Madness and the believer

I find the issues around the subject of mental illness and Christians rather disturbing. Because of this, here's one of the things that appeared in our parish magazine this month:

Loving as Christ Loved Us
The subject of mental illness has cropped up a lot recently and I am saddened at the response of many to this subject.
People have used words like ‘locked up’ or ‘managed’ I get the feeling that this is an area many of us struggle with. And as we struggle, I get the feeling that a man, somewhere in time, is holding a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and reading thus:

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn; giving them beautiful headdress instead of ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of mourning,

The garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;

that they may be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified."

If we cannot stand with those who know the Lord and have broken minds;

If we cannot stand with those who know the Lord and have broken lives;

If we cannot weep with those who weep, grieve with those who grieve, love those who are unloveable and yet know the Lord, what hope is there for the lost?

What hope is there for the Church?

Who can be saved?

What reason is there for His rising up today?



I wonder what the response will be?

Pax

Tales from a Mad Vicar

No, not the one in the image. These words, a response to a previous post on the church and mental health, come from someone else:

"I am an unemployed Church of England priest. I am unemployed because 12 years ago I went through a couple of years suffering from a serious depressive illness. I was in and out of hospital and nothing the psychiatrists prescribed would shift it. Eventually I met a young occupational therapist and something clicked. Together we came up with a regime that pulled me out of the hell I was living in.

About ten years ago I was well enough to start working again. At the time I was the vicar of a two church parish, although I had been off work for over a year. I suggested to my archdeacon that I could manage one parish for a while until I was strong enough to cope with both. I was told this would not be possible. Then I was called into the bishop's office and he told me that I should retire and there was no job for me in the Church. I fought hard and he eventually gave me the post of assistant curate on a two year contract. He also insisted that I saw counsellors who reported back to him and undergo review procedures far more intrusive than what other priests had to go through.

At the end of the two years I had to fight again to keep my job. Again I was given a two year contract. At the end of that, after another fight, I was given a one year contract and at the end of that I was told there was no job for me, and I wasn't given any contract. However, I carried on working and they still paid me for another two years. Last September, the bishop finally got his way and I was dismissed.

During all those years of temporary contracts I did a perfectly fine and appreciated job and did not have a single minute off work because of illness, let alone mental distress. I have managed my depression by sticking to the regimes that were formulated with my OT and with medication.

During all those years the bishop never once considered putting me forward for a full time post. I am certain that he was convinced from the start that somebody who had suffered from mental illness could never be trusted to take on any position of responsibility. I also think he believes that all mental illness is the same and that we are all schizophrenics. He certainly does not understand that major depressive episodes are usually temporary and that even those who suffer from occasional relapses can be perfectly capable of holding down a job as well as anybody else between episodes. Basically my bishop was an ill-informed bigot.

Of course, having been subject to such prejudice for so long and held back from pursuing my vocation, all the parishes I apply to for work are suspicious of me. After 75 rejections in less than a year I gave up. This would never have happened if I had been in secular employment because my employer would have been breaking English law if he treated me in the same way as my former bishop. My bishop used the church's exemption from employment laws to get away with worse than murder - stripping me of my vocation and my reason for living.

The Church occasionally makes the right noises about mental illness but they are, in reality, a bunch of hypocrites."

'Mad Vicar'

A very sad and sobering tale, especially as one of the accusations about the Church used to be that we were 'the only army to shoot its wounded', an accusation I thought (hoped) we'd grown out of.

Please pray for this minister and the many others in the same boat.

Pax

Understanding AV - The First shall be Last and the last . . .

Shall win?

Tomorrow we get to vote on how we vote and ignoring the 'handbags at dawn' duel between Huhne and Cameron and ridiculous radio adverts, "I'm intelligent, I can work it out for myself!" I thought the issue needed the clarification that only a Vicar can bring (so best give up now).

The existing system
Apparently no one ever gets the person they voted for and the whole of our electoral system is controlled by candidates in marginal seats, for they hold the balance of power (not the voters). The existing system is wrong because it means people can stay elected for ever even when the majority of the people haven't voted for them. Taking this on board, it is obvious that we need a new system so that everyone who votes sees the person they voted for get elected - this is democracy! Government will be made up of people that everyone have voted for, or at least almost everyone, and so there will be no reason for complaints anymore.

AV
Before too many of you traditionalists get excited, this stands for 'Alternative Voting' not the 'Authorised Version' (sorry if you thought it would mean a fairly elected government and a return to the 1662 BCP).

In the current present system, in a constituency where there are four candidates, when the votes are counted, the result is: Harriet - 34%, Kofi - 30%, Anjit - 19%, and Tom - 17%, the winner is of course Harriet, because she is 'first past the post' (she has the most votes). But this is wrong because Harriet only has 34% of the vote, which means that 66% of the voting public didn't vote for her, so she's not really the people's choice at all, in fact she's been elected by the minority!

To overcome this, we need a system where the person elected gets more than half of the votes so that they are truly representing all the people. To make this happen we ask the voter to not just vote, but score each of the candidates in order of preference.

Now, although Harriet would have won using the old 'unfair' system, now because she hasn't got 51% we drop Tom and look at the preferences of the people who voted for him., assign the votes to their second choice.

When this is done, we find that we have Harriet - 36%, Anjit - 33% and Kofi - 31% and so, we now drop Kofi and take the second choice of those who put him first. This makes the result: Anjit - 53% and Harriet 47% and so Anjit wins because the majority have voted for her!

Simple , isn't it? The person who would, under the old system, have won hasn't and the person who who wouldn't have, wins because this is how democracy works (and it'll be nice to have a BNP member of parliament, won't it?)! It's also Biblical because it does say the first shall be last and the last first and with this system, this can happen!

Now, this is obviously isn't as quick as the 'first past the post' system and although the Australians are using it, they are discussing dropping it because it isn't all that they hoped. Still, when people vote tactically (i.e. put Labour or Conservative last) using AV we will have many more Greens, Lib Dems, BNP, 'No to the trunk road' and other minority groups siting in the House of Commons and will mean hung, no sorry 'balanced' (but impotent and hamstrung) governments, but it might mean Clegg might get a go as Prime Minister!

And for those who will ask why the BNP are urging a 'no vote to AV, it's because they want proportional representation (as do the other minority partis like Lib dem really) because it will mean they get even more members of parliament. The reality is that AV will still benefit them, but not as much and the hope a defeat for AV will bring back the discussion with a PR bias next time.

So, make you're own mind up about AV, but I think we'd be better served if we could get the electorate to be the electorate myself. Problem is that I don't like the Aussie mandatory voting much either.

Pax

Lessons I learnt at School . . .

Lord of the Flies!

The poor soul who tried to teach us English struggled to get us to see wider than the words as we worked through William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' and although I still wonder what Ralph thought when he saw Piggy's body, I think my teacher did a good job.

The word's of Lord Acton, which my teacher droned on about (endlessly), and also added to obviously stuck. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so we need to be careful in how we control the power we have!" His warnings about how the book taught us regarding "The thin veneer of civilisation which separates from the natives," ring true, especially as I watch the news following Bin Laden's death.

Seeing people waving the headlines:

Did nothing to convince me that what many were about was revenge of the most distasteful kind.

Meanwhile elsewhere, images were shown of images of Bin Laden being kissed and him being mourned over:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (Thanks Isaac) and one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter (unless we build bridges and convince him otherwise).

What we need now is to not gloat triumphantly, but to understand that Bin Laden has reaped the harvest of his wickedness, and perhaps to hope that we won't reap ours (before God, not at the hands of man).

I was blessed and touched to see one man at the site of the WTC with this placard:

He echoes my sentiments completely. We need peace, not revenge, not cries of vengeance (isn't that what brought Bin Laden here?).

We need to look at ways of bringing peace and justice to our world, not seeking to settle scores and not believing in the power that we, or our nations, hold. For it is folly to believe we can achieve anything, that we are all powerful and can conqueror all before us, only God can claim that. Only God can live up to that billing.

Let's pray that the dust settles and that those who might seek to bring their own brand of retribution have their hands stayed.

Justice - Mercy - Humility, this is the way that true power is handled, this is the means by which everything can be achieved and walls broken down.

Pax

Osama Bin Laden Dead

Today's news that Osama Bin Laden has been killed (and his body taken possession of so that there is no doubt it is him) in Pakistan by US forces is a triumph for retribution and justice. It is an act of revenge for the Twin Towers and the lives lost and spmething that will undoubtedly win Obama approval points.

What it will do for Pakistan, a nation who has been accused of hiding Bin Laden and training terrorists. What it will do for those who engage in terror and what backlash it might bring, remains to be seen.

Beyond the triumphalism the reality is that we need to be praying for:

+ Our forces on the ground in Afghanistan (and for all those engaged in military, NGO and charitable efforts there),

+ The nation of Pakistan, where for many Bin Laden was a hero, that the rule of law and peace is maintained,

+ For the peace of the world, that men will dialogue rather than destroy, build up rather than break down.

Those who live by the sword, die by the sword and the death of Bin Laden (and his son) demonstrates the reality of hatred - death. A good operation by the US apparently well done.

Please pray - this is more than a headline, it's potentially a lighting of a touchpaper as some will look to respond with wicked acts whilst (undoubtedly) others will seek to make capital out of it for their skewed theologies and distasteful utterances.

A time to remember those who have lost their lives and think of their friends and families rather than celebrate the loss of another life.

Pax

So Farewell Sir Henry Cooper

Pugilist and Gentleman, who has died at the age of 76.

He will always be the man who dumped Casius Clay (Muhammad Ali) on his bum (and advertised Brut aftershave too) and the man who shaped so much of my entertainment as I watched my grandfather box with him at all of his televised bouts.

Another great British sporting icon lost - former British, Commonwealth and European Heavyweight champion, always a gentleman and always ready to support a charitable cause leaves the world just a little older and sadder!

Dona eis requiem

The Rapture - What about the Cat?

I have received an email from a concerned cat owner who asks the question, "Will my cat be coming to heaven with us on the 21st May, or should we leave some milk and kibbles out?"

Well, this is an issue that really grounds the discusion regarding the discussion surrounding the 'rapture' (or as we we theological jocks like to call it, the 'Parousia') and whether or not animals are admitted. A local Vicar has gone on record that if his dogs aren't coming then neither is he! Of course many who know him were rather doubting he'd be making the trip anyway, but that's another topic for another day (and a different identity!).

So how will you know if you're dear liddle puddy ain't made it to heaven? Research shows that those who are left may well find a scene something like this greets them:

And just so you dog lovers don't feel excluded, a hint as to what might be happening with your pet on the the 21st May (if Harold's got his math's right!):

Mind you, as it the generally accepted view is that as we're not made in the image of dog and because animals don't have immortal souls, they don't make it to heaven anyway (which lets me off the hook with the local Vicar too. Phew!).

So, if you find you cat, dog or hamster (or any other pet) stuck to the ceiling, it's something other than the Rapture. Mind you, if you're still here I'd be worrying about the fact you haven't gone up with Christ and left the blinking thing there anyway!

Pax

He is Risen - Back in the Upper Room

It's a week since Jesus rose,
A whole week and they haven't stopped talking about it!
"You should have been there Tom," they say,
"Should have seen the marks, it was really Him!"

They're excited, relieved but not convinced.
The door's still locked and they're all still hiding!
If He'd really come back, if He'd really been there,
They'd have been out there shouting about it.
Well, I would have, wouldn't you?

And then, I look up, and like a surprise birthday party,
There He is, standing before me.
No door opened, no sound of feet,
He's just there.

"Shalom, "He says, "My peace is with you."
And you know what? It was!
"Touch me, put your fingers in the holes and see for yourself Tom,
Give up the doubting and believe."

How could I not believe?
He was there and so were the marks,
Before my very eyes, large as life and living!
I fall on my face and proclaim Him,
Lord and God, MY Lord and God.

Then He laughs that laugh and tells me,
"So Tom, seeing is believing, eh?
Blessed are those who don't see this and yet still believe."

And they are (He's never wrong)!