Skip to main content

Haass and Hopelessness, Leadership and Local Action

I've been offline for a few days... Partly holiday... partly the limitations of my computer having blown up... and partly due to illness... But I want to come out of purdah to make a brief comment in the wake of the lack of agreement in the Haass talks last night and what that means for Northern Ireland as we enter into 2014.
I'm actually going to temper my reflections, first because I have long since learned that it is a bad idea to really let loose when I am as angry as I currently am, and second, I am telling myself that this was always an artificial deadline and it is not the end of this particular process... Indeed for a long time now the mood music suggested that the departure of Haass and O'Sullivan would not by any means be the end of the process, as the parties had booted the issue of flags further down the road in the form of yet another commission... But it now seems as if all three issues of flags, parades and the past "need more work." The cynic in me asks "How difficult is it to re-write Eames-Bradley?" But I'm not going to let the cynic in me take over... and give in to the wave of hopelessness in the wake of Dr. Haass's failure to find the silver bullet for our ills.
Instead I look forward to 2014 with hope... It can't be much worse that 2013 (Ooops... Sorry, the cynic escaped again...) No, I do genuinely hope that the discussions so far will not be in vain and that real leaders across the political spectrum will take up the challenge to forge a better future for the children of this province... A future not focussed on defending the interests of one side or the other, but on what is for the common good...
I awoke this morning, not to the depressing news on Radio Ulster, but, because my wife re-tuned my bedside radio on Christmas morning to escape the inane wittering on that channel, to Radio 4's today programme and Archbishop Justin Welby doing Thought for the Day, at the request of guest editor Antony Jenkins, the CEO of Barclays Bank. In that Thought for the Day I learned that there had been no resolution in the Haass talks, but did so against a discussion of the importance of hope and leadership in the light of, not only that "setback" here, but also the violence in Sudan and the future of the economy...
He said: 
"Leadership is the issue. Leadership must have a vision based in justice and hope, so that everyone at every level is committed to change…"
Every level...
In a subsequent interview with Antony Jenkins and presenter Sarah Montague he was asked about how what he said about hope and leadership applied to the Church of England in the face of falling numbers, and he focussed on signs of hope in the church at the local level, reaching out to address local needs, admitting that there is sometimes a disconnect between what seem to be important at a national and local level in church... 
I think the same could be said at times of all churches... and in Northern Ireland.
Frustration with what might be perceived as a lack of leadership in Stormont may be at its zenith at present (and the blame-game currently developing does not improve that perception in my eyes... though it may bolster partisan voting come the elections next year), but the responsibility to build a better future does not just lie with politicians, and our hope is not in them alone, thank God, in whom our hope is ultimately fixed.
Rather the responsibility lies with people at all levels of society, and from my perspective, particularly in the church at the local level, to work for the common good... 
As I said in an unguarded moment a few years back in a seminar I was leading on community development and the church, if the church is not making a positive difference in the local neighbourhood where it is situated it would be better switching off the lights and closing its doors... I still believe that...
Good leadership at political or a local level is about promoting positive change...
I hope and pray and resolve to work for such in 2014.
Will you join me?
Shalom

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-