The
Parish of St Matthias, St Mark and Holy Trinity, Ilsham, Torquay,
Devon
in the Anglican Diocese of Exeter
RECTOR'S LETTER APRIL 2008
Dear Friends,
I am sure that it was no
accident that the furore about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill broke over Holy Week and Easter, and it was
entirely predictable that the response of Government and medical charities came
quickly after.
I have always been
reluctant to write about such matters in this letter, not least because, by the
time it is printed, and you get to read it, the situation might have totally
changed.
But I am convinced that
this is a matter that we all have to take seriously, because it asks basic
questions about our humanity, value and purpose. Of course, in a letter of some
650 words, it is impossible to deal with all the aspects of this Bill, and, if
you are interested in pursuing this topic further, you may be interested to
read David Alton’s book ‘Life after death’ (ISBN 1 897972 350)
The proposal to permit
human-animal embryos to be created for the purposes of stem-cell research
breaks boundaries. The Government has realized the emotiveness of this, and
decreed that the embryos should be called human admixed embryos, presumably to
disguise the true facts of what is happening. The medical research
establishment wants these embryos to enable more stem cell research to be done…
but the fact that something is possible does not make it right, and, once the
boundary has been crossed, how long will it be before one researcher or
another, wants to alter the amount of animal DNA included (in the interests of
research, of course), or to take the embryos to a longer life?
I believe that humanity
begins at conception, it is not an add-on at some later stage in pregnancy or
birth. To create such humanity for the sole purpose of research is, to my mind,
unacceptable.
And it is not even
necessary. I understand from reports that no significant breakthrough has come
from embryonic stem cell research, whereas significant breakthroughs are
reported almost weekly, from the totally non-controversial, adult stem-cell
research.
I also find the
Government’s decision to ‘whip’ the vote immoral, and the latest (as I write)
‘concession’ to ministers, that they will be allowed to vote with their
conscience, so long as the Bill is not defeated, (‘you can vote as you like so
long as we get our way’) to be a politically cynical and morally indefensible
act akin to Stalinism, that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
Another provision of the
Bill provides for the maintenance of the present abortion timescales, which
means that in the same hospital, there might well be two babies of exactly the
same gestation, one of whom the medical teams are striving at the edges of
modern medicine to keep alive, the other a different team is aborting. Both
have the same right to life, and the same possibilities for life. Foetuses are demonstrably sentient from 14 weeks (see ‘Life after death’ p25),
and a late-term aborted foetus will probably feel
pain, and may even be left to die outside the womb (‘Life after death’ p37). It
is horrifying to hear that statistically, in this country, the most dangerous
place for a child to be is in it’s mother’s womb.
In addition, foetuses with
a perceived deformity can be aborted right up to the moment of birth… and that
applies even to such things as clubfoot, web fingers of cleft palate… minor
things that are surgically routine to repair.
How far all this is from
the Bible’s teaching of a humanity known by God, even in the womb (Psalm 139
verses 13-16), loved and honoured by him and precious
to him: ‘you are precious and honoured in my sight, and… I love you’ (Isaiah 43
v4)
Edmund Burke’s dictum: ‘All
that is needed for evil to perish is for good people to do nothing.’ Can we
really sit back and do nothing?
May God bless you all
Dear Friends,
After Easter, I was
privileged to attend 2 conferences, from which I gained a great deal. Both
asked questions about the future of God’s work, both strategically and also
practically.
The first was known by its participants as
LYCIG (more properly, ‘Leading your church into growth’). highlighting some issues which I would like to incorporate into our teaching
programme over the coming months. It asks some
questions about how we can grow the work of the kingdom in this place. What
sort of Church do we need to be to do this?
Those of you who remember the article about the 150th
Anniversary last month, will recognise that this is an important part of what
we have planned for the later part of the year, as we ask the question: ‘Where
are we going?’ and take a new look at St Matthias’ vision for the next stage of
our journey.
The second event I went to was Spring Harvest, which focussed on our hope in Christ. One of the sessions was particularly for leaders, brilliantly done, and I would like to share with you part of just one session, led by Nick Cuthbert and Rob Parsons.
The Church of the future must (they said):
Be a deliberately welcoming community. Bishop John Finney, writing about how churches grow, saw from his research that it was relationships that had been built up, sometimes over many years, that were important in bringing people into church. However, equally important, was the welcome they received when they arrived, not just for the first time, but consistently over the weeks that followed. This is something we all should be doing.
Respect the old, but be open to new expressions within itself. This means being open to change, not throwing out the old, because it is old…in that way we can lose many treasures; but equally not rejecting the new simply because it is new.
Train, encourage and send people as missionaries into our community ,which might come as a surprise to some, but if you think about the Ascension story in Acts 1, where were the disciples
to be sent first? To Jerusalem… the place where they actually were! We are called to be missionaries to our own communities, through our words, relationships and actions.
Leaders must become releasers. The leaders can’t do it all… this is the work of the whole body of Christ. Regardless of age, ability or maturity, Christ has a part for all, and some of the task of leaders is to ensure you can play that part
Resourceful enough to encourage new/fresh expressions of church anywhere. Jesus wasn’t restricted by service times, liturgy or labels. In fact…
We need
to think outside the box, but the box is the way we have always done
church. What a challenge, especially for the dear old C of E! This is something
the Diocese has been working towards in ‘Moving on in Mission and Ministry’.
Are we brave enough to accept this challenge?
We need to be releasing younger people into leadership. There should always be room for the next generation to play its part. This doesn’t mean the older generation subsiding into a state of spiritual armchairs and slippers!… they have plenty of wisdom and experience to be passed on. What it does mean for the older generation is to encourage, assist, support and enable the next generation as they find their leadership feet… and for the new generation… be prepared to listen, learn, receive the wisdom of the past, not assume that because something is new, it is necessarily better
And be prepared for whatever
shape of church leads to making disciples…because that is why we exist!
This is
some challenge that faces us this year!
May God bless you all
Gordon
Percy
