shotleyfieldsforever

  Eco Housing at Snods Edge: an experiment in conviviality.    During a long ministry of fifty years following my Deaconing in 1969, a constant theme in that ministry has been housing.   As a curate I founded a housing project for homeless young people, Nightcap, in Bolton in 1971.   I also created a guerrilla housing movement ‘squatting’ families in empty houses in my parish which were awaiting demolition for an urban motorway   I have served on both the boards of Church Army Housing (later English Churches Housing) and Hanover Housing.   In my work with Toc H housing development and the re-development of the property portfolio were a main preoccupation especially with regard to the Head Office re-location which was achieved through the development of the site into a sixteen unit housing development aimed at the over 55’s.   I am now living in the Vicarage at Snods Edge in Northumberland, in the Diocese of Newcastle.   The house has seven be...

The broad history of Brexit in the UK is a history of incompetence, lies, prejudice and an underlying belief in the exceptionalism of the UK, relating to its role in both WW1 and WW2, an Empire which had been transformed into a Commonwealth and a belief in the continued significance of the ‘Anglosphere’.   There are two reservations to be shared here, one is the question often asked about Europe best expressed by the statesman Tony Benn, ‘who elected you and how can we get rid of you’ this was particularly directed at the European Commission. The second is a particular view expressed in a pamphlet which I reviewed in the early 80’s which demonstrated how the rebalancing of power in Europe following Maastrict ``I believe, would create a strong centre based on the Ruhr with the centrifugal influence of that meaning that the edges of the empire would be poorer.   My own position is very much as a remainer, I voted remain in the belief that the longer-term future relationship of t...

The poet in me always seems to need to fill the white space with words.  Just as the raconteur needs to fill the silence with stories.  Years ago as a student in Salisbury walking home from my girlfriend's house to the college in the Cathedral Close I was stopped by two young men who demanded money from me with menaces.  I had no money so I explained that I was simply not in a position to assist them. They became more threatening and suddenly the taller of the two demanded that I gave them my coat. This was a more challenging demand after all I suddenly thought, what did John say: If you have two coats give one away! But this was my favourite coat.  It was a special coat.  it was a coat that I needed to stay warm in the winter so I refused to part with my coat. I chose to keep it. A risky decision given that I was outnumbered two to one. But risky also because I was a student claiming to live a christian life and in time to become both a leader and a servant in ...

Covid consternation, Covid confusion, Covid challenges, Covid and Church, Covid catastrophe. How did we start with Covid? Where do we go with Covid? Where will Covid lead us? How will Covid end? Impossible questions. It is fairly clear that it Covid has been handled badly. It is also clear that the fudge has resulted from a Government with its eye on a very different ball. Get Brexit done might, on reflection been better expressed as get Covid done. But no! So now we find ourselves with a problem that won't go away, won't retreat, won't retire. Chris Whitty the Chief Scientific Officer has already strayed from the official path by suggesting that even in the winter of 2021 we might be in some form of lock down. A thousand deaths in a day! More than Australia has had all year, and the next day the number rose to 1300 and the Mayor of London called Covid a. major incident, and we are now being encouraged to behave as though we have the virus. Covid is a pandemic that we are l...

Who are the Gabriels of our day? Who stands before us and offers the compelling thought that, 'God is with us'? If ever there was a time and a season when we needed the reassurance that 'God is with us' that Time is now. If the newspapers are to be believed, despite the Vaccine 2021 may well yet turn out to be little different than 2020 has been. And what a tumultuous year it has been. Two commentaries have suggested that the most unprecedented thing about it has been the use of the word unprecedented and another comment was that we have experienced not only a pandemic but an infodemic! But here we are on this fourth Sunday of Advent 2020 praying with Mary that we also may receive the word of Gabriel to reassure that God is indeed with us. As Gabriel visits an unsuspecting young girl, Mary, so may the divine visit us. May the weariness and disruption and furloughing, the closure of pubs and schools, the vicissitudes of so many peoples lives in care homes and colleges an...

 In today's Gospel we focus on John the Baptist. John is a romantic figure, arriving out of the desert, eating locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel skin. This is no effete evangelist eating caviar and smoking cigars.  He is not dressed in an elegant camel coat, he is not seeking to impress but he has a distinctive role in the story that is being told, he is as Marvin Gaye sang and the Rolling Stones agreed, a witness. There is in St John's Gospel a judicial dimension which allows us to imagine John Baptist on the witness stand being interrogated, as indeed would happen later after his arrest by Herod. So the leaders of the establishment ask John 'Who are you'? But John clarifies who he is not, he is neither Elijah nor Jesus. He quotes a biblical text, his is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. He also admits how limited his words and actions are, I baptise with water but the one who comes after me will baptise with the Holy Spirit. Testimony is central...