Tendring Topics......on Line
‘Where
the body is………
……..There the vultures are gathered together’; so
says St. Matthew’s Gospel – and the vultures are certainly gathering round Greece ’s
moribund economy. While top politicians
from other, more fortunate (so far!), European countries, deplore the
reluctance of the ordinary people of Greece to accept austerity measures that
result in 25 percent unemployment, abject poverty and semi-starvation for
millions, and early death for babies and old people at the very bottom of the
Greek social ladder, others are making a fortune out of their poverty
Ordinary Greeks see nothing of the millions of
Euros generously donated by other European countries to ‘bail them out’. Most of
that money goes straight back in interest payments to the European and
trans-Atlantic money lenders whose loans got them into their current position. These bail-outs are not even ‘buying the Greeks time’. They are just
lending them a little more time in which to make the money changers even
richer. I am once again reminded of a satirical poem by writer G.K. Chesterton
about a Mr Higgins, who ‘drives a weary
quill – to lend the poor that funny cash that makes them poorer still!’
One
lucky recipient of cash from the all-but-bankrupt Greek government is Mr
Kenneth Dart whose family fortune was established from the manufacture and sale
of the ubiquitous plastic cup. Mr Dart
is an American citizen who has lived on Cayman Islands
for years. The Cayman Islands are a
tax-free British possession in the Caribbean Sea
much favoured by multi-millionaires who prefer not to hand over even a small
amount of their wealth to the taxman. Mr
Dart’s very considerable fortune has recently been augmented by a cheque for
400 million Euros (£320 million pounds sterling) from the Greek
Government. They bought him off while
they still had a few millions with which to do so.
I
don’t pretend to know how to solve ‘the Western World’s’ financial crisis. It seems to me to result largely from fear of
what may happen. The most inconsequential events can make ‘the
markets’ go up or down. I am reminded of
the way in which our Prime Minister and his government managed to create a
nation-wide fuel crisis simply by suggesting that there might be a strike of tanker drivers. In fact, we now know that that particular
fear was completely unjustified.
Conciliatory talks were going on even as the Prime Minister was
stimulating panic buying. There has since been a settlement agreed by both
sides in the dispute. There was and is
no strike!
I
don’t know of a better way to organise our financial affairs more fairly and
more efficiently than our current deeply flawed free-market/capitalist system –
but am quite sure that there is one. I am equally sure that those very wealthy
and very influential people who are doing quite nicely out of the present
system will fiercely resist any attempt to change it.
Little girls are eager to ‘grow up’ and become
attractive to the opposite sex. Fashion and cosmetic retailers pander to this
urge. It is little wonder that unhappy
and disturbed children become prey to those who flatter them, ply them with
gifts (and booze and drugs) and groom them for their own purposes. As a regular blog reader colourfully put it, ‘Schoolgirls dress as prostitutes and
prostitutes dress as schoolgirls!’. I
used to think that children of my generation were expected to grow up too
quickly and that we were robbed of the best part of our youth by the war. We were certainly not robbed of our childhood
quite so blatantly, and with quite such potentially dreadful consequences, as are the
children of today.
Old Before their Time?
It
has sometimes seemed to me that in my childhood and youth most of us were
expected to grow up and take on adult responsibilities at a much earlier age
than is the custom today. Most kids left
school at fourteen, found themselves a job in a shop or factory or, in rural
areas, on the land, and began to contribute to the family income. My wife and I were members of a privileged
minority who stayed at school until we were sixteen and, for the most part,
secured white collar jobs in local offices.
I found a job in the General Office of Ipswich ’s
Public Health Department. My future
wife, when she left school at sixteen, worked in the London office of Unwin Brothers, printers.
We
both expected to hand over the greater part of our pay to our Mums. As a Junior
Clerk/Student Sanitary Inspector my pay was seventeen shillings and sixpence a
week (about 80p, though with a purchasing power far greater than that
today!) I handed over ten shillings (50p)
of it to my Mum, and kept the remaining seven-and-sixpence. It was expected though that I would save at
least two shillings and sixpence of that ‘for
the future’. By the time we were
twenty we all expected to be self-supporting and most of us confidently
expected to be able to marry and start a family in our early twenties. When, at eighteen I was called up into the
Army, my Mum and Dad received a generous ‘billeting allowance’ for providing
bed-and-breakfast and, with my two shillings a day army pay, I was better off
financially than I had ever been! Nowadays all kids have to stay at school until they are sixteen and a very
considerable number stay till they are eighteen and then carry on in further
education for a number of years. Some are dependent upon their parents till
well into their twenties.
Although
economically children today grow up much more slowly than we did, emotionally,
physically and – in particular – sexually they are expected to develop and
mature at lightning speed. ‘Sex’, a
mystery to us till we were into our teens and it forced itself upon us, is now
taught in primary school. Contraception
(something I had never even heard of till well into my teens!) is taught to
mixed classes. ‘Progressive opinion’
is that it should be taught at an ever earlier age. The press, tv and radio are flooded with
sexual images and suggestions. Teenage sex and teenage pregnancies are taken
for granted by the press and by tv scriptwriters. I remember an episode of Waterloo Road, well before the 9.00 pm watershed, in which a
sixteen year old lad, after a night of passion with a female classmate of the
same age, was commended as being ‘responsible’ when he urged her to take a ‘morning after’ pill.
2012
is proving a fateful year for Clacton ’s
Christian communities. Rev Anthony
Spooner (‘Father Anthony’ to his flock) of St James Anglican Church has already
retired and Rev. Chris Wood of Christ Church, URC Church, is leaving this
summer to take his ministry to Stowmarket and neighbourhood (the part of Suffolk with which I am most
familiar!). The Vicar of St. Paul’s Anglican Church is also leaving as, so I
understand, is the current Minister of Trinity Methodist Church and the local
Minister (Commanding Officer?) of the Salvation Army.
I
am sure that every one of them will be greatly missed. I shall particularly miss Father Anthony of
St James’ and Rev. Chris Wood of Christ Church, both of whom – I hope I can say
without presumption – have become personal friends. I first attended a Sunday 8.00 am Holy Communion
service at St James twenty or more years ago.
I had been brought up as a High Church Anglican but had lost my Christian
faith completely. However I had slowly recovered it in the silent Meetings for
Worship of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), of which I had been a member
for over forty years. Sometimes though,
I yearned for the sonorous words of the three centuries old Anglican ‘Book of Common Prayer’; hence, my
attendance at St James’ that morning.
.jpg)
The rather splendid interior of St.
James’
I wasn’t disappointed - but I was
very pleasantly surprised when Father Anthony, who knew me as a Quaker but knew
nothing of my Anglican background, invited me to take the consecrated bread and
wine of Holy Communion with the members of his congregation. Subsequently I was a very occasional attender
at that early service, and after my wife’s death in 2006 I became a regular
attender. About six months later I
revived and renewed my membership of the Church of England (strictly speaking I
had never left it!) and am now in dual membership of St. James' Church and Clacton local Quaker Meeting.. I find that the liturgical and sacramental nature
of the 8.00 am Mass (that’s what we members of St. James’ prefer to call it),
and the silent waiting on God that is
the basis of the Quaker Worship in which I take part at 10.30 am,
complement each-other perfectly. Always
I have found Father Anthony friendly and welcoming. We certainly don’t agree about everything (I don't for instance, share his deeply
held objection to the ordination of women to the priesthood, and I am quite
sure that my blog – of which he is a regular reader – must sometimes raise his
eyebrows!) but I don’t think that that has dimmed our feeling of
friendship. He has a great respect for
the Quakers and has occasionally joined us at Meeting for Worship. Then, of
course, he becomes for an hour, simply ‘our
Friend Anthony Spooner’. Rev Chris
Wood also has a high regard for Quakers.
A recent leading article in his church newsletter about Quaker values
and practice brought a blush to my cheek – I would like to think that we always
live up to his expectations! He too, has
occasionally attended Quaker Meetings for Worship and I was very pleased and
deeply moved when, in July 2006, both he and Father Anthony attended the
Memorial Meeting for Worship held at the Quaker Meeting House, to give thanks for the Grace of God made
evident in the life of our late Friend Heather Hall.
I have another
personal reason for feeling warmly towards Chris Wood and his
congregation. Before his appointment
and occasionally when, after his appointment, he was unable to be available at Christ Church
I enjoyed
being ‘the Rev.’ for an hour – but it
was exhausting and I certainly admire the stamina of those like Chris who have
to do it as just one of their regular weekly tasks! Nowadays a friend and I regularly attend the
short service of ‘Celtic Prayer’ held
every Thursday morning, and followed by ‘a
cup of coffee, a bun and a chat’ in the church hall afterwards. It is gratifying to find that a few of the
older church members remember my under-studying for Chris in the past. We
also attend a brief mid-week mass held at St. James’ on Wednesday
mornings. This too is followed by tea or
coffee, biscuits and a chat in the church hall.
The form of worship at St. James’ could hardly be more different from
that at Christ Church URC – yet one thing that the members of their
congregations have in common is the sincerity of the welcome given to strangers
in their midst and the general atmosphere of warmth and friendliness that
prevails in their presence.
I
have no doubt that much of this is the result of the encouragement and example
of their spiritual leaders. My friend and I wish both Father Anthony and Rev
Chris Wood happiness and fulfilment in whatever the future may hold for them
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