Click on the link below to hear Dr Tony Campolo address the subject of Jesus and Politics. This sermon was preached at Harvard Memorial Chapel on 26th October and is a vision of how things should and could be.

Click here for the sermon

You might describe the video below as 'interactive worship' or alternatively 'When Priests Attack'
This from last weekend in Jerusalem - I think the most ironic thing is the Israeli soldiers having to intervene to stop them killing each other! I visited this church as a teenager and found it a perfect illustration of ecumenical relations at their worst!

The lads from Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys get Pat rocking!

My thoughts on the implications for the churches of the current global economic crisis - from today's Irish Times. Click HERE to read in the online paper or see below:

Tue, Nov 04, 2008

RITE AND REASON:The economy is dead but, in these times of financial freefall, what are the funeral arrangements, asks Stephen Neill?

IT WOULD be very tempting in the current economic crisis to jump on the bandwagon of hysteria and fear, and present a "return to faith" as the path to calm and stability. In the Irish context, some might say that this is an opportunity for Christianity to reassert itself.

The truth is, however, that Christianity is part of the problem! As the inheritor of the mantle of Christendom, the church still bears the scars of its prolonged flirtation with powers and principalities, whereby the Gospel that brought offence to the establishment and spoke the truth to power became a bastion of that same establishment.

Patently dishonest systems not unlike our failed global economy largely went unchallenged as long as the church had its own space in which to operate. Christianity, once the champion of the marginalised, withdrew from the margins and built walls around an increasingly exclusive centre.

And so today we have a church that is more concerned with its own survival than its mission, a church that has lost its prophetic voice and become an exclusive club rather than an inclusive movement. The frequently deafening silence of the church on issues of systemic injustice confirms a deep public cynicism towards institutional religion, compounded in Ireland by the clerical sexual abuse scandals.

The church has responded by retreating into a self-centred focus on personal salvation and private morality that has only increased its isolation and impotence. It is increasingly reluctant to wander too far from safe ground, concerned more with its own brokenness than with the brokenness of the people of God.

As part of the establishment, the church has not been immune to the global financial crisis, and is finding it difficult to fill the void left by the failure of global economics. Until last year, my own denomination, the Church of Ireland, counted among its major investments a substantial holding in the tobacco industry.

One of the strongest arguments for keeping these investments was their profitability, but at what cost? We are an integral part of this global economy that is in meltdown, and we cannot expect to emerge unscathed.

The church needs to rediscover its radical voice and present an alternative vision of how things should and could be. There is a model already. The Green movement is fulfilling a role in society that was once the preserve of the church. In a fragmented and highly individualistic world it provides a global community of shared values.

It affirms our interdependence and it calls people to concrete and often sacrificial action. With notable exceptions, people of faith are not well represented in this movement and in some cases are hugely cynical of it. Could it be that this antagonism is rooted in guilt, conscious or otherwise, that the church is not at the forefront of responsible environmental stewardship, or perhaps jealousy that someone else got there first?

However deeply repressed, there is a consciousness within the church that things are not meant to be this way. We are reminded every time we open the Scriptures that being a follower of Jesus is not about safety, security or respectability. Jesus spent his whole earthly life with failures and misfits, counting among his followers terrorists, extortionists, traitors and prostitutes.

These assembled misfits were the genesis of the church. If these "failures" could change, then there was hope for everyone. That is what the church is or should be about - showing people that they are not slaves to the past or to any system, economic or otherwise. To borrow a phrase from a once marginal American presidential candidate, the church should be about "change we can believe in".

When it ceases to present that challenge it is no longer a church, but a sterile and impotent body destined for destruction. The church is not the seat of power, but the agent of bringing God's love to the powerless. The current global economic crisis is about far more than collapsing markets - it is about the collapse of a toxic world view and with it perhaps, and even hopefully, the church as we know it.

• Canon Stephen Neill is rector at Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary

© 2008 The Irish Times

Sermon for Sunday 9th November 2008

It would be impossible to get up and preach today and say nothing about the events of this past week, and I am not talking about the events in Moneygall, but rather the focus of those celebrations.
Barack Hussein Obama, an African American man with a very suspicious sounding name is president elect of the United States - Just in case you missed it ;-)

Whatever happens from here on in, the world is changed by an event such as this. Regardless of whether he is a good president or a bad president, the very fact that he will be president changes the shape of the world. In a nation that within living memory refused black people the vote, the right to travel on public transport and in some cases burned and lynched them for the simple crime of being black, the sons and daughters of the perpetrators of such evil have in the privacy of a poling booth proclaimed their trust in one who was not so long ago ‘The Enemy’!

In his victory speech Obama talked about a 106 year old woman Ann Nixon Cooper from Atlanta, Georgia whose grandmother was a slave and who had lived through all the turmoil of the civil rights movement and now had the opportunity to vote for an African American president. He talked about the pain she had endured in her life due to the colour of her skin and in remembering these bad times in the context of his election there was a sense of closure, a sense of the healing of memories and the breaking of the chains of history.

Memories, or more specifically Remembrance is an important theme for many people this week. Today is Remembrance Sunday and Tuesday is Remembrance Day, a time when we call to mind all those who have died in war both long ago and more recently. As a observance it is becoming less and less politically sensitive as people acknowledge the importance of remembering those who suffered so much for a cause that they believed in, and in some cases for a cause for which they were forced to fight! We could get hung up on the rights and wrongs of war but essentially this is about largely young men and increasingly women as well who pay the ultimate price..... ‘Greater love has no one than to lay down down their life for their friends.’

So why do we keep remembering? We remember for the same reason that a 106 year old woman in Atlanta Georgia remembers; we remember because those who have gone before us live on in our hearts and in our lives and sometimes the healing of their pain and the completion of their story is something that may take generations to accomplish. One of the essential elements of our Christian understanding of death is that we share a fellowship with all the Saints, living and departed which transcends time and space, and it is this understanding of death which allows us to find healing for our memories.
But this is only half the story - In remembering what others have done in their lives there is a challenge for us to learn from these memories and act in response to them. That is what RE - MEMBRING means! It is a call to action! Not just words but action! Today’s Old Testament reading from Amos 5: 18-24 puts it so well:
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.


I cannot help but think of the similarity of this sentiment with the criticism of Barack Obama; He is all rhetoric and flowery speeches, the critics say! Well that remains to be seen, but it is a genuine concern - Will he walk the talk? I personally believe he will but if he doesn’t a lot of people will be very disillusioned - There is of course far too much expectation put on one man’s shoulders and the reality is that it is only together that we can achieve lasting change in our world. We are not spectators and words alone will not suffice.

But what motivates us to act? As a Christian it is a desire to follow Christ, but we live in a world that asks us to park our faith as soon as we leave the church or the home. It is seen as something private that is only to be shared with those who wish to experience it and it is to play no part in the politics of the world. And so if we are to compare ourselves to the bridesmaids in todays Gospel, not alone would we have no oil for our lamps but we would not even be carrying them in the first place. As children of the light we are only allowed to light our own little corner of the world!

But the events of the past week have changed this too - I am not going down the road of comparing Barack Obama to a Messiah figure - He is not that - he is mortal human being like the rest of us and there is a real danger of setting him up as the answer to all the worlds problems. Or Hope is in Christ alone! But in Barack Obama we find a man who is not ashamed of his faith in Jesus Christ, a man who believes that faith is an integral part of who we are as human beings and that we cannot turn off our faith when we go out into the world. Faith in Jesus Christ has political implications, not party political but political in so far as informing our respect for the dignity of all humanity and the creation in which we exist. If we believe like Jesus, that the outcasts in our society are every bit as important as the people of power then that will change our politics and how we relate to our fellow human beings.

Things are changing in the world and all is not doom and gloom. This just might be the beginning of a change in direction that is sorely needed. Perhaps it signals a world emerging that is not so antagonistic to faith and belief. On this Remembrance Sunday we remember not only the dead of war but primarily the life, death and resurrection of one whose story is our story and who has the capacity to bring healing and hope to a new generation.

This from RTE News:
The planned national cervical cancer vaccination programme for around 75,000 young girls, due to start next year, has been scrapped by the Health Minister Mary Harney due to Budget cuts.
The vaccine was to be offered to all 12-year-old girls in primary schools from next September, at an estimated cost of under €10m.
The HSE recently completed and submitted its implementation plan for the vaccination programme to the Department of Health.
But Minister Harney has said this evening that because of scarce resources, she will not be proceeding with the programme and intends to focus on cervical screening.
Around 90 women die from cervical cancer each year, making it the eighth most frequently diagnosed cancer in women in Ireland.
Two vaccines are available which prevent infection with the human papilloma virus, known to cause most cervical cancers.
In August, Minister Harney announced that she had approved the start of the vaccination programme following the advice of an expert body.
At the time, due to budgetary constraints, the minister decided not to proceed with a recommendation also for a catch up programme for 13-15 year old girls. Story from RTÉ News

So let me get this straight.....We pay our Taoiseach more than the American President - We waste 50 million Euro on E-Voting machines and we withdraw preventative cancer treatment from adolescent girls - We have arrived! We are truly a nation without principles!

Here is the song that explains why Obama is the new President!. ;-)

The tension is increasing. All day long the media have been descending on Moneygall and capturing the mood of the village as preparations are made for tonight's election watch party. A couple of satellite trucks sit on the side of the main street preparing to beam the good wishes of the residents of Moneygall to a land far away, but to a son of Moneygall who is close to their hearts. Senator Barack Obama is the only name you here in this town - and tomorrow they hope to wake up to hear that their Senator is to be President Barack Obama, the first Irish-African-American president of the USA!

This has just been sent to me:

PRESS RELEASE:
Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys (Ger, Brian and Donncha Corrigan) and Shay Black are pleased to announce that they have resolved all of their earlier differences regarding the song 'There's No One As Irish As Barack Obama,' written by Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys with additional lyrics added (by permission) by Shay Black and others.

Both Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys and Shay Black have posted their respective video versions of the song on YouTube.
Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys
Shay Black

Following a telephone conversation between the band and Shay, the band now know that Shay's intentions are sincere and that any confusion that might have been caused was not of Shay's doing. The band are happy to allow him to continue to perform the song and happy to wish him success with his YouTube achievements.

Ger Corrigan of Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys says 'We respect Shay, and his sincerity was made clear to us during my call with him. This is now behind both of us and we will get on together ensuring that the spirit of the song helps elect the great Irish Democrat Barack Obama!'

Shay says 'I am proud to perform the lads' song as my contribution to enlightening (and entertaining) the American voting public about Senator "O'Bama's" Irish roots.'

The band will work with Shay and intend to perform the song including Shay's verses with Shay both in the USA and Ireland. Ideally they hope to host Shay as their guest in Moneygall, Co. Offaly, the birthplace of Obama's Irish great-grandfather, and to hold a real Obama Fleadh when Mr. Obama makes a successful return to his Irish ancestral home.

Shay Black
USA: 510-393-7429
Shay_black@hotmail.com

Ger Corrigan
Ireland: 00353 61 330994
the_corrigans@eircom.net

I'll be there! Make sure you are too!

Click HERE to see the first major US coverage of the story back in early 2007

Now that it seems certain that we are to have means testing for medical cards for the over 70s I thought I might suggest the following (which was in a round about way inspired by this post from Grannymar) to make the experience as simple and painless as possible.  After all if we are to believe various reports, once we hit 70 we spontaneously loose all our faculties and become blubbering eejits wandering around terrified of anything that involves putting  pen to paper.

So what can we do to spare our poor helpless pensioners from the government’s latest tool of oppression, the medical card means test form, soon to be released into the wild?  There is an alternative and it is not just for the sake of the pensioners that we should be glad of it – Can our capital city withstand another attack by the Grey Panthers? The debris is still being cleared up from the storming of the Dail.  The remains of improvised weapons made from zimmer frames, false teeth and knicker elastic litter our streets.  St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row is being re-consecrated after the shocking behaviour of our senior citizens who had the audacity to use the Church for political ends! (Nobody has ever done that before – have they?)

This is the alternative: The two Brians will go on an all-Ireland tour where they will grab all our senior citizens by the ankles and turn them upside down and shake vigorously!  Using a previously prepared formula, based on the contents of the pockets of each pensioner they will determine their eligibility for THE CARD.  Any evidence of foreign travel (an unnecessary luxury), such as non-Irish Euro coins will mean instant disqualification.  Any pensioner with one cent coins will also face disqualification, as the ability to pick these up off any surface known to humanity is indicative of a dexterity and fitness most gymnasts could only dream of!  Pills will also mean no card – we certainly don’t want to give the card to druggies! Where tissues are found in a pensioners pocket a very dim view will be taken and unless evidence of a medical allergy to Lidyl’s budget 1 ply toilet roll can be produced this will usually result in refusal.  Though this process will cause temporary discomfort and a rush of blood to the head it will be less stressful than the ordeal of filling out the proposed means test form.   And like the proposed means test the ratio of 20:1 will be preserved, the only difference being that only one in twenty will qualify! Now isn’t that much better?

 PS: On a more serious note:

What the government did re the Medical Cards was monumentally clumsy and stupid!
 For a very small financial saving the government have lost all the political capital and credibility they had. However I think common sense would say that the universal medical card for 70+ should never have been introduced. It was a cynical ploy to buy an election and poor stewardship of the nations resources no matter how well off we thought we were!
 People are too angry at the moment to listen to reason and I think the Grey Panther march yesterday was about more than medical cards - I think it was more about a sector of the population who are increasingly invisible in our rapidly changing and disconnected society. However there are better ways of making them visible than giving free medical care to those who can easily afford it themselves. There is a lot of talk about rights, but our rights are of necessity affected and circumscribed by the rights of others who also deserve a piece of a shrinking economic pie. There is scandalous wastage in our welfare and health delivery systems and these need to be addressed but the reality is that if we give out free medical cards to the wealthy there will be less beds in our hospitals and less resources to help those who are really needy and marginalized.  Taken to its extreme people who need resources will die if some of these resources are given to those who don’t need them. If we all got what we deserved we might have even more to complain about!

UPDATE: Check out the excellent editorial in the Irish Times (Saturday 25th October) which puts all of this in its proper context.

A cry for help!
Not unrelated to the ongoing medical card debacle - Read this and tell me that giving medical cards to wealthy pensioners is justifiable in a time of limited resources - In the face of real need such as this we need to target resources to where they are needed.

Just saw this interesting sight on arriving home this afternoon. (Not a great pic as taken with camera-phone) The horse is in the field next door to my house - Incidentally in this same field the great Danoli, former winner of Cheltenham was born and was ridden by my other neighbour Charlie Swan.  I wonder is this a sign of future greatness - Not a betting man me, but one would almost be tempted to have a flutter next time he runs.

Just reading a church discussion forum which is discussing the lunar rocket launched from India today.  My first reaction was bemusement but on reflection and reading the contributions on the debate I think it raises questions that need to be answered by the Indian government and charities that continually pour aid into India. Are we subsidizing the Indian economy to feed the hungry or to fuel moon rockets? Whatever about medical cards for the over 70s (this is a major issue in Ireland at the moment), Lunar missions definitely fall under the category of 'luxury items'. Apparently dissenting voices are being raised in India about the government's economic priorities. We only give creedance to the government's skewed priorities by continuing to pump aid into a seemingly unceasing pit of despair. If the government of India puts money into space rockets instead of vital infrastructure this will only continue and the people will be perpetual victims instead of shapers of their own destiny.

I think the problem I have with this is the idea that God might intervene in trivia while ignoring global pain and injustice but it still makes me stop and think