches, and affecting ecumenical relationships.

But a majority of the two Protestant denominations felt that their action is fulfilling the Gospel message.

Meanwhile, in the USA, a retired California Presbyterian minister, rebuked on charges that she violated her ordination vows by marrying same-sex couples, plans to appeal against a ruling that she said sent contradictory messages about the church's support of gay rights.

"Who does the Presbyterian Church think we are?" said the Rev Jane Adams Spahr, who is a lesbian. "We are they, they are us."

The 27 August 2010 ruling by a court of the Redwoods Presbytery, a church district of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Napa, California, rebuked Spahr for violating church policy on same-sex marriage by conducting marriage ceremonies for couples between June and November 2008.

Same-sex marriage was already legal in California then. Still, the court commended Spahr for "her prophetic ministry that for 35 years has extended support to 'people who seek the dignity, freedom and respect that they have been denied'".

The court called upon the Presbyterian Church "to re-examine our own fear and ignorance that continues to reject … inclusiveness" and it noted that the denomination's own rules offer "conflicting and even contradictory rules and regulations that are against the Gospel".

With acknowledgments to ENI - www.eni.ch

[Ekk/3]

Britain's largest lesbian and gay Christian organisation has urged critics of the Pope to disagree with respect during his upcoming visit.

Britain's largest lesbian and gay Christian organisation has urged critics of the Pope to disagree with respect during his upcoming visit.

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has issued a statement clarifying its position in advance of the pontiff's highly publicised four-day tour in September 2010.

"LGCM is an ecumenical organisation and consequently has a large number of members who are Catholic and whose beliefs and traditions we honour and respect," says the statement.

It continues: "Although we appreciate that many people, both Catholic and Protestant, have issues regarding the forthcoming visit by the Pope, we also recognise that many LGBT Catholics are loyal to the Pope as their leader and having him in the UK is an occasion for celebration.

"The Pope holds a unique position in being both the head of the Catholic Church and also a head of State.

"In the past few years there have been a number of communications from the Pope and the Vatican that LGCM has felt the need to challenge. We make no secret of the fact that we do not agree with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual orientation and consequently LGCM has spoken out regarding these issues. The Vatican has also been vociferous in its opposition to LGBT rights and equality legislation in the UK, all of which is particularly offensive to LGCM including our Catholic members.

"Cardinal Newman, whose beatification by the Pope should be the highlight of the visit, offered to drink a toast to the Pope – but to conscience first, and the Pope second. We agree completely. Therefore whilst we wish for the Pope to recognise the effect of his statements on the lives of real people and will continue to challenge anything that is in opposition to our Statement of Conviction, we hope and pray that our members will be blessed by his visit."

The Protest the Pope coalition of secularist groups has opposed the trip and promised noisy protests, but progressive Christians believe that this is unhelpful and counter-productive.

More about LGCM: www.lgcm.org.uk/

[Ekk/3]

Religious studies has entered the top 10 league of subjects in exams taken by most 16-year-old school students in Britain, the Church of England says.

Religious studies has entered the top 10 league of subjects in exams taken by most 16-year-old school students in Britain, the Church of England said in a statement marking the publication of examination results - writes Trevor Grundy.

The results published on 24 August 2010 also showed the number of school students taking religious studies for the General Certificate of School Education increasing for the 12th year running, said Nick McKemey, the church's head of school improvement.

"Twelve years of organic growth in student numbers cannot be ignored," said McKemey. "This is a phenomenon that indicates students' appreciation that exploring faith and belief help them to understand the world and become better global citizens."

Religious studies replaces French in the top 10 GSCE exam subjects. It is the first time that religious studies has featured in the top 10.

"Young people are clamouring for a deeper understanding of religious perspectives on issues of the day and how moral and ethical questions are considered by the major faiths," McKemey said.

Britain's major faiths include Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism.

The GSCE results cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as Scotland has a differently-structured educational system.

Ben Wilson, a Church of England spokesperson, told ENInews that religious studies remains in the top five of growing subjects with more than 75 000 candidates. In 2010, there were 188 704 exam candidates for religious studies, a 3.5 percent growth compared to 2009, Wilson noted.

He said, "It means that in growth terms … religious education is growing faster than mathematics and history."

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]

[Ekk/3]

Human rights activists have called for economic action against France for its continued Roma expulsions in the face of widespread international criticism.

Human rights activists have called for economic action against France for its continued Roma (Gypsy) expulsions in the face of widespread international criticism.

US Jewish leader Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich and Hindu statesman Rajan Zed are among those calling for sanctions against a policy they believe is both racist and an affront to human dignity.

In a joint statement, the two men said it was incomprehensible that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was stubbornly pursuing mass Roma expulsions while European Union bodies were slow to respond.

France, which expelled around 10,000 Roma last year, has dismantled 117 Roma settlements and expelled 635 Roma during the past few weeks. It has announced an intention to demolish 300 such camps in total.

"It appears that European Union has a two-tier citizenship policy. If you belong to the 'upper' tier, then you can travel freely anywhere in borderless Europe, but if you fall in 'Roma' tier, your travel is severely restricted," said Rajan Zed and Rabbi Freirich.

Collective deportations were blatant discrimination and smelled of xenophobia, racism, and intolerance, they continued, bitterly criticising the "military-style" bulldozing of Roma settlements.

One of Europe’s most discriminated-against communities, Roma regularly encounter social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, marginalisation, stereotyping, mistrust, human rights violations and appalling living conditions, Zed and Freirich declared.

[Ekk/3]

A new campaign initiative backed by a coalition of global partners is raising money to provide agricultural training for 90,000 farmers in Zimbabwe.

A new campaign initiative backed by the Evangelical Alliance UK and a coalition of global partners is raising money to provide urgently needed agricultural training for 90,000 farmers in Zimbabwe. The aim is to feed up to 5 million people over three years.

According to the United Nations, Zimbabwe still needs emergency food aid for 1.7 million people in 2010 alone, despite better harvests earlier in the year.

Christians in the UK and around the world, along with some of the four million exiled Zimbabweans, are committing to join the prayers and action of local churches inside the country as part of the initiative.

The coalition movement, LoveZim, wants to help improve the lives of Zimbabwean farmers and break the cycles of poverty and dependency they are being subjected to in conditions of national political and economic instability.

“This is a call for all Christians in the UK, in Africa and across the world to participate in prayer and action that can change Zimbabwe forever," commented the Rev Levy Moyo of the Council of Zimbabwe Christian leaders UK.

[Ekk/3]

A growing number of governments, civil society groups and individuals are opposing harsh prison sentences handed down to Iran's seven Baha'i leaders.

An increasing number of governments, human rights groups and prominent individuals are raising their voices against the harsh prison sentences handed down earlier this month to Iran's seven Baha'i leaders.

As lawyers for the prisoners prepare to appeal against the 20-year jail terms, the government of New Zealand has voiced its concern that the trial "was conducted in a manner that was neither fair nor transparent."

"New Zealand is dismayed that Iran has failed to uphold its international human rights commitments, and its own due legal processes in this case," said Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

"The sentences appear to be based wholly on the fact that these people are members of a minority religious group," he added.

"New Zealand calls on the Government of Iran to protect the fundamental rights of all its citizens, and to end its ongoing and systematic persecution of the Baha'i."

The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA, as well as the European Union and the President of the European Parliament, have already condemned the sentencing of the seven.

In the wake of calls from numerous international organisations for the prisoners to be released, groups focused specifically on human rights abuses in Iran - such as the Human Rights Activists News Agency and United4Iran - as well as Amnesty International, have now launched letter-writing campaigns encouraging supporters to call for justice for the seven.

Prominent individuals, including British barrister Cherie Booth, have also been raising their voices in support of the Baha'i leaders.

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) – which campaigns on behalf of disadvantaged minorities and indigenous peoples – has expressed its deep concern over the lengthy sentences.

"Given that independent observers were not allowed to attend the trial, and the history of persecution that the Baha'i community has faced in Iran, the outcome will do nothing to encourage faith in the Iranian justice system,' said Carl Soderbergh, MRG's Director of Policy and Communications.

"MRG calls on Iran to quash the convictions and release the defendants immediately," Soderbergh added.

Before their arrest in 2008, the seven prisoners were all members of a national-level group known as the "Yaran" – or "Friends" – that helped to see to the minimum needs of Iran's 300,000-strong Baha'i community.

Among the human rights groups now calling for justice, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) is asking people throughout the world to join a "We are Yaran" campaign of letter writing.

The HRANA draft letter states: "There is no evidence in support of the charges leveled against these Baha'is, and the ultimate judgment of imprisonment is unjust and insupportable."

United4Iran – a non-partisan global network promoting fundamental human and civil rights in Iran – is requesting that visitors to its website call attention to the plight of the prisoners, by sending email letters to world leaders and Iranian officials.

Considering the advanced ages of several of the Baha'i leaders, says the group, "the IRI (Islamic Republic of Iran) has effectively dealt life sentences."

In the United States, Amnesty International is urging its members to write to the head of Iran's judiciary to protest the trial and sentencing.

Cherie Booth QC called the legal proceedings against the seven a "sham trial" in an article published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK.

"During two years of incarceration, lawyers working with [Nobel laureate Shirin] Ebadi were granted less than two hours with their clients," wrote Ms Booth, who is married to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

She continued: "They had only a few hours to examine the case files, comprising hundreds of pages. In the little time they were granted, they discovered the files were compiled by officials from the ministry of intelligence, despite Iranian law stipulating that such agents 'should not be entrusted with the investigation ... of the accused.'

"The catch-all charge of espionage exposes the reality behind the regime's cruel behaviour. Over the years, Baha'is have found themselves accused of being tools of Russian imperialism, British colonialism, American expansionism and most recently Zionism.

"But when we learn that Baha'is accused of spying for Israel are offered exoneration and the restoration of all the rights of citizenship if they will simply recant their faith, we can see such charges are totally baseless.

"The desecration of Baha'i cemeteries, the demolition of shrines and confiscation of Baha'i property are unlikely punishments for a band of spies.

"The truth behind this sentence is that it is an attempt to decapitate Iran's 300,000 strong Baha'i community. As members of Iran's biggest religious minority, they have suffered decades of discrimination, harassment and appalling treatment. Most recently, 50 Baha'i homes were razed in northern Iran, and we know of at least 47 other Baha'is currently imprisoned," wrote Ms Booth.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, the Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, has called the 20-year jail terms for the Baha'i leaders "a most appalling transgression of justice and at heart a gross violation of the human right of freedom of belief."

"I unite myself in prayer for those of the Baha'i Faith who are suffering at this present time in Iran and also to the many other peoples of goodwill who are suffering for their faiths in other parts of the world," said Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien.

In a video statement posted on YouTube, the actor and comedian Omid Djalili said he was "very upset" by news of the prison sentences.

"The Baha'i Faith is a peaceful religion with a world embracing vision of unity for all people, of all faiths. It is a staunch defender of human rights. So the fact that these seven are held in prison as if they are perpetrators of the most heinous crimes is just ridiculous," said Mr Djalili, whose clip received more than 8,000 views in its first few days.

The prisoners - Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm - denied all the allegations made against them which included espionage, propaganda against the Islamic republic and the establishment of an illegal administration. They are now incarcerated in Gohardasht prison in Karaj, some 20 kilometers west of Tehran.

"By all accounts, the charges against them were utterly baseless, and the trial itself was nothing but a charade," said Diane Ala'i, representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

"For as long as they are held in prison, this international outcry will continue," she said.

[Ekk/3]

Anabaptist churches and service organizations from around the world have gathered in Addis Ababa to look at ways of working together more effectively.

Representatives of Anabaptist churches and service organisations from around the world have gathered in Addis Ababa to look at ways of working together more effectively.

The consultation, the first ever of its kind for Anabaptist service groups worldwide, drew 53 participants from 27 agencies, departments, or committees of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) member churches.

From 18 countries and all continents, more than 80 per cent of the total global Anabaptist membership was represented, according to Reg Toews, Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada, one of three consultation facilitators.

As outlined by Pakisa Tshimika, Mennonite World Conference Global Church Advocate and another of the facilitators, the consultation grew out of previous conversations on diakonia held in connection with the MWC General Council in Pasadena, California, USA, in 2006.

Participants called for “a space or entity under MWC auspices in which every member relates in an interdependent way in order to more effectively serve the church and the world.”

They also agreed to support the new endeavour with finances, personnel, gifts, and skills. With equal access to service bodies and churches in both the North and the South, the new initiative is to focus on both local and global connections while maintaining each participating agency’s identity and autonomy.

Participants agreed to appoint a provisional task force, charged with gathering and disseminating information about current Anabaptist service activities and planning for future consultations and activities. The task force will be under the direction of MWC during its initial mandate, which will last until May 2012.

The proposal depends upon approval by the delegating bodies by the end of 2010.

During the consultation, participants were reminded of the risks of being involved in humanitarian service when they remembered the death of Mennonite Central Committee aid worker Glen Lapp in Afghanistan, which happened while they were gathered in Ethiopia.

With thanks to MWC and Lorne Peachey

[Ekk/3]

A US inter-church group has met with Colombian church representatives to discuss issues of internally displaced people and regional relations.

An inter-church group from the USA has met with Colombian church representatives to discuss issues of internally displaced people as well as the relationship between the two regions - writes Anna Lemler.

The meeting was hosted by Consejo Latino-Americano de Iglesias, or Latin American Council of Churches. Its staff presented extensive information about the complex social problems in Colombia and ways that the organisation hopes to respond.

During the encounter, representatives from Colombia, including Episcopal Bishop Francisco Duque-Gómez, underscored the social issues facing the country and steps the churches are taking to respond. Challenges of displaced families, human rights, poverty, and Afro-Colombian rights were highlighted.

The Episcopal Church of Colombia was recently honored by the nation's Senate in recognition of its pastoral care and social development work over the past 50 years.

The diocese was officially constituted as a missionary church by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in 1963 and has since been committed to outreach ministries to provide health care, food, and education to the most vulnerable groups in its society, especially the displaced, hungry and homeless, children and widows.

The diocese is part of Province IX of the Episcopal Church. With its 21 congregations, it has made strategic alliances with local governments in an effort to maintain and strengthen its aid programs.

After listening to the presentations of the Colombian leaders, the US church leaders responded. The Rev Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and Episcopal Bishop Johncy Itty, chair of the Church World Service's board of directors, spoke about how their organisations are currently addressing the issues and how they intend to respond in the future.

Kinnamon said that the government and churches in the US have neglected Latin America and that he is committed to ensuring that the region is no longer ignored.

The meeting was the first of its kind. The US group is taking a week to travel to Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador to hear more about the issues and to build stronger relationships.

Anna Lemler is a Young Adult Service Corps volunteer for the Episcopal Church serving in Bogotá, Colombia. With acknowledgments to the Episcopal News Service.

[Ekk/3]

The gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has received an enthusiastic response at the Greenbelt Christian festival, despite controversy over his invitation.

The gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has received a standing ovation at the Greenbelt Christian festival.

Speaking about “the struggle for queer freedom in Africa”, he attacked church leaders who condone homophobic abuse, but praised the “brave, heroic Christians who refuse to go along with the persecution of people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual”.

Greenbelt, one of Britain's largest Christian festivals, has drawn over 21,000 visitors over the weekend. Tatchell was speaking on Saturday evening (28 August).

Prior to the weekend, Tatchell had told Ekklesia that he was “looking forward” to the weekend and that, while not a Christian himself, “we have more in common than divides us”. The turnout suggests that few had heeded a call by the socially conservative group Anglican Mainstream, to boycott Greenbelt because of Tatchell's presence on the programme.

Tatchell drew enthusiastic applause from parts of the audience, and uncomfortable expressions from others, when he accused the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, of “colluding” with the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Africa.

“The Anglican Church and Archbishop Rowan Williams have a lot to answer for, because they have put church unity before human rights,” he said.

Tatchell outlined the contrasting legal situations facing sexual minorities in various parts of Africa and elsewhere in the world. These range from South Africa, which was the first country in the world to outlaw homophobic discrimination in its constitution, to Uganda, which plans to introduce the death penalty for a repeat 'offence' of same-sex relations.

Pointing out that most homophobic laws in Africa date from the colonial era, Tatchell said, “They're not genuinely African laws”. He added, “They're laws that were inspired by a conquering imperial power”.

In response to questions, he emphasised that it is necessary for Western advocates of human rights to support African LGBT people in their campaigns, rather to open themselves to accusations of colonialism by seeming to impose their values from outside.

Tatchell gave emotional descriptions of the abuse of LGBT people in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, where he accused Christian and Muslim leaders of whipping up mob violence. He also attacked conservative evangelical groups from the USA who have travelled to Uganda to argue that the country's biggest problem is “not poverty, not corruption, not human rights abuses, not rigged elections” but homosexuality.

He was keen to make a distinction between Christians who oppose homosexuality and those who encourage persecution. “It's one thing to say that homosexuality is wrong, and people are entitled to that belief,” he said, “What they're not entitled to do is to say that the law of the land should discriminate”.

But Tatchell was quick to praise Christians who have stood up against such attitudes. He singled out South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ugandan Bishop Christoper Senjyonjo, who has “paid a very, very heavy price” and been denied his pension.

He also spoke passionately of LGBT African Christians, including Davis Mac-Iyalla and Jide Macauley, who have risked their lives by being open about their sexuality.

“For all of those, gay and straight, who do take a stand, I salute you, I thank you,” he concluded.

Tatchell was questioned on a number of points during in the question-and-answer session that lasted for a long as his talk. One questioner suggested that he had underestimated the importance of church unity in working against persecution in the long term.

Tatchell drew laughter early on in his talk, when he began by “paying tribute to Anglican Mainstream, who by their attacks on me and on Greenbelt, have boosted ticket sales and ensured a successful Greenbelt”.

He didn't refer to the issue again until it was raised by a questioner, who asked about the possibility of legal action against Anglican Mainstream, whose spokesperson Lisa Nolland had suggested that Greenbelt had put children at risk by including Tatchell on the programme.

But Tatchell insisted that, “I'm a great believer in free speech; that includes people criticising me”. He said Anglican Mainstream had quoted him selectively and out of context. He accused them of bearing false witness. There was enthusiastic applause as he added, “I would urge Anglican Mainstream to re-read their ten commandments”.

[Ekk/1]

The general secretary of the WCC has spoken of the enrichment his ecumenical journey has received from family members belonging to Pentecostal churches.

“Among the many challenges that we face in the search for Christian unity is the need to overcome divisions and prejudices that exclude one another,” says the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches was speaking recently to the 22nd Pentecostal World Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

In his greeting – the first ever offered by a WCC General Secretary to a Pentecostal World Conference – Tveit highlighted the hope that comes with being invited to the conference and spoke of his personal experience with Pentecostal churches.

He also expressed how the WCC and Pentecostals have a common call in God’s mission and need each other to fulfil this call.

“It is my deep conviction that the member churches of the WCC, some of which are Pentecostal, need the closer bond to the Pentecostal churches you represent,” he said to the group. “And it is my humble conviction that you need us.”

“To be one is to give witness together to the cross and the resurrection of Christ, to follow God's call together to work for justice and peace in God's world, to obey God's commandment to be a good neighbour to all [who] need us as whoever they are, wherever they live, whatever skin colour they may have and whatever religion they might follow,” he said.

Referencing the first letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament where the apostle Paul says there are many members in the church, yet one body, Tveit said, “I cannot say to any brother or sister in Christ that I have no need for you. We need each other because it is only together that we can grow into the one body of Christ.”

Acknowledging his Scandinavian roots, Tveit, who is Norwegian, said the Pentecostal movement has contributed much to the spiritual life of the Nordic countries and to his own faith journey.

He said part of his ecumenical journey includes “being richly blessed” by family members who belong to Pentecostal churches and participating in the processes that led the Norwegian Pentecostal churches to full membership in the Christian Council of Norway.

Reflecting on the conference theme of “Equip Yourself, Others and the Church” as “a call for growth together in unity for God’s great mission,” Tveit said that the WCC and Pentecostal churches “will find new ways of witnessing to our unity in Christ and sharing in God’s mission. That you have welcomed me here today is one such sign of hope.”

The Pentecostal World Conference is a 3-day event drawing together Pentecostal church leaders from around the world. In Sweden there are nearly 450 Pentecostal congregations.

The World Council of Churches is a global fellowship of 349 churches in some 140 countries representing more than 550 million Christians, some of which are Pentecostal churches.

[Ekk/3]

“I hear those voices that will not be drowned”. These words from Peter Grimes are pierced through the four metre high sculpture by Maggi Hambling which stands on the beach at Aldeburgh in celebration of the life and work of Benjamin Britten. Read against the Suffolk sky, they go straight to the heart.

The recent acquittal of four London-based activists for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) raises profound issues for traders in products which originate from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says Simon Natas, a lawyer involved in the case.

The acquittal this week of four London-based activists for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) raises profound issues for traders in products which originate from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

The case also poses challenging questions for the UK authorities, who have failed to confront the legal and moral problems surrounding settlement trade.

In September and December 2009, the activists entered a shop selling products from cosmetics company Ahava in Monmouth Street, Covent Garden in London, and locked themselves to oil drums filled with concrete. In both cases, the shop was forced to cease trading for several hours.

As a result, the activists were charged with offences under s.68 and s.69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The section 68 offence, known as aggravated trespass, is committed where the accused trespasses on land and does something intended to obstruct or disrupt any lawful activity.

An offence is committed under s.69 of the Act where the accused refuses to leave the land as soon as practicable having been ordered to do so by the senior police officer at the scene. The officer must have reasonable grounds to believe that the person subject to the order is committing, or about to commit an offence of aggravated trespass.

Even if it subsequently emerges that the activity which the accused intended to disrupt was unlawful, he or she will be guilty of the offence under s.69 as long as the police officer had good reason to believe otherwise.

The defendants certainly set out to prevent the shop from trading. The central issue was whether the shop was trading lawfully, defence contending that it was not.

The defendants adduced evidence that the products on sale in the shop were manufactured at a plant in Mitzpe Shalem, an illegal settlement in the OPT. It was argued that the trade in Ahava products encouraged the growth of the settlement, thereby assisting in the transfer of Israeli civilians into the OPT in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva convention.

But the origin of Ahava products had other, more immediate legal implications. Firstly, the goods on sale in the shop are labelled “Made by Dead Sea Laboratories Limited, Dead Sea, Israel.” This suggests that the goods are manufactured within Israel’s recognised borders.

A retailer may commit offences by presenting misleading information about the origin of a product. For example, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 makes it a criminal offence to mislead consumers as to the geographical or commercial origin of a product.

The UK government’s own guidance to retailers (“the DEFRA guidelines”), published in December 2009, state that “traders would be misleading consumers, and would therefore almost be certainly committing an offence, if they were to declare produce from the OPT (including from the West Bank) as ‘Produce of Israel’.” Relying on the government’s own legal advice, the defendants argued that by passing off settlement goods as produce of Israel, Ahava was committing criminal offences in domestic law.

On the first day of trial, the prosecution dropped the s.68 charge, which meant that they would not seek to prove that the Ahava shop was trading lawfully. The significance of this decision was obvious.

The prosecution pressed on with the s.69 charge but the Ahava employee on whose evidence the prosecution relied refused to attend court, even after a witness summons was issued. Had she attended and then been cross examined by defence lawyers, Ahava’s activities would have been subject to very public scrutiny.

The lessons for settlement traders are obvious. When BDS activists target companies that profit directly from the occupation and are prosecuted, the illegality of the settlements will become an issue. As the Ahava case shows, illegality in international law is likely to give rise to illegality in domestic law. Companies engaged in settlement trade will find that their activities are brought under the legal spotlight, something they are unlikely to enjoy.

But there are also problems for the authorities. How do they police direct action against companies whose activities may themselves be unlawful? For how long can police officers continue to plead ignorance about the legal issues surrounding settlement trade, especially when activists carefully explain why it is they feel compelled to act? The authorities have shown little willingness to deal with complaints against Ahava, but public pressure is growing. It is time that consumer protection rules were properly enforced.

The government should also press the EU to conduct a fundamental review of the EU-Israel trade agreement in light of evidence that it is being wrongly exploited by settlement traders and cannot be properly policed. Beyond this, the government should consider whether it should take steps to prevent the marketing of all settlement produce in the UK.

No one can seriously doubt that settlement trade drives settlement growth. Like all governments, the UK is under a duty to bring an end to serious breaches of peremptory norms of international law. The denial of Palestinian self-determination through settlement expansion surely comes within this definition.

------------

(c) Simon Natas is a partner and solicitor advocate at Irvine Thanvi Natas solicitors, specialising in criminal defence and human rights law. He acted for the defendants in the 'Ahava Four' case.

This article is published under a Creative Commons license (see below) with grateful acknowledgment to JNews (http://www.jnews.org.uk/), which provides alternative Jewish perspectives on Israel-Palestine.

Neither fundamentalism nor functionalism offer a way forward for the churches today in terms of their public witness and political engagement, says Simon Barrow. The different stances taken by church bodies in the 2010 general election suggest important lessons for the future.

This article is the editorial in the journal Political Theology, Volume 11, No 4, September 2010 - http://www.politicaltheology.com/PT/issue/view/833

-----

Without doubt, Christians in Britain have become significantly more attuned to politics over the past forty years – not least through the proliferation of lobby groups and church related single-issue campaigns on everything from homelessness and world debt right through to the environment, bio-ethical issues and specifically religious concerns about advocating or restricting free speech.

In this context, it has usually been appropriate to write about ‘politics in its widest sense’ as distinct from ‘party politics’. For while each of the main three political parties in the UK now has a Christian affinity group attached to it, gathered in some degree of conversation through ‘Christians in Politics’, there is a much greater diffidence about partisanship than would be evident, for example, in parts of the US. The ‘religious right’ and the ‘religious left’ have not hitherto been so recognisable in Britain as on the other side of the Atlantic, for example.

But there are now signs that the mood is changing and that at least three overlapping trajectories of engagement are emerging. One is a ‘functionalist’ desire to combat cynicism towards politics in the name of Christian civic duty. Another is an ‘interventionist’ intent to combat trends within the wider polity in the name of an assertively conservative Christian self-understanding. A third is the progressive, ‘exemplary’ wish to push for more radical change to the system arising from commitment to values-in-practice among Christians alongside other civic and religious groups. These approaches roughly correlate with centre, right and left convictions, though with consonances and dissonances that do not necessarily fit received templates.

In turn, such impulses may be seen as reflecting various gut-level and head-level responses to the demise of the traditional influence of organised religion, particularly historic Christianity, within the shifting British political landscape – especially in the Westminster orbit. That is, they are part of the disruption occasioned by a continual transition from a Christendom context (understood as a culture decisively shaped by the mutual interests of ecclesial power and governing authority) to a post-Christendom one (understood as a range of possibilities inhering in the transition towards a plural, mixed-belief society of competing interests).

Traditional theses built around secularisation and de-secularisation (or ‘re-religionisation’) are ubiquitous in media interpretations of what is going on. But they are not always helpful to understanding, because they frame the issue in terms of the presence or absence, growth or decline, of ‘religion’, without necessarily asking the more important and nuanced question about what kind of religion is engaging with what kind of politics by what means and to what ends?

Solidly in the middle of the new landscape, though not necessarily possessing the degree of long-term traction that its current organisational base suggests, is the ‘functionalist’ impulse (in Weberian terms) towards securing the stability of the present democratic settlement. Since the 1970s, local churches, assisted ecumenically by what are now Churches Together formations at regional and national level, have played a significant role in hosting public meetings (‘hustings’) for candidates in parliamentary elections. The idea has been to provide a one-off civic forum for the interrogation of those standing for office, with church buildings being seen as an important symbolic representation of the ‘moral compass’ needed to hold them to account.

What was noticeable in the run-up to the 6 May British General Election – which also saw the first ‘hung parliament’ for 36 years (no one party holding a majority under a first-past-the-post voting system), the maturing of internet-based campaigning tools, and the first full coalition administration since the national government of 1931-40 – was the extent to which mainstream church leaders were publicly urging people to ‘back the system’.

Leaders of the Church of England, the Catholic hierarchies in England & Wales and Scotland, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), the main Free Churches (Methodists, Baptists and the United Reformed Church – who share a Public Issues Team) and the cross- and non-denominational Evangelical Alliance all came out with very strong public statements suggesting that it was a “Christian duty”, not just a civic one, to vote on 6 May.

The “make your cross count” message was also pumped out powerfully by Premier Christian Radio (which has transitioned from being a London station to being a national digital one) and by many Christian websites. They all seemed to assume, in many pronouncements and in some national gatherings with party leaders, that the ‘real’ choice was between Labour, Conservative and Liberal.

The background to this upsurge of ecclesiastical backing for orthodox electoral participation had been a massive haemorrhaging of public support for parliament in the wake of a series of highly damaging expenses scandals involving elected MPs – but also a growing feeling among Christians to make their voices and opinions count in the face of legislation affecting them, as well as a range of big ‘ethical issues’.

The questions not faced by this response were the larger ones about the nature of the system itself and the location and role of religion within the political process. It merely assumed the Christendom position of building influence and backing the status quo. Indeed the “moral obligation to vote” momentum among church leaders such as the Archbishop of York was so strong that the idea that some might choose to withhold endorsement for the system altogether seemed beyond comprehension.

Even more significantly, there was virtually no mention of electoral reform as a moral issue about who gets to have their vote count and who does not, of independent or non-party candidates, of smaller parties, or of ways of working for change which question rather than simply reinforce the adversarial, male dominated ‘Westminster culture’.

Yet these were precisely the questions many people at local community level wanted to ask in the face of public disillusion, the growing power and identity of parliaments and assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and concerns about a consensus between the ‘big three’ parties far more suffocating than their differences – particularly on the role of markets, despite the global debt-recession crisis.

Though speaking a language of social concern, ‘the churches’ as ‘national institutions’ seemed, as ever, much more attuned to patronage and top-down political influence than street level engagement. Meanwhile, an insurgency was occurring. The Power 2010 coalition – mobilising in key ‘swing’ constituencies and online – brought together a raft of civic groups and a handful of faith ones to push for a radical agenda of political reform (proportional representation, an elected second chamber, civil liberties and more) arrived at by a consultative process and involving over 100,000 people in an internet vote. It soon gave way to Britain’s first-ever organised campaign for a ‘hung parliament’ to prevent the continuation of a two-party duopoly, backed by participants across the political spectrum. The established parties and some business leaders fought hard against this, but aided by demographic factors, it was precisely what the electorate delivered.

The absence of the historic churches and their media from the core of this campaign was noticeable. Attuned to ‘old’ establishment politics, they seemed oblivious to the possibilities of the new – which go with the grain of an ‘exemplary’ trajectory towards grassroots cooperation for change. Indeed, in spite of a whole raft of popular methods being developed in communities and online (such as a ‘participatory question time’ at the Charities Parliament a week before the poll), hustings based in local churches remained remarkably traditional and non-experimental overall. A real opportunity for innovation was missed.

The ‘interventionist’ religious right, meanwhile, though it has been very well organised as a lobby network against what it sees as secularising developments in society (such as the idea that churches might embrace equal treatment of gay people in public service provision and employment), was singularly ineffective in articulating electoral issues and standing ‘Christian candidates’. They received derisory votes and spoke a language of moral panic, militancy and confessional zeal which failed to engage either the appetite for change or the experience of most ordinary people in a plural society.

While there is no appetite in Britain for the kind of narrow secularism which would eliminate faith in the public sphere, there are not many hungering to return to an era of religious hegemony or to grant Christians or others a privileged place in the social order. Despite the failings of its inherited institutions, the democratic impulse remains strong.

This leaves both the ‘functionalists’ and the right-leaning ‘interventionists’ in a tricky position – as was highlighted by a lobbying initiative in the build up to the election initiated by Power 2010 and the Christian political think-tank Ekklesia – of which I am a co-director. The idea was to seek to encourage the 24 Church of England bishops and two archbishops who have seats ‘as of right’ in the House of Lords to take the initiative in working towards a reformed second chamber in the UK. Britain remains the only mature democracy in the world today that gives unelected male-only representatives of one denomination, from one religion, guaranteed places and votes in the country’s legislature. Ekklesia, which advocates a post-Christendom ‘exemplary’ and reforming role for Christians alongside others in civil society, argues that this kind of privilege is Christianly, as well as democratically, flawed. The issue, the reformers say, is not that church or other faith leaders should be excluded from parliament, but that they should get there by the same route as everybody else (election or nomination, depending on the system), not through ancient and unaccountable patronage.

The online campaign to encourage the 26 Lords Spiritual to be protagonists for change rather than defenders of archaic privilege, enabling them to move from the back foot to the front foot in political terms, attracted a huge response. Seventy-five thousand letters were sent. Yet the reaction of most in the churches was not to welcome an attempt to engage Christian leaders in political debate. The bishops themselves chose not to respond to calls for democratic accountability and some voices from within the Established Church even objected to the idea of such lobbying – though those on the receiving end of it get to vote on UK laws and certainly encourage their followers to lobby other parliamentarians.

This little cameo perhaps illustrates how un-adaptive and out-of-touch the ‘functionalist’ ecclesial approach to mainstream politics can be. To defend the system at a time when it is under pressure for genuine reform is not to be apolitical (as one major church body claimed when approached about the moral case for a proportional voting system), but effectively to act as a bulwark against change. It is also missing out on a great opportunity. As public spending cuts bite and reform stalls in the face of continuing retrenchment, the need for fresh, alternative thinking beyond conservative politics and neo-liberal economics will remain.

People of faith have a huge amount to offer in this context: patterns of sustainable living and community cohesion; skills in conflict transformation and peace-building; projects for combating poverty; participation in local and global action on debt, environment, housing, health, and more. Mixed in with this are inherited ways of speaking and engaging on the basis of ‘moral communities’ galvanised by participation, not privilege. This is the post-Christendom pattern. But it is also an approach drawing on deep roots within the Christian tradition, including those elements of non-conformity, subversive witness and dissent which the Christendom habit of modelling ecclesial life and activity on top-down patterns of governing authority has marginalised or denied.

Neither fundamentalism nor functionalism offer a way forward for the churches today. Retrenching into fearful verbal warfare with secularity is hopeless. Christians in Britain are invited to be a creative minority, rather than clinging nostalgically to a majoritarian mindset which no longer reflects their numerical and institutional strength. The public square in the UK is neither naked nor fully clothed. It is a place where there is plenty of room for people who can cut their cloth from garments old and new, working together for the renewal of virtues and coalitions at the grassroots – not those constructed from on high.

-----

© Simon Barrow and Equinox Publishing Ltd.

The author: Simon Barrow is co-director of the Christian political think-tank Ekklesia. He was formerly assistant general secretary and global mission secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. His background includes work in current affairs journalism, community-based political action, and theological education.

Political Theology (http://www.politicaltheology.com/PT/index) is a journal that investigates and examines religious and political issues. The journal is interdisciplinary, drawing on the disciplines of theology, religious studies, politics, philosophy, ethics, cultural studies, social theory and economics. As such, it aims to reflect the diversity of religious and theological engagements with public and political life. The journal has a review section which embraces reflections upon religion, theology, politcal theory, political biography, film and fiction. The editor is Graeme Smith from Chichester University. Subscription details here: http://www.politicaltheology.com/PT/about/subscriptions