On Saturday, between 1500 and 2000 people took part in a march through Newcastle organised by the English Defence League. The march was organised before the brutal murder of the soldier, Lee Rigby in London, but this became the focus of the march. The chant that was used was “Whose streets? Our Streets!”

Earlier in the week, I heard a Sikh man being interviewed in Woolwich after the EDL had gathered near the Woolwich barracks where the murder happened. He said “These are my streets too. I was born here.”

I was not in town to see the actual march, but earlier saw all the police in their riot gear getting ready to manage the march and an opposing demonstration organised by Newcastle Unites. The sight of so many police, ready for potential trouble, was quite alarming. It reminded me how lucky we are to live in a society where such times of tension and threat of violence are relatively rare.

How do we, as people of faith, respond to all these events? The murder, the protests, the sense of polarisation taking place in some sections of the community? Why were there up to 2000 people on the EDL march and only 400 on the Newcastle Unites protest? Prayer, education and protest come to mind.

Prayer focuses our minds and offers seemingly impossible situations to God for whom all things are possible. We need to educate ourselves, so that we are not making assumptions or judgements about people in other traditions or faiths. Recently, a Muslim group held an Open Day at the Civic Centre and sent an invitation to MCC Newcastle to attend. Vicki attended on our behalf and gave a very favourable account of all that she had experienced during the day. Where we can, we can protest. Protest comes in many forms, from marching in the streets to choosing to shop in more ethical ways. As the psalms teach us, even praying – crying out loud to God can be a protest in itself.

As the story behind the murder of Lee Rigby unfolds, I invite you to pray for peace and justice this week.

God bless,

Cecilia

Happy New Year! Here’s to a year of blessing and good things.

As we start this New year, my ears have been assaulted by all the debate about the Church of England now allowing gay men in Civil Partnerships to become bishops, as long as they remain celibate and renounce previous sexual activity. This has been the stance for allowing gay men to become ordained for some time and just extends the ruling to those called to be bishops.

At the same time as this was going on, there were the announcements about the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. The Radio 4 programme iPM awards its own New Year’s Honour, to someone nominated by its listeners. This year the award went to Stu Thomson, a youth worker working on a deprived South London estate, to offer the young people there an alternative to drug and gang culture and lives
of extreme violence. You can listen to the interview by clicking here.

 Mr Thomson sounds like a very reluctant hero and clearly is very committed to this challenging work of turning around the lives of young people. What impressed me the most though was his motivation for doing this work. In the same understated manner he used to describe the day to day challenges of his role, he talked about how he believed God had called him to leave retail work in Cardiff and move to London to work with these young people.

At the beginning of the New Year, it was thought provoking and humbling to hear the story of a man so willing to listen to God’s call and to use that as a basis for trying to make a difference in the lives of others, no matter how difficult or
even futile it might seem to others.

For me, this is what being a Christian means. Hearing God’s call in our lives and working with others to make a difference. When so much of what we hear in the media just seems to be about who isn’t allowed to serve God, it is heartening to remember that millions of Christians all over the world are quietly working to bring a bit of heaven here on earth - today and every day.

May you hear God’s call in your life this year and may it be a rich blessing to you.

 God bless,

 Cecilia

Welcome to Advent – a  time of waiting and preparation. It is hard to focus on the still, small voice  inside ourselves, when there is so much rushing around and general busyness  going on around us.

This week I have been trying to buy a nativity set  for the church. As I have left this mission rather late, the choice available  has been somewhat limited. The sets that I have seen have been too small for our  needs, or aimed at children – all a bit too cutesy, or all a bit white. It is  curious that although our society has become more and more
diverse, Mary,  Joseph, Jesus and even the shepherds are still mainly portrayed as Caucasian  Europeans!

When I was a child, I used to go to a Saturday art class at  the local art gallery. One exhibition was a set of Japanese
prints, some of  which had a religious theme. To my complete shock, in these pictures Jesus and  his disciples were all clearly Japanese. As the girl chosen to play Mary because  of my long blonde hair and blue eyes, this was all just plain wrong. Jesus  looked English, didn’t everybody know that?

I once saw a life size  sculpture portraying Mary, Joseph and Jesus as they fled from Bethlehem to Egypt  (Matthew 2:13-14). The statue is full of interesting detail – the donkey  carrying Mary is chewing the corner of Joseph’s cloak, as he is leading the  donkey along. Jesus is sitting in his mother’s arms. Mary and Joseph have olive  skin and dark hair. Jesus’ face however is made a completely reflective  material. The sculptor wanted to show that Jesus belongs to every country and  race – Jesus is like all of us and is also unique.If we are made in the  image of God, then that is what we see when we look into this particular face of  Jesus. We see ourselves reflected back.

So many of the depictions we  will see of the birth of Jesus over the next few weeks will be stylised and  airbrushed. It is hard to really get a sense of the earthiness of the birth  pains, the baby’s first cry, and then the amazing visit of the
shepherds and  their story. Try and find an image that speaks to you, that helps you to focus  in on the true miracle of Christmas – Immanuel ,“God with us”.


God  bless,

Cecilia