RnBMail 25 January 2008

By Simon Barrow

Christmas and New Year may be a time for giving, but in the political world there’s little room for sentiment, and it has been taking that’s featured on the agenda in recent weeks.

Given the noted commitment of party fixers to ‘risk management’, you’d have thought that a high degree of prudence by MPs and ministers over expense procedures would have been second nature. Likewise with the handling of donations to their Westminster machines. But this has not quite been so.

The currency of routine power and influence (which comforts itself that ‘corruption’ is only something that happens in the weakened states of Africa) can rapidly descend into operational complacency. Then, rather as young people reared in an affluent, risk-averse culture are tempted to seek an adrenalin boost through recklessness with stimulants, motor vehicles and extra-curricula antics, so some politicians throw caution to the wind over hot money, dubious relationships and internal wrangles.

All three have been involved (along with police investigators) in the latest controversies about un-reported corporate and trade union contributions to Peter Hain's Labour deputy leadership campaign expenses (reported on 8 January 2008), businessman David Abrahams giving £663,975 to Labour through proxies, Scottish MSP Wendy Alexander’s more modest £900 blunder, the issue of deputy PM Harriet Harman’s campaign expenses, and other incursions.

by Peter Brierley & John Nelson (Eds)
Canterbury Press £16.99

A wide range of experienced church leaders and management gurus (including Bridge Builders' director Alastair McKay) reflect on key components of successful contemporary church leadership including:

Part one – people
• Leading a team
• Choosing and mentoring assistants
• Leading lay ministers and volunteers
• How to delegate
• How to resolve conflict

Part two – organisation
• Leading churches of different sizes
• Leading multiple congregations
• Relating to the local community
• Initiating and completing projects
• How to chair meetings

Part three – up close and personal
• What kind of a leader are you?
• Getting your work/life balance right
• Thinking strategically
• Preaching with a purpose

…And much, much more.

Available at:
http://www.metanoiabooks.org.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2183

(from the website of Christian Peacemaker Team's sister organization, Muslim Peacemaker Teams: http://uruknet.info/?p=m39940&s1=h1)

Sami Rasouli, Dr. Najim Askouri and Dr. Assad Al-Janabi, members of Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) in Najaf, visited with Christian Peacemaker Teams CPT) in Suleimaniya, Kurdish Iraq, on December 10 and 11. The visit was an opportunity to report the recent activities of the respective peacemaker groups and learn to know new people. But the primary activity was a forum on depleted uranium (DU) presented by Drs. Assad and Najim.

Dr. Assad is the director of the Pathology Department at the 400-bed public hospital in Najaf. Dr. Najim is a nuclear physicist, trained in Britain, and one of the leading nuclear researchers in Iraq until his departure in 1998. They have worked as an MPT team documenting information about the health impact on Najaf of depleted uranium weapons used during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars.

This was not an exhaustive study because of the limits of personnel, resources and equipment. But it did rely on accumulated public data, thorough research, and a major contribution of time and energy. The focus was Najaf, a city of over one million people, and the rural areas in the governate. The area is about 180 miles from where DU was used in the First Gulf War.

Starting in 2004 when the political situation and devastation of the health care infrastructure were at their worst, there were 251 reported cases of cancer. By 2006, when the numbers more accurately reflected the real situation, that figure had risen to 688. Already in 2007, 801 cancer cases have been reported. Those figures portray an incidence rate of 28.21 by 2006, even after screening out cases that came into the Najaf Hospital from outside the governate, a number which contrasts with the normal rate of 8-12 cases of cancer per 100,000 people.

by Vic Thiessen

The lectionary reading for today comes from the book of Isaiah, the first ten verses of chapter 11. It’s a relatively familiar passage but it’s the kind of passage we tend to take for granted rather than giving it the deeper reflection it deserves. Having said that, I am not intending to do a thorough exegesis, but simply to offer my own reflections, with hopefully a few unique twists and turns. Read Isaiah 11:1-10.

When I read this passage a week ago, I was reminded of a U2 song I had just been listening to, “Peace on Earth” from the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind.

Not the most joyous of Christmas songs! In fact, it conveys, to me at least, a sense of hopelessness: Hope and history won’t rhyme, so what’s it worth, to say “peace on Earth”? And yet it was precisely its sense of hopelessness which made me think of this song when I read the passage in Isaiah. This passage was written at a time when the words written by Bono also described the situation in Judah. If we look back at the preceding chapters of Isaiah, we see that God is judging Judah for its many iniquities, especially its failure to do justice; to look after the poor and the oppressed.

As an example, let me read a few verses from the first half of Isaiah 1 and the first three verses of Isaiah 10 (read Isaiah 1:4,7,11,14-17; 10:1-3). The result of Judah’s failure is that its enemy (in this case, Assyria) will lay waste to the land of Judah. There will be nothing but stumps left. As Bono says, there weren’t many trees to begin with, and those that were there have been cut down and used as weapons of war. A lack of justice, of care for the needy, has led to war, destruction and desolation. This is the context of Isaiah 11 and, unfortunately, it is still the context of our lives today, as Bono reminds us. Failure to look after the Earth and its people leaves us still expecting nothing but war and devastation; a hopeless situation.

by Adam Dickson (Leeds Speak Group)

On a cold autumn morning in 2007, I found myself in quite a surreal situation. I was walking along a road with two police officers flanking me, to the collective sounds of different groups of people chatting and cheering away. As I strolled away with the two officers who had just arrested me, I saw the beaming face of Chris, a good friend of mine and an Anglican priest, as he uttered “God bless you, Adam.” This was no ordinary road, and on no ordinary morning. The road was the entrance to Faslane, the main nuclear weapons base in the UK, and the morning was that of the “Big Blockade,” a carnival of resistance to celebrate the end of a year of protests under the name of Faslane 365.

So why on earth did I choose to blockade the entrance to Faslane (as opposed to standing on the edges to protest) which would inevitably mean being arrested (ironically) for the civil offence of breaching the peace? I suppose my answer would be similar to at least most of the other 170 who were arrested that day; that I am utterly opposed to any nation having possession of nuclear weapons and wished to protest as a statement to the authorities that I, along with many of the public, will not allow the potential threat of violence on a mass scale to go unopposed. On a more personal note, however, I volunteered to get myself arrested because I have faith in a God of scandalous grace. The Jesus I worship proclaimed a love so passionate and all encompassing that it falls upon all people with neither condition nor discrimination, teaching us to be peacemakers and to make disciples of all nations.

I had great respect for how the police had handled the situation and treated us activists. At no point did I feel like I was being looked down on or viewed as a drain on their resources. The police I personally dealt with were quite pleasant and some even professed to sympathise with our cause.

by Vic Thiessen

This was the year for natural films. Four of the films on my list starred non-actors or unknown actors and three of these were filmed in an almost documentary style, with a lot of hand-held camera work and natural sound effects. This does not usually impress me, but in these films it obviously worked very well. Another common theme this year was the protagonists struggling to come to terms with something that happened during their childhood that forever changed their lives.

Those who read my reviews know that I particularly appreciate films that humanise people instead of dehumanising people. All of my six favourite films, and the two films tied for number ten, are, to one degree or another, about humanisation. Escapist and purely intelligent entertainment has its place, but we need more filmmakers who want to inspire us to get to know each other better (as a wider humanity) and to love each other more. This is the way film can promote peace and justice in the world at a time when both are desperately needed.

For those who would like the opportunity to watch and discuss some important films together (including number two), check out the blurb at the end of my list.

With an honourable mention to Ratatouille, the best animated film of the year, here are my top ten (11) films of 2007 (counting down to number one)...

and coming soon...

Film 2008: Finding God at the Movies 2: A Weekend on Film and Spirituality

Friday 4 April 6:00 pm - Sunday 6 April 2:00 pm
Guy Chester Centre, Muswell Hill, London
Fee: £98 (double room); £118 (single room); £68 (without accommodation)
Fee includes VAT, meals (and accommodation)