how come ? (2) - footy

Scanned the TV schedule on Saturday evening to find the highlights of the England v Andorra match only to discover it wasn’t being shown. The FA has sold the rights to England’s away fixtures to Setanta subscription channel and they couldn’t agree a fee to sell the highlights to the BBC or ITV.

How come you can’t watch the national team without forking out to a pay per view channel? Why didn’t the FA make it a condition of their rights sale that highlights had to be shown on terrestrial TV? Footy is heading the way of cricket and boxing with fewer people able to watch unless they stump up the dosh. Not good for the punter and not good for the sport. If you stick it on a channel that no one watches then gradually people will lose interest. Still I ought to be grateful because it did mean I was spared watching John Terry hoofing the ball aimlessly into touch, Wayne Rooney running around looking for a booking and the inevitable series of misses against a bunch of cloggers who wouldn’t grace League Division 2. Scraped a 2-0 win for goodness sake!

Still Andy Murray did us proud in the tennis; edge of the bed stuff last night as I listened to his triumph over Nadal. Playing Federer tonight for the U.S. Open title – come on!!!

Accord out of tune

A new coalition called Accord, which was launched officially on Monday 1 September 2008, is calling on Children, Schools and Families Secretary of State Ed Balls to stop publicly-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of their beliefs.

Accord has been established by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, the British Humanist Association (BHA) and a range of other organisations and individuals - including clergy, academics and public figures - to seek to build a new consensus for fairness and equality in schooling and schools policy.

The coalition has received the support of Polly Toynbee in her latest rant against faith schools published by The Guardian. Her piece is either knowingly dishonest or wilfully ignorant. For example, she completely ignores the role that the church and other religious institutions have played in the development of education provision over the centuries in Britain and the presence of church schools serving communities abandoned by just about every other institution. Toynbee also refers to Ed Balls' attack on faith schools in April this year but fails to mention that he was unable to stand up many of his original accusations upon further investigation. Some have suggested Balls’ accusations were a cynical appeal to part of the Labour Party to strengthen his political base.

Toynbee suggests that the support of faith schools has been one of Tony Blair’s most damaging legacies. Personally I believe it was just one of a number of policies for which he has never been given sufficient credit by those (including some of our own bishops) who are always claiming that the government fails to involve the church in public policy.

Why does Toynbee's undoubted intelligence and capacity for reasoned argument seem to disappear whenever she gets anywhere near an issue of faith, making her appear the most irrational of fundamentalists?

Here is a response to Toynbee by Henry Grunwald also published in The Guardian.

Anyway, back to Accord. I have been a chair or vice chair of governors of a wide range of both church and state schools for nearly twenty years. None of these schools operated a discriminatory selection process and they reflected a real desire to give the best to the children and communities where they were based. I was saddened to see Ekklesia had signed up to Accord alongside The British Humanist Association, of which Toynbee is the Chair. Accord would better serve the children of our communities by addressing the very challenging problems facing many of our failing schools, rather than by attacking those schools which have been part of the solution.

I am not in favour of discrimination in admission to schools or employment in schools and it should be challenged where it occurs. However, the idea that faith schools are the root of all the evils in our education system is just pernicious nonsense based on prejudice and ignorance.

Update 8/9/08: Here is an excellent comment piece by Madeleine Bunting in The Guardian entitled Faith schools can best generate the common purpose that pupils need.
Bunting's article is a balanced reflection on the contribution of faith schools prompted by the setting up of six academies by Steve Chalke's Oasis Trust.

how come? (1) jam

When on holiday in the Dordogne we noticed that several supermarkets had an English section selling a range of products and I was surprised to find a whole range of Tiptree jams / conserves alongside the HP Sauce and Marmite. My wife has pointed out that our local Tesco store at Gt Notley only stocks Tiptree strawberry jam and our favourite victoria plum along with the rest of the range is not available (they produce 37 different types). Trivial I know but how come our supermarket is incapable of supplying locally sourced jam that we can get at supermarkets in France!

that's why I love football - transfer deadline day

Yesterday was one of the best transfer deadline days ever. Things started quietly with a few minor movements and then the news began to filter through that Man City had been sold to a wealthy Middle Eastern set up. Then the shocks began to come thick and fast with rumours that City had put in transfer bids for all sorts of players and most worrying was the news they were after Man Utd’s target Dimitri Berbatov. It soon became clear that things were serious and I spent a nervous few hours watching the blogs and waiting for news about Berbatov. Then the incredible happened; Man City had snatched Robinho from under Chelski’s nose by outbidding them with a Premiership transfer record! Finally the news filtered through, after reports of Berbatov being seen at Old Trafford despite Tottenham trying to sell him to City, Sir Alex had got his man and Berbatov would be pulling on the red shirt of Manchester Utd.

The implications of the day cannot be overstated. The emergence of Manchester City as a serious player in the Premiership will be a real threat to the big four. I think Liverpool and Arsenal fans should be worried as its clear they just haven’t got the finances to compete and one of them could be pushed out of a regular Champions League berth. That means less money and more difficulty in attracting top players looking for European football.

And just when things seemed to be settling down the news is coming through that Newcastle Utd have parted company with their manager Kevin Keegan. Sad news as I remember watching Keegan playing for Newcastle in the mid 1980s when I was at Durham Uni. Keegan demonstrated skill, passion and commitment for the game even on miserably wet Saturday afternoons and I witnessed the affection in which he was held by the fans. As a manager he always went with an attacking philosophy believing his side would score more than the opposition. O.K. so he had a run in with Sir Alex in the mid 90s, when Newcastle were vying for the title with Man Utd, but I can’t help feeling Newcastle and football in general are the poorer for not having Keegan involved. (update - seems to be alot of confusion over whether Keegan has actually gone).

Transfer deadline day – that’s why I love football.

dordogne (3) - two churches

Yesterday we spent the day celebrating my daughter's 10th birthday. In the morning we went to church in Bertric-Buree (left) an Anglican church, part of the Aquitaine chaplaincy, just down the road from where we are staying. The church was full with about 80 worshippers, a mixture of ex-pats and tourists. It was a normal Common Worship Holy Communion with hymns from Songs of Fellowship and a good straighforward sermon based on the lectionary readings. We felt very much at home, though we did wonder whether we should have tried something a bit more authentically French, however with two young children our options were limited. Anyway, it was good to worship with part of the wider Anglican Communion post Lambeth. This was also the Sunday when the church introduced a healing ministry to their HC services.

We then attended a medieval festival in the lovely village of Lusignac before returning to the gite for a bar-b-q and a large strawberry tart for a birthday cake, followed by a swimming party with our hosts' children and the family from the neighbouring gite.

It was raining quite heavily this morning so we headed off for lunch at Aubeterre-sur-Dronne. The highlight of the trip, apart from a very reasonably priced lunch, was a visit to the Eglise Monolithe the Church of Saint-Jean.

(Saint-Jean of Aubeterre)
The church is carved into the cliff face and is an amazing structure. It is believed that there was a church at this site in the 5th or 6th century, however, the structure was developed in the 12th century by Benedictines. It is only once inside that one begins to appreciate just what must have been involved in developing the building with none of the tools or resources at our disposal today.

I was struck by the experience of the living worshipping community at the church we visited yesterday and the dedication of the faithful from the past who carved out their place of worship to the glory of God at Aubeterre.

Here are a few of the photos I took inside Saint-Jean. The first (right) is a view from the circular gallery and the two main structures visible are the baptismal font carved in the floor and the reliquary housed in the apse at the far end.

The font is believed to date back to the 5th/6th century and in its base is a Greek cross.

The reliquary is carved from the solid rock and is thought to be an interpretation of the Constantinian style of the tomb of Joseph of Arimethia to be found under the cupola of the church of Saint-Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is 6 metres high and 3 metres in diameter.

The picture below was taken from the apse and shows the two 20 metre hexagonal pillars which were again carved out of the rock.


In the upper part of the nave is the gallery with a suspended ambulatory. In former times a castle stood above the church and there was a hidden stair case linking the gallery to the castle and providing easy access for the lords to spy on the congregation and attend services.

Other features of the church include a burial chamber and a subterranean crypt. The crypt, only discovered in 1961 following the collapse of a roadway, is thought by many to date back to the Roman period and to have been used to celebrate baptism according to the rites of Mithras. This involved baptism with bull's blood and the cult was declared illegal in 395AD. The crypt was then altered over time and stalls were hollowed out in the walls on each side and used by monks.

The church is now used for concerts as well as occasional services including Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

(the crypt, Saint-Jean, Aubeterre)

dordogne (2) - brantome

Abbey at Brantome

Interesting day out at Brantome and the Grotte de Villars. Brantome is a popular place to start canoeing down the Dronne and it was amusing to watch novices trying to navigate the weirs. The town has a Benedictine abbey built by Charlemagne in 769AD and there is a pleasant mix of renaissance and medieval architecture. I did read it described as the Venice of the Dordogne but I think that is over egging it a bit.

The Grotte de Villars is a stunning cave system discovered in the middle of the last century. The stalactites and stalagmites form fascinating structures and patterns and the caves are still ‘live’ which means they are still being formed by the passage of water. No point hanging around to see the structures develop as it takes 100 years for a stalactite to grow up to 10cm. I was interested to learn that two abbots were involved in discovering the caves and the prehistoric cave paintings on the walls, some almost hidden by ongoing calcification. It reminded me that many clergy have played an important part in discovering and exploring the natural world and ties in with the article by Libby Purvis on Richard Dawkins that Jonathan Evens highlighted on his blog.

Very much enjoying the gite, though feel we are rather unfortunate in having arrived just as the owners, who live next door, have purchased a cockerel. He is much better at crowing early in the morning than his efforts with the hens. Time to dig out the recipe for ‘coq au vin’.

Grotte de Villars

dordogne (1) - le nouvelle ferme

(view from bedroom Le Nouvelle Ferme, Gouts Rossignol)

Much to my wife's despair I discovered that our gite in the Dordogne has internet access and I just happened to have the laptop with me! Anyway, I've promised not to spend too much time indulging my addiction to the web. The gite is excellent, in a beautiful setting with a pool and great views. The village, Gouts Rossignol, is small but with a boulangerie across the road and plenty of good local food and wine to hand.

Only one disaster so far. A disc got stuck in our car cd player and I was facing the dual nightmare of days with only Primal Scream to listen to and the kids wrath at not being able to listen to the next instalment of Stephen Fry's excellent reading of Harry Potter 7. (To those of you who ask what a vicar is doing listening to Harry Potter I say 'get a life' or better still come on The Big Picture diocesan Lent & Eastertide school). After much prayer and laying on of hands the disc was released and I was spared from uttering my own primal screams and paying out to the local Renault car dealer.

O.K. time to get back to the pool.

(Le Nouvelle Ferme)