By Amaris Cole

The weather may suggest otherwise, but summer ison its way – and this year that means theOlympics will be right on our doorstep. While

the majority of the medals will be won in the capital,the whole country is set to experience Olympicfever.

But if you haven’t won tickets do not fear –you can still get involved. This is, for many,a once in a lifetime opportunity, as theGames will not be back for decades. You,and your church, have the chance to reachout not only to the international community asthey descend on our shores, but also thosecloser to home.

More Than Gold leads Christianinvolvement in the world’s major sportingevents, and has done so since the AtlantaGames in 1996.

With their help, everyonecan impact those aroundthem and play their part inthe Olympics.

More Than Gold hasidentified three main waysboth individuals and theirchurches can get involved –outreach, hospitality andservice.

OUTREACHEvery community is interested in

sport – and this will be intensified during the build-up to theOlympics. By creating a link between sport and faith,churches have the opportunity to engage with those aroundthem. This could be done by:• Olympic-themed Children’s Holiday Clubs•Sports clinics for young people•Community festivals

•Pub-style sports quizzes•Televising popular events for the community to come

and watch together

HOSPITALITYHospitality is always an expression of faith and love.

Churches and their members have a uniqueopportunity to serve athletes’ families and visitors

travelling to the UK to watch the games. More ThanGold has established a hospitality programme, with

many chances to serve.These opportunities involve:

•Hosting families of athletes who areinvolved in the Games – a practicalexample of hospitality for those whomay otherwise miss the chance ofseeing their loved one compete.•Hosting members of the variousinternational mission teams who arecoming to London to reach out to thecrowds that the games will attract.•Serving at a Hospitality Centre, bygiving out millions of cups of water – atSydney in 2000, 250,000 cups of waterwere distributed to visitors.

Visit us on yourmobile device... Simply scan the codehere to go straight to ourwebsite

SERVICEThe 2012 Olympics provide a unique opportunityfor Christians to show how their faith leads to

serving others, as Jesus did. Volunteers areneeded to deliver these programmes to localcommunities, as well as services being offeredexternally, by groups such as LOCOG(locogrecruitment.london2012.com). By signingup to help out, you are sure to be involved in thelegacy that the Games will leave.

CEO of More Than Gold, David Wilson, hopeseveryone will get involved in the games.

“I do not think there has been this number ofchurches working together for at least 30 years,”he said.

“This is a chance in a lifetime.”But it doesn’t need to end after all the medals

have been won, David says.“We want to get churches focussed on the

legacy. We want churches to realise if they wantto televise on a big screen, they can do that atany time of the year with any sport event.”

For more details, and to order resources for yourown outreach event, visit the More Than Gold

website – morethangold.org.uk

Protected by God in themidst of turmoil, E4,5

Andrew Carey:View from the Pew

Stirring up prejudice

Anyone who thinks faith leaders cause religious strife should take acareful look at current British politics. The evidence is strong thatpoliticians cause strife by stirring up religious division.

George Galloway has thanked Allah for his victory in Bradford. Hefought a campaign that was deliberately pitched at Muslim voters. To itsshame the Labour Party followed the same approach by stressing that itsown candidate was a Muslim. Galloway had an answer for that by claim-ing the Labour candidate drank alcohol (Galloway is on his fourth wifebut that doesn’t count). Ken Livingstone, meanwhile, wants to make Lon-don a platform for Allah. His disgraceful remarks about ‘rich Jews’ weredoubtless aimed at courting Muslim votes. Contrast this with the Churchof England as portrayed in the final instalment of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s‘How God Made the English’. Leicester Cathedral’s warm welcome topeople of all faiths showed how, left to themselves without the interfer-ence of the likes of Livingstone and Galloway, different religions inBritain are perfectly capable of getting on together. Livingstone appearsin an election hustings at St James, Piccadilly on 17 April.

Taking on the humanists

Bart Ehrman must be the least favourite New Testament scholar of Americanevangelicals. Once an evangelical himself, he went on a journey after gradu-ate school through liberal Christianity to unbelief. He has debated the resur-

rection with William L Craig and other evangelical apologists. But in his latest bookEhrman has trained his fire on humanists and atheists who argue that Jesus neverexisted. He was stirred into action by attending a meeting of the American Human-ist Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to receive an award.

While there he was dismayed to find many people who seemed to think that Jesusnever lived. It dawned on him that such people are the flip side of Christian funda-mentalists. Both were using Jesus to justify their prejudices. The result has been‘Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth’, a no-holds barredattack on what are termed ‘sensationalist’, ‘wrongheaded’ and ‘amateurish’accounts of the New Testament.

Ehrman isn’t about to change his own beliefs but many Christians are pleased byhis latest book: “I wrote Bart a note and said ‘Thank you for doing our dirty workfor us’,” said evangelical scholar, Ben Witherington.

A whiff of Agatha Christie and a touch ofMidsomer Murders

It would be hard to think of a combination better calculated to appeal tothe literary tastes of middle England than marrying Agatha Christiewith Midsomer Murders but this is what we are promised from the pen

of James Runcie. Runcie is about to burst upon the literary scene with aseries of six detective novels featuring Sydney Chambers, the Vicar ofGrantchester, who is ‘tall, with dark brown hair, eyes the colour of hazel-nuts and a reassuringly gentle manner’. To top it all, Chambers is only 32but is already an honorary canon (presumably of Ely). Unmarried, hemanages to find time for cricket, warm beer, hot jazz and the works of Tol-stoy and Shakespeare as well as a German widow three years his junior.The German widow doesn’t seem to deter female fans. In the gushing pro-motional material, Sally Vickers announces: “No detective since FatherBrown has been more engaging than Canon Sidney Chambers. Perfectcompany in bed.” The first volume, ‘Sidney Chambers and the Shadow ofDeath’ appears on 10 May. It is all very different from the literary works ofthe son of another Archbishop of Canterbury. Andrew Carey is moreRichard Littlejohn than Agatha Christie.

Jerusalem Syndrome

Easter focuses attention on the HolyLand. Time, then, to remember the per-ils of Jerusalem syndrome. Between 50

and 100 pilgrims a year are afflicted by thiscondition, most of them evangelical Chris-tians. A sad but typical example was a womanconvinced she was Mary searching for herbaby in Bethlehem. Another man imagined hewas King David. It is not uncommon for peo-ple to come to think of themselves as the Mes-siah. “There’s a joke in psychiatry: if you talkto God, it’s called praying; if God talks to you,you’re nuts,” writes Chris Nashawaty in arecent issue of Wired magazine. “In JerusalemGod seems to be particularly chatty aroundEaster, Passover and Christmas – the peak seasons for the syndrome.” The cureappears to be to leave the Holy Land.

www.englandonsunday.comE2 April 15, 2012

Don’t be deceived byCameron’s wordsDavid Cameron’s honeyed words direct-

ed towards Christians and churchleaders during Holy Week should

deceive no one.He heads an aggressively secularist gov-

ernment that continues to push Christianityto the margins in spite of his public praise forthe ‘virtues’ of Christianity.

In his Easter message he talks of a domes-ticated Jesus whose ‘legacy’ is the ‘values’ of“incomparable compassion, generosity,grace, humility and love.” He says: “Theseare the values that Jesus embraced … It isvalues like these that make our country whatit is — a place which is tolerant, generous

and caring. A nation which has an establishedfaith, that together is most content when weare defined by what we are for, rather thandefined by what we are against.”

This is all very well, but it is only part of thestory.

What about the picture that emergesthrough the Gospels of the wrathful Jesus,the one who prizes truth and who adjuressin? By making Christ into one who ‘baptises’British values, he glibly distorts the gospel.

It is all too easy for Christians to be flat-tered by politicians who appear to take themseriously, but we have no need for PrimeMinisterial patronage when policies are

advanced that are so injurious to thehealth and future of society and theChurch.

Only two examples are needed. First-ly, the government’s own legal submis-sion to the European Court of HumanRights over the cases of two womenwho were disciplined and reprimandedfor wearing crosses at work. The Gov-ernment’s testimony is that the cross isnot central to the Christian faith as asymbol that is worn by Christians. Howdare any government seek to meddle inliturgical and theological mattersthrough the courts?

Secondly, the government’s attemptto redefine marriage drives a wedgebetween civil and religious marriage,and privatises the very institution itself.The oxymoronic extension of matrimo-ny to same-sex couples makes marriageinto a vehicle for adult rights. Children,whose own rights to both a mother anda father, will be the primary victims ofthis change. Mothers and fathers willbecome ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2’ and thecourts will be left to pick over thewreckage that is left of an institutionthat has served all human societies forthousands of years.

The Whispering Gallery...

Questions that need asking Last week I made an unkind comment about the Bishop of Bradford’s blog, this

week however the ever-engaging Nick Baines’ rightly puts the boot in overreligious broadcasting in a Radio Times article.

He points out that for the past couple of Easters the BBC has done rather a goodjob, but beyond that, on independent channels “religion has been dropped as if itwere a toxic contaminator of decent culture”.

He adds: “This ideological knee-jerk sees religion as an embarrassing problem(for which there is obviously no audience).”

He maintains that religious broadcasting would be improved considerablyacross the board if the BBC employed a religion editor as it does a sports editor,political editor and economics editor. He asks, “how does the BBC fulfil its publicservice remit by challenging the ridiculous assumption that the ‘non-religious’worldview is neutral? Second, how do other broadcasters get beyond their ownprejudices and see religion as an indispensable lens through which to see andunderstand the world?”

These are vital questions. It is good to see church leaders asking these and others.Email: carey.andr@gmail.com

On the Guardian, Diarmaid MacCulloch finds inthe fall of the Anglican Covenant in England aparticular indictment of our bishops: “Dioce-

san synods voted against the Covenant, often in theface of great pressure from the vast majority of Englishbishops, who frequently made sure that the case for the Covenant dominated proceed-ings. The bishops also exerted a certain amount of emotional blackmail, suggesting that ifthe scheme didn’t pass, it would be very upsetting for the Archbishop of Canterbury (cuefor Synod members to watch a podcast from said Archbishop, looking sad even whilecommending the Covenant).

“Well, it didn’t work, and now those particular bishops need to consider their position,as the saying goes. Principally, they need to consider a killer statistic: as the voting hastaken place in the dioceses (and there are still a few to go), the pattern has been consis-tent. Around 80 per cent of the bishops have voted in favour of the Covenant, but the cler-gy and laity votes have split around 50-50 for and against, with votes against nudgingahead among the clergy. That suggests an episcopate that is seriously out of touch, notjust with the nation as a whole (we knew that already), but even with faithful Anglicanchurchgoers and clergy in England.”

One contributor writes: “Whatever the rights and wrongs of gay clergy, etc, the westernchurches have attempted to force a fait accomplit upon the developing world churches -African in particular. This has led to huge bad feeling at the rightly perceived arrogance ofthe western churches in simply taking action without consultation or agreement.”

At the Telegraph, Dr Peter Mullen asks: “Is Rowan Williams doing a George Carey? It’sbeen noticeable how Dr Carey obviously felt more able to speak his mind on controversialissues once he had retired. Since Rowan announced his retirement last week, he too haslost no time in addressing matters in public life more firmly and certainly with more clari-ty than usual. In fact, in the space of a week, this self-confessed ‘hairy Lefty’ seems to haveditched many of the Left’s shibboleths and prejudices – ‘diversity,’ for one. Dr Williams

said yesterday that ‘identity’ has become a ‘slip-pery’ word.

“Well said, Archbishop, even if it is a bit late inthe day. Identity politics has always been divisive.For example, by the way in which each minority

ethnic and sexual group referred to itself as a ‘community’... But this was to destroy soci-ety’s cohesiveness. For the truth is that there is only one community of which particulargroups are members. ‘Community’ used of ethnic and other minorities only served to cre-ate ghettos.”

One contributor writes: “What cohesiveness? All that was blown out of the water byThatcher’s ‘there is no such thing as society’ philosophy and the creation of a hyper capi-talist economic system in which money and wealth are the measure of everything.”

The Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, blogs: “Mention ‘religious broadcast-ing’ in polite company and you might well be faced with finding someone else to talk to.Either that or it’s assumed you’re really wanting more Songs of Praise on the television tokeep the Christians (who haven’t gone to church) happy.

“Yet, this isn’t the case. Religious broadcasting simply takes seriously the indisputablefact that religion is a phenomenon that has to be acknowledged and understood, if we areto understand the world in which we live. This doesn’t presuppose a religious commit-ment, conviction, practice or adherence any more than doing a programme about Marx-ism demands that only Marxists produce it... However, go beyond the BBC (and the oddbit of Channel 4) and religion has been dropped as if it were a toxic contaminator of decentculture.”

One contributor writes: “The telly for Easter weekend bears out your argument com-pletely. BBC broadcasting is entirely of mainstream/high culture religious events (thePope, Easter morning communion, Kings College, Cambridge) and Channel 4 has a bit ofweirdness. And that’s it. The best stuff has actually been during Lent, Reverse Missionar-ies on BBC2 was excellent.”

www.englandonsunday.comApril 15, 2012 E3

Nigel NelsonView from Fleet Street

What the Blogs Say

In 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, theReverend Thomas Marsham moved to asmall village parish in Norfolk and into a

four-bedroom rectory he had purpose-built forhimself and his live-in housekeeper. Clergyhad plenty of money in those days. Some yearslater the travel writer Bill Bryson bought thehouse and decided to write a book about it.

The result is the elegant At Home: A ShortHistory of Private Life. Bryson does not justwrite about the house – in fact he writes verylittle about the house – but more about the his-tory, genesis and geographical origins ofeverything in it, from toilets to table cloths totelephones. And when he gets to the nursery,not something the Rev Marsham ever neededas he had no wife or children so it remains amystery why he wanted such a room, Brysondescribes the awful plight of children in thiscountry over preceding centuries.

I read this chapter at the same time as I waslooking at the Riots Communities and VictimsPanel report into last summer’s riots and foundsome disturbing parallels. We do not treat ourchildren as badly now as we did then but weare still neglecting them.

It was a surprise to discover Dr Barnardowas not the philanthropic saint one would haveexpected. For a start he wasn’t a doctor, andwhen forced to prove his medical credentialsproduced a forged diploma from a German uni-versity showing him to be a fraud and a liar,too. But that’s by the by. More shocking wasthat life in a Barnardo’s home was scarcely bet-ter than the dreadful conditions of the work-

house: up at 5.30am; work until 6.30pm; mili-tary drill in the evening; and boys shipped offto Canada at the rate of 1,500 a year to makeway for the new arrivals Barnardo snatched offthe streets.

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolutionsome children in work had to labour for 14hours a day, six days a week. Those as youngas six, of both sexes, were sent down themines because they were small enough towork in cramped spaces, and chimney sweepsbegan their careers as young as five for thesame reason, though the youngest recordedwas three and a half. These little ones diedsooner than any other group, “stooped andruined”, as Bryson describes it, “by the age of11 or 12”.

Of course the lives of even the poorest chil-dren have immeasurably improved since, yetthe riots panel identified “500,000 ‘forgottenfamilies’ who bump along the bottom of socie-ty.” And as panel chair Darra Singh told TheGuardian, until everyone has a stake in societythen the risk of mass lawlessness remains.“When people don’t feel they have a reason tostay out of trouble the consequences for com-munities can be devastating – as we saw lastAugust,” he added.

Singh estimates that up to 15,000 peopletook to the streets to participate in the orgy ofdestruction and most of those aged under 24had poor academic records.

More early intervention programmes wouldhelp, as would more imaginative and ambitiousjobs initiatives to prove to young people they

are not being abandoned. And schools should take responsibility for ‘characterbuilding’, an old-fashioned concept perhaps, but one which Darra Singh saysdetermines whether someone makes “the right choice in the heat of the moment.”

The report raises concerns that schools are excluding children for the wrongreasons, and if that is the case then the whole policy of exclusion must be lookedat again. The panel recommends that schools are fined if children are forced toleave without being able to read adequately. The payment would then be used forextra reading support. Teaching unions have already criticised this, and it isindeed difficult to see how it would work.

Also difficult will be tackling the culture of materialism, which lay at the heart ofso much of the looting. It was high-value goods that were targeted – designerclothes, trainers, mobile phones, computers – but not necessarily for their mone-tary value. Many of the rioters simply wanted these things for themselves. Thereport called for children to be “protected from excessive marketing” and askedthe Advertising Standards Authority to help increase the resilience of children toadvertising. But that sounds a tall order.

So this is where a spiritual revival may have a part to play, though with only halfof children now being able to recite the Lord’s Prayer, spirituality in the religioussense does not seem to be high on the teaching agenda. Christians rose to thischallenge in the 19th Century, and without them reform would have been longerin coming. It would make a valuable contribution if the Church could now harnessthe same energy in the 21st as a force for social cohesion.

Nigel Nelson is political editor of The People

Tackling theproblems of youth

Not such asaint?: DrBarnardo

By Baroness Cox

When you set off for church on Easter Day,did you think how fortunate we are to beable to do so without fear? Did you

remember that in the last few weeks there areChristians who attended morning service – butnever lived to see the end of worship? On two Sun-days in recent weeks, this has been the fate ofChristians in Jos, in Plateau State, Nigeria.

Whilst most of Nigeria enjoys relative peace,many States, including Borno, Yobe, Kano,Kaduna and Bauchi and Plateau States have suf-fered from inter-communal violence, with thou-sands of Christians killed and countless churches,homes and businesses destroyed over the pasttwo decades.

In the village of Dogonahauwa in Plateau State,450 Christians were killed in just one night inMarch 2010.

But it is hard to relateto statistics or to appreci-ate the personal faith,courage and resilienceof the people, so I offersome extracts fromrecent bulletins receivedfrom a friend in Jos.

February 26‘At 7.30am there was asuicide car bomb attackon the COCIN (Christ-ian Church in Nigeria) Headquarters Church inthe centre of Jos. The explosion was heard formany miles around. There were many people inthe church.

I don’t know the details of how the carapproached, but the car was blown to pieces(although the engine number remained visible).

I understand that one, if not two of the bombers

were killed and another caught by thesecurity forces. The number of wor-shippers killed, however, was verysmall indeed: we have not been givenexact figures, but probably not morethan about three, but with quite a fewothers in hospital. That was miraclenumber one.

Miracle number two was that apartfrom some volatile reaction and burn-ing in the immediate area, and riotingin one adjacent area of the city, Josremained outwardly calm and did noterupt into widespread violence, burn-ing and killing, which was surely whatthe attackers intended.

Outwardly life has continued “asusual”. That is amazing. We were tohold an Ordination service in the

north of the city, but when the Bishop got caughtin the middle of rioters our plans had to change.Thank God (again!) he got out and got home safe-ly, and we eventually had a simple ordination serv-ice of the one Deacon in a different church near tothe diocesan headquarters.

Please join us in thanking God for everything,and continue to pray for the Lord’s protection,

guidance and blessing. Pray too for those who plotand plan violence, murder and evil – that God willturn their hearts, and scatter their plans complete-ly.

I was talking this afternoon with the Bishop ofDamaturu: he has not been able to get back intohis diocese for some three months. The Bishop ofMaiduguri on the other hand cannot get out of his

www.englandonsunday.comE4 April 15, 2012

By Susan Beckman

The Wizard of Oz is reminiscent of a house being lifted into the air, spinning, thencrashing down… boom!

Darrell Gilles and his family never dreamed they would experience this in real lifeon Friday, 2 March, 2012, in Henryville, Indiana.

Darrell recounts: “I turned on the news and they mentioned we had 16 minutesuntil the storm would hit our area. My wife started packing up a safe place in the clos-et.

“The sky looked pretty decent for a storm. I walked around the corner of the houseand there was a funnel cloud off in the distance. I watched it. As it got closer, it kind ofstarted to dissipate. I prayed it would skip us. It decided to drop all the way down. Icould tell it was coming right for us. I started hearing it breaking trees. I ran into thehouse and squeezed everybody into the closet.”

Trish told the children: “You’re going to hear loud noises. God’s going to protectyou. Just keep praying.” Trish was praying, “God, no matter what, save my babies.”Then she remembers the house spinning.

Darrell says: “As soon as I heard the roar, I started hearing stuff break; glass break-ing, 2-by-4’s snapping, and you could feel the house shift and lift up in the air. It flippedover on its top and crashed down, one big crash on the ground. Boom!

“I don’t think I was out very long. But I rose up and my wife was right in front of me.She was crying. She said her back hurt. I tried to help her, but I could barely movemyself. I couldn’t breathe and it hurt so bad. I saw my kids all strung out on the otherside of us, not too far away. They were all laying face down, not moving. I decided toholler out to them, but I couldn’t even move.

“Caleb was the first one to move. Then Collin started crying. Mia laid there for aminute, then she got up. I tried to help my wife, but I couldn’t. So, one shoe on and oneshoe off, I tried to walk over to the kids. The sun came out a little bit and it looked prettydecent outside.

“I got up the hill a little bit, kind of rested on a tree where, thank God, somebody sawme. They came down to help. I told them to go down and help my wife. It was taking meforever to walk.

“We started to go up the hill. That’s when I looked back to see what was going on with

Trish. Right over the same horizon there was a greatbig tornado working up. It was all swirling around.It hadn’t made the exact funnel yet, but it wascoming. That guy turned around to see what

I was looking at and he saw it. He picked up apiece of plywood and covered Trish with it as best he could.Hail started falling.”

With every rib broken, a punctured lung, a broken sternum,clavicle, and jaw, Darrell pressed on. “All I could find was some littlepieces of drywall. I squished the kids together, put everyone’s headtogether and covered our heads up with drywall. Pretty much got beaten todeath with baseball-sized hail. I was hit in the base of the skull. That lastedprobably two or three minutes. Not knowing if that tornado had dropped or not,whether it was coming or not.

“Just staying there with absolutely no protection at all.“That finally passed and we got up and somehow made it to a neighbor’s house. I

was trying to call 911 myself because nobody’s phone was working. Every once in awhile you could stick a call through. I tried to call 911; once I got the lady to say

WE SURVIVE

AnglicanBishop ofBauchi in oneof his churchesdestroyed inpost-electionviolence lastyear

From America to Nigeria, Christians tell of God’s protection, whether from the elements of nature or from the depredat

SS uu nn dd aa yy ss ii nn NN ii gg ee rr ii aa

house. Please pray.’

March 4‘How different it is going to church in England andgoing to church here - especially after last Sunday’scar bomb. But then how must it be for Christians inthe far North-east of Nigeria, and what aboutSudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Burma ... andcountless other places. At least we are allowed togather... Every church now is making its own pro-vision.

Parking inside the church compound is veryrestricted... No plan is infallible, especially if youare dealing with suicide bombers, but there is amuch-heightened awareness and a greater alert-ness (which is generally treated with jokes, ratherthan with long faces!).

The only real security is the Lord, and that iswhat we are privileged to witness and to know forourselves. So we thank God for a peaceful Sundaymorning in Jos!’

March 11‘Today’s Sunday update: Another suicide car bombin Jos this morning, at a Roman Catholic church onthe outskirts. The blast was huge: the vehicle wasnot able to get into the compound, but it shatteredall the windows and also brought down the ceiling.Some people were killed, but no numbers yet.

If they had got to where they wanted, the loss of lifewould have been much greater. God is really helping andprotecting us...

We continue to pray – please join with us... Thank youfor your care, concern and prayers. What God continuesto do is amazing.

‘’O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyfulnoise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let usmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. The Lordof Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Psalm95:1-2; Psalm 46:11)”’.

March 18‘Happy Mothering Sunday!!! A big day in the calendar ofthe Anglican Church here. As with Christmas and Easter,greeting cards are now almost a thing of the past, where-as text messages ... galore!!

The great news, for which we truly thank God, is that —so far – no bombs that I have heard of in or around Jos.That is a real blessing. Mind you parts of Jos, includingthe city centre, are like a city under siege now on Sun-days. Many roads around churches are blocked off withbarriers of rocks, tyres, wood, or anything that will stop avehicle.

Individual churches are all working out their own secu-rity arrangements, and many have built huge cement bol-lards on their boundaries, so that a suicide bomber in acar would have to meet something very solid indeed...

Then of course we also have to be aware of the possibil-ity of a suicide bomber walking in, so there have to besearches of all kinds, and bags (including handbags) arebanned as from next week... But such frustrations aresmall matters: what is important is that there are nobombs!!!

In any case, people in Damaturu and Maiduguri (NENigeria), and in certain other countries have a very muchworse time than we do here!

We truly thank God.So please join us in continuing to pray.With greetings, good wishes, love and thanks – so very,

very many thanks for your prayers and concern.’

March 25‘Dear Friends, Even at 6.30am it is amazing what an expe-rience driving to church on a Sunday morning can be!Apart from having to allow an extra half hour or onehour... But I eventually made it this morning, and to theglory of God I have not heard of any bad reports from any-where...

The barriers that have now been erected are very sub-stantial and permanent: heavy metal bars and solidcement bollards... Meanwhile people are beginning to say

that if feels as if we are under siege and they are begin-ning to wonder, “for how long...”.

But clearly, very clearly, the Lord is in charge! Thankyou so very much for praying. Please continue!!’

April 1 ‘Dear Friends, Just a short note to assure you that all iswell – this is God’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes!Palm Sunday – but no Palm Sunday processions, and obvi-ously there will be no Easter Sunday morning candlelitprocessions around the town! The great thing, however, isthat I have heard no bad reports from any quarter, nobombs...

We really are so fortunate and blessed here. When Ithink of the thousands all around the world who are beingtortured, imprisoned and hounded for their faith...

Further north in Nigeria, the situation is in many placesmuch worse, especially in Damaturu Diocese, and it isvital that the church on the Plateau stands, particularly asPlateau is in some ways like a gateway.

Thank you again for all your prayers. Let us continue topray for one another: this is our strength.

Easter greetings in advance. May New Life, New Joy,New Hope be yours, and may God’s peace rule in yourhearts and homes.

With our love.’

When I read these bulletins, I am humbled by the faithand courage which they demonstrate: the many refer-ences to miracles; the reminders of Christians sufferingeven more intense persecution in other parts of the world;and the repeated request for prayer support.

Therefore, as we celebrate Eastertide in our ownchurches, in peace and without fear of deadly attack, letus respond to the request for prayer from the churches inNigeria and on many other frontlines of faith, whose East-er celebrations could become their Calvaries.

May they continue to know God as a very present helpin trouble and to inspire us with their witness; and may webe worthy of the price they are paying for our faith.

www.englandonsunday.comApril 15, 2012 E5

hello, but that was it. That’s about all she wrote down. You couldn’t com-municate. It was like they were just doing the best they could with whatthey had. And I would say the people did an awesome job. It was justmass confusion and a big mess. Cell phones didn’t work.

“They took the kids to Kosair. I had no idea where my wife went. AndI went to Clark. Collin, who hadn’t had a scratch on him, just stayed atGrandma’s house. She didn’t have a scratch on her. So they stayed thereand two kids going to Kosair and my wife going to – I don’t know where.I’ll never stop knowing how much we were blessed and how much worseit could have been. The man just right across the street got slammedwith a tornado that got him and killed him. A lot of people who had it alot worse. Just praise the Lord, it could have been so much worse.”

Darrell keeps saying: “Another reason I thank God is…” and thentelling some other anecdote that showed how much worse things couldhave gone. One thing is that the tornado brought down many powerlines, hissing all over the ground. It was dangerous territory for the sur-vivors and rescuers. But no one was electrocuted. God is merciful andsovereign.

Trish said: “There were five little prayers in that closet, all differentprayers. But I think all five of them worked. Wasn’t one better than theother, all five of them, God heard them.”

They are telling their children over and over how wonderful God was,how much he loves them all and how much they should thank God forkeeping them safe.

They give God the credit in answering their prayers and miraculouslysaving their family. “We just had to have angels helping us to land a littlesoftly.”

Darrell suffered a punctured lung, every rib broken, a brokenjaw, shoulder, clavicle and sternum, totalling 19 broken bones.

Trish suffered a shattered pelvis, collapsed lung, and received ashoulder injury.

Caleb, age 11, had some bruised ribs and a broken back in twoplaces. He was scheduled to have back surgery, but doctors nowsay he does not need surgery. He will be in a back brace for at leastsix weeks and is expected to fully recover.

Collin, age 10, only had a couple of bruises.Mia, age 8, suffered a severe concussion and a bruised liver. She

was in a medically-induced coma for a short time to allow healing.When she woke up, her first words were: “We survived.”

They have little insurance to cover medical expenses and no finan-cial income for the weeks Darrell will be without work. Anyonewishing to donate funds can do so through PNC Bank or by check.

Darrell Giles Family Catastrophic Relief FundPNC BankAccount #: 302866564ABA/Routing #: 083000108Susan Beckman is an active member of Calvary Chapel, Jupiter, FL,

along with her husband of 39 years. She shares many true-life experiencesthrough her writing. She also enjoys Bible studies, quilting, candlemaking,

cooking, herbology, genealogy and gardening

EDtions of terrorists

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www.englandonsunday.comApril 15, 2012 E6

Celebrating the treasures of Liverpoolin a new museum for the north west

CD CHOICECD CHOICE

Britain’s biggest new museum for over a centuryopened last year in Liverpool and all its galleries arenow open. The Museum of Liverpool sits on the

waterfront, and if the exhibits occasionally lead to visualoverload, there’s always the view up and down and acrossthe Mersey.

Danish architect Kim Neilsen’s building is hardly abeneficial addition to the World Heritage Site. You can’tmiss it, standing forward of the Three Graces; the words“building line” seem not to have reached the Liverpoolplanners’ ears.

The site is the filled-in Manchester Dock - one of its oldgates dominates one wall – and there’s plenty of stuff onthe history of the city, and its growth as the older port ofMeols on the other side of the river silted up.

There’s some acknowledgement that a lot of the city’swealth was built on the slave trade, but the dedicatedInternational Slavery Museum nearby deals with that indepth. A brief video story of the impact on British tastesand teeth by sugar (“craved but not needed”) ties not justthe rich merchants but the working class to the slavetriangle.

Class and race are issues in the working life depicted.Dockers’ strikes, the Toxteth riots, and a recreation of an1870s tenement “court” give a flavour of times past, alongwith reminders of Liverpool’s more famous productslike the Ford Anglia, Meccano, and Bayko models ofthe Empire State Building and Speke airportterminal.

The model that attracts most attention, in a top-floor gallery with a view of the Three Graces (aview from upriver ruined by the museum itself)is a large model (with internal camera run-through) of Lutyens’ Catholic Cathedral. Itwas intended to be a quarter higher than StPaul’s but the superstructure was neverbuilt. Wiser counsels prevailed after WorldWar Two, though its massive crypt liesunder the new “Paddy’s Wigwam”cathedral.

A carriage from the Liverpool OverheadRailway (the Dockers’ Umbrella) gives aflavour of that long-lost line – the only bitremaining of the overhead railway isironically a tunnel – and anothertransport centrepiece is steamlocomotive Lion from the Liverpool andManchester Railway. Cue clips from“The Titfield Thunderbolt”.

Even with the Maritime Museum ashort walk along the sea wall, it is ofcourse seafaring that gets themain transport focus.Recordings provide people’s realstories, and videos haveactors doing scripted tales –an officer from the nowdefunct Liverpool Salvage Corps,paid for by insurance companies to rescuegoods from burning warehouses before the firemendoused everything with water, and a Norwegian sailor

telling us that “scouse”is from Norwegian.Trying to explain the

origin of the accentis not easy when,

as one clip of acomedian puts

it, “I spellchicken withseven Ks”.

In mostmunicipalmuseums, thelocal stuff canget a bitsamey, but

the

“Wondrous Place” gallery takes us topopular culture – poets, music, andsport – that is a vital and distinctpart of Liverpool’s modern

history. It’s a contrast with theCity Soldiers gallery,

concentrating on the onceLiverpool-based King’s Regiment,

including an effective and notsanitised story of a First World War

battlefield.

The small prayer room is yet to befitted out, apart from the built-in Muslim ablutionfacilities, but has a great view of the river.

Allow most of the day with or without children. There’splenty hands-on, three separate education areas, and shopand café. It’s a bit exposed to the weather, all the better toappreciate the dockmaster’s coat on display.

Steve ParishThe Museum is open 10 am to 5 pm daily, entry free.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol

Phil Keaggy / Derri Daugherty

Both of these guitarists have been high profile in Christianmusic for many years and both are excellent players withbeautiful tone.Keaggy’s Live at Kegworth is essentially a re-recording of

his greatest hits. When fans want-ed to take away a memento of gigs,he had nothing to offer of a decentquality that had the same songs.

So down in his basement studio,he performed concert staples as ifhe were onstage. This meant usingall the looping technology that heemploys live – which he does

extraordinarily well. At one point I was convinced thatthere really were overdubs.

The tracks include some George Harrison and Dylanclassics, but most are his own compositions. “What a Day”and “Your Love Broke Through” still sound fresh, the for-mer given some jazz inflexions, while the live staple “LetEverything Else Go” is perfectly honed.

Try the performance 11 minutes into the Bridges inter-view on his website www.philkeaggy.com.

Despite all the work he has done with his band TheChoir and with collaborations, such as the City on a Hillseries, Daugherty had never recorded a solo album untilthis beautiful instrumental Clouds Echo in Blue(http://www.thechoir.net/index.php/main/store).

This is no great sonic departure: his delicate guitar still

chimes as its multi-layered lines float and swirl. In places itfeels like a wordless version of songs from The Choir’sgreatest hits release, especially when the discreet rhythmsection joins in.

Relaxing, light and ambient, it is easy at first to think thatthis is a little throwaway. It is when you leave the room andfind yourself humming the tunes that you realise just howmelodic it is.Derek Walker

Scan this code on your mobile device to see thePhil Keaggy interview

www.englandonsunday.comApril 15, 2012 E7

A new theological explorationof the meaning of Justification

The Unintended Reformation, Brad GregoryHarvard, hb, £25.00

There are many different versions of how the modernworld developed. Pride of place is usually given tothe Enlightenment although Rad-

ical Orthodox theologians like to stressthe role of Duns Scotus. Brad Gregory,who teaches early modern history atNotre Dame, makes a case of seeingthe Reformation as the watershed.

In saying this he might be thought toreverting to older views that did give animportant role to the Reformation inhelping to create the modern world butthese older views usually saw this hap-pening through the overthrow of priest-craft and an emphasis on the privateinterpretation of scripture. Weberfamously ascribed great importance toPuritanism in the growth of capitalism.

Gregory does not entirely disagree with some of the oldviews but he modifies them considerably. On his account,secular modernity was the unintended consequence of theReformation. By overthrowing old notions of communityand teleological ethics, the Reformation paved the way fora society in which individual choice and the accumulationof personal wealth is paramount.

Gregory is not afraid to combine moral judgement andhistorical narrative but although he has his own point ofview it is one he is able to support with a good deal of his-torical knowledge. His book has to be read as whole toappreciate the theme but he divides his work into six, inter-

related chapters, looking at the impact of the Reforma-tion on faith in God, belief in Christian doctrines, controlof the churches, understanding of morality, the growthof capitalism, and the universities and the pursuit ofknowledge.

Although Gregory discusses complex and intricatequestions, he writes with verve and the excitement gen-erated by the argument carries the reader along. Hecertainly tries to be fair and never attempts to downplaythe corruption of the Catholic Church on the brink ofthe Reformation. On his account (which some Protes-tants will want to challenge) it was not theologicalweakness that let the Church down but a failure of cler-ics to live by the gospel they preached.

Gregory is clear that Protestants, no more thanCatholics, wanted to see the growth of unrestricted

capitalism. “The great irony of the Reformation era withrespect to economics,” he writes, “is the fact that, despitethemselves, Catholics, magisterial Protestants, and radicalProtestants collectively forged the very things they con-demned.”

Given the low esteem with which capitalism is currentlyheld, it is Gregory’s remarks on the economic impact ofthe Reformation that are likely to attract the most attention

but those drawn to the new atheism should pay carefulattention to what he has to say about the discrediting ofrevelation and the emergence of a univocal metaphysicsthat saw God as one being among other beings. Gregoryagrees that a univocal metaphysics already characterisedlate medieval concepts of God but claims it was given a bigboost by the Reformation. Eucharistic theology was unableto make sense of the real presence when God was seen asmerely one actor among many others.

Gregory is able to draw on the work of other scholarssuch as John Milbank, Michael Buckley, and Alasdair Mac-Intyre, but he is not afraid to disagree with them at certainpoints. As well as the magisterial Reformation, he givesattention to the radical reformation as well. But the Reforma-tion is only a starting point as Gregory continues wth thestory down to the present, paying attention to such figures asAdam Smith, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche and Descartes.

This is a formidable work of intellectual and religioushistory that is likely to provoke considerable debate. WhileI find the overall theme persuasive, questions remain.Given that Gregory admits that seeds of new thinkingwere present in the late Middle Ages one wonders if theReformation can be ascribed mainly to corruption in thechurch. Didn’t a philosophy like nominalism also play amajor role? Gregory writes as if there were no divisions orbasic doctrinal divisions in the medieval church but whatof Eastern Orthodoxy or the debate with Islam, seen bysome medieval theologians as a Christian heresy?

Paul Richardson

Justification is an important theological topic on which opinion has begun to shift inrecent years, largely as a result of new interpretations of St Paul. In Justification: AGuide for the Perplexed (Continuum) Alan J Spence, a URC minister, offers a historical

overview and introduction to the subject. At the end, the Pauline texts are examined and anattempt is made to say what place Justification can have in the modern world where theidea of divine judgement has little appeal. James Beilby and Paul Eddy, whohave already edited a book in which five writers offer different views ofthe historical Jesus, have now edited a similar work on Justification.Called simply ‘Justification: Five Views’ it is published by SPCK and offersa traditional Reformed view, a progressive Reformed view, a new perspec-tive view, a deification view and a Roman Catholic view. Surprisingly thereis no Lutheran view. Beilby and Eddy contribute chapters looking at thehistorical perspective and the modern debate. James Dunn and GeraldO’Collins are two contributors whose names will be familiar to Britishreaders.

God’s Rich Pattern (SPCK) is a book of meditations written for thosewhose faith is shaken. Dr Lin Berwick, the author, is a very remarkablewoman. Born with cerebral palsy and now totally blind and forced to use awheelchair, she starts each meditation with an incident in her own life. Shebelieves that although we don’t know where God is leading us, his patternis woven into everything we do. We may think that it is impossible foreverything to come right but we have to live by faith and hope, trusting that all will bemade clear in the end. This is a richly inspiring book.

“Clinical depression is an illness, a medical condition. This means two things. First,we do not need to blame ourselves. Second, we can get better.” These words sum upthe starting point of an encouraging book Encountering Depression (SPCK) written byAndrew and Elizabeth Proctor. A large proportion of the population suffers fromdepression at one time or another. This book will be a huge help to them and theircarers.

At this time of year we need to remember that Lent leads up to Easter and that alltoo often Christians spend more time keeping Lent and preparing for Easter thanthey do pondering the meaning of the Resurrection. Glorious Christianity (SPCK)by Cally Hammond can help to remedy that omission. Hammond is Dean of a Cam-bridge college chapel and a classicist by training but she has also spent time in parish min-istry and is a good communicator.

Craig Evans is a New Testament scholar who has written many books as well as co-authoring one with Tom Wright, In Jesus and His World (SPCK) he looks at what archaeol-ogy can tell us about the world in which Jesus lived, the accuracy of the gospels, and whatthe home town of Jesus was really like. He also asks whether the tomb of Jesus has actual-ly been found.

Fresh thinking on the nature and impact of the Reformation

By Paul Mileham

What’s the difference between ‘O’and ‘Oh’? Hymn writers use bothlavishly, but often without distinc-

tion, it seems to me – and not only in moremodern songs. OK, no one need go to thestake over this; and you may ask why I, as alay theologian*, spend time over such triv-ia.

I’ll come clean. It’s because I’m a pedant.End of story.

The word ‘O’ (for it is an English word)does not exist in everyday Latin. In ancientRome, when addressing another person,one would use the vocative case of theproper noun.

A prayer in Latin might begin ‘Domine…’which translates to ‘O Lord…’ On a moresecular level, Shelley’s ‘Ode to the WestWind’ begins “O wild west wind…”; andKeats’ ‘Ode to Psyche’ opens with “O God-dess!” So ‘O’ is an intrinsic part of address-ing a person or deity (or object, poeticallyat least).

‘Oh’, on the other hand, is an expressionof an emotion such as sorrow, annoyance,surprise or delight. ‘Oh’ is often followedby another word such as ‘bother’ – and yes,I believe there are stronger alternatives butI wouldn’t know about them. ‘Oh’ seems tohave emerged in this meaning purely to

distinguish it from ‘O’ in the vocative sense.And here I come against an anomaly. The

Chambers Dictionary lumps them togetheras if they were the same! O dear. Or indeed,more correctly, oh dear. Chambers seemsto believe that ‘Oh’ becomes ‘O’ in lyricpoetry. Now that’s plain confusing.

You see, for me the title of this articleis not an expression of sorrow, but rathera way for a lover to address his or herbeloved. The vocative case, remember?

Let’s look at some examples amongsongs, which is where I started. ‘O Lord

my God, when I in awesome wonder’ is acorrect use. ‘Oh, oh, oh, how good is theLord’ (not one of my favourites, but itmakes the point) is also correct. But ‘Owhat a gift’ (see Mission Praise 526) shouldsurely be ‘Oh what a gift!’?

And similarly, older hymns such as ‘Othe bitter shame and sorrow’ and ‘O praiseye the Lord’ surely need amendment?

Of course, you could argue that this isthe use of the poetic ‘Oh’, spelled ‘O’. But Icontend that simply causes confusion.There’s poetry, and then there are songs.

Let’s not allow lyricists to get too far abovethemselves.

OMG is an interesting one. Here I thinkthe O stands for – well, actually IS - ‘O’. Butwait – if it means ‘Oh my goodness’ then it’san exclamation, but if ‘O my God’ then itmight conceivably stand as a prayer.Hmmm. This is going to be more compli-cated than I thought.

One way to distinguish which to usewhen is to mentally add an exclamationmark after the ‘O’ or ‘Oh’ to see if it stillmakes sense. In the case of the vocative ‘O’this will separate the O from whatever orwhoever is being addressed, and will thusmake a nonsense of it; but in the interjecto-ry sense it will still read well. Try it!

In conclusion, I maintain that there aretwo distinct words here. It’s clear that thefirst is the word ‘O’ used as vocative beforethe person or thing being addressed; andthe second is ‘Oh’ used as an expression ofsome emotion or other. It’s only those d**dpoets of old who have blurred the bound-ary by using the first when they reallymeant the second. Oh dear, oh dear.

Paul Mileham is a Church of EnglandReader (*Readers are also know as ‘Lay

Theologians’)St Mark’s Church, Leamington Spa

www.englandonsunday.comE8 April 15, 2012

Janey Lee GraceLive Healthy! Live Happy!

Keep fit to beat the blues’ the elderly were advisedlast week, hopefully whatever your age after theexcesses of Easter (is it just me who can’t stop at

one hot cross bun?) you’ll be off to the gym, the swim-ming pool or at least taking a brisk walk.

The recent study on the effects of exercise on mentalhealth is interesting: we know that exercise releases‘feel good’ hormones and yet for many it’s just too …well, exhausting. Researchers from the University ofWestern Australia analysed data from over 100,000 menand women aged over 65 and found that those whoexperienced ‘physical limitation’ and did not exer-cise, reported far more psychological prob-lems.

Of course we know we shouldremain active, not just for our psy-chological health but also for mobili-ty and energy levels. Our physicalhealth is affected too, in fact studiesshow that regular exercisecould prevent 14per centof

male deaths and 20 per cent offemale deaths from cancer in theUK alone.

Christopher Reeve once said ontelevision addressing the growingnumber of obese viewers in theStates: “The one thing that youcan all do is move-ment.

Those of you that have the gift of movement that don’t use itinsult those of us who have lost that ability, it’s the one thing I’dlove to do more than anything on earth. I’d gladly be 500lb over-weight: give me three years and I’d lose it because I’d move mybody every day.”

Despite formally being rather lazy and finding regular excusesnot to exercise, I do now move my body every day because I’mable to, as you age you eventually realise that you’re able to onlybecause you’ve moved your body every day! You wouldn’t reallyexpect an old car to start if you left it stationary for years, similar-ly your starter motor needs regular revving up –and, no, movingthree paces to grab the TV remote control won’t cut it!

The key is finding something you enjoy. I’m not a fan ofgyms, I find them unhealthy – if that sounds daft just think

of the sweaty aerobics studios that often have those awfulautomatic air freshening devices fitted. They release a

potentially toxic artificial fragrance into a room fullof people breathing deeply! The other problem is

once you’ve exercised you may try and grab asnack at the gym café, most stock a range of

calorie laden sugary snacks! It’s whatever works for you though,running, jogging, rowing, swim-

ming, hula hooping (yes thereare classes) or just brisk walk-

ing. Dancing is fantastictoo and for me I’ve

finally found myideal form of

exercise.Nia isablendof

movement formsdone barefoot tovery inspirationalfunky music, suitablefor men, women andall levels and abilities.I loved it so much Itrained to be ateacher! I’m hosting aone-day workshopwith Nia, talks, EFT(emotional freedomtechnique) and arelaxing soundGong bath in Hertson Sat 28 April –still a few placesleft – see events atwww.janeylee-grace.com

Work that Body

O Dear!