In the Room mk II

As everything in life seems to nowadays, In the Room has become obsolete, and I have upgraded to word press. I've long thought Wordpress looks like a better platform than blogger, and so this weekend I've taken the plunge. Essentially it will still be called In the Room and it'll be the same mix of musings, music, movies, Christianity and any other things that come into my head, it just looks prettier and is easier for me to use!You can find the new blog here (www.grahamintheroom.wordpress.com)
Hope you continue reading and enjoy the new look!
See you at the new page!
Graham

Let Down (and hanging around)

12 years ago today Tony Blair wrestled power from the Tory party in an unprecedented electoral landslide that left the defeated party in disarray for the best part of a decade, promised change and a fresh start for everyone in the country. Somewhere along the line, it all went wrong, and I've been wondering why?

Labour have been in power for nearly half of my life, but given the way the polls are looking and Gordon Brown's sorry attempts at governing, it looks like 2009 could be the beginning of the end for the current Labour administration. If I'm honest I'm not sorry about that either. My politics is naturally left leaning, and in that sense Labour should be my first choice party, but it isn't. More than anything they just leave me feeling let down, let down by 12 years of false dawns, failed new deals and empty promises.

It all could have been so different. I'll happily admit that I was too young to vote in 1997 (by 4 years), but that doesn't mean I wasn't excited by the potential of New Labour and Tony Blair. I knew I wasn't a Tory, and I knew I found John Major dull, uncharismatic, bereft of ideas and out of touch. The promise of 'things can only get better' combined with the euphoria of that day was intoxicating- we really felt things were going to change for the better. Tony was a bewitching character, a politician the like of which I'd never seen, and an engaging personality (something I found to be true when I heard him debate in the flesh at Oasis HQ in the last general election). After all Labour had a huge majority, they could do what they liked and they were promising so much- a new kind of politics (sound familiar David Cameron fans?)- and yet they fell so far short.

There are various themes that arise from the reign of New Labour that I find symptomatic of the disappointment I feel in them, and the way they failed to capitalize on the opportunity they had;

Style over substance has to be the first one. Instead of transforming the NHS, education and social welfare they threw money at everything, installed layers and layers of bureaucracy and squandered the opportunity of a generation. Yes, things have changed on the surface, but at their core have they improved? I'm not sure they have. Take education for example. Literacy levels are up, schools have higher funding and more pupils stay on post-16 than when Blair came to power. However whether the education system has improved qualitatively I think is a different question. From what I saw on my PGCE and when I visit schools in my current post I'm inclined to think it hasn't. Teachers work their fingers to the bone, but are weighed down by paperwork, unnecessary assessment and constant red tape. The freedom of the individual teacher to express their skills and abilities in the best way for each individual class has been suppressed by the constant demand to teach to test. To quote David Cameron (who I think was quoting someone else) "constantly weighing the pig doesn't make it any heavier" It's like the government wants to micro manage every element of the services it provides, giving no freedom at all to professionals who just want to get on with their jobs,and that is to the detriment of each of those professions and the people they serve.

Secondly there was the 'special relationship' between Tony Blair and George Bush, that so perfectly illustrates how the lust for power and influence overpowered common sense and just doing the right thing in number 10. With his Stateside ally Tony saw the chance to punch above his weight as a statesman and influence global politics in a way he otherwise couldn't. The longer he stayed in number 10 the longer these characteristics came to the fore as he strove for his'legacy' to write his name in the history books, regardless of what that cost in terms of Britian's global standing and integrety. By being the lap dog of one of the most hoplessly inept Presidents in history, Tony Blair condemned this country to an illegal war, decimating our human rights record by taking part in torturous 'extraordinary rendition' and of course causing the relentless humiliation we are subjected to in Eurovision every year!

Worst of all is the way it feels like New Labour abused the trust of the British public (and me!). To start with there was Alistair Campbell and the spin machine, the introduction of top-up fees, then the WMD's and the invasion of Iraq, the David Kelly affair, the handling of the economy, the erosion of our civil liberties under the anti-terror banner and the countless personal misdemeanours of politicians who came to power partly on an anti-sleaze ticket. That's just the headline errors for me, on a deeper level New Labour have further eroded the reputation of British politicians to the point where it can really go no lower and is second only to that of bankers. The sad thing is both Blair and Brown seem so self righteous I'm not convinced either of them would see this.

That's not to say it was all bad, the minimum wage was a positive move forward, the economy was booming for a while (although we now see how shaky the foundations of this were) and the Good Friday peace accord in Northern Ireland was an amazing achievement, to name some of the positives to come out of the past 12 years.

I realise that some of this will make me sound like a closest Conservative, but I'm not. I just think New Labour have taken the idea of 'big government' to a place where it becomes a hindrance, rather than a help, for society and have failed to live up to so many of their promises. I suppose its only natural a party that has been in power as long as Labour stagnates and I just hope they don't take as long to recover from the electoral beating that is sure to come their way as the Conservatives did from '97.

A Heavenly Manifesto

A few weeks ago we watched a Delirious? video in Sunday club, and ever since then it has been running through my head, and the more I mull it over, the more it seems to be significant. Those of you familiar with the D: live experience will know all about Martin Smith's talky sections during History Maker, and I suspect you'll be quite fond of them too! During this one (from My Soul Sings DVD), he reads out Isaiah 58:6-7 from the Message;

"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on"

Then he begins to talk about child traffiking, finishing by saying "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here"

The more I think about this, the more it seems a deeply profound statement, a heavenly manifesto if you like, for those of us who profess to follow Jesus Christ and be part of His kingdom. "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here" It goes wider than the context of people traffiking and right to what is at the heart of the kingdom of God. It is Christians living out their lives here and now, but as if we were in heaven, a place of joy, peace and justice where God is centre of all things and righteousness reigns.

Everywhere we look in this world, there is pain, suffering and injustice, but in Jesus and the gospel there is the answer, the kingdom of God, a kingdom where the world's values and standards are turned upside down, where love is the overriding principle and compassion is the modus operandi.

In this kingdom the first shall be last and the last shall be first, actions will speak louder than words and faith will move mountains. It gives the voiceless hope and makes the comfortable uncomfortable. This kingdom is counter-cultural, it is growing faster than any other and will never end.

I'll be the first to admit, the church, Christians in general, and myself in particular have not always lived up to this standard, and sometimes fail spectacularly, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to meet it every day of our lives. Just imagine what the world would look if the people of God stood up and said "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here", if we prayed the Lord's prayer "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and then went and lived that out.

The world would be turned upside down in the name of God's love and what could be better than that? Take up the heavenly manifesto this week and see where it leads...

Arm Update #7

I have just got back from my first visit to Fracture Clinic in Morriston since having the Zoledronate infusions at the Nuffield, and it was a good trip.

Turns out the infusion is doing its job, and the Fibrous Dysplasia cyst is getting smaller as the Osteoblasts do their job and re-establish the bone tissues. The fracture itself is also healing well, but they said I would be in the cast for around another month.

The big shock was the state of my arm under the plaster! It was so withered and absolutely grim! The unfortunate job of giving it a clean and rub down fell to a sister who commented it was like I was moulting! I've got to say, despite that it felt great!







On a postive note my arm is now strong enough for my wrist to be exposed and used again. I am currently shaking imaginary hands in an attempt to strengthen the muscles and get them working well again. However properly exfoilating my hand and wrist when I got home was a gross job, that I'm not looking forward to repeating when the cast finally comes off!






My visit was also made more entertaining by an encounter with Ospreys hooker Marc Breeze who was sat next to me in the plaster room. He was sat in his training top and shorts, so I passed a diverting couple of minutes whilst I tried to figure out who he was- although to no avail- the Ospreys website provided the answer when I got back!

So the countdown to 12th May begins when hopefully my cast will be coming off and physio will begin!

Tom Wright: The Church must stop trivialising Easter

On Friday, the Bishop of Durham Tom Wright wrote a fantastic article in The Times. You can find the whole thing here, but I'll copy and paste a bit of it here to give you a flavour...

"Easter was the pilot project. What God did for Jesus that explosive morning is what He intends to do for the whole creation. We who live in the interval between Jesus's Resurrection and the final rescue and transformation of the whole world are called to be new-creation people here and now. That is the hidden meaning of the greatest festival Christians have.

This true meaning has remained hidden because the Church has trivialised it and the world has rubbished it. The Church has turned Jesus's Resurrection into a “happy ending” after the dark and messy story of Good Friday, often scaling it down so that “resurrection” becomes a fancy way of saying “He went to Heaven”. Easter then means: “There really is life after death”. The world shrugs its shoulders. We may or may not believe in life after death, but we reach that conclusion independently of Jesus, of odd stories about risen bodies and empty tombs.

But “resurrection” to 1st-century Jews wasn't about “going to Heaven”: it was about the physically dead being physically alive again. Some Jews (not all) believed that God would do this for all people in the end. Nobody, including Jesus's followers, was expecting one person to be bodily raised from the dead in the middle of history. The stories of the Resurrection are certainly not “wish-fulfilments” or the result of what dodgy social science calls “cognitive dissonance”. First-century Jews who followed would-be messiahs knew that if your leader got killed by the authorities, it meant you had backed the wrong man. You then had a choice: give up the revolution or get yourself a new leader. Going around saying that he'd been raised from the dead wasn't an option.

Unless he had been....The world wants to hush up the real meaning of Easter. Death is the final weapon of the tyrant or, for that matter, the anarchist, and resurrection indicates that this weapon doesn't have the last word. When the Church begins to work with Easter energy on the twin tasks of justice and beauty, we may find that it can face down the sneers of sceptics, and speak once more of Jesus in a way that will be heard."

Easter Sunday (on Monday!)

Sorry part 2 of the video is a day late, but had such a fantastic day yesterday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, plus a brilliant baptism at Caswell Bay I didn't get near the computer!


THAT'S EASTER Death to Life from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

John 20

The Empty Tomb

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. ⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes, ¹¹but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

Good Friday

It's Good Friday today, but why is it so good? Please take 3 minutes to watch part 1 of this video to find out why. Part 2 will be coming on Sunday!


THAT'S EASTER Life to Death from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

Romans 5:6-8 says this: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Amazing! Yet there is more... It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!