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Website last updated on 21st March 2009. |
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Our Minister
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Telephone Number: 01252 544823
Email: linda.phillips@theinvernet.co.uk
Linda writes (taken from our April 2009 newsletter) ...
Dear Friends,
I had it in mind to write for my letter in this month’s Newsletter something about our Christian response to the current economic crisis, to challenge our thinking about how we use our own resources and how we respond to those who have not cared for other people’s resources as well as they should have done. But then I came across an article written by Rev. Mary Cotes, the Ecumenical Moderator for Milton Keynes, reflecting on the current crisis in the light of the season of Lent. This seemed to me to be saying all I wanted to say and then some, so I am reprinting it here, and ask for your responses to what she has to say. I think we could get quite a lively discussion going here!
So read on ……………………………..
LENT AND THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY
Every day the economic news seems to get bleaker: this or that company has gone into administration, this or that industry is asking the taxpayer to save it from disaster, this or that firm is having to make so-many thousand employees redundant. To someone like me, a non-specialist in the things of economics, the discussion as to whether this is a recession or a depression seems technical: the fact is that jobs are being slashed here, there and everywhere and our very livelihoods, not just our lifestyles, are under threat.
In some ways, the credit crunch seems to have come upon us all too suddenly and taken us unawares. Yet I remember well back in the nineties when I was minister in Wales, attending a lecture at Glamorgan University given by Peter Selby. It was round about the time of the publication of his book 'Grace and Mortgage.' In the lecture, which started from Bonhoeffer's question 'Who is Jesus Christ today?' Peter Selby explored the pervasiveness of personal and international indebtedness and graphically exposed its dangers. Such was the dramatic impact of the lecture upon me that when I got home I reached for my scissors and cut my credit cards up into little pieces and threw them away. And the following week in a big store when I was invited to take out a credit card, I discussed with a very surprised sales assistant why I was not willing to do so! The lecture had, amongst many profound things, drawn my attention to what the Bible has to say about credit and debt, its warnings against usury, its condemnation of greed, and the many stories which illustrate the nature of relationships that exist between debtors and creditors and the meaning of grace. I had not heard the gospel put like this before. And I remember wondering at the time why this strong theme in Biblical teaching had not much been pointed out to me in the past, and why it wasn't a hot topic in our churches.
When I think back to the teaching I received when I was a young Christian, I certainly remember having a section in the training programme entitled 'The Christian and Money'. But my recollection is that it focussed very largely on the need for tithing, and did not really deal with the other nine tenths of the money! As it was a good non-conformist church we were warned against the evils of gambling (especially raffles...), but when the treasurer of the church, who was a good honest bank manager in town, got up to give his financial report at the church meeting and told us what investments he had made or changed and what interest they were gaining, nobody ever asked a question about the ethical dimensions of what the church was doing with its money. It was as if we either believed that all financial systems were good or it simply never occurred to us that the way financial systems were run could have anything to do with the rule of God. Even though our minister on a Sunday might have referred to the 'divine economy' we had, I suspect, separated God and Mammon.
I should be very interested to know what kind of teaching some of you
received about the ethics of finance when you were being instructed in
Christian faith. Of course, we have often if not always had specialist
ethicists to speak for the church on matters of finance, but it seems
to me that all too often they were thought to be just that - specialists,
and moral questions about money were not thought to be particularly urgent
issues for the 'ordinary' (if you'll forgive the expression) Christian.
Yes, as churches we have been strong advocates for fair-trade, and we
should be thankful that we have had that consciousness and opportunity.
But we might also reflect that in recent years we have been so focussed
on issues of sexuality, or on finding strategies to make a shrinking pot
of money go a long way, that looking at the bigger financial and economic
picture in the light of Christian faith hasn't had much of a look-in.
If we are to be faithful witnesses in the present circumstances, we urgently
need to get thinking and praying!
Lent offers us a great opportunity to do so. During this season we are
invited to follow Jesus on his way to Jerusalem and the cross. We have
the opportunity to hear him again in dialogue with the rich young ruler,
railing at those who get fat on the poverty of others, overturning the
tables in the Temple, answering questions about taxes, telling parables
about debtors and tenants, commenting on the relative generosity of rich
and poor. What shall we make of these scriptures in the light of all that
is going on? If we are seriously seeking new ways of being church, then
rediscovering the radical voice of Jesus will help us on our way.
Mary Cotes
Printed in the Churches Together in England Newsletter for March 2009
Any comments?
What do you think about this?
Write to the Minister or the Editor and maybe we’ll publish some
of the answers.
May God bless you in your thinking and responding to this challenge, and who knows what actions may result!
Then last, but not least by any means least, may I send you greetings, as I will not be with you on Easter Sunday to share in the joyful celebration of that day – so store up for yourselves these words, to shout aloud on the 12th of April “Hallelujah! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed – Hallelujah!”
Linda