Author: mrgsponderings

The British

Benjamin Zephaniah is a fascinating and exciting writer, singer, actor who holds provocative views for some and inspiring for others. He is one of those people who you can’t just ignore.
Born in Birmingham, he wrote poetry from an early age and was attracted to music which drew its influence from the music and street politics of Jamaica.

Of his many writings, his poetry and novels are aimed at children and young people though there is a wider context in that adults are encouraged to engage with the realism of the subjects. Nowhere does he ‘talk down’ to his audience and he tackles the issues of the real world and its conflicts and struggles at a local level.

Outside poetry and writing, he has recorded music which, like his writing, deals with gritty issues. He was responsible for an early tribute to Nelson Mandela and appeared in Peaky Blinders as the preacher Jeremiah, “Jimmy” Jesus. He has what some would think of as radical political views but which spring from a desire for justice, equality and reform in our society that many feel is vital if we are to become a harmonious and homogenous multi-cultural society.

It’s worth following him on his own website https://benjaminzephaniah.com/ which gives you an amazing insight into who he is and what he believes as well as access to his writings.

His picture of our multi-cultural and diverse society is expressed particularly in his poem The British. At a time when we are faced with an unprecedented influx of people from other parts of the world, especially Syria and now the Ukraine, it’s good to be reminded that Britain is shaped by people of diverse ethnicity stretching back to the Indo-European migration way back in the mists of time.

Very few of us could claim to be descended from the original British people (except, perhaps, the Welsh and Cornish). Even our Home Secretary, deeply involved in immigration matters, has a non-British background which brought her parents from Uganda to Hertfordshire. Her paternal grandparents came from Gujarat in India. I myself have some Irish ancestry which brought my great grandparents from West Cork to Glossop in Derbyshire.

This is one of the great components of our diverse and multi-cultural society.
It’s probably what really makes us ‘Great’.
Our story from pre-Celtic and Roman times is one of assimilation which brings enrichment, occasional tension, but there is always the possibility of celebrating difference by sharing common ground.

This is a big debate but Benjamin Zephaniah opens a window for us in his poem. It has humour which is always a good way of presenting complex matters but its message is powerful.
As he says himself, at the end, enjoy

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.

Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.

As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.

Allow time to be cool.

Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.

Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.
Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

Benjamin Zephaniah

[Mr G]

Love remains

My friend, Joyce, has sent me this photo of two companionable swans, making gentle progress in the canal waters. They are contendedly together as love flows between them. The Caption from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is well known but perhaps less pondered because of that.
Joyce says that :
In these dark times, these words of love bring light and hope.
That light and hope comes to us through God.

During Lent we Christians are invited by God to understand more deeply that the Victory of Christ on the cross is really life-changing and that this change comes about not because of something we do but of realizing that God has done, and goes on doing, something so powerful in our lives through Christ on the Cross.
He has loved us totally and completely and through that Love he has drawn us into himself so that, as Paul tells the Galatians (2:20)

It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

In order to die to self and live for, and in, Christ we are, says Jesus, to take up our Cross and follow him.
He is not asking for heroics. He is not asking us to search for some impossible burden to carry, some suffering to undergo.
He is asking us to commit ourselves to carry the sign of God’s love in our lives. It is the power of that love to transform that makes the real difference
For that to happen, the Love of Christ must rule our hearts, our lives – come what may.

Many years ago, a young Russian priest was imprisoned at the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
Years later he was released from prison. He was a broken man.
His friends asked him, “What is left of you?”
“Nothing” he replied, “nothing is left. They have burnt out everything. Only love remains.”

That priest had discovered the one thing that changes every human situation and disarms every human conflict – sacrificial love.
Only Love remains – that is what is necessary for Christ to change the world – and he does it through us. When we abide in God’s love, totally, then, as we walk around the area where we live, it will become a changed and different place. Our approach to others will be different, generous, kind and joyful.

The darkness of our present situation in the world can easily lead to despair and a sense of futility but we are called to be, increasingly, signs of God’s amazing, long suffering and transforming love. We are called, in fact, to carry that love into all the world’s dark places and into hearts that have turned away from love.
On the Cross the victory of Jesus was the triumph of love over all that is not love. It was a cosmic battle to proclaim God’s power over demonic and destructive forces which threaten to swamp the world with evil, hatred, self absorbtion and oppression.
Against this darkness and evil we are to love and go on loving for, as the great mystic, St John of the Cross, put it so powerfully:

“Where there is no love, pour love in, and you will draw love out.”

[Mr G]

Cartoon by Charlie Mackesy who speaks profoundly through humour

Thank you Joyce for your inspirational photo & text

Damn the War

A Heart in pain reaches out to the people of Ukraine

Shamsia Hassani is from Afghanistan. She is an artist who believes strongly that art changes peoples’ minds and people change the world.

Over the time since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, that idea might not be as easy to believe in. It has remained, however, a strong belief and her art has intensified. It brought colour and appreciation into the lives of women who began to believe in themselves.

Prior to the Taliban take-over she was part of a movement in Afghanistan who were dedicated to inspire women in a male-dominated society, and, indeed, throughout the world. As a result women in repressed societies found a new hope. She taught creative use of art and her works, often expressed as graffiti or street art, is both proud and loud. Through it she and associates gave Afghan women a sense of worth and a depth of purpose. She taught in Kabul University and she has exhibited her work in many countries. Her message is motivational and challenging.

The Taliban takeover seemed to take all that away but as they moved into Kabul, Shamsai painted deeply provocative and defiant images which pushed the boundaries of her work into a highly dangerous confrontation.
As a result she has moved from Kabul to a safe location.

She has no idea what the future holds for women in Afghanistan or even for Afghanistan itself. Evidence suggests that, amidst the chaos and devastation of people’s lives and the crumbling infrastructure everything is moving backwards and women are losing the freedom to be themselves.

All is bleak and whilst Shamsia continues to paint her art as an expression of freedom and creativity, she is aware that the way ahead is far from easy.

As the escalation of war in Ukraine has touched her heart, what she has written below comes therefore from one who truly understands about the pain and violence and futility of what is happening in their lives. It has happened in hers.

No one can describe the moment, when the world suddenly collapses on you.
Ukraine, I feel your pain, I am also hit hard by the war. I feel the pain of your displaced and homeless people. I feel the pain of your children. I am sorry for what your people have lost and are about to lose. I am sorry that you are experiencing war and the endless pain that comes with it.
When I hear the word War I tremble. One cannot describe the word War.

I understand the current state of the Ukrainian people very well, I see myself among them. Escape,fear,displacement,hopelessness…
The loss of peace and short beautiful moments of life cannot be explained when suddenly your world is destroyed and taken from you.

For years, the word “War” has filled moments of my life. For years, I and my people have experienced the loss of friends, family and loved ones. We have experienced losing our homes and our homeland. We have felt the pain of migration, the loss of home, family and our homeland. The good days that we hoped for, never came.
Our beautiful past memories that will never come back, but will haunt our present forever.

Shamsai

She is currently working on a series of paintings which she is calling Damn the war/ لعنت به جنگ
The painting above is from the series.

Hope is in short supply right now but Shamsia is doing all she can to keep its flame glowing in herself and in the world. We can take inspiration from her and we can paint the same hope with our prayers.

Prayer is never something we should do because there is nothing else. Prayer should be the first thing we do because it brings us into the heart of God and therefore shapes all other responses. It opens us to a reservoir of true hope which feeds our actions for others who are in desperate need.

[Mr G]

Peace is a choice

Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell spoke about the situation in Ukraine, in the debate held
in the House of Lords in theBritish Parliament, on Friday.
Here is the text of what he said….

My Lords you may have seen that the Archbishop of Canterbury and I have already spoken about the unprovoked attack on Ukraine as an act of great evil. This is a dark hour for Europe. We have called on Anglican churches to make this coming Sunday a day of prayer for peace and on Tuesday encourage parishes to join with the Anglican diocese in Europe in prayer at 6 pm, especially for those who minister and witness for peace in Ukraine itself where we have chaplaincies and minister alongside other denominations and faith communities. We are all invited to join with Pope Francis in making Ash Wednesday a day of fasting and prayer for peace.

Perhaps in the west, we have taken peace for granted. The horrors being visited on Ukraine must be a wake-up call for us that peace is something you need to work at. What is happening in Ukraine is truly shocking, but, sadly it is not surprising. We have seen it coming. Ukraine now stands alone, unprotected by the treaties that protect us and allow us to believe that peace is a normal state of affairs.

But it isn’t.

Peace is a choice. It is a decision that we need to make each day about the way we live and about our responsibilities to and with our neighbour, be that in our family, in our local community, or between the nations of the world. And we need the policies, the wisdom, the tenacity and the international resolve that will deliver it.

Previous generations knew this. They knew it, because they had experienced the horrors of war that most of us haven’t.

In the post-war period we invested in international bodies and associations that would bind us to each other. In 1950, for instance, Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, said when announcing a plan to pool coal and steel production, that the plan was motivated so that solidarity in production would make war between France and Germany “not only unthinkable, but materially impossible.”

But Ukraine is not defended by NATO. What we have seen from Vladimir Putin in the last few days is a terrible, flagrant disregard of the Ukrainian people’s legitimate right to self-determination. As the noble Lady Baroness Goldie has put it, he has chosen war.

Right now, as well as generous, humanitarian aid and support for refugees, about which I hope the minister will say more in his summing up – we need to know what is happening – we must use all our diplomatic muscle and energy, stringent economic sanctions, and focused political will to force Russia to step back from this aggression, withdraw its troops and silence the guns, not least because effective sanctions will mean many innocent Russians suffer as well. Our actions must be swift and cohesive if they are to be decisive.

Jesus urged his followers to be peacemakers, not simply peacelovers. This is an important distinction, because it is a call to action.

First, in support of Ukraine, and especially the many innocent children and families, potential refugees living with this conflict and its consequences, and support for those who are bravely protesting on the streets of Russia. But peace, lasting peace, requires more. It requires a new commitment to international instruments of law and order, accountability and investment so that we make peace and choose peace, not just hope to keep it. The suffering of Ukraine, the imperialist ambition of Russia, our own acceptance that ‘immoral flood of corrupt money that flows (from Russia) through London’ has to stop.

And as followers of Jesus, we pray because we believe God’s grace has the final word, not the horrors of sin, not death.

But we also pray because that prayer will shape our will and will shape our resolve. The prayers of Christian people and of all people of faith and goodwill are with our government, and with all the leaders of the free world, as we both implore Russia to change course, but also determine to play our part in the active pursuit of peace in our world today.

A Prayer for Ukraine

God of peace and justice,
we pray for the people of Ukraine today.
We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war or peace,
for wisdom, discernment and compassion
to guide their decisions.
Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at-risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.

Archbishop Justin Welby Archbishop Stephen Cottrell
Church of England.