The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have condemned the recent resurgence of police intimidation of Anglicans in Zimbabwe. Church goers, including clergy and local bishops, have been barred from entering their churches and threatened with arrest and violence.

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In the birth and birthplace of Jesus there is something which corresponds beautifully with his personal biography as well as the fortunes of his Gospel.

Two thousand years on, he still comes waiting to find room. And there is scant room for him.

The reason why Jesus can’t find room for his Gospel ”“ which he embodied in his person at his first coming ”“ is closely analogous to that which he encountered in his birth ”“ namely that people’s hearts are preoccupied. They are filled to the brim with their own agendas already. And we, who are his followers, so poorly represent the worth and largeness of Christ and his Gospel. Preoccupied with the presenting and controverted issues of the day, we lack the inspiration he offers, and we end up giving him the stable, when we should be giving him the inn. Instead of putting him at the centre of our living, thinking and planning, we leave him at the margins.

A story is told by a Jewish Rabbi of a town which was given three days’ warning of the arrival of a hurricane. A Roman Catholic priest called all the Catholics together and impressed on them the need to go to confession. An Anglican vicar gathered his congregation and told them to ask forgiveness from those they had wronged, and to make amends.

The Rabbi met the Jewish community in the synagogue and told them, “You have three days in which to learn how to live under water”.

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Sentamu is an intriguing, unclassifiable figure. I congratulate him on having been named Yorkshireman of the Year in 2008, but ask him again whether anyone outside the church is really listening. “We had the Yorkshire day in April and I was leading the procession,” he says, “and I’m told they had the biggest turnout they’ve ever had. The message about what makes a good community has to be heard, whether people are in church or not.”

The credit crunch has, he believes, changed everything. “Mammon was given a pasting. We may go back up to where we were, in the belief that now the markets are becoming more stable, but I’m not sure people really trust that any more. We’ve lived in this libertarian time where choice was seen as important and the free market was important, and as long as you did it within the law you could do whatever you wanted to. It’s now beginning to dawn on people that choice isn’t all there is about life. My neighbour matters.”

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Last week I tabled a question in parliament asking the government about the measures it is taking to tackle prostitution.

The Policing and Crime Bill is making its way through the House of Lords and it is important that everyone, regardless of political allegiance or background, unites to ensure the bill is passed so we can send a strong message that funding sex slavery, and the systematic abuse of women, is not acceptable in this country. That is why I feel the time is right to speak out.

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A truly caring society would not devalue or pressurise its most vulnerable and frailest members. There would always be a danger, if the law was weakened, that people could feel obliged to end their lives if they believed they were becoming a burden on loved ones. This is not something we should encourage ”“ indeed, it is something which should be, and has been, legislated against.

The Church of England has consistently argued ”“ and Parliament has consistently voted ”“ against any change in the law governing assisted suicide. Guidance from the Director of Public Prosecutions about the application of the present law to particular circumstances has the potential to provide greater clarity and is in principle to be welcomed, so long as there can be confidence that it will not in practice lead to an erosion of respect for the present law. It is Parliament, the people in the Commons and Lords who stand up for the views of everyone living in the UK, that should always decide on changes that need to be made to our laws. Parliament is the highest court in the land.

There are serious moral, ethical and practical issues to consider ”“ for example in relation to concepts such as “encouragement” and “coercion”.

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(ACNS) The European Parliamentary and local elections on June 4th will take place at a time of extraordinary turbulence in our democratic system. It is a time for great vigilance over how to exercise our democratic right to vote.

“The temptation to stay away or register a protest vote in order to send a negative signal to the parties represented at Westminster will be strong. In our view, however, it would be tragic if the understandable sense of anger and disillusionment with some MPs over recent revelations led voters to shun the ballot box.

“Those whom we elect to local councils and the European Parliament will represent us and our collective interests for many years to come. It is crucial to elect those who wish to uphold the democratic values and who wish to work for the common good in a spirit of public service which urgently needs to be reaffirmed in these difficult days.
“There are those who would exploit the present situation to advance views that are the very opposite of the values of justice, compassion and human dignity are rooted in our Christian heritage.

“Christians have been deeply disturbed by the conscious adoption by the BNP of the language of our faith when the effect of those policies is not to promote those values but to foster fear and division within communities, especially between people of different faiths or racial background.

“This is not a moment for voting in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour; it is an opportunity for renewing the vision of a community united by mutual respect, high ethical standards and the pursuit of justice and peace.

“We hope that electors will use their vote on June 4th to renew the vision of a community united by the common good, public service and the pursuit of justice.”

This is what happens to “trumped up” messiahs. This is what happens to people who rock the boat. This is what happens to those who threaten the establishment. This is what happens to those who lift up the poor and broken-hearted. This is what happens to those who choose the way of love. Christ’s last words from the Cross, the shout “tetelestai” (“It is finished”) had seemed to mean “it’s all over”. Jesus’s life had ended, so it seemed, in ignominious defeat.

But it was a cry of victory: “It is done! It is accomplished!” So what had seemed to be finished had for them only just begun. The risen Jesus sends them back to Galilee, where it had all started, and they have to relearn it all in the light of Easter.

So the fearful became fearless. They and those who came after them would stand before emperors. They would brave the lions. They would travel to the ends of the world, driven by the fire burning within them, the message that Christ is risen, showing that God is love.

A “Happy Easter” is not going to resolve the crises of today. It is joy we need, surprising, transforming joy. The joy that floods and overflows. like a dark room that’s suddenly flooded with light. The joy that is found in knowing forgiveness of past wrongs, life in the present and hope for the future. This is Easter joy.

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(ACNS) Dr. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has today called upon the leaders of the G20 to invest more in conflict prevention.

Delivering his key note address in Westminster at the launch of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Dr. Sentamu reflected on his recent experience visiting refugee camps in Kenya after last year’s civil unrest and spoke of the urgent need for both conflict prevention and human security:

“Without human security the continuing tragedies that we see unfolding in Darfur and Zimbabwe will continue whilst populations outraged at these daily acts of inhumanity wonder why their own Governments have been reduced to inaction as these conflicts continue with their increasing human cost.

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Twenty-five years ago, people involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa would say wistfully: “Look at Zimbabwe. It’s come through a bitter war of liberation without wrecking its social cohesion, it’s developed a proper democratic culture and it’s feeding itself.”

Granted, this was, even then, a slightly too rosy picture, but it wasn’t nonsense. It represented a conviction that Zimbabwe was showing what was possible to its neighbours and indeed to the whole continent.

And this means that one of the worst of the countless casualties inflicted by Robert Mugabe on his wretched country is the destruction of many people’s hopes, both in Zimbabwe itself and throughout Africa. The continent can’t afford more failed states, mass hunger, contempt for the rule of law. And how much more painful it is when a country has been held up as a sign of promise.

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Here in the UK each of us can point to new or existing church projects to help those in need. In London there are night shelters, food banks, debt counselling and youth employment projects to name but a few. The ARC Addington Fund continues to help farmers and those in rural communities facing hardship; whilst in Leeds the church has been involved in cracking down on doorstep lenders seeking to exploit the most economically vulnerable.

Our strength as a Church lies not only in our vision but also in our presence. Our place in every parish in England gives us an unparalleled opportunity to make this fresh vision a reality.

We share a hope, born of the incarnation, which goes far beyond economic recovery. It reaches into the heart of every man, woman and child. Yes we lament our situation, but we do so knowing that our song will finish in hope: the hope in Christ’s message to us. “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Do not be afraid”. (Revelation 1:17-18).

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So what has gone wrong? Well, our expectations have risen exponentially as we have seen with the NHS. Also, the NHS success has meant that we are all living longer ”“ much longer in fact. As a result, we need far more medical services and pensions. We are victims of our own success!

The problem we face today is that things have become more complicated. The hydra has grown more heads; and sadly all of us unwittingly continue to feed it instead of starving it. It is becoming harder and harder both for those who govern and those who speak out on behalf of us to see the problems clearly or to identify the right solutions.

We have also become a more self-absorbed society. I believe that one of the key factors which has contributed to our loss of the big vision for our country, has been the loss of the Empire. I am aware that this is a controversial view. But whilst Britain had an Empire, a large merchant navy, a large manufacturing industry and commerce, and significant numbers engaged in armed forces, and an expatriate Civil Service in the colonies, it encouraged an outward-looking perspective.

As the vision for Britain became more introspective, I believe we became more self-absorbed. Hugh Montefiore, in his Installation Sermon as the sixth Bishop of Birmingham on 4 March 1978 said that, “No-one can lead a fully human life unless he has a worthy aim in life. I sometimes fear that the people of this great country, having shed an Empire, have also lost a noble vision for their future. How can we rediscover our self-confidence and self-esteem as a nation? What do we really want for our beloved land? Man cannot live by bread alone, nor yet by cash alone. We need a nobler aim in life than an annual increase in take-home pay. What we need are new ideals, a new sense of self-esteem, which will unite us, energize us and unleash those excellencies of character and creativity latent within us all. I believe it is the task of the Church not so much to condemn our failures as to help towards the acceptance of common goals which uplift the heart. Certainly there are no signs these may come from any other source ….

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One of the lessons of the present turmoil is the recognition of our interdependence upon each other. It is a lesson that is at odds with the mindset of speculative profiteering, but it is a lesson that bears repeating in times of crisis.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes I am. The impact of what happens with a sub-prime mortgage in America has an impact upon my brother employed in Newcastle working for Northern Rock.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes I am when speculation leads to mergers, with redundancies for thousands of my brothers and sisters.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes I am, because the systemic risk of allowing a bank to fail makes sense only when it is translated into the thousands of individual stories of hardship that flow from its collapse.

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This is a press release i could not find the whole sermon text.

In the words of John’s Gospel: “He came and pitched his fleshly tent amongst us.”

In the Nativity we remember that coming of God in our human flesh, knowing it is the beginning of a story with a power to transform our lives through our acceptance of it.

Following Christ does not mean that all our problems will disappear, that we won’t feel pain or hardship. But coming and following him promises that his perfect love will drive out all fear.

As the angels told the shepherds on the hills above Bethlehem: “Do not be afraid; for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

So, don’t be afraid. Reach out to God who has already reached out to you in Jesus Christ.

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