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Sometimes I feel able to ‘blog as it happens’. And sometimes I have to think about it a bit. I’m going to post a bit about my visit to Uganda – but I’ve found that it needs more absorbing than usual.

Meanwhile on the way home, I took part in a 600th Anniversary Service for the University of St Andrews at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It was a remarkable piece of organisation – 2500 people were there. Indeed pretty well everybody was there. At the rehearsal, I found myself talking to a lady who seemed vaguely familiar. Searching around in the recesses of my mind, I realised that I was talking to Anna Ford. I think she is wearing better than I am.

It was a good evening – some wonderful music in particular. And it was rounded off with some interesting conversation in the bar on the sleeper on the way home.

I’ve been sitting on a plane reading Tony Fitchett’s poems through a mist of tears – rather as I remember my mother slightly indignant when one of the crew on a flight asked if she was all right. She was reading Birdsong – the passage where the young men write letters to their mothers the evening before the battle.

Tony and Bron live in New Zealand. Tony has just completed a term as a member of the Anglican Communion Standing Committee so I have had the privilege of getting to know him in London and recently in New Zealand. In 1996, Tony and Bron’s son and his girlfriend Rachael were tragically killed in an accident in British Columbia. They were on a two year working and travelling trip – waved off as we too waved off our children on great adventures trusting that somehow they would be looked after and would return mature and ready to settle down to adult responsibilities.

For Marcus and Rachael it was not to be. Tony’s poetry is extraordinary – an exploration of a grieving soul which both mourns and celebrates. I shall return to this – but here are a few short extracts:

Remembrance Sunday

I used to think I knew the costs of war –
of youngsters dead,
and families torn with grief.
Perhaps I did, in intellectual ways,
But God! I had no hint
of how it felt
to lose in violent death
a full-blown son.

The Comforters

When Marcus died
and all life’s framework fell apart
the visits of our friends, and even those
who hardly knew us
helped to hold
our heads above the raging flood
of dark despair
that bore us in its flood.

….. And great moral and intellectual courage as he refers to the letters and poems

poems from others’ dark despair
or trite, blaspheming lies
that see God stealing lives
‘because he loves them more’
Whatever words they said, their very fact
gave us support
and answering, in weeks to come
brought therapeutic tears.

Thank you to Tony for allowing me to write – I shall return to this
As well as joy
Elegies for Marcus and Rachael

Revd Isabel Dowlen, myself, Revd Paddy Allen and Dr Karen Gaskell. Karen and Isabel acted as Facilitators for the MAP process. Note my Casting the Net stole and Paddy’s nautical images

It’s good to be back. The Sunday morning drive has a particular ‘thing’ about it. Yesterday was the empty roads across towards Crieff – snow on the mountains – clear, still air with two hot air balloons hanging over the Ochils in the distance. Just in case you don’t know, we have advertisements in for Rectors in Dunblane and Kirkcaldy with St Andrews, St Andrews to come.

Our congregation in Crieff is full of remarkable people. They faced the challenge of buying a Rectory a few years ago – a big thing for them and the linked congregations at Comrie and Lochearnhead. But as sometimes happens, it seems as if one challenge faced became the beginning of progress in which others too could be addressed.

Yesterday marked the 25th Anniversary of the building of the new church in Crieff. We also launched the Mission Action Plan which whey have been working on as part of Casting the Net. We commissioned some Eucharistic Ministers. There was singing from a youth group called Potential. In short, all sorts of things happened. Best of all for me was the impromptu set of interviews which Revd Paddy Allen did at the beginning of the service – inviting people who had been part of the MAP process to say why it had been important for them. I’m always moved by the way in which people speak in moments like that – clear, straightforward and with great integrity. You can check out whether the sermon passed the same test

We have a close relationship with our friends in the Methodist and United Reformed Churches through what we call the EMU Partnership.

That was why Lily Twist, Chair of the Methodist Church in Scotland, and I made a joint visit to our congregations in Rosyth last Sunday. Our congregation’s church was part of the Naval Dockyard – when that ended they decided to share a building with the Methodist congregation in what became a Local Ecumenical Partnership.

It was a good day. The congregations work well together – the future must lie in more ‘on the ground’ sharing of buildings. More important is the need to share mission and ministry in the local community. We don’t do nearly enough of that at present.

I have decided that jet lag is a subset of man flu

If you haven’t strayed into the man flu website, it’s at http://www.manflu.info/

They say you need a day for every hour of time difference – which means 13 days. I had no ill- affects for the first five days after getting home. Two days of College of Bishops, a day meeting people in the Office and a meeting of the Standing Committee in Edinburgh – no problem.

The odd thing is the way it sweeps in and disables – driving in the evening is particularly difficult. But according to the day count, I should be almost there.

We’ve made our escape after two weeks of meetings in Auckland – Anglican Communion Standing Committee followed by Consultative Council. After that, one needs a little tourism. – we may not pass this way again, The weather is less spring-like than expected but when the sun shines it is beautiful – this is Taupo Bay on the east coast of the North Island. The beaches are like Ireland and the people are warm and friendly.

My new friends were preparing for the cultural performance at the Treaty Grounds – a celebration (?) of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 under which New Zealand became part of the British Empire. When they heard where we were from, they declared firmly that they liked both Scottish and Irish people. We had earlier visited Flagstaff Hill above Russell where the Maori cut down the Flagpole with its British Flag four times. The plaque said that this was due to a ‘misunderstanding’

And finally … even paradise has its problems. This is a small reminder that the east coast of New Zealand faces the Pacific Ocean and that there was a tsunami warning last week

Our time here began with the unveiling of a Memorial Stone – a year after his death – for Sir Paul Reeves. Sir Paul was a remarkable man – Maori by background, former Bishop of Auckland, Archbishop and Governor General of New Zealand. You will find the full account on the Anglican Communion website

Archbishop Rowan began his homily by quoting from the modern Maori poet, Glenn Colquhoun:

The art of walking upright here,
Is the art of using both feet.

One is for holding on.
One is for letting go.

That powerful symbolism was picked up last night by Archbishop David Moxon, Primate of the New Zealand Dioceses, as he spoke about the careful cultural and linguistic balances between the three elements of the Anglican Church here. Like many of us, I have been learning – and learning with respect. Yet is is clear that this careful set of balances cannot be an end point – if it becomes that it will enshrine a process of parallel development rather than the building of one body in Christ. Yet nobody can really say where it is going. Thinking back to my own experiences in Ireland, I asked some people whether they had acquired the ability to laugh about their differences. For that too has to be part of the journey – though I think that the first attempt would have to come from the Maori.

Archbishop David spoke of this as a dance – fluid, relational .. One foot on the ground and one moving. I like that image. It seems to me to describe perfectly what is needed.

One other question which I found myself discussing at last night’s dinner was the power of symbolic action. One of the things which we learned in Ireland was that it is possible to negotiate the substance of issues. But you cannot negotiate symbolic action. So there is something to explore here – particularly when for the Maori and Polynesian communities symbolic action is so important. It’s about finding a new set of symbolic actions which move the ground beneath our feet – even as our feet dance on top of it.

‘Land of Promise’ is a Report from NIFCON – one of the Anglican Communion Networks – about Christian Zionism. It’s weighty – 33000 words. But I think it is an excellent attempt to unravel and describe the various threads – political, cultural and religious – which make up the issues around the state of Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians. In that sense, it seems to me to be as significant and helpful as some of the material which first give us an understanding of sectarianism.

I was not part of the group which produced the Report but was asked to present it to ACC – which I was happy to do. I was fascinated to see how sensitive some members were about it – it required a redrafting of the Resolution before it was passed.

This is what is said about it:

I’m honoured to have the opportunity of speaking about this important Report ‘Land of Promise’ which, as Sue
Parks has said, is work done at the request of previous ACC Meetings. I’m sorry that it has to be presented on behalf of the group which produced it – I wasn’t part of that group – because it seems to me to offer a comprehensive and authoritative survey of a very complex issue set of issues.

As Sue has said, we’re going to give you an opportunity for discussion. Our suggestion is that your discussion should be around the question of what our response as Anglicans might be.

Some definitions first from the Report.

What is Zionism – ‘Zionism is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture which supports a Jewish nation state in the land defined as the land of Israel’
What is Christian Zionism – ‘Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is in accordance with Biblical prophecy’

What is this Report then really about? It does not invite us to identify ourselves with those definitions. Rather it is about exploring the complex of issues, religious, political and cultural which lie behind those statements – offering ways if thinking which may inform future discussion and ultimately resolution of the question.

Section 8 of the Report is particularly directed towards us as Anglicans – it identifies issues which we can affirm; it identifies views which it regards as likely to be unacceptable. Most helpfully of all it identifies issues on which it is harder for us to come to agreement. Within this section there are key understandings of the role of a God who is active in history; of the authority of scripture and of prophecy in particular and its applicability to particular places, times and circumstances.

There are too many for me to mention all – but let me just refer to one or two as a sample
There are three sections

First some things which we can affirm:
God is equally concerned for all peoples and all lands
It is essential to sustain a Christian presence, and in particular, an Anglican presence in the Holy Land.
The state of Israel is an established national state and it’s citizens have the right to live in security, peace and freedom
Palestine has a national identity, with a cultural heritage to be acknowledged and respected. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have a right to live in freedom, peace and security without military occupation or appropriation of land and to self-determination

And some which the report regards as unacceptable to Anglicans – reminding you again that this is a few drawn from a longer list:
God has given the Holy Land as an exclusive possession to any one community
Christians, Muslims and others have no right to live in the Holy Land because it has been given by God to the Jews
Prophecy as prediction can be separated from prophecy as ethics

Thirdly there are some where the report recognises that there are significantly different views held with integrity among those who hold an Anglican interpretation of the Christian faith:
The continuing is significance of Israel as a partner in a continuing covenant with God
The status of Israel as a Jewish state
The moral duty of Christians to support the state of Israel in light of the history of anti-Judaism and the Holocaust
The call to direct action for Palestinian advocacy as an over-riding imperative for Christians.

Most helpfully of all, it seems to me, in the light of the references which I made a moment ago to other places and contexts .. this section and this report take a situation of unbelievable complexity and offers ways of finding little bits of solid ground on which we might stand. It encourages not to see this simply as ‘impossible’ or as ‘impossibly conflicted’ but as something which might one day find a lasting resolution.

There is as the Report implies a universality to these questions which makes it important for us as a Communion. When I was a parish priest in Northern Ireland, the Israeli flag flew on the roundabout at the lower end of my parish – a sign of the instinctive identification of the Ulster Protestants with Israel. More than that, I think that there are parallels with every situation in which faith, politics and religion unhelpfully intertwine. That may be the sectarianism of Ireland or Scotland where religion seems to be at the service of political or cultural movements. Or it may be other parts of the world where Islam strives to create theocratic states and puts pressure on governments. These situations often are so complex that they seems to defy rational description and leave us helpless observers. This Report addresses what is probably the most complex of all of these situations and attempts to describe, inform and engage.

If you read nothing else in this document, I suggest you turn to the Postscript written by Archbishop Rowan. He suggests that the fundamental question which this Report asks is ‘what will be lastingly just for everyone?’. It seems to me that that is where this report leads us – not to taking sides nor to a helpless disengagement. Rather to an informed understanding of an very complex situation and the search for what is lastingly just

I commend the Report to you

We had an interesting and important debate today about whether or not Continuing Indaba can be expected to resolve difficult issues.

Continuing Indaba is a means of developing honest conversation – honest conversation across difference. The ultimate purpose is to strengthen and enhance the mission of the church – energy expended in living with unresolved difference becomes available for mission.

But I don’t think that resolving issues can be a primary purpose. Indaba isn’t mediation. Nor is it debate. Nor about negotiating compromise. I believe that it is about giving primacy to relationships rather than to issues. Part of what has caused difficulties in the life of the Anglican Communion has been our habit of doing the opposite – attempting to deal with difficult issues without having invested time and goodwill in developing strong relationships of mutual respect and understanding. And many of the issues which we face are not resolvable by debate or by win/lose votes.

But of course we hope that Continuing Indaba will help us to reach a point of deep understanding of one another that it will become possible to address and resolve difficult issues.

It’s just that, if we burden Continuing Indaba with a primary responsibility for resolving difficult issues, we end up back where we started – giving primacy to issues and not to relationships.