Who'd be a politician?

The ever smiling Iain Evans, leader of the State Opposition is under seige yet again. His popularity rating has never been particularly high. The most that can be said about him is that he is less hard-faced than some of his opponents. One in particular, who shall remain nameless but who is not of the same gender as the Hon Iain.
It's suggested in the press and on the radion today that the next Liberal leaders may not actually be in the Parliament yet. That may be true.
But an interesting discussion ensued about the ingenuous Martin Hamilton-Smith who precipitated the last leadership spill. And lost!
But it needs to be said that Marty has kept his profile high and has ridden his motorbike unceasingly around the State's worst roads. He is often interviewed, and sometimes makes sense!
This is more than the other key players often do. Monsieur Evans and Madame Hard Face often just seem to whine and whine and whine about the Government, and fail to capture the popular imagination.
Although Hamilton-Smith looked like a total goose when denied any factional support in the recent stoush, has he positioned himself so that when next he moves he will not be so easily disregarded. A strange similarity to Senor Rudd's path to glory, which appears to have been successful in the long.
It is interesting to note in the picture alongside, (Marty in the front row with the brown jacket) that the above mentioned other female aspirant is sitting quite in the shade. Far be it from me to say she has missed the boat, but I am putting my money on Opposition Leader Hamilton-Smith in the next six months , not Evans or Chapperson!

Tidying up

Today, there is an autumnal sense of things working themselves out, coming to a conclusion, if you like...dropping their leaves
The youngest SC will take me to see comedian Ardal O'Hanlon tonight. This will mark (for me at least) the end of the Fringe Festival . Having to wait until the very last day to see the one thing I really wanted to see. I am interested that O'Hanlon is often referred to as the "young priest" in Fr Ted as if it was his only role. Certainly it was a fine role. Some classic quotes:

• "I'm no good at judging the size of crowds Ted, but I'd say there's about seventeen million of them out there."
• "Sorry Ted. I was concentrating too hard on looking holy."
• "Of course the Italians know about football alright, and of course the world of fashion! God Ted, do you remember that fella that was so good at fashion they had to shoot him?" (I think 'that fella' he is referring to is JPII)
  
• "A one-word film. There can't be too many of those. 'Salem's Lot?"
• "Do you believe in God then Ted?"

I also think he should be remembered for the quirky Irish superman in My Hero. But that seems to have slipped under most people's radar.

Today (my day off) I have to keep exactly the same appointment I had on Monday because my supervisor didn't turn up and the message didn't get through....in fact it evaporated into the ether, which is always suspicious! So half the monring will go driving miles out of my way to do what should have been completed four day ago.

Then tomorrow there is Mandatory Notification Training in the parish. This is a sign of the times, as we recognise that there are legal responsibilities for public leaders of the Church towards other people who may have been involved in abusive situations. I don';t have to go as I am "up to date", but I will have to appear at the beginning. It will not be the last such training.

Then I realised as I was thinking about blogging that this training will have a consequence on the other end of the day because "Church" will have to be set up in the same space as training is being held. Despite the best will in the world to be back in St John's after the fire by the end of March, we won't quite be there. We will, hoffentlich, be able to worship there on Good Friday but we are not quite there yet.

My desire to do everything twice as fast we have normally done this year , then we might actually approximate the speed at which it ought to be done, is proving vain. Churches are incredibly slow...the whole process of committee's deciding and volunteers implementing stuff is tortuous. I am not autocratic by nature (maybe this is a cop out) but I can't help but think that there is something to be said for dictatorship in terms of getting the routine stuff done.
The various renovations in the house which I had hoped might have been begun before S & I were away for a few weeks will be waiting until we return, so that kids don't have to cope with workmen traipsing in and out of their lives at 7 a.m. in the morning.

As Holy Week looms, I felt three weeks ago that everything was under control. I now feel the familiar sense of panic caused by the above events and more; that there is simply not enough time to do everything that needs to be done. This time next week we will be into it. And it won't make any difference whether I am ready or not...it will have to happen. That is one of the lesser known "goods" of Good Friday!

In your face or in your eye

Sin and David Hicks!
If we need any more proof that the Hicks business is essentially about promoting a political agenda then the next phase in the process should convince us. Having pleaded guilty he is now required to state exactly what he is pleading guilty to!!!
Now doesn't that seem cart before the horse-ish. Surely if he was charged and invited to make a plea then the prosecutors should have at least felt that they there were clear what they were charging him with. Why then does the subject of the charge have to tell them what he did in detail?
It would seem that the answer to that must be that Hicks is the victim of a kite-flying exercise (which he was never going to win) and having once admitted that the kite does indeed fly, has to now tell the powers-that-be just why that might be so.
For what it's worth, I (and I suspect most other people) think that Hicks is indeed guilty of something relatively minor. It is easy to demonise him and paint him as second-only to Osama Bin Laden himself, but he is clearly not that.
He is not guilty so much of being 'idealistic', as being a fool who got caught up in some Boy's Own Adventure which turned out to be a whole lot more serious than he realised. By then it was too late.
He has become the pawn of powerful men's ambitions. The shallowness of these ambitions is exposed day by day. Oh dear dear!
But human beings are flawed....(here come a segue..."A what?" I hear you ask, seehere) Yesterday I had quite a strange conversation with one of my good lay people. She was complaining about Easter last year.
Apparently she took exception to the fact that it "was too much about sin". Now my radar always explodes in these sort of circumstances...usually a person thinking something is "too much about sin" is experiencing a conviction of the Holy Spirit about something in their own life. Maybe I rely too much on my own experience.
I could not believe that our lovely Easter service with an opportunity to recommit oneself to the Christian way, and the declaration of God's forgiveness accompanied with the splashing of water....maybe I love splashing water too much....was actually perceived as something negative.
This parishioner seemed to be inviting me to strip the Easter period of its "negative overtones". A man was crucified for heavensakes!!!


I know on one level what she was saying, but do we become so wishy washy that we don't want to explore anything of depth any more.
Segue 2...one two three....I don't want to suggest Hicks is an angel...I do want him to deal with his law-breaking, but he is being made a scapegoat for much more than that.
I do not want to suggest that he is Christ like. But the Crucified Man was a scapegoat too.
There will be sin this Easter. It will be forgiven. As it is every year, every day, every time we come ... we need to be a bit more robust, honest and open.

Hicks Hiccup

All of us are no doubt glad to see that the Hicks' debacle moved yesterday and that Hicks, in pleading guilty, has allowed some resolution of his personal hell...or at least some step towards that resolution.
Hicks has pleaded guilty, and no one imagines that that clarifies very much at all. It does allow him to be called the "convicted terrorist" or "the admitted felon"....but no one imagine that it actually reveals the extent of his involvement with Al Qaeda, whether he was a foot soldier or a military commander, whether he is being smart or just plain stupid
That it will bring him back to Adelaide seems almost certain, and that must be a relief for his family.
What it will not do is reveal to you and me the extent of his actual involvement
I continue to be incensed by Howard, Downer and Ruddock who say things like..."We are very angry that this has taken so long...we have always been disturbed about how long this has taken."
That is just not true! It is self-serving politico-spik. They were remarkably unconcerned about David Hicks until his prolonged detention in ther Guiantanamo limbo became an electoral liability.
I hope that we, the electors, remember this self-serving stuff...it is not the only example of change of heart (global warming another!) which should be criticised for being too little too late.

Hick Cup

As keen as we all are for the David Hicks trial to be over and done with, and to be done well, I have a certain unease about how much of this is being staged in the public arena. With senior prosecution saying at a new conference yesterday to aseembled journalists "You will see on TV in the coming days what Hicks was involved in, and then you can make up your own mind"
No "Allegedly involved in", no prejudicing the fair trial. No refusal to comment while the matter is sub judice.
And then already, for what ever reason, part of Hicks's team have already been removed because they are ineligible to stand before a military commission.
No this doesn't sound terribly impartial to me. Expeditious maybe, but not impartial

Misleading advertising

Came across this little advertsing gem whilst browsing the world papers over the weekend

Would you like the chance to travel to Poland, Canada, Jamaica or Cyprus in the first year of your new job? How about the chance to earn an excellent starting salary and receive six weeks’ paid holiday every year, all while training in a trade, profession or skill?

We will all note that it fails to mention Iraq and Afghanistan, because, Yes!, it is an advert for the British Army.
Who constitutes our armies? Seldomly the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful (H Windsor being the exception that proves the rule) it is the listless, and perhaps directionless, and least hopeful. We don't like to say this but for some, the forces are a place where you can go if your prospects are not too good. That is not to say that it is not a good place for these people. For those who survive (and that is the key) time in the army, or navy can haver proved very formative indeed. But not much help if you don't survive.
I point you again to Lehrer News Hours honour roll (see blog here)...this US Public broadcasting news show is on SBS daily from 4.45-5.45. Often at the end they show photos of fatalities in the Iraq war...last Friday's dozen or so were all either people of colour or of Hispanic name.
And one of our parish dads has become very clucky indeed because his youngest son is presently doing intensive training with the Army Reserve, I felt cruel (and was indeed careless in the extreme) when I remarked that the Reserve was good training until you actually got called up! He is a fine young man, and it will be doing him good; but he is floating, unsure and very vulnerable to a course of action which may end up costing him and his family dearly.

I offer again American poet Wyatt Prunty's poem THE RETURNING DEAD

Each night I make a drink and wait for them
They have become the day's concluding news,
Installments from a world without anthems
Or children, unfocusing eyes

A question that repeatedly rejects
My easy terms. They are ones who believed
And acted in the narrow and select
Ways handed them, while ordinary lives

Ran on without interruption
Or bad pictures, as though nothing had changed
Change is the one unanswerable question
Of these faces. The world can rearrange

Itself repeatedly, but these remain
The same, silent in everything they lack;
That's what they've come to, in places with names
Like Afghanistan, Iraq,

And this is the way it happens: the words
Are old - mother, father, home - and will catch
Surrounding currents in the slow absurd
Descending will of any river etched

Out of a landscape history refines
To myth. The TV blanks between
Segments, but every static face defines
Itself, holds stubbornly its private scene…

Fixed, publicly, as we are led
Back to that little negative whose lack
Is each of us, staring the staring dead,
Leaning, sometimes like grief itself; then straightening back.

Obsessing

I am aware that from time to time I can obsess!
The end of daylight saving does nothing for this. Usually at 6.30 p.m. on the night before it starts or ends I have sussed out all the clocks and either changed them or lined them up to be changed before bed.
Likewise it is easy to obsess about statistics, so during my weight loss over the last couple of years I built up a record in Microsoft Excel which enables you to list and draw charts and add and average, and plot...in general to just be obsessive. In the last week I have been plotting webhits on this blog and have been pleasantly surprised.
The results of that are available in an Excel table here.

Warning! Warning! If you thought for a moment about viewing that table then you are in danger of being obsessive. Excel tables are NOT interesting.

Any way, back to daylight saving. I actually didn't change all the clocks. But I struggled with my phone alarm to ensure that the automatic update of time was on and that it worked. After 15 mins of testing (pretty obsessive) I convinced myself it did and it duly went off, but it seemed awfully dark outside.
I checked what I could and it seemed to be 6.25 so that was OK.
No two clocks in the house agree about anything, so I am feeling confused. Has the al;lowance for daylight saving happened?
"Did you change the clocks?" I asked my beloved (most unlikely...she is obsessive but in much more imaginative ways than I am)
I decided finally that had got up an hour earlier than I needed to.

So what to do. Well I have blogged about it! What an obsessive

More proof

An hour later and it is still raining. Feels good

il pleut

es regnet

Decisions, decisions.... I want it all

Necessary preparation for our forthcoming trip is the reading of books and magazines, and the endless delightful conversations with people about things to do.
It is now over twenty years ....well thirty actually...since I was in Europe, and I don't really remember a thing...or the things I do remember are very partial. The Pompidou Pyramid, for example, the London Eye didn't even exist.
And perhaps I am a little more expansive as a person and aware of all sorts of things that I didn't realise I could be aware of when I was in my 20s. Although, par exemple, I saw lots of visiual art my definitive art experience had not yet happened...which happened at a Monet exhbition in Melbourne probably 15 -20 years ago.So I know that one of the things I wan to do is try and see a few more water lilies, whether we get to Giverny remains to be seen.
But S and I also talked about whether or we should walk Scafell Pike...it would be unusual for us to do such a thing, can I still do it? (I have done it a number of times in my teens ...but these days I ache).
Every time we think about England we think of another thing to do. Althorp, Blenheim, The Old Vic. I even told my cousin the other day that we probably weren't going to stay with him..I feel guilty and I have thought of a way that we possibly can.
But we can go no further north than Edinburgh, but I would desperately love to go to Iona and the Hebrides
Then there is "The Unofficial Guide to Paris", and excellent book which we stumbled across which will keep us amused; nibbling cheese and croissants, walking the Left bank, doing little side trips, hunting out those Monets.
The truth is that I want it all, and there is too little: time, money, energy.
Thank goodness I have temporaily lost the Rome book!

Believing your own mythology

The ABC reports (here)that "Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd will provide some major wattage for the final stages of the New South Wales Government's re-election campaign today".
The introduction of boyish faced Federal politicians into State electoral campaigns is always a tricky issue. There have been times (on all sides of politics) when the Federal heavies have been told to bow out State elections because although the State party may have been doing well sometimes the Feds have been seen to be a bit on the nose. And poiliticians aren't always the best judges of how well they are perceived in the electorate at large.
Any way, obviously that is not the case in NSW and Rudd is perceived as a Good Thing (a la Simon de Montfort who although only a Frenchman was still also a good thing). It is dangerous, one wonders if the PM or the Treasurer, or Dr Nelson will be wheeled out on the other side...and suspects not.
The problem is not so much whether or not this or that politician is a "good thing" the problem is when they start believing the same. And strangely there are times when the instinctive political radar is off-beam. Thus have we witnessed the discgraceful spectacle of polioticians belittling each other in a self-righteous fashion about particular goings on, and we the bewilderati of the electorate are left wondering why they are so foolish to trumpet the faults of others when they are only a hairs-breath away from the same issue.
Closer to the ecclesiastical home a lot of people have obviously taken a recent article in church newspaper Market Place to heart. In it the all too obvious issue of the Nigerian leader, Dr Akinola , pontificating about the immorality on the Western Church's doorstep whilst being remarkably silent about matters on his own.
Two issues present themselves. One is that the Nigerian Government is presently promoting laws against homosexual people that would seemingly contradict the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Akinola far from condemning this seems to be actively promoting such injustice. It is noted that this must make the devotees of Dr Akinola in Australia, the UK and particularly the US decidedly uncomfortable. A number of American parishes driven by priests of curious conviction (which nevertheless ought to be respected) [Read Ruth Gledhill's article about this here] are seeking the misnamed "alternative primatial oversight" of the Nigerian Church whilst remaining in the comfort of the US of A. Do they also seek to align themselves not only with this man's conservative interpretation of scripture, but also his advocacy of the persecution and imprisonment of any homosexual. Roundly denounced by Amnesty International and other advocacy groups, Dr Akinola seems to have no difficulty believing his own mythology. That he and he alone is capable of interpreting truth.
The Market Place article notes that he is remarkably silent about a critique of certain aspects of Nigerian culture which are foreign (and even repugnant in the West). One of these is polygamy. Which is clearly condemned in the scriptures.

But much more serious is the cultural practice of 13 year old girls (the youngest SC is 13!!) being married off to much older men. In this country this would not only be illegal, but would bring the strongest condemnation. And rightly so. Some have called it "legalised paedophilia". Where is the Primate of Nigeria's voice raised against this particular evil. He seems to suggest that this is a cultural aberration that is permissible
You see it is a quagmire.
I am not suggesting. That pollies and churchmen (it's usually men) should never say anything about anything. Or shouldn't say anything that someone else will disagree with.
But we should stop pretending that our side is the only side, and rather seek not to belittle their opponent through personal slur, but rather to seriously address arguments and to respond to genuine rebuttal of their own hypocrisy.
This may be a vain wish!

Almost the end

It wouldn't do for a year to go by without complaining about Daylight Saving. I am sorry for those who expect something better and (perhaps) more serious of me.
I am not suggesting for a moment that the "increase" in daylight will cause such devastating effects as the more rapid fading of curtains, which is clearly nonsense. I am noting rather the bizarritude of leaving the house any time after 6.30 in the morning and finding it is dark until 7.30.
This is caused by (now) the fact that daylight saving is extended until the last weekend of March (PTL..this weekend). It was bad enough when it was the end of February, then it was extended another week or two every other year to cope with the Adelaide Festival which happened only once every 2 years, this was obviously untenable so a more permanent decision was made. The state in which we now find ourselves is that daylight saving runs through October-March.
So here we are, well into Autumn, feeling depressed every morning because it is the middle of the night!
I am conscious that the youngest S C (subject of the recent blog) is presently cavorting in a tent on la bella isola dei canguri (ooops sorry I did apologise for slipping into foreign tongues some days ago) I mean L'île des kangourous, of course, or Kangaroo Island as it is better known. They have a full week's program (half their luck...I am really envious). Their program will probably run by the clock, though sensibly if it was run by the sun, as I think about it, they would probably be OK. But we are such creatures of the clock.
Have a thought also for the good people of Western Eyre Peninsula---Streaky Bay and further west, who really have to live with a time zone well out of their natural zone any way because they are required to conform to Adelaide time. These people have an added disadvantage. But of course they are only a few thousand rural votes.
That's it
Until next year

All you ever do

A previous post would have revealed to you that I am undertaking a course for my Master's degree in Jungian psychology. Jung's major focus on being in touch with the unconscious is an interesting idea and fruitful (I find) for personal growth and development.
But I did find when I started to look at this last year and to note my dreams that I became much more aware of the dreaming that I do. Indeed one thing I was concerned about was that in providing this framework of the revelatory dream: was I beginning to exaggerate this whole process.
Seeing, as it were, dreams everywhere;was I seeing too much?
Well it's started to happen again!
One interesting thing to note is that when dreams are viewed (albeit as sources of rich treasure) rather matter of factly, or routinely as the unfolding of the unconscious they lose some of their terror. One can well understand why the ancients did indeed find dreams o'erwhelming, though I was struck (as I often am about him) when thinking about Joseph yesterday (St Joseph's Day) how remarkably measured a man he presents himself to be . And he was a prolific dreamer. There is a real sense in the narrative that dreaming kept him in touch with himself. When we first encounter him(Matt 1:18-21) he is in deep poo! This happens to him over and over again, (we all have periods like that I suppose...I certainly have).
It is the dreaming that seems to release him to act freely and creatively.
I feel aghast that I have tended to dismiss or ignore this point for most of my life.
So I am trying to be a little more in touch. Try noting your dreams down for a week. See if you find it illuminating, alarming...godly, human.

Making homework work

At the end of my first year of being a teacher I had so many unmarked piece s of paper to return to students that it was impossible to make any sense of it. I learnt an important lesson, homework is not just work for the student, it is work for the teacher. Since becoming a parent I have learnt also that it is work for the parent. [At one stage at a previous school, I think when our eldest was in year 5 or 6, they were given a project {projects are another story too} and there really was a competition between parents to see whose would be the best...I felt vaguely embarrassed as I had refused to do K's project, other parents were less bashful..but to what avail]
And so the debate rages on, what is the point of homework?
An interesting summary of a recent article in The Age goes like this:

HOME STUDY - THE GREAT DIVIDE
The academic
There is no conclusive evidence that homework leads to higher academic results, or that encouraging children to study at a young age leads to good study habits in later years, says Jacinta Cashen (left), who has just completed research on homework at RMIT University.
Parents groups
Tasmania: "If homework is not beneficial, I don't think we should be having it," says the president of Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends, Jenny Branch.
Victoria: Supports homework so long as each school has a policy, developed with parents, teachers and students, says executive director of Parents Victoria, Gail McHardy.
The US author
Reasons given for homework, such as higher academic achievement, are not substantiated by research, says Alfie Kohn, author of the new book The Homework Myth.
The principal
Homework develops attributes such as self-discipline, planning and the ability to work independently, says Shelford Anglican Girls' Grammar principal Pam Chessell.
The classroom teacher
Homework is quiet, contemplative time that is great for reviewing work away from a class full of other noisy students, says Camberwell High School year level co-ordinator Richard Geddes.
The psychologist
Homework instils a sense of resilience and responsibility, says Evelyn Field.
The student
Homework can be tough, but is mostly fun, says Rachel (right), in year 6 at Toorak Primary School.

I well remember, too, a colleague of mine (both poarents trained and practicisng teachers) complaining to their uppper-bracket State primary school teacher that their Year 3 kids(7-8) were getting too much homework. The reply of the teacher? "I agree with you, but for every one of you who complains there is too much, there are 10 who say there is not enough!"

This about says it all, teachers by and large don't believe in homework they rather bow to public pressure!
The only argument that seems to have any force for me is that it may encourage individuals to work independently, though I am inclined to believe that it is probably better to encourage them to have a hobby, or a sport, or music which is largely self-directed than to impose something that seems like exactly what they have been doing at school.

The major factor against is the sheer weight of stuff that a 13 year old has to do. S is both musical and interested in science and technology. She likes sport and is a real team player.
School starts at 8.30-8.45 and finishes at 3.40. So she already has a 7 hour commitment in formal time.
This is before you count the fact that she catches the bus...on a normal day she does this at 8 a.m. and gets home at 4.30 so add another hour. So that's 40 hours just to get there and back each week.
BUT remember I said she likes music...so 3 days a week she has choir which means she starts school at 7.45...so add another 3 hours. She has a cello lesson during school (45 mins) and Bell Practice (45 mins)...so she give up 90 mins of her free time. And she only manages orchestra by alternating one of her choir rehearsals. This kid is no slouch.
AND YET MORE... she would go to Science Club (45 mins before school) but now it clashes with a choir and orchestra.
AND SHE DOES GO ... to IT Club for 90 mins after school on the worst day of the week (yes it's Thursday when she should go to Orchestra/Choir and can't go to Science Club) so she has stared at 7.54 and finished at 5.15.

REMINDER! REMINDER! REMINDER! She is 13!

Thank goodness that we don't have cows to milk at home!

This week she is having an easy time as she is on camp on KI. This only meant being at school at 6 a.m....she will not be back till Friday at 3.30 p.m.

And they want to give them homework!!!

Bit of a laugh for bloggers

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Shopping till you're dropping

It is our privilege and our joy to have Iain Evans as our local member. He works hard at his job, is well-liked. He has to be the Leader of the Opposition, and on top of that he is a nice chap (which is not something you can say about all pollies n'est-ce pas?....forgive me if I lapse into foreign tongues in the next few weeks in trying to bone up for Europe I am falling into a melee of confusion about quelle langue est laquelle...which language is which I mean.. any way back to the Honourable Iain)

He kindly sends out his monthly bulletin to those who ask, and this months is about shopping hours. I personally am a bit surprised that he is advocating a seeming deregulation apart from certain sacred days..Anzac, Easter, Christmas, Good Friday...

Shops he says should be allowed to open when they like. By and large I am in agreement with this but I think there is a lot to be said for having an agreed time when shops do not open. I am totally unconvinced that tourists will think Adelaide is a bigger backwater than Hickory Hoontown simply because they arrive on closing day (or half day closing).

The argument, for me, is not in any way religious. It is about shared time. How are we supposed to promote family and community cohesion when we can't actually get a time when most of us are free. I tire, in fact, of trying to arrange meeting times with groups of people and finding that there is simply no time when everyone is free.....there I go wanting to fill free time with meetings...
Can we not, say, have Saturday afternoon off.Or closing all day Sunday?
By and large Sunday opening is good for big shops and bad for small shops who have little flexibility because their staff is small. Which is why I am surprised that the Liberal champion of small business is so keen on this.
Maybe I don't understand this, but there are other, better things to do in your free time than shop!!
If you click the e-bulletin below it will open in more readable form

Loose language

There's often not a great deal you can do about it but, I decry the imperialistic use of language which seems to be about capturing the "good words" and claiming them as one's own. In this the true meaning of words does not seem to have much bearing on their captured meaning.
To give an example (as I am some what confused myself by what I have written) a well-known coffee chain offers coffee in three different sizes (at least). The word Grande is used to describe what they call "medium", and the word "Alto" to descibe "large".
This is a marketing ploy of course, but I am always bemused...it's clear to me that their standard offering (which would seem to be small by their own description) is what I would call medium...their medium is a more than adequate large, and the "alto" is huge. Anmy way you learn eventually what size you want...thouygh I am always puzzled by what is medium outside the pictures and what is medium inside!!!
More serious and irksome are the following:
catholic: the word catholic has a life beyond the religious to mean all embracing, universaland broad. The qualified term therefore, eg. Roman or Anglo Catholic would seem to be an oxymoron (a contradiction within itself), and yet the former is the most common use.
A group I head wants to say that rather than being a narrow descriptor of who God is and what God wants (often the imperialism of the "Catholic" church insists that to be catholic is a descriptor of a narrow orthodoxy defined by an elite power structure) but we would suggest that it is better used to see God as "universal" affirming of all people irrespective of gender, nationality, sexuality and which is essentially affirming of equality rather than status and privilege.
liberal: Those of us who migrate to Australia take a while to understand that Liberal actually means Tory or conservative in English terms. Those of us who are really the old-fashioned liberals of the 60s and 70s stand back aghast at how the hard won liberalities are cast aside.
conservative: strangely the word 'conservative' has been captured to mean backward looking or recationary. I want it to mean genuinely conserving that which is important and not throwing out babies with bath water. But so often it means going back to the old tin bath.
evangelical: this word has been comandeered by a certain type of Christian, often fundamentalist, even though it clearly refers to what is a requirement for all christians to spread the gospel. So the word evangelical has been comandeered by some whose style of evangelism is often heavy handed and very manipulative; not values I would readily associate with the gospel
pro-life: sympathetic to a conservative (see above) view of abortion, which sees it not as a day to day strategy but a last port of call, the pro-life (anti abortion) movement is often anything but respectful of the life of those who are affected by the process of decision making about abortion. Women faced with this awful decision are often caricatured as demons incarnate,instead of being viewed compassionately and not merely as political footballs
pro-choice: much of what is said above could also be said about the misuse of the term pro-choice. What worries conservatives (see above) like me, is that pro-choice doesn't always engender careful choice, it may create an indifference and carelessness whioch has no true choice in it at all
traditional: I have within the bounds of my parish a church which styles itself a church of "The Traditional Anglican Communion". They are a breakaway church and by no stretch of the imagination part of the Anglican Communion. Though Archbishop Rowan is kind to these people they are not part of the Anglican Communion. If it wasn't for the fact that it would be a terrible waste of money, someone should take them to court for misleading advertising. Traditional, it would seem to me, has much the same sort of emphasis as the word "conservative" (see above), but is used to mean reactionary, and bizarrely conservative. It hails back to a time in Anglican life when some longed for the establishment of a fanciful type of pseudo Roman Catholicism.
Further it betrays the Anglican sense of "tradition", which has been a tradition of tolerance, openness and living with difference. The mis-named Traditional Anglican Communion, are against the ordination of women, they are authoritarian and regressive. Pity that their energy couldn't be better directed
anglican: we are involved in a struggle at the moment in who can be and who can't be Anglican. Where is the traditional tolerance of extremes? It disturbs some of us that conservative forces are so flexing their muscles that they want to to be intolerant rather intolerant. The justifications are curious..we are big and successful (questionable), we are conservative and traditional (questionable), therefore there is no place for those who are trying to actively dialogue with modern social questions in particular (and surprise surprise) the place of homosexuals in the life of the church.

There are many other words that have the same worry for me (christian, labour, democrat, gay, advanced)

Why can't we just say what we mean?

changing times

You will have noticed from my previous blog about petrol prices (here) that there is a certain volatility at the moment. The icon that appears in that blog actually changes to show price fluctuations in Adelaide N, S, E & W. An entertainment in itself.
Yesterday I saw petrol prices at 135.5, at 119.9,reduced to 115.9 with a voucher and then 123.3, and this morning it's gone back to 129.9
Now call me brain dead and give me a plastic carrot for my rabbit, but surely world petrol pricers don't fluctuate like this in the course of 24 hours.

Distraction

Blogging is hard work. Ever conscious of you dear reader, I do not want to keep going on about the same thing. Indeed the logical thing to cheer or bemoan, viz. the low state of debate amongst our pollies, is actually a bit tiresome. Roll on the election.
And then there's the state of the church. As a loyal son of the church since the day of my birth I find myself alarmed when I wonder if I can stick it out. We seem to be so bureaucratic, unfair, remote, uncaring, old, and irrelevant...that it can be a bit depressing.
That of course is on a bad day.
Today was actually quite a good day. A tedious tutorial about Jungian analysis (I know, I know, I don't know why I was there either) became rather alive when people were invited to talk about their hopes of what the course might enliven. The touch of the Spirit was tangible.
Now, off to do the evening run. Another day has almost gone.
Another blog will be needed tomorrow!

Call me incredulous

I love the Sunday political interviews; obviously with nothing better to do (why don't you go to church you alleged Christians?) they do the rounds of interviews snippets of which are then replayed on various news bulletins short of genuine stories. {I know from my days as a Synod Media Officer that I used to love Sundays and desperately hoped no one would get eaten by a shark and so gazump us on the 6 oçlock news).
Any way this morning we see the Rudd-slurring machine was out in full force.
First doubt was cast on Kevin's version fo what happened to his family when he was a child. Did they get evicted from their farm or not. Now, anyone knows that we get curious ideas of what may or may not have happened. When a parent dies and you share stories with your siblings you often realise that you often have a different perspective. You may even, because of youth, totally misunderstand things. Now that is different for example than lying about whether or not you actually got a PhD, or stretching the truth about whether or not you avoided military service (as Mr Bush appears to have done). So let's get real fellahs and start talking about this guy is on about, not about how naive he was when he was 10.
Ah say the aptly named Abbot and Costello's of this world with their mate Alex (yes the one who likes to wear tights and high heels) but it goes to the fact of whether you can trust him.
So push me over and make me eat a banana covered in mustard if yesterday I didn't hear also Costello and Downer say two of the most bizarre things I have heard in this current round of mud-slinging.
Costello: Nobody's hurled more mud in the Parliament than Mr Rudd.
WRONG- You Mr Costello are mud thrower extraordinaire!
Downer: This is a man who will say absolutely anything to get elected
WRONG-You Mr Downer will say, and are saying, anything.

What has caused this total distortion of the truth? The truth is they have been in office too long and have begun believing their own version of reality. It is a strange (forgive me if I have told you this before) I met Downer briefly a couple of times at school functions. In one conversation when he was pontificating about the Keating government I was surprised how vitriolic he was.
The things is, he said, they are so arrogant!
It's true PaulKeating was, but so was Hawke and Fraser and Menzies and who ever. I realised then that political arrogance is not so much a personal characteristic as a part of the baggage of office. I predicted that within a few years of election we would say the same thing about a Liberal government. It is called, I suspect, hubris.

We are witnessing political game playing at its absolute worst when the mud thrower extraordinaire will accuse his opponent of his own most obvious fault. And when the mouth in fish net stockings will likewise accuse the same of saying anything to get elected.
Surely, as titillating as this is, the electorate must demand more of its politicians than this demeaning name calling which says more about the absuers than the absued.

Worth the effort

I had conversation with two fellow blokes the other day "Are you going to anything at the Fringe?" I was pleased to tell them I was. But when I returned the question, turned out they weren't.
What do you make of that? We sort of like the idea but we don't do anything about it.

Any way if you want to go to something that you wouldn't normally go to I enjoyed The Prisoner's Dilemma last night. A curious intercative play...I got to shine a torch and shout out, and then finally to stare one of the actors down...I think I won. It does remind me that theatre needs to be engaging rather than light.
I got free tickets, so I'm now repaying the favour if you're looking to see something that you wouldn't go to. On the other hand also got free tickets to Soul Therapy some bands at the Fad Bar....can you imagine me on a Saturday night. We go there like half an hour before the show is due to start, sit around and people flood in and out, some go upstairs. There is another show at the same time which means ours will not be starting till an hour after the advertised time!!! Well I'm too old to be up after 11, so we went home.

One hit out of 2 wasn't bad.
Perhaps 2 hits out of 3...because we saw excellent trapezing in the (free) Garden of Unearthly Delights.

The council also need to employ somebody to empty overflowing rubbish bins on a Saturday during a major Festival!

World Music

The phenomenon that is WOMAD, or World Music Adelaide has begun to unfold tonight. Indeed Adelaide is in the grips of Fringe Fever and Music Fever, almost too much to bear.
The Big Boss (His Archepiscopiensis) said to me tonight (he who grew up in the sticks of NSW where it is cooooold oh so coooold, and who lived in Canberrra where the cold night frosts freeze even the brass monkeys...well that's another question....and then went to be Bishop of Gippsland...WHAT land? I hear you say. A beautiful but rugged land of hard working people in a rough, rough climate......ask the fishermen)...well any way he said to me...how long can you go on having such perfect days?
Ahhh Yes I said as I looked far away (thinking of Europe in 7 weeks time), this foreigner has stumbled on the South Australian secret. God herself dwells here. So she caresses the days of March with warmth but chills the night and the early morn, even the washing is damp on the line. And then, lest we forget, this continues to ANZAC day.
So this guy, you know the purple one, he's discovered the secret. It's fantastic here.
Amidst the season of perfect weather we festivalise. Arts, Fringe, Womad...so it goes on.
Back to world music. I was interested in a comment Andrew Ford made last year..."Why does music have to be easy to listen to?". Since then I have tried to allow music to challenge me more.
One of my good parishioners, Peter, got this immediately. Good thing that you are Peter, and sagacious with it. So it may be drums, or African, or Chronos/Kronos Quartet...Flat on your Bacharach or New Guinea Tribal.....let it infuse you. If we get the import of music, I suspect we get close to the import of life.

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

Only yesterday there was a report of someone saying that petrol prices were on their way up and would soon reach $1.30 a litre. And behold it was so (hence the title of this blog...Be it unto me according to your word! (Luke 1:38))
Mind you this wasn't supposed to happen until next week as (allegedly) there is a week's lag between pump prices . The RAA "put the companies on notice" (here).
Their media release says

“Any attempt to deliberately exploit an already vulnerable consumer market is simply unacceptable.”

Pre-empting the price rise, the RAA has been in contact with each of the major oil companies in the last 24 hours, warning them to do the right thing by motorists over coming weeks

BUT this morning I did note that our local Shell station had petrol at 129.9! I guess they are making a statement aboutu who isd putting whom "on notice!"
Oh and of course it is a Long Weekend! Surprise, surprise!

Petulant

It would be petulant to question why the air crash in Yogoyakarta yesterday has dominated the airwaves.
While it is serious, it is also a modest disaster in the scheme of things.
It gets excessive media attention because there were Australians on board, but mainly because there was video of the awful events.
Not so events with recent around the world...34 killed in a train crash in Harare, 8 killed in a helicopter crash in Austria.
I was also personbally bowled over by the PM's obvious intention to act with great haste to "bring them home". Not so others who don't take his fancy like David Hicks, who has become his politcial football

Wagering for God

There seem to have been a number of references recently to Blaise Pascal's argument for belief in God often referred to as Pascal's wager.
Like most of the arguments for the existence of God it seems to be useful for believers but not for unbelievers, therefore rather pointless from a polemical point of view, though not from the point of view of building up the faithful.
Basically the argument states (and it seems pretty easy to follow): Adopting a neutral or impartial stance, if you were to wager on God's existence on the balance of probablility then you are better to bet that God exists rather than the fact that God does not exist....because the expected value of believing will always exceed the expected value of not believing.
This might be briefly stated like this .
Two possibilities exist-God exists or God doesn't exist and Two choices exist - You believe or You don't believe

• You believe in God.-
  • If God exists, your gain is infinite because the expected value (salvation) is so
    
  • If God does not exist, your loss (the investment in your mistaken belief) is finite and therefore negligible.(ie.when you're dead you're dead) or
    
• You do not believe in God.
  • If God exists, your loss is infinite because you lose the benefit of salvation.
  • If God does not exist, your gain is finite and therefore negligible.
  • 
    

In both cases you get better value from believing rather than not believing.

This is a curiously self-interested way of viewing belief in God and is not terribly satisfying. In the end it begs the question about the true nature of belief. I would want to encourage people to have a more relational approach to God, and I would trust God to honour that commitment. (Pascal suggests this too)

To be fair to Pascal he only seems to offer this as a way of supporting belief in God and encouraging those who waver to take the plunge. This is, I suggest, the only thing that philosophical arguments for the existence of God have going for them. It's a puzzle to me, too, while there has been suddenly an incxrease in discussion of Pascal's wager.

Now, Pascall's lollies...that's a different thing all together.

American thoughts

A very interesting discussion (webcast) with Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA here ,about the recent Primates' Meeting of the Anglican Communion.
For those who think that Bishop Katharine is the devil-incarnate, or some malevolent force hell bent on being something or other which they don't like, this is a good antidote.
You probably need Broadband to watch this interview. General information here

It ain't necessarily so

I was loaned a tape of a talk of one who has worked in Bangladesh on and off for 30 odd years. Whilst still identifying herself as an outsider she had some interesting reflections to make on matters we don't readily understand.
She notes for example that when Carey first translated the Bible into Urdu he was unaware of dialectical variants between Hindus and Moslems. Which are significant.
She noted for example that Carey was advised by an Hindu and used the Hindu variants for theological language. Thus translating the word "pray" the Hindu word means to "bow down" as in ..bow down to an idol... which is of course anathema to Moslems , thus failing to realise that a stumbling block had accidently been put into place.
She noted also that Bangladeshi converts to the Way were not keen to be called Christians...because that word has about it the hidden cultural connotations..pork eater, drinker and womaniser. Another observation concerned some of the current political dogma, which I must admit has bothered me, and that is that the presnet political orthodoxy is that Democracy is the highest form of all government.
You could have a good argument about that.
But what is often now the case is that Imperialist US and Imperialist UK joined by the little cousin wagging our tail is now going about using the road to democracy as justification for almost everything.
We invade Iraq to establish democracy.
We tie foreign aid to the establishment of democracy.
We beg the question about how our form of democracy works.
Does for example American democracy deliver health care for the poor in the US?
Does democracy provide shared wealth for society? Or do only the elite share in that particular largesse.
Does 'democracy' mean that everyone can influence the politiocal process, or only those at the top of the tree?
Does 'democracy' actually discourage ideology and replace it with popularist dogma (bread and circuses) or patronising government (father knows best)?
We note that the US and the UK are remarkably silent about the lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia and in Brunei.
We note that the US does little to protect the democratic infringement of the rights of Palestine by 'democratic' Israel.

Yes, this lady has a point. Not unquestioningly she invites the world to be more open-minded to Islam, even daring to suggest that a culture which scorns drug-taking (questionable) may in fact be the onlky thing that holds out hope to the youth of the decadent west.
Ahhhhh, interesting days.

Curable Romantic

One of my problems is I think a tendency to Stoicism.
Ill understood, I think, I adopted like many Anglo-Celts a tendency to scorn emotionalism and to look down upon romanticism. This deprived me of a lot of good music for many years.
I only discovered Rachmaninoff ten years ago, because till then I had assumed that real mean don't listen to the Romantics. At a particular low-ebb I discovered the Piano Concertos and would listen to No. 2 every day for about 6 months.It kept me alive.
Even now when that driven beginning starts I feel myself perk up, so as I have mellowed I have become more open to romanticism.
Literature wise I am more impressed by over the top Romanticism, rather than the wishy washy Mills and Boons sort of stuff where everything works out well in the end. The outlandish stuff, however, has an element of extremism (always attractive to me) which enables you to get it into perspective. It being obviously 'unreal' you must look deeper for the reality.
This is what I discovered about Rach 2, look beyond the faniciful florid flying from one end of the keyboard to the other and allow yourself to be drawn into the narrative and you can be transformed by something more profound
So I was bemused this week to hear the youngest S in our family singing (too loudly because IPod was plugged in to her ears) "Taylor the Latte Boy" by Kristin Chenoweth with such feeling that it was impressive . And such melodramatic power that I listened to the words...really poetic amidst the mundane. Consider the chorus-bridge:

Taylor the latte boy,

Bring me java, bring me joy!
Taylor the latte boy,
I love him, I love him, I love him

…

You have to hear the song to fully appreciate the moment but it did remind me how maybe we can let ourselves be open to the romantic and be seduced by the idea that amidst the humdrum we might find love. Very incarnational really!
And you have to applaud a song that can get the word "caffeinated" into the lyrics

So many years my heart has waited,
Who’d have thought that love could be so caffeinated?
Taylor, the latte boy,
I love him, I love him, I love him.
I love him, I love him, I love him.

Little Miss Last King of the Year meets Bobby

There are lots of good films around. This is not always the case at Oscar time, but this year it is. Forest Whitaker well deserved his Oscar for his look-alike performance of Idi Amin, (Last King of Scotland)though the burden of the plot is carried by James McEvoy whose sickly good looks and prodigious talent have largely been overshadowed. (Recently in the BBC's up to datye Macbeth)
Because there is a lot of death, unfailed ambition, thwarted hope, betrayal, vision and heaven knows what else I kept thinking that Galligan (McEvoy's fictional character) seemed at times Christ-like. The idealist who was betrayed, not so much by people, but by lfe. Then I began to realise that there is in this production too a sense in which Amin is also such a figure. It is good to have a portrayal of Amin not just as a monster but as a victim. He is every bit the modern-day Macbeth and as tragic as Saddam Hussein. The revolutionary leader who believed his own lies. Very good stuff.
I have blogged elsewhere of the curious feeling of thinking that you are seeing Amin. It is good to see real pictures of the butcher of Kampala to remind you what he was really like.
In the year for look-alike pictures Helen Mirren is working hard to convince people that she is not Betty Windsor! Her portrayal is remarkably fine. More subtle than Whitaker's, but very deep. She captures the psyche of those of us who hold her to our bosom as our monarch of choice. (or fate). By this I mean, we want a Queen who is not too human but who is human enough. And who unlike Amin is not totally flawed, but who has cracks in her armour.
There is this beautiful scene with the stag (I am sure we will argue about what it means) but to me it caotured her humanity, she is broken by the death of a stately creature, but is not at all deeply touched by the death of the woman who betrayed her family.
Robin Williams has a not very insightful script to work with in Man of the Year about a media personality who becomes a presidential candidate and then through some mistake gets elected. He realises that he is not a president, and is able to escape. Unfortunately the current comedian incumbent has not made that realisation and is probably not going to escape! It is light and not terribly profound, but enetertaining enough whilst being 100% predictable.
The film that will be overlooked is Emilio Estev's Bobby, which is about events in a hotel on the day Bobby Kennedy was shot. It weaves the themes of the promise that Kennedy offered to America. How he boldly preached an end to internecine violence in the cities, and was urging America to become the generous and compassionate country it longed to be. It is easy to see that it was Robert, and not John F who was the brains behind the Kennedy outfit.
There is a sense is which when he is shot...for heaven knows what reason, we see American Society making a choice to be mean and violent. That course flow through to today.
The explanation is simplistic, but the ideas I think entice us to toy with the idea of what a generous vision was lost. Important insights I think.
As indeed are the convoluted stories of Babel which links a series of unconnected events with a common but extravagant thread. We are all alienated but connected is a pretty imprtant 21st century observation. Played out on the global stage it is paralleledby the microicosm of Little Miss Sunshine which is about how one dysfunctional family (at one stage described as...you're gay, your'e a drug addict, you're divorced, you attempted suicide and you're bankrupt...yes all the modern themes!!)...on a road trip in a bashed up comby van which doesn't stop, and needs to be push-started...well I thought the ending was OK, but my kids thought it was great. The more I think about it, the more I realise it is good!!

A VERITABLE CORNUCOPIA

Weekly curiosities

In a mixed week there are numerous things to think about as it draws to a close. As with all these things they are of mixed importance and quality, but here goes:

• In a week in which it looked as though we were having real political debate in the Federal Parliament we descended into name calling. I was enjoying the toing and froing about what is happening with regard to the war in Iraq, and the coal vs.nuclear power debate.
• BUT inevitably when the Opposition started to make inroads we now find ourselves discussing why Mr Squeaky Clean Rudd was meeting with Mr Nasty Western Australia Burke. Well done to Rudd for not trying to brazen it out but rather to admit that it was a mistake. I don't imagine the electorate will be so forgiving.
• The arrival of Ms Maxine McKew on the scene has brought a little leaven to the lump. One can only think that the next election will be more interesting with her presence along with Malcolm Turnbull, and Peter Garrett. My great fear is that these high-calibre high-profile won't become disillusioned with the ridiculous antics of the pollies which the Costellos, Albaneses, Pines, Abbotts and Swanns of this world seem so skilled at.
• Surprise, surprise the solution to our water problems..The Wellington Weir..which was going to cost $20 million (not!) is now going to cost six times that and indeed as it is supposed to be removed..it is going to cost more than the original cost to remove!!

• Further conversatioin with ecumenical colleagues yesterday clearly demonstrated that everyone was experiencing a massive increase in off the street callers seeking handouts . One of my fellow ministers made the observation that recent publicity about central city agencies (eg. The Magdalene Centre, and other agencies) having nothing on the shelves may well have precipitated this. I doubt an exact correlation but it is a contributing factor. It raises the question about what is the nature of our Brave New World which is now having systemic dysfunction flowing through to me!...I suppose I need to grow up and stopping being so naive.

• I had the curious experience in trying to deal with the after effects of the fire at St John's of seeking to ensure that things proceeded apace. My goal has been to try and ensure that everything like this happens twice as fast as it has normally done. [This might mean that things get done at only slightly slower than it should actually take] Part of this involved making an appointment with a senior churchman who needed to be consulted about changes that may need to be made. It took ten days to finalise the actual appointment time. In my last discussion with his secretary I was offered two times, one of which was a semi-spontaneous offerto appear on a Sunday morning. It seemed strange to me that in grappling with getting a time, such a prime time was being offered ...normally we would want to be more prpeared. Maybe we shouldn't need to be. But that's sort of the way it goes. When honoured guests come to visit you want to do it right. Changing times.
• Also I have been having thoughts and some preliminary discussions about the desire of another Anglican parish wanting to plant a congregation within the parish I serve. (Not wanting to join our parish but be separate).The more I think about this, the more it troubles me. We are having a fundamental shift in the name of trying to find modern responses to changed circumstances. As with all these things we need to be pretty careful about babies and bath water
  

• Further, and more importantly we have another family baby to protect. Zara (new great niece) is presently staying at the Adelaide Hilton. These days its cheaper to keep mother and baby in luxury than in the hospital!! Crikey Moshe!! Hope mother and baby don't get thrown out with the spa water!
  

On being charitable

I've written before about the dilemma we find ourselves in when confronted with the need to be charitable (here). I understand that you cannot win. Even when you are generous you will often have the nagging doubt that you have just fallen into someone's trap. So I try to sit lightly with the whole idea of what to do when people come-a-knocking.
A curious series of event has taken place in the last couple of days. I was approached by a person who dropped-in for some help. This happens from time to time, maybe one or two a month. He seemed genuine enough so I gave him a small amount of money. [ It was Ash Wednesday and I had just read about giving to the poor...it all seemed a bit too spooky].
Let me make it clear. In my mind a small amount of money solves little. It makes the problem go away, and he did.

[By way of sidetrack I had a colleague whose reponse to any such request was ...I give everyone $5, that's what I tell them "we give $5!!"... the most that can be said about such a strategy is that it does indeed make the problem go away. In fact you don't actually have to intersect with the depth of the problem at all because ....we give everyone $5!]

So back to the tale. I gave P small amount of money and he went away happy.
Less than 24 hours later there was another request from another person, and my colleague did likewise and had also given a couple of cans of food.
Then yesterday I arrived home after the morning bus run to find a young man on the doortstep with a tale of woe. The story was well-rehearsed and he was even clutching documentary evidence....at one stage he gave me what seemed like an obviously forged Centrelink document...but what would I know ( it looked like a coloured copy off a printer, with the dates changed etc. etc.). He had health problems, he had food problems and accomodation problems.
I could help with the food, but in the end although he said "That would be great"he wasn't terribly interested in the food.
The story got more and more convoluted and I obviously didn't understand what he told me. (Clearly it was money that he wanted and by and large we don't even give $5 we just say no money)
It seemed strange to have a third caller in such a short space of time...had word got around that the priest was a soft touch?
I made a number of suggestions, and each one was met with "that won't work I've tried it"....while that is a warning signal it is also something of the truth.
I wanted to give him $5 and make him go away!
In the end he just kept pushing my buttons, (was I so hard that I actually made him do this) and what little generosity I have began to leak out of the bath tub of my emotion with each attack. He finally got quite angry, and I was conscious of a daughter asleep in a nearby bedroom. I was aware too that I was here with a young unbalanced man without any nearby persons and there were all sorts of vulnerabilities flooding in.
He made the decision for himself, when he walked away and shouted "Why are people so heartless?"...which is enough to push most priestly buttons! I tried to reengage and told
him again about how he had to access more significant help through the system (he would probably have already exhausted this outlet)....."The system is wrong" "I know and that's too bad...I agree with you...but it's the way things are." "Well it shouldn't be!"
He was now pushing my Marxist buttons! I agreed with him; and bar having a revolution there was nought I could do.
I was, as you can tell, quite disturbed by this encounter. In Morning Prayers P&I discussed this...had I made another mistake ...was I being challenged to entertain angels unawares?
She and I can certainly make ourselves doubt our response, we try to encourage each other to be charitable and open
Or had the word just got around?
During prayers another guy came in...who we made to wait because we were doing more important things!
"I hear," he said, "that you are one of the only churches that give out food"
The truth is that we had none left...it takes little to drain our meagre resources

There is no solution to any of this. It is a dilemma. Even if these people are rorting the system,what sort of system or society is it that has such people in it, and reduces people to the humiliation of begging.
There is much more to say...but enough for today I think