iPad revealed!

Here's why I won't be buying Apple's latest not so little offering.

h/t @pastorev

And here’s the ever excellent Dave Walker’s take on the iPad.

holocaust memorial day 2010

One of my most powerful and moving experiences in recent years was a visit I made in December 2008 to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. I have many pictures taken that day but I don’t really need to look at them as the images from the visit are all too vivid in my mind.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated internationally on 27th January each year. This date was chosen as it is the anniversary of the day in 1945 on which the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Each year, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust urges everyone in the UK to pause and reflect on what can happen when racism, prejudice and exclusionary behaviour are left unchecked. On HMD we take the time to see how the lessons of the past can play a part in our communities today. The theme for HMD 2010 is The Legacy of Hope.

There are various events organised to mark HMD 2010 and one of the most striking is the 6 million + installation at Ripon Cathedral. Local secondary schools, colleges and supporters across the country and Kirklees Museums & Galleries, based in West Yorkshire, collected over 6 million buttons to illustrate the industrial scale of the Holocaust that took place during WWII. The '+' refers to Jewish and non-Jewish individuals who were never counted, as well as people who have died across the world in conflicts and genocides since the Second World War.

My post for HMD 2009 along with some of the pictures I took at Yad Vashem can be found here.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's HMD 2010 statement: The Legacy of Hope.

A Prayer said on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Anne Frank:

God, you created us all in your own likeness.
We thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in your world.
Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellow feeling and understanding;
show us your presence in those most different from us, so that in all our relationships,
both by what we have in common and by things in which we differ,
we may come to know you more fully in your creation;
for you are Father, Son and Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.

hope for the dying

My brother-in-law is a G.P. who specialises in palliative care and he has conducted extensive research on the subject both in this country and overseas. One of the frustrations with this area of medicine is the way in which the expertise and resources available to the terminally ill get little publicity, while the news is dominated by stories of demands for assisted suicide from lobby groups including the British Humanist Association and the work of organisations like Dignitas.

Over the weekend the Financial Times carried an excellent article A tradition of excellence in palliative care by journalist Adrian Tempany who spent last September and October with members of the Camden and University College London Hospital palliative care team and some of the 1500 new patients they care for each year. The report includes moving accounts of some of those being supported as they come to terms with a terminal condition and offers a helpful insight into the work of the palliative care team. Tempany writes about one couple:

To read the papers over the past 12 months, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Shelagh and Michael faced an agonising dilemma: fly to Switzerland, and bring Shelagh’s suffering to an abrupt end at Dignitas, or leave her helpless, to a painful, bewildering death. Assisted suicide was the biggest health story in Britain last year, after swine flu. But of the estimated 300,000 people who died of a terminal illness in Britain in 2009, only 27 bought a one-way ticket to Zurich. Most were nursed through the end of their lives by loved ones or by care teams. And many of those nursed by palliative care teams would not only die with minimal suffering, they would experience one of the most emotionally intense and even rewarding periods of their lives.

The article draws attention to the easily overlooked record of Britain in the area of palliative care:

Britain leads the world in palliative care, a discipline that owes much to the pioneering work of Dame Cicely Saunders, who founded the modern hospice movement in the 1960s, and the NHS commitment to care from cradle to grave. The hundreds of specialist nurses at work in the home, in care homes, hospices, hospitals and prisons are joined by 100,000 volunteers in hospices alone. They don’t reach everyone (nor are they expected to), but no one is excluded from the caseload. And while many are educated to degree or postgraduate level, what their patients value above all are compassion and understanding.

There are no happy endings to the stories reported by Tempany in the sense that most of the patients featured are now dead and being mourned by their loved ones and friends. What the report does highlight, however, is that these people were able to face their terminal illness with dignity and a sense that their life had real significance and value.

One piece of information mentioned in the report that has received little publicity in the British media is that the Swiss government is considering a significant tightening on the rules regarding assisted suicide and a possible ban on assisted suicide ‘tourism’. At the same time the government has expressed its desire to promote palliative care and suicide prevention.

The debate about assisted suicide has been dominated by the opinions of a few articulate commentators in the media pushing a particular agenda. The FT report is a timely reminder of the dedicated work going on day by day, bringing compassion, care and relief to those who are terminally ill.

Related post: assisted suicide – a relative issue?

the Bible: a history - creation

Howard Jacobson doesn’t believe in the Creation story but he’d quite like to. That seems to be the main conclusion of the first episode of The Bible: A History broadcast last night on Channel 4. The programme is the first of a new series and it follows the pattern of last year’s offering from C4 Christianity: A History. That series also began with Jacobson and his take on Jesus as a Jewish figure whose origins have been denied by Christians. I thought that offering was poor and critiqued it at some length, however, this programme was more accomplished.

Jacobson explored the story of creation as recorded in Genesis; its origins and meaning as considered by Jews and Christians and some of the historical and philosophical questions which the Genesis narrative raises. It was an engaging personal journey with the presenter openly sharing his own responses to the story and the issues. At one stage the programme reverted to a presentation of the battle between fundamentalists, with the literalist creationists on one side and the ‘new atheists’ on the other. The new atheists were represented by one of their high priests A C Grayling who didn’t fail to display his usual arrogance on the subject of religious belief. I enjoyed Jacobson’s response to Grayling’s argument when he stated that he found himself wanting to believe in the Creation story and what it represented.

The programme also presented contributions from Jonathan Sacks, John Polkinghorne and the philosopher Mary Midgely. It was Midgely who came out with the most memorable phrase of the episode when in response to Jacobson’s suggestion that the new atheists were presenting another form of belief she answered ‘Oh yes, but not as nutritious’. There were disappointments with the programme including the usual failing of presenting the insights of mainstream scholarship as if they are new discoveries that are being revealed for the first time. It is hardly a new idea that Biblical scholars see the Exile as pivotal in shaping the Genesis account of creation as it appears in the Hebrew canon of scripture.

By the end of the programme Jacobson ends up wanting to embrace the Genesis story, not as a story of relationship between the Creator and creation, but as an inspiring expression of the potential of creation. Doug Chaplin, who was very quick off the mark with his review of the programme, makes the following observation:

Somewhere in that elegant literary thesis, one rather important question got lost – the idea that it might be important to ask whether there actually is any meaning and purpose in the universe other than the ones we inscribe upon it. Are we the only ones capable of art, or is there a Great Artist, whose work of art we yet might be.

There is an illuminating interview with Jacobson on the C4 website in which he explores in more detail his reflections on the Creation story and his approach to the Bible. He concludes that interview with an interesting comment that deserves further consideration:

I like the idea there is this one God, not to be obedient to, although he wishes obedience and insists obedience, but to be in a perpetual argument with. One of the great scenes in Genesis is the wrestling with the angel, and I think that's how you read if you love the Bible. It's a wrestle, and you're wrestling with something that's very, very personal.

It will be interesting to see how the other presenters of the series wrestle with the Bible over the next few weeks.

happy families

Delighted to find that families living in Chelmsford are the happiest according to a new survey that I came across in various newspapers. OK we don’t actually live in Chelmsford, just outside if truth be told, but I did grow up in Chelmsford, I work there and my daughter’s school is there so I think we count. The survey of 3,000 families, conducted by the family website Uinvue, identified those living in Chelmsford as being most content. Factors contributing to this state of bliss include:

• having a close circle of friends and relatives living nearby
• short travel times to work
• enjoying the company of colleagues
• manageable workloads
• a good amount of quality time together (nearly 2 hours a day)

Mark De Netto speaking on behalf of Uinvue commented:

It suggests the happiest are those which have a good balance between work and play. People also need to feel comfortable financially and have people to support them. Additionally, big cities such as London might feel more impersonal and be faster paced.

These are hardly dramatic revelations and exactly the sort of conclusions one would expect.I did try and track down the original survey for a closer look, with little success. The Uinvue site doesn’t have the survey results yet and is little more than a Facebook style social networking site. They do have the results of a survey conducted in November 2009 on Family Feuds; I gave that a miss in case we scored too highly!

The survey revealed that the town with the least happy people is Aberystwyth and this was attributed to feelings of being over-worked and under-paid; again hardly a surprise. De Netto observes:

People living here are actually quite satisfied with home life, feeling close to the people they live with and spending loads of time together. But if work is difficult and money is tight, it can be hard to leave those worries at the front door when returning home for the evening.

Here are the top fives according to the survey.

Happiest Families	Unhappiest Families
Chelmsford	Aberystwyth
Portsmouth	London
Gloucester	Leicester
Edinburgh	Cardiff
York	Southampton

I have to say Chelmsford is a pleasant place to be around but I've also enjoyed living in Belfast, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Durham, Oxford, Southport, Thurrock, Waltham Abbey and Barking and Dagenham. In my experience it's the people that make all the difference.

England’s own goal

I am still reeling from the shock news that there will be no official England World Cup song for South Africa 2010. What are Fabio Capello and the Football Association playing at? Don’t they know that the traditional World Cup anthem is a vital part of the team and nation’s build up to these major international tournaments? Do they not appreciate the psychological damage wreaked upon the faithful footy fan, robbed of the opportunity to sing along with the likes of Embrace or the legendary Ant & Dec? This is a catastrophic blunder by England’s management that completely undermines the preparations of our brave boys.

Who can forget the wonderful rendition of Back Home sung by the 1970 World Cup squad and performed on Top of the Pops by the team resplendent in dinner jackets? Even the B-side Cinnamon Stick sent shivers down the spine. Or what about This Time the 1982 song which promised so much, even if the team did crash out in the second round after a 0-0 draw in Spain. Then of course the all time classic that is World in Motion performed by England and New Order and embellished with a barnstorming rap from MC John Barnes. Think what would have happened if England hadn’t gone into these tournaments having laid down their vocals and conquered the charts.

Next they’ll be telling us that Esso won’t be issuing a set of England World Cup squad minted coins to collect and that car mountable St. George’s flags are no longer available from Poundland (or 97.5p land as it was before VAT went back up).

‘Cry God for Harry, England and St. George’ this decision must not stand.

I suppose it should be acknowledged that the last time England didn't have a World Cup song was in 1966 and we all know what happened then!

compassion

I've added a widget to my blog which links to the Compassion website in support of their Haiti appeal. The box in the sidebar provides updates on the situation from Compassion and allows you to give online. Bloggers you can click on the 'share' button and grab the code for your blog. You can also put it on your Facebook page or other web pages (h/t The Church Mouse). Another effective way of donating is through the Disasters Emergency Committee which acts as an umbrella organisation for the UK's leading aid charities.

My blog on the disaster and some of theological issues raised is shaking the ground. Other blogs that may be of interest include:
Haiti, hate and God by Nick Baines.
Haiti and suffering by Sam Norton.
Earthquakes and bad theology by Symon Hill.
Haiti: Sorrow + Anger = Resolve? by Alan Wilson.
Not on my watch... please by Peter Banks.
Haiti responses by Alice Smith.
God and the Haiti earthquake by Graham Tomlin.

I do think it is important that as Christians we are able to give an account of our faith in the face of the reality of human suffering and the very legitimate questions that people raise. However, I very much want to identify with the comment made by Nick Baines at the end of his blog:

All our energies need to go into alleviating by all means possible the suffering in Haiti. Concurrently we need to be asking why we don’t put effort into alleviating poverty and suffering before such tragedies happen.