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We are all doubtless aware that the past months were not restful ones for the UK. The deaths at Dunblane and the BSE scare did, rightly, shock many of us. For us as Christians these events represent questions we must face concerning the meaning and worth of human life, our place in Creation, and the present experience of pain and injustice. Tempting though it is, we can not resort to creating for ourselves Christian ghettos where such questions (and the painful realisation that we may not as yet be able to find any answers) can be ignored. Cutting ourselves off from the world in Churches or Christian societies, confining the meaning of our faith to a narrow evangelistic call or to being ‘nice’ to other people, is not a full enough understanding of Easter Christianity. For these last weeks have been ones spent recalling the message of Easter: that Christ did not shirk the fullness of our humanity, but entered the heart of reality, experiencing all its joys and its pains, confronting the god-forsakenness of our existence and being crushed under the weight of it. Christ died and suffered as we do.
In raising Christ from death, God proclaims and commits himself to the promise of his Kingdom: the annihilation of death, the end of injustice and the arrival of peace. “God shall wipe away all tears … and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Rev. 21.4). Christ is the first fruits of this, in him is seen justice done, death overcome, and freedom; in him, too, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one … according to the promise” (Gal. 3.28f). Therefore it is in Christ’s resurrection, the demonstration of God’s promise, that we place our hope.
However, the Kingdom is not yet. We are given Christ’s Spirit in earnest; but in contrast with our visionary expectations for the future, a dissatisfaction with the present is all we have now. It is this blend of dissatisfaction and hope that should place Christians at the heart of the struggle for justice, healing and reconciliation. The forestalled arrival of the Kingdom precludes us from confining our faith to prayer, worship, and the reading of the Bible. Such a personalised, privatised spirituality is concerned merely with individualistic present salvation and, as an understanding of God’s universal plans for redemption and his future revelation, is too narrow. The full vision of the Kingdom as revealed in God’s promise calls us to the struggle for the liberation of the poor, the exploited and those suffering injustice. Since in Christ “all are one” we find our place in the striving for the freedom and equality of those oppressed because of their sex, their skin colour, their nationality or their sexuality. There is no place for racism, sexism or homophobia in the Kingdom of Christ! The vision of universal reconciliation and peace in God calls us to end the abuse of our fellow humans and of the Creation we live in now
It is therefore of great joy to me to be writing this issue’s editorial. Its pages begin to explore the consequences for today of a hope based on the future. This issue therefore is devoted to Christian Aid Week, a time when Christians, remembering the future Kingdom and aware of the contrasting state of the present, long for justice to be done. In practical terms, we therefore consider what role we as individuals in one of the richest countries of the world play in sustaining international economic and social injustice, in terms of how we use — and allow others to use — our money.
Within the following pages we glimpse a little of the work of Amnesty International, an organisation which actually shares part of the Christian vision and works to claim the promise of God. Yet Nick MacDonald’s article reveals how such fundamental similarities can be marred by mutual misunderstanding. Here too we find a report about the Catholic retreat to a Benedictine Monastery which ought to make us pause — is monasticism not the most humble and yet most radical expression of our faith’s rejection of power, crude materialism and cheap sexuality? The vocation to poverty, celibacy and obedience flies in the face of our current mentalite‚.
Beyond Christis, the following weeks see Dean Akrill treading the boards again in the two-character play Not About Heroes which explores the relationship between the two first world war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (of whom Sassoon, the survivor, lost his Christian faith). Dean’s involvement must be a challenge to us as often ghettoised Christians to become involved in the many campus activities, especially the arts, in confrontation of the question of life’s apparent meaninglessness.
Week 1 saw the visit of the feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether. In a world where Christianity has largely followed contemporary culture’s idolisation of power, she is one among an increasing number of Christians who are trying to release God from the world’s images, particularly those that see God as predominantly masculine and utterly transcendent, who hierarchically orders creation and ordains its exploitation. If the following statement (not hers) disturbs, excites or seems strange, I would recommend reading her book to find out more, we all have much to learn.
“I believe in a god who breaks out of the boxes we place her in”
As many of you will know, week seven of last term saw the return of the ‘All Night Vigil’. It proved to be a popular event with many individual Christians from various backgrounds coming together to pray, worship and learn with (and from) each other. As always there was a mixed programme which included prayer time, arts and crafts , as well as the hugely popular CHRISTIS THINKER LIVE!. However, as with many events of this nature there lies the temptation to keep within our ‘Holy huddles’ and (as a result) not learn anything new or challenging about God, about each other or about the world around us.Despite this there was a genuine attempt to ask (sometimes painful) questions and to expand our horizons in the form of several workshops which covered subjects such as politics, Green issues and social action. I personally found this greatly encouraging, Christianity is only relevant when it becomes actively involved with world issues, an involvement which requires deep thought, prayer, discussion and questioning, rather than the Christian platitudes which can so easily emerge from our ‘Holy huddles’.
The vigil was just a beginning in this process, I pray that we shall have the courage and the sensitivity to continue.
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Last modified: 25th November 2005
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