Captain Kate

We watched a Swedish film at a NEOC weekend recently themed around spiritual traditions. The film was called As it is in Heaven. I highly recommend it. The following is a synopsis from a review. I draw your attention though to the solo Gabriella's song, a haunting piece of music whose lyrics reach to the bottom of my soul.

Gabriella’s Song – As It Is In Heaven    click here to hear and see the video Gabriella's Song
Py Bäckman
Helen Sjöholm

It is now that my life is mine
I’ve got this short time on earth
And my longing has brought me here
All I lacked and all I gained

And yet it’s the way that I chose
My trust was far beyond words
That has shown me a little bit
Of the heaven I’ve never found

I want to feel I’m alive
All my living days
I will live as I desire
I want to feel I’m alive
Knowing I was good enough

I have never lost who I was
I have only left it sleeping
Maybe I never had a choice
Just the will to stay alive

All I want is to be happy
Being who I am
To be strong and to be free
To see day arise from night

I am here and my life is only mine
And the heaven I thought was there
I’ll discover it there somewhere
I want to feel that I’ve lived my life!

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

Daniel Dareus (Michael Nyqvist) is a famous orchestral conductor who has always dreamed of opening people’s hearts with music. Daniel experiences a heart attack, physically and spiritually, and he retires to his childhood town in the far north of Sweden where he was bullied as a child. He buys the old school house and sets up his home.

The small town has a church choir made up of the usual motley normality of people. When they discover that Daniel has arrived, they immediately invite him along to hear their choir - just to listen and maybe offer some helpful advice. Daniel visits and it becomes obvious that the choir wants a bit more from him - they’d like him to be their director and conductor.

Daniel accepts the challenge and, as he entices the group to create music that speaks to the heart, he rediscovers the joy of music that he has lost. This joy comes at a price. As he develops relationships with the people in the choir, one of whom becomes a love interest, he has to deal with those who misunderstand his intentions - the priest whose power is challenged; members who falsely accuse him of trying to use the choir for his own "evil" purposes; issues of choir members whose personal struggles spill over into choir practice; the oppression of "true" religion. And most of all, Daniel struggles with his own heart as he is confronted by the grace he experiences from the people he comes to know and love.

As it is in Heaven is an absolutely wonderful, moving, heart-changing, inspiring story that was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 77th Academy Awards. When the film ran in Australia at the independent Cremorn Orpheum cinema in Sydney, it became the longest running film in Australia. I understand that it ran in Sweden for 52 weeks! The films success has been primarily by word of mouth.

The title of the film, As it is in Heaven, is a fascinating one which I have mulled over since seeing the movie. Obviously, it is a reference to the phrase in the Lord’s prayer, ’Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. The challenge is to tease out the reason for this title for this story.

Heaven as a place is never really mentioned in the film. Daniel’s journey towards the healing of his "heart" is full of pain, mistakes, difficult relationships, and emotional hurt. The same is true of every one of the people in the choir - they are struggling with hurt, abuse from those they love, oppressive religious "righteousness", misunderstandings. But when the grace of unconditional love and acceptance grips them, inspired by the transcendence experienced as they enter fully into singing and music, they are transformed - not from the outside in, but from the inside out.

The choir is a metaphor for heaven. Made up of flawed people who accept one another for who they are, the commit themselves to loving each other and lovingly serving others by sharing their passion for music. As they perform they transform the lives of others - not by imposing a false religiosity; not by demanding that certain rules be kept - but by allowing the grace they have experienced to flow through their lives and wrap itself around those who hear them. By experiencing their full humanity and the grace of others who accept them as they are they can’t help but pass this on to others - unforced, inspiring, and life-changing.

What is it like to have heaven on earth? Heaven is not about bringing about some pure, perfect, idyllic state where nothing "bad" happens and where we all behave perfectly. Heaven is about grace through and through. Heaven occurs wherever real people, who struggle with what it means to be truly human, experience the gracious, unconditional acceptance of the God who has reconciled himself to all people whoever we are, whatever we are.

The priest in the film is an arrogant, self-righteous, puritanical, controlling goody-goody. In a climactic clash between him and his wife who is a member of the choir the priest tells his wife to ask for God’s forgiveness. In one of the most powerful and memorable lines in the movie, his wife shoots back the line, "God doesn’t forgive; He has never condemned.’ The director, Pollak, has said that, to understand the film, we need to realise that the entire message of the movie is in this one line - "The idea that absolute, complete love doesn’t condemn." (quoted by Amanda Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald) Now, that really reframes God’s love! And when this love is experienced it transforms our lives and we truly experience heaven on earth.

Don’t miss this movie. Turn your video stores inside out to find it. Then watch it and let it work its gracious power on you - let God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven - God’s deep desire to love you unconditionally and for you to be transformed to love God and others, no matter how flawed, in the way that God has loves us.

At the end of the movie, one of the characters in the story sings a solo. One of the lines is ’I want to feel that I have lived my life.’ This, surely, is the yearning that most of us have. Grace is the only way to feel as though we have lived our lives.

 

 

On the 17^th and 18^th of March this year, I travelled with my family to Staffordshire to undertake a rite of passage. It is seven years to the month that I was dismissed from the military police, I did not have the chance to mark the closing of that stage of my journey and consequently found myself in the wilderness not quite sure of how I got there, where I should be heading and how I would survive.

 

Edmund Leach describes in the book Culture and Communication[1], the Rites of Passage in relation to a life event. He describes an initial ‘normal’ condition followed by a marginal, liminal state, which leads to a final ‘normal’ condition. Three phases; all of which are marked by rites, those of separation and incorporation. In my leaving the military there was no rite of separation and this left me feeling outside of society. For seven years I have slowly developed and grown in this marginal, liminal state. In my reflections, conversations and prayers over the last six months I have come to recognise the phrase, “dying to self and rising to Christ”. I have explored many paths and tracks, some have been dead ends, down some of them I have experienced ambush and pain, down others I have stumbled across immense joy and love. Each tentative exploration has moved me closer to the final ‘normal’ condition. This then enabled me to recognise that the time had come to acknowledge the ending of my military phase, to thank and acknowledge those who have held me in prayer and shared wisdom with me whilst I was in the neutral zone and then to mark the new beginning[2].

 

For the same reasons that I was retired from the military, I am not at this time able to hold a public or licensed ministry in the established church, I however have been aware of my vocational call since I was seventeen. I view and believe that everything I have been a part of and experienced since then has been a part of my testing, discerning and affirming of this call. In 2008, I asked twelve people from across my thirty four years to if they would be prepared to walk with me into the new beginning. The letters of affirmation from this varied group of individuals provided me with the basis from which to prepare for the final ‘normal’ condition.

 

The World Council of Churches, Faith and Order Commission adopted the Lima Text in 1982. It explores the growing agreement – and remaining differences - in fundamental areas of the churches’ faith and life[1]. The most widely-distributed and studied ecumenical document, BEM has been a basis for many “mutual recognition” agreements among churches and remains a reference today. I received this document during the course of my studies with NEOC and it became a way for me to understand my final ‘normal’ condition and how it is outside of the boxes for some, but that my vocational ministry is acceptable just different!

 

On Tuesday the 17^th of March in an upper room, in a small church centre near Tamworth, I attended a service during which priests from a variety of traditions, laid their hands on me and said prayers for my vocational ministry. I made my promises silently and felt a tremendous sense of peace, joy and awe. The preparation, training and experiences of my life, together with the knowledge that across the world (for friends in New Zealand and Spain were included) friends and family were holding me in prayer, seemed to flow into the hope and energy of the simple act of laying on of hands. This continued as we shared the Eucharist together standing in a circle and into the time of fellowship that followed.

 

On Wednesday morning, Emily, Elizabeth and I, made our way to the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) located at Alrewas, Staffordshire[2]. Here we walked among the beautiful young trees, surrounded on two sides by the living flowing waters of two rivers. The planting of every area of the site is as inspiring and moving as the memorials themselves. At the NMA, we visited the Royal Military Police Memorial. Here I laid a personal tribute to those friends and colleagues who have died in service. Amongst them someone who I owe so much personal development to and will never forget, thank you Colin and your family Trish and Alex, with whom I have continued to walk with on this journey.

 

Visiting the Armed Forces Memorial in the centre of the site was an opportunity to pause and reflect on the losses, the guilt and resentment that I have not always successfully managed during this transition period. To see and recognise the names of friends, people I trained and trained with, who have died and those whose deaths I had investigated or dealt with on operations reminded me of the passing of time and how precious each one of those 16,000 names on the memorial was and is, each with their own story. In the chapel stands a carved piece entitled, “The Story Teller”, the inscription reads, “The past holds the key to our future”. This was certainly the feeling that grew in me during visit to the NMA. At 11am, I was present in the chapel for the daily act of remembrance, unashamedly I openly wept throughout the service. That acknowledgement of loss of all kinds, the letting go and marking an ending symbolically. This was the rite of separation whose absence seven years ago, I had grieved and it was concurrently a new beginning for and a final ‘normal’ condition.

  My education, my formation and personal development continues. Challenges appear on the horizon and shadows remain in the background but I close with these words from John Newton the former Slave Trader and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”

I am not what I ought to be,

I am not what I want to be,

I am not what I hope to be;

But by the grace of God

I am not what I was.

 

Katie x

 

 

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[1] http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-faith-and-order-paper-no-111-the-lima-text.html

[2] http://www.thenma.org.uk/

 

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[1] Edmund Leach (1976) Culture and Communication CUP

[2] William Bridges (2004) Transitions Da Capo Press

 

 

[1] Edmund Leach (1976) Culture and Communication CUP

[1] William Bridges (2004) Transitions Da Capo Press

[1] http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-faith-and-order-paper-no-111-the-lima-text.html

[1] http://www.thenma.org.uk/

 

Today started OK, should have been suspicious from the off! But in true style it collapsed into a tangled mess of horridness and pain. I need to write right now, really what I need to do is sleep right now as the baby is asleep, however having laid awake, crying, ranting and experiencing what feels like an ice pick being driven through my chest, I need to write, right now.

 

I need to apologise. I know that. I have apologised on several occasions but I need to apologise again. So here it is, an apology from the shattered remains of a heart. I got sick over the summer. I got so sick that the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team were called to me and then had to continue visiting me every day, buying time for the cocktail of drugs to work their way into my system. it was hoped that these would suppress the over-whelming suicidal feelings and intentions that I had. I got poorly again because of a combination of factors, a change in working practice, new job, new relationship dynamics, my beloved spaniel dying so suddenly. I got sick because watching the news and seeing images time and time again of people who had been friends, peers and colleagues coming under fire, dying or in the case of one friend becoming paraplegic, because of their service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

I got sick because I was too frightened to tell people just how poorly I was feeling. I was frightened they would turn away from me, would ridicule me, would disown me. So instead I became hostile, I became defensive, I became unpleasent. For this I apologise to all those involved, hurt or influenced.

 

I tried to ride out the storm, I threw myself into work, vocation, college and home life, but all the time the sickness in me continued to manifest. I woke up wondering if I would make it to the end of the day. I went to bed hoping to that I wouldn't wake up. The physical battle this took has left its scars. I am not proud of this, I am not proud of the pain it caused others and I apologise again.

 

When I realised something had to be done, it was already being done. The first time I met the CATT people, I have no recollection of what was said or what went on. I know that they gave me something to sleep and I took it. I started to try and express what was going on round and round in my head, it didn't come out well. It is hard to express that you have given up, that nobody in the world can hate you as much as you do. So it was perceived as anger, sarcasm offensive. For this I apologise. Maybe when I rang my (at the time) denominational bosses in the USA and explained what was happening,  I came across as all of the above. That is probably why having made that call and thinking I had asked for help and support that I heard nothing from them for 6 weeks. I now understand it was all my fault. how do I know this? Because it wasn't just over there that things detioriated. Here I in my mind asked for help from the pastoral carers, I emailed the group's leader and begged him to help me, to talk with me, to pray with me. Five months I haven't heard anything from him. It isn't because of them, it is me. It was and is the way I behave. It is my fault and I apologise wholeheartedly.

 

I began to drive fault at everyone, I destroyed relationships and ruined friendships. I lost the confidence to tackle conflict with cushions, I took it on, head on with concrete and I am sorry for that. I have no excuses. I fought to save myself and as a consequence lost relationships and friends. I wish that I had been able to deal with all of this in some other way. I wish I had, had the self-esteem and confidence to say hang on a minute I am dying inside please, come stand by me, please hold my hand, I am frightened of my own inner power of destruction. Instead I was too frightened to do this, so I came out of my corner, punishing others not myself. I apologise.

 

When I knew I had done wrong and my befuddled brain began to make sense of all around me again. I walked away from the mess I had inflicted. I knew enough people had been wounded by me that this was the only thing left to do. I hadn't realised until recently how many levels of implication my behaviour had, had on people. I wonder how things might have turned out if I had been courageous enough to say from the beginning to the end, "Brothers and Sisters, I am drowning. The shouts you hear and the gestures you see, are those of someone who with their last breath is pleading for you to come, pull me out of the deep dark water of depression, to put a warm towel around me, and to stay with me until my breathing becomes normal, my temperature returns and most of all that you walk with me until I have conquered the now engraved fear of any water." 

 

Alas I am not courageous, I am a frightened, very alone drowned person, who right at this time wishes with all of her heart, things had been different. I acknowledge that I am at fault for all of this. I realise that I deserve the distaste with which my name is now spoken. Just somewhere in my heart I wish a lifeguard had been on duty to see the distress in the water.

 

For all of you who I have hurt, I apologise unreservedly. I no longer ask for forgiveness, because I realise that some people do not warrant it ever. I have to live every day in the knowledge that but for my own inability to express my pain early, enough all of this would have been avoided. I hope in time the scars will fade for all of us. I am thankful that the person who swam out and held my head above the water in those last moments, acted out of love, not under remit or necessity but love. A love that allows me to continue to try and paddle in the still, stormy waters of life.

For a long time now I have not had the space to blog, I have not felt able to blog because of a fear of what might be read into my meandering thoughts, emotions and feeligns. However now due to a complex number of factors it is time to re-engage with my none academic writing. I am writing because it helps me to express what otherwise would come out in a catastrophic explosion of emotion. I am allowed emotion because part of what God created was the human ability to feel, emote, express and engage.

 

For the last 14 months I have undergone a journey of the apophatic way. What has changed for me is that I now rcognise that way. God hadn't abandoned me, I wasn't and am not loveable, but God had withdrawn in a way that allowed me to move on, on my own journey, to become more the complete human being that I was created as. Along the way I have encountered the horrendous dark times, I have lost my beloved spaniel after 10 years together. I have been driven to a suicidal state by a woman who successfully took private and painful disclosures and then drove them deep into my heart and soul. When this approach had only a partially successful outcome, then my good name was dragged through the mud and those hither too confidential conversations were shared with allsorts of people and organisations who have used the information to fell the remains of my career and friendships. I wonder if this would be any different if this wasn't a church organisation and representatives I was writing about. I am drawn to Paul's letter to the Corinthians at this time. A letter which has been in the canon for all time, a document on investigation that reveals that church as an organisation cannot work. The common denominator is the human being. The human being from the very beginning of time has fought one another. It has seeken to jealously destroy others who they perceive as threatening or with more qualities than themselves. The very fact that Paul's letter is written in response to several (historians believe) communications from members of the infant church in Corinth, whining and schimfing about one another. is evidence enough that even in the early days, disputes arose in church groups and as a consequence of these, people were destroyed, their reputations ruined and their faith ripped from them.

 

Why must human nature be like this? Surely there are roles and responsibilites for each of us? Paul continues his first letter to Corinth with an explanation of the One Body with Many Members (1 Cor 12) and the Gift of Love (1 Cor 13). Yet then as today we find people actively destroying one another in the name of He who came and took all the pain, insults and wrongs for us. This Sunday I am preaching at 2 services on the theme of Saul's Damascus Road experience. I am using the Stand Up To Hatred, theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 which falls on the 27th Jan. I am currently battling an inner-pain about preaching this sermon, for at this time I am filled with such rage, such anger at the injustice that the last 14 months has seen my family face and encounter. This  came to a head this week when my beloved E was turned away from an open church meeting to discuss the vision and aims for the next church year. She had gone specifically because of a talk given on the sunday about including children in the ministry of the church. Did I mention this is a complete U-Turn on the stance taken by the current leader, who not 6 months ago stated to a mother of a young member of the church that any such ministry "would have to be done by the back door". E's excitment at this supposed change of heart is not suprising. Why?

 

On the 20th October 2008, we were blessed with the safe arrival of Elizabeth Grace, 'Gift from God'. She is truly the embodiement of Christ with us, the unconditional love, the not knowing of evil, the lack of malice and intent, these things have been the assurance to us both during this time that we are not alone. We have experienced such moments of total joy, total love and wonderment while all along facing the pain of these things from those who can verbalise that they are 'Christians'. I think we can truly all learn from the pure love of an infant. The reflections of Christmastide and Epiphany have reminded me of this so much. It was not the all powerful King Herod who changed the hearts of millions across the world, but a baby small, insignificant, pure of heart. Not meeting in a grand building with robes, hymns and servants but in a manger dressed in a towel with individuals seeking with hope a new way, a way of agape, of selfless giving. It would be this baby who in adulthood would continue to provide joy, love and wonderment to those around him. It would be Him who could stand up against hatred, without inner integrity battles and it would be Him who would go to the manger now rebuilt as a cross, willingly to save the likes of me from my own human destructiveness. 2000 years on, I wish I was able to stand before Him and say, "For the whole law is summed up and kept by all as a single commandment, you shall love your neighbour as yourself."

 

My sermon is below and I wonder if I will be able to preach it on Sunday.

 

SUNDAY 25^TH JANUARY 2009

SERMON ACTS 9: 1-22  “STAND UP TO HATRED”

 

Good morning, it is a great joy to be sharing my thoughts with you this morning. For those of you who don’t know me my name is Katie , I am in my final year of ministry training, but in a previous existence I was a military police officer and then a probation officer. I share this with you as I often find myself looking at things through police eyes. So just indulge me for a while as we look at this man Saul who we heard about in the reading from the book of Acts and examine the facts presented to us.

“Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1).

“This is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. I was so furiously enraged at them; I pursued them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26: 9-11).

“All this time, Saul kept up a hate campaign, promising to put an end to all the followers of Jesus” (Henson, 2004:258).

So what do we know about this man called Saul:

1.    Age about 26

2.    Small in stature, of delicate complexion, yet having a certain physical strength nonetheless.

3.    Born Jewish abroad, claiming his membership in the Hebrew people.

4.    Pharisee of strict observance.

5.    Having acquired from an eminent  teacher an exceptional knowledge of the Bible and the Law

6.    Languages; Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic.

7.    Marital Status unknown.  And importantly for us today

8.    For the past few months has demonstrated violent feelings and has manifested, with regard to Christians, a ruthless sectarianism

9.    At the time of this Event, was obsessed by this hatred (Decaux, 2006:48).

WOW here is one angry, hate filled mission driven man.

 This is someone who is an action man, someone who tackles those who flout the established law. He doesn’t just post a strongly worded letter. No he sets off to cover the 174 miles on foot from Jerusalem to Damascus to round up the newly planted and still fragile Christian community. To bind them and bring them back to face who knows what horrors in Jerusalem. Quite possibly they will face the same fate as the martyred Stephen, stoned to death for his new found belief in Jesus as the son of God.

This was someone who was setting out on the road to Damascus as a zealous man with a mission, confident in his relationship with God and one who has made a choice to act.

 

Acts of hatred always involve making a choice. We choose to attack, to abuse, to exclude, to stand back and do nothing - or we choose to resist, to respect, to protect. In Saul’s case he hated the Christians and chooses to protect the God he knows by going off to tackle those breaking the laws he believes in. No room for negotiation, for manoeuvre, for difference. It’s Saul’s way, not the Damascus way!

 

Hate. We think we know it, but most of us will never face it. Hatred is a corrosive force, able to ruin lives, wreck co-operation, destroy communities, or races, or nations. It is present in small ways in daily life, but it is at its most lethal in prejudice, discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia. In this lethal form it was the driving force in Nazi Germany, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in Rwanda, I observed it first hand in Bosnia and in Northern Ireland during my military service. And so it is in Darfur and the Middle East today.

 

Let us return to Saul, because something had changed for him on that journey along the road. The hate filled furious Saul didn’t thunder into Damascus. Instead a male answering his description was led by the hand into the city and though his eyes were open, he could not see a thing. He was refusing food or drink. All the fight and hate seemed to have gone out of him and he had no strength. What on earth had gone on?

Well something profound had happened to Saul during those three days, his physical eyes had been shut but he had been given enlightment about what he was doing in persecuting the Christians. He found a way of turning from a life of righteous hatred to a way of love. In his later writings Saul would say such things as:

“Love is patient, love is kind, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, the greatest thing is love”.

 If someone as zealous as Saul can be changed then does it not stand that others can be changed? We don’t know what internal thoughts and prayers went on in those three days, but we do know that through grace a man filled with hatred replaced this with love.

Today is the Sunday closest to Holocaust Memorial Day which is commemorated on the 27^th January, the day that Auschwitz was liberated. Britain today is not Nazi Germany, nor Cambodia, nor Bosnia at the time of genocide. But the evils of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance are still with us. We categorise, stereotype, discriminate, exclude, bully, persecute, attack - because of race, religion, disability, sexuality. We damage, and are damaged, as a result of our refusal to accept our common humanity.

 

Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 (HMD09) challenges us all to Stand Up To Hatred. It urges all of us to look at our behaviour to others; to understand how hate is directed against different minorities in Britain today; to explore how each of us can help make our communities stronger and safer.

 

Earlier I spoke about hate; we heard how Saul was filled with hate and actively set out to put an end to Jesus’ followers. In our world today there are people who hate others and their beliefs or who they are, and set out to destroy them.

 

 

Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain live with hate activity, individuals

are damaged by it and communities are scarred. Over the past five years:

 

• Johnny Delaney, a fifteen year old traveller from the North West of England was kicked to death - 2003.

• Kriss Donald was murdered in Glasgow by a gang looking to attack a white person – 2004.

• Brent Martin had severe learning disabilities and was kicked to death in Sunderland - 2007.

• Anthony Walker was murdered in Merseyside for being Black –2005. His killers spray painted Nazi symbols on local walls after the attack (http://www.hmd.org.uk/).

 

There are others who just stand by and doing nothing, the Irish Political Philosopher Edmund Burke is attributed to have said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In the rise to power of the Nazi’s only 6000 ministers stood up against the racial theories of Hitler, 17,000 ministers stood in the middle silent. (Friedman,1990:33). Good people doing nothing.

 

It is true that to do something can be costly, it can be dangerous, Saul as we know has this amazing conversion experience, he will soon change his name to Paul, and we know him today as St Paul, for he would go onto be exposed to prison, torture and finally he would be executed for his faith. In his conversion he actively changed from acting with hate to acting in love and especially to those who were strangers to him, the gentiles, the non-Jews. Those he previously had no connection with. He chose to resist, to protect and to respect. The man of hate, post conversion writes letters with such things as:

 

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, you shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Gal 5:13-14).

 

Today in Britain we can all choose to Stand Up To Hatred and:

 

• Refuse to stand by and allow others to commit acts of hatred

• Recognise the language of hatred.

• Challenge newspapers and public figures when they are using the language of hatred.

• Stop using language which is discriminatory and stop others when we hear them doing the same.

• Recognise when hate crime is taking place and report it

• Recognise that a crime does not have to be committed for hatred to be expressed

• Learn from history that the ultimate result of unchecked and unchallenged hatred, prejudice, discrimination and racism is genocide (http://www.hmd.org.uk/). If you would like to read more about calls to action look up the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

 

We have choices to make each one of us. We continue on our journeys content that we are following the letter of the law. We can stand on the side of the road and watch hate pass by and do nothing to challenge it. Or we can stand up to hatred, we can not only under go conversion, but we can be the catalyst for other people to change.

 

When our journeys are over, will we be able to echo the words of St Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7).

 

 AMEN.

Bibliography

Amnesty International, (2001). Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence. Oxford, Amnesty International Publications.

 

Barton, J and Muddiman J, (2001). The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

 

Decaux, A, (2006). Paul Least of the Apostles: The Story of the Most Unlikely Witness to Christ. Boston, Pauline Books and Media.

 

Friedman, I, (1990). The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis. Boston,  Houghton Mifflin Company.

 

Grau, G, (1995). Hidden Holocaust. London, Cassell.

 

Harder, J, (2004). Love Sets You Free. Spalding, Old Forge Publishing.

 

Henson, J, (2004). Good as New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures. Ropley. Orca Book Services.

 

Johnson, L, (1999). The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. Minneapolis, Fortress Press.

 

New Revised Standard Version, (1995). The Holy Bible.  Oxford, Oxford University Press.

 

Theissen, G, (2003). The New Testament: An Introduction. London, T & T Clark.

 

Thompson, M, (2002). The New Perspective on Paul. Cambridge, Grove Books Limited.

 

http://www.hmd.org.uk/