Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok, this week we are meeting at the Enigma Tap at 7.30.
This weeks Blog is written for us by Emily.
It’s probably no secret that I’m a bit book-mad. So when I heard about this series on books/art/music etc, I knew that I wanted to (attempt) to write a blog.
My favourite book is called “The Wind Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is a Japanese writer and tackles the weird and wonderful. A lot of his work is based on that of Franz Kafka.
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle follows Toru Okada, who is searching for his missing cat at his wife Kumiko’s request. During his search he meets May Kasahara, a curious teenage girl who has been watching him from his back yard. They form a friendship and after talking about it, she takes him to an old, abandoned house as she thinks this could be where Toru’s cat could be found. There, they find an abandoned well (which becomes significant later).
A little while on, Kumiko goes missing and her brother informs Toru that she has been seeing another man and wants to end her relationship with Toru. Toru speaks to clairvoyant Malta Kano and her sister Creta Kano and they help him to unravel Kumiko’s brother’s nefarious past.
These plot points are the basic ground work of the story but there is so much more to it than just the plot.
For large portions of the book, Toru sits at the bottom of the well at the old, abandoned house, reminiscing about the past he had shared with Kumiko and experiencing dream-like sequences which allows him to pass between his reality and another, uncovering secrets that may connect his dreams with reality.
When Toru is in the well, he searches for meaning, both in the real world and in this dream world that he has created. Toru’s lack of concept of self is really highlighted as he 1) realises how easily he was replaced at work after he left and 2) how easily he could be replaced within his relationship with Kumiko. He shows no true sign of motivation to do anything about either of these things, hence him sitting in a well and ruminating.
Toru is a man who, ultimately, is lost in his reality and has no idea how to find himself again.
As I was reading, I was reminded of Job from the bible, a man who lost everything: his children, wealth, livestock, crops, health and relationships with his wife and friends, which I imagine made him feel pretty lost in his reality.
Some of you may know that recently my school joined an academy and this has changed everything for us. At times, I’ve certainly felt lost and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the past, the present and entering a similar dream-like state to Toru, thinking about how I would like the future to look.
I wonder what the well in itself means to you. To me it symbolises being stuck and not knowing where to turn or who I am. How well do we truly know ourselves? Do we actually know ourselves?
It’s so easy to say “God is with you in the unknown” and compare yourself to Job, who praised God instead of cursing him. But in reality, it’s not always that easy.
Reading the bible can feel like its own “dream world” as it is so far removed from what we know in this century. As Christians, does this sometimes contribute to our feeling of being lost?
Some questions:
If you could enter any fantasy world (Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings ETC) What would it be? And how would it play out?
Where do you ‘go’ (like the well) to ruminate?
What is the ‘well to you?
What does it mean to be lost?
How do you relate to Job and his story?
In what way does your faith journey feel like a dream state?
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
This week we have some thoughts from Caleb and we will be meeting at the Enigma Tap at 7:30pm. See you then.
For this series of blogs we are invited to write about a song/movie/book/painting/TV programme/interpretive dance/well-made dry stone wall which is meaningful to us. I have chosen the song ‘Rejoice’ by Julien Baker.
A warning – this song and this blog contains discussion of substance abuse and suicide.
Julien Baker is a young indie singer-songwriter from Tennessee, a lesbian, a socialist, and a member of the ironically named supergroup ‘boygenius’ with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Baker also has some kind of Christian faith, although as discussed on her Wikipedia page, she has stopped identifying with clear labels, as she feels that helps her have a less black-and-white worldview than what she was raised with. Also, she felt it was damaging to be constantly put into boxes and asked to speak as (for example) a ‘sober queer Christian.’
In fact, we can even see some of her wrestling with her faith in different live versions of this song over the years, such asthis one in 2021. She has moved towards using the pronoun ‘she’ and now ‘they’ for God, rather than ‘he’ on the original recording, and she also plays around with singing ‘I think there’s a God’ or ‘I know there’s a God’ in different performances.
Baker recorded this song when she was just 18 and released it on her 2015 album Sprained Ankle. This and other songs on the album deal with Baker’s struggles with substance abuse, depression, self-worth, and faith.
It may seem strange that this song that’s so personal to Baker’s experiences also means so much to me when I’m twice her age, male, straight, and thankfully can’t relate to the addiction or the same extent of self-destructive feelings and actions that Julien sings about.
The main reason I love the song is the phrase at its heart: ‘rejoice and complain.’
Baker does both in this song. She expresses that her existence, her being created, is worthy of rejoicing (‘Lift my voice that I was made’). But she also ‘curses [God’s] name’ that she remains alive, and suggests that she experiences her continued existence as a burden—‘Why did you … make me stay?’ She both rejoices and complains to God that she lives.
Baker also affirms that God ‘hears either way.’ She can’t always rejoice. She doesn’t ‘know what to say.’ Sometimes she can only call out to her departed friends in envy that they’ve escaped this vale of tears. But God hears. God doesn’t turn away from Julien until she’s ready to put on a happy face and sing ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. This in itself is something to rejoice about… that God hears—that God is listening to her cries of anguish, her prayers of complaint, even her cursing God.
The idea that God hears the cries of the oppressed and all who are suffering is important to Hilary and me. We even named our son Ishmael, which means ‘God has heard.’ God doesn’t expect us to only express our positive feelings. God hears (see: Exodus 2:23-25) and God liberates (see: the rest of Exodus). And when God doesn’t liberate—because let’s be real, there’s a whole lot of liberation still needed—God hears us when we complain.
I think this is shown best by the Psalms. In stark contrast to the worship at most churches, the Psalms express the full expression of human emotions, from reverent happiness to genocidal rage.
A common term used for the ‘negative’ psalms is ‘lament’. And this is a good word for a lot of psalms. But as biblical scholars point out, ‘lament’ doesn’t cover the full extent of negative feelings and experiences portrayed in the psalms. There’s psalms of darkness, disorientation, confession, vengeance, protest… and most importantly for this blog, psalms of complaint.
In complaint psalms like Psalms 35, 74, and 86, the psalmists have the chutzpah or the audacity to lay responsibility at God’s hands for what they suffer. They challenge God to fulfil God’s promises, to live up to God’s character, to do something. This is an act of boldness, despair, and anger towards God, but it’s also a profound act of faith and trust that God is in control, and that it’s safe to bring our complaints to God, and God’s listening.
The fact that these complaints have been preserved in the Bible for 3000ish years shows that our tradition affirms that we should express our negative experiences and bring them to God as complaints. And that these complaints to God are valuable for others to hear or read.
Julien Baker’s song—like the Psalms—affirms that both rejoicing and complaining are legitimate ways to feel. We should express both—to ourselves, to each other, and to God. And we should act in accordance with both rejoicing and complaining: We should celebrate, enjoy life in God’s creation and all the good things it offers, and live in gratitude for what is good. We should also complain: acknowledge our suffering and that of others, name the injustice that it’s easier to ignore, and respond in righteous anger as well as working to fix it.
Personally, complaining often comes more naturally to me than rejoicing. (I said this to Hilary and she burst out laughing at what an understatement it was.) While some people rejoice a lot and need to complain too, I complain a lot and need to rejoice too. I have a lot to be grateful for, and I need to express that more. I owe gratitude to God and so many people for what they have done for me. Expressing gratitude is very good for our mental health, so it’s good for me and those around me when I manage to rejoice. The phrase ‘rejoice and complain’ both affirms my complaining and reminds me to rejoice.
I often forget that Baker’s song is actually not called ‘Rejoice and Complain’: it is just called ‘Rejoice’. And in the final lines, she focuses on the rejoicing. The song is very honest about extreme suffering and taking that suffering to God in complaint. But ultimately where she gets to at the end of the song is a state of rejoicing. Baker actually sums up the song’s meaning as ‘being grateful for horrible, horrible things.’
Again this is similar to a lot of the lament/complaint Psalms: most (not all) end with lines expressing faith and trust in God despite all of the complaining that has come before. Psalms 13, 109, and 130 are good examples.
Like these psalms, Baker’s song goes to the depths. But it also challenges us to rejoice even from those depths. Even when all we can rejoice about is that we ‘think there’s a God,’ and they ‘know our name and all our hideous mistakes,’ how much we ‘throw away’ all the good they give us, and they hear all our complaints and our cursing, and they’re still ‘listening at night.’
In fact, I would go further and say God is not just listening. God is there with us, in Christ quoting a complaint psalm in his cry of agony on the cross. Like the Christ of the Abyss statue, at the bottom of the sea, with arms raised up to heaven—God is there in the depths, complaining and rejoicing with us.
Have you ever complained about something? (food at a restaurant, something you have bought, a show you have seen etc)
What aspects of Julien Baker’s song “Rejoice” resonate most deeply with you?
Why is the combination of rejoicing and complaining, as expressed in Baker’s song, so powerful?
How does this idea challenge conventional ways of approaching faith, especially in worship or prayer?
Why do you think both rejoicing and complaining are preserved in sacred texts like the Psalms?
How might including expressions of anger, despair, or complaint enrich modern faith practices?
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at the Crescent Club in Cullercoats, meeting at 7.30, I hope you can join us! I put a call out a few weeks ago for people to write a blog on either music, art, film, stories for our conversation, i’m thankful that the first persons to raise their head of the parapet that wasn’t a leader has risen to the challenge… I’ve put it out earlier than normal so you have time to listen to the playlist! or to skip through it!
Thanks John for the work you have put into this…
‘So Rob says can we have some music blogs. I’ve said I’ve got about 20 tracks
(might be 30 now) based on politics can I blog about that? it’ll have some spiritual aspect.
Rob -fine.
So here it is. Its a bit all over the place and maybe not just strictly politics but has a bit of theology dropped in. It’s distilled 60yrs worth of an old man’s music and ramblings 1960s- 2024 anyway.
It’s a blog based on a playlist listening to the music with a bit of context and explanation thrown in. Here’s the full playlist
I’ll run through the issues in the music for both those who’d like to listen and those who want to think and discuss the issues on Sunday but the music and listening time involved might be a barrier.
Tracking this political music over my life has shown me how my own awareness has grown over time. I apologise in advance for a longer blog than normal.
So which track and artist did I start with? Probably Big yellow taxi and Joni Mitchell way back in the 1970s with the classic “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” on mindless environmental destruction on the playlist this has resonance with later tracks such as Young’s anti oil vampire blues and Diana Jones Appalachia.
Back in the late 70s I was listening to a lot of Neil Young picking up first on the injustice and brutality of slavery in the US south with his Southern man track but I’ve explored these issues over the years in more depth with soul and gospel singers and song writers which is a thread in the playlist which has carried through all the years with artists who come from the communities who’ve lived this more personally than the Canadian hippy folk rocker ever did (Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Tammy Tyrell, Mavis Staples, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and upto the present Tre Bert and Mickey Geyton)
Moving into the 1980s another major influence was singer song writer Tracy Chapman‘s early music’s take on the injustice of poverty, being ignored by the powerful and our obsession with materialism. It has always blown my thinking as to how someone so young at that time got these things so powerfully. I’ve chosen ‘subcity’ from her Crossroads album which like her first also is full of these aubjects but she also sings about the spiritual and the lives of real people in tracks like Fast car and All that you have is your soul too.
For me in the 1980s political awareness grew also with the struggle in South Africa against Apartheid hence the The Specials and Eddie Grant tracks. Paul Weller Billy Bragg and the Pet shop boys creep in too though in this period.
In the 1990s Bob Dylan’s ‘we live in a political world‘ from his oh Mercy album sees him at his best with his everything is broken view of our western system
But looking at the political music I’ve been listening to there’s a theme of action for change too running alongside the ingrained injustice we live with and the lament that results. There’s change gonna come, revolution, times they are a changin, friendship train, ain’t no mountain high enough, walls come tumbling down, give me hope Joanna and free Nelson Mandela
People’s inhumanity to each other cannot be quiet music or ignored though and the Zombie and War songs shout and scream for themselves
I include Richard Thompson’s beautiful Beeswing song too just as a treat because people who live on the road are just as much made in God’s image as any of us and have a story to tell
More recently for me discovering Karine Polworts brand of Scottish folk asks questions about the deep contradictions’ life presents us with a bit like the Hebrew psalms in the Crow on the Cradle and Better things songs
and even more recently Better times will come and Cracked and broken and beautiful from US bluegrass singer Diana Jones describe a beautiful and simple optimism for the future almost in keeping with Julian of Norwich famous phrase ‘All will be well and all manner of things will be well‘
For me politics and faith are the same being about the real issues that affect humanity. Both are full of contradictions and questions and tears .Being involved in political action isn’t so much taking sides as owning up to complicity in crimes of the past and giving back what has been stolen. Standing with the poor against the powerful. With David against Goliath.
So is this all sad and miserable music?
Not for me. I would go as far as to say it shouts at the devil with a smile.There a vibrancy in political protest music that finds the joy despite the hardship somehow and it’s even often music to dance to. Try these tracks LOUD What have you done for me lately, Respect and The draft daughters blues if you only listen to part of this playlist it might just be the best bit.
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
Welcome back everyone! Hope you have enjoyed the long weekend last week. We are meeting this week (7th April) at the Enigma Tap at 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome. This weeks blog is from Naomi.
So, I’m sitting here on a Monday morning writing this, when normally I would be enjoying a lie-in on my day off. The reason being? Well, yesterday we had a BFX leadership meeting and as usual, the discussion about needing people to write blogs arose. I normally avoid volunteering as it is something that is out of my comfort zone – I don’t feel confident to express my thoughts accurately in written words and I worry too much about what other people will think. Anyway, here I am, and I thought, why not do a blog on the very thing that is challenging me in this moment?!
We all love to be comfortable. It is our default setting as humans I think. If you ask most people how much money they would like to earn, the answer is usually “enough to be comfortable”. No-one admits to wanting to live a lavish life-style, but most people do want to have enough to feel secure, well-fed, well-dressed and a bit extra for treats etc. During lockdown we all realised that we could live in physical comfort all the time by trading our work trousers and shirts for hoodies and joggers! Comfort is nice. It is safe. It is where we feel good… but is it where we grow?
I think most of us would look back at challenging times in our lives and see that although it’s tough going through it, usually there is some kind of positive outcome or growth that has taken place because of that experience. As well as the need for safety and security in humans, there is also a need for progress – which can only come about if we are willing to sometimes risk a step outside of our comfort zones.
So, what are our comfort zones? I’ve had a think and come up with a few ideas below but I’m sure there are more:
Friendships and socialising – Who we do revert to spending time with? Who would we avoid socialising with because they’re not “our” kind of people. Do we avoid socialising completely because it’s just easier to avoid people all together! (This was a big one for me following lockdown – I got very used to just existing in our little family bubble.)
Finances and material possessions – How should we use the money we earn? Should it all be used for our own comfort? Should we live on the minimal amount possible and give the rest away?
Community – Thinking about the communities we are part of: work, family, interest groups, church, BFX… what is our role in the group? Are we consumers, content to just attend, or should we find ways to contribute and serve others?
Faith – Where do we feel confident to live out our faith and where is it more challenging? In a pub? In a church building? In our work place? How do we feel about sharing our beliefs with others? Are there any beliefs we hold that are comfort zones for us that might need to be challenged?
In the Bible, we see many people being challenged to get out of their comfort zones. God asked Moses, a man who had to flee the country because he’d killed an Egyptian foreman (Exodus 2:12) and who was known to have difficulty speaking (Exodus 4:10) to return to Egypt to ask Pharoah to let the Israelites go to worship God in the desert. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, a city known for its wickedness, to go and preach repentance (Jonah 1:2). Jesus told the disciples to go and preach the gospel by essentially relying upon the kindness of strangers, not taking any of their own material possessions with them (Matthew 10: 9-10). All of these situations required people to get out of their comfort zones, their places of safety and security, and undertake tasks which will have made them feel awkward, exposed, fearful, and both physically and socially uncomfortable, but which were part of God’s plan to bring blessing and healing to those in need.
Questions:
What is your favourite comfort food?
How do you feel about getting out of your comfort zone? Is it something you intentionally do or try to avoid at all costs?!
Can you think of any other examples of people in the Bible stepping outside their comfort zones? And what was the result?
Which of the 4 areas mentioned above is the area you find easiest to step outside your comfort zone, and which is the most challenging?
Can you think of any other areas in your life where you might have comfort zones?
Does BFX have a comfort zone? What might stepping outside of it look like?
Photo by Spencer Gurley Films: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-blue-and-maroon-camping-bag-1448055/
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
Hi All, the blog this week is from John Morley and we will be meeting at The Enigma Tap at 7:30pm if you are wanting to join us.
In the days before the internet there was a bookcase. In the days before streaming there was a library.
In the days at the end of the moon landings there were stories. In the days of the cold war before the climate crisis was discovered there were stories about spaceships, planets, robots and other worlds. A treasure trove of ideas, images and possibilities for a boy finding escape from the boring day to day world. And there was the Hobbit too read to me by my dad and Lord of the rings on my grandpa’s bookshelf. C.S.Lewis wrote a lesser known trilogy on Mars, Venus and Human extremism on Earth ‘Cosmic trilogy’ (1945) at the time he wrote on Narnia.
These stories were all about adventure for me as a child. I didn’t read much deeper or think how it applied to life. There were also end of the world stories: The day of the triffids (John Whyndham 1951) where people eating plants take over the world, The Death of grass (John Christopher 1956) about a global collapse around crop disease and people fighting to survive. Of course there was 1984 possibly read around 1978. I those days there started for me reading and a love of sci-fi. Sci-fi films followed too: The day the Earth stood still, The incredible voyage, Journey to the centre of the earth, Star Wars of course . Across various media in recent years fantasy and Sci-fi have become increasingly popular with Harry Potter and even more recently the Game of Thrones and Handmaid’s tale where book, film and TV formats have been huge popular phenomena’s.
The stories I’ve engaged with over the years has other tracks too but sci-fi and fantasy was and is still a big part.
Many people are put off these genres by the imagined worlds often extensive detail imagined creatures, technologies and other world’s languages, cultures and histories. The relationships and characters in these genres can seem shallow too at times. But I followed the excitement of action adventures and mysterious worlds and people. The detail appeals to some and a barrier to others is just on the surface though in better writing. They aren’t about that at all at heart. I’d say these stories at their best are really creating a place to help us look at the here and now, our fears and hopes as humans, helps us ask questions about God, the environment, human relationships.
In fact the sci-fi and fantasy genres often carry other genres within themselves too. an early sci-fi by Isaac Asimov I Robot (1950) is a whodunnit about the ten commandments and AI. George Orwell’s1984 (1949) politics. Frank Herbert’s Dune,(1965) a desert world Sandworm story which is about a religious Messiah for a downtrodden people oppressed by a powerful empire. Philip K Dick’s Blade Runner (1968) about the morality of killing/destroying Artificial Intelligence (AI) that might be dangerous and asking could AI have a life as valuable as a human’s? Jumping to film Avatar is about dominant cultures destruction of other cultures and the environment for financial gain so relevant today.
So why write a blog about Sci-fi and Fantasy stories in a spiritual space like this?
Well if I look at my faith and it’s exploration and continuing development, I think it’s helped me think outside the box, I’ve used my imagination and everything can be considered and argued it’s been a place that’s helped my thinking and stretched it. In a conversations which surprised a friend introducing me to faith years ago I remember saying to his surprise, ‘oh Lord of the rings is quite like the bible’ he was shocked thinking I was speaking of the faith as a made up fantasy but it was more the darkness and light, good and evil and a lead character who embodied goodness, fights evil and comes back from the dead, that I was finding in both.
Questions
What are your favourite story genres?
Where have you got your stories from reading/TV/film/ history/ people/ music? and who helped you?
What parts of your life and faith have books/stories informed you in?
What are the stories that speak to you now?
What are your favourite Bible stories? What is it about them that you like?
Who are the main characters that speak to you that you can identify with?
Are stories meaningful to you. Have they affected your life or are they just recreational/escapism?
Does your life have a story and what is it?
Is the Christian faith about a story, history, fact, fiction or something else and if it’s a story what is it?
Footnote.
I’d recommend Brian McLaren’s and Gareth Higgins ebook and Spotify podcast series part of the Learning to See Podcast which is titled ‘The seventh story: us them and the end of violence’. Identifies 6 harmful storylines that exist in our world with a seventh that provides an approach to bringing people together in healing reconciliation. Check these out.
Photo by Paolo Boaretto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ufo-parking-sign-16794996/
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
Hi All, This week we will be meeting in the Enigma Tap at 7:30pm – looking forward to seeing those of you who can join us there. This weeks blog is a guest blog from David Hardman. The following is a little introduction to who he is and what he does.
The Methodist Liaison Office & Revd David Hardman
The Methodist Liaison Office in Jerusalem is a partnership of the World Methodist Council, the Methodist Church in Great Britain and the United Methodist Church. Its purpose is to increase international awareness and involvement of the Methodist community in the issues affecting Israel and Palestine.
The office is located in St. George’s College, East Jerusalem. Its role is to be a presence on behalf of World Methodism in the Holy Land. This involves working ecumenically with churches, community organizations, and individuals across the West Bank and partnering with any individuals or organisations who work for Human Rights in the Region. Welcoming Methodist pilgrimage groups from around the world and encouraging them to engage, not only with the historical stones of religious sites, but with the living stones of Christian and other faith communities. Supporting and enabling visitors to volunteer at local projects as part of encounter and mission opportunities and facilitating advocacy especially by amplifying voices about everyday life under occupation in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
I am a British Methodist Minister ordained in 1994. I have served churches and circuits in the city centre, inner-city and suburbs of Manchester and London. I have also worked for Christian Aid as Senior Regional Coordinator in the North West of England and most recently as Methodist Team Leader of the Joint Public Issues Team. Justice and Peace have been at the heart of my ministry, I am an accredited mediator with Place for Hope and a committed activist.
Call not for peace in the Holy Land, call for justice so that peace may root itself deeply and flourish.
An old family friend emailed me last week and finished her email with the words ‘is it shalom you have tattooed on your arm? May you know that peace’. The truth is that I have מִשְׁפָּט֙ עֲשׂ֤וֹת tattooed on my left arm, Hebrew for ‘to do justice’. The prophet Micah is very clear that what God requires of us is (מִשְׁפָּט֙ עֲשׂ֤וֹת ) to do justice (Micah 6:8).
The heinous Hamas attack on Oct 7th shocked Israel as it shocked the world, but I maintain only because for far too long we have turned a blind eye to the oppressive policy of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza. Violence has been increasing in the West Bank over the last couple of years including a big increase in settler violence1. Israel has its most hard-line government in power who have placed settlement expansion in the West Bank as a top priority2&3.
It is a simple fact that oppression will foster resistance, and for a great number of Palestinians their resistance is non-violent4. However, brutality can all too easily breed brutal resistance, as we saw on Oct 7th. As a result of that attack we have also seen a disproportionate response from Israel which has killed thousands of civilians and destroyed a large percentage of property in Gaza5. So, call and pray for a ceasefire but don’t be fooled that this will bring peace. It will bring an end to immediate hostilities and a chance for proper humanitarian aid to reach millions of people in Gaza but peace is not simply the absence of war. What peace do people experience under occupation and what peace do people know living in constant fear of attack?
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but physically blockaded the area with a security barrier, a very limited number of permits issued to allow Palestinians to leave and even restrictions on how far out to sea Palestinian boats can sail. A friend of mine who lives in Beit Sahour has family in Gaza, family she has not seen since 2005 because Israel has not approved permits either for her to visit or for her family to visit her6. Even before this last escalation of violence, 95% of Gazans did not have access to clean water, access to electricity was regularly only between 4 and 8 hours a day and about half the adult population were unemployed.
For Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank there is much better access to fuel and water but there are still restrictions on travel imposed by a network of checkpoints, and the need for permits for many Palestinians to travel. The Wall snakes across the West Bank cutting off Palestinians from each other and their land. Bypass roads built by Israel for Israeli’s further bisect the land. Illegal Settlements are continuing to be built effectively forcing Palestinians into small pockets of towns and cities. The United Nations, Amnesty International and B’Tsalem7 among others, including a former head of Mossad (Israel’s Intelligence Agency)8, have called the situation in the West Bank Apartheid.
In the summer I had a holiday which included a couple of days in Budapest. Wandering around the city I happened upon the Ghetto Memorial Wall9. Included in the memorial is a map that has small round openings, reminiscent of bullet holes across its surface, looking through these will allow viewers to see historical scenes from the neighbourhood, scenes of Jewish life.At the end of the memorial you are asked to spend a moment before you move on to remember the victims of the ghettos and the holocaust. As I stood in silence and remembered the evil done to Jewish people, I could not help thinking that one day there will be memorials, not dissimilar to this, across the Holy Land. Memorials for Palestinians driven from their land and forced into the ghettos of Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Jericho, Nabulus, Ramallah… As I remembered the past and reflected on the present I asked myself when will the world learn (מִשְׁפָּט֙ עֲשׂ֤וֹת ) to do justice?
Yet, even in the depth of grief, the call for justice can be heard. In a eulogy for her brother Hayim, an anti-occupation activist who was murdered in Kibbutz Holit on Oct 7th, Noi Katsman called on her country “not to use our deaths and our pain to cause the death and pain of other people or other families. I demand that we stop the circle of pain, and understand that the only way [forward] is freedom and equal rights. Peace, brotherhood, and security for all human beings.”10
This is why I say call not for peace in the Holy Land, call for justice so that peace may root itself deeply and flourish. Until there is justice for Palestinians there can be no lasting peace for them, just as there can be no lasting peace for Israeli’s when there is a constant threat of violence.
On my right arm I have tattooed الله محبة which is Arabic for God is love. Shortly after returning from the West Bank I was in a restaurant in Manchester and the guy at the next table noticed my tattoo and asked what it said – he starting talking about the situation in Gaza and then he noticed my left arm and asked what the Hebrew said. He then asked for a hug – to be embraced by justice and love, by Palestinian and Israeli – to be embraced in hope…
Do you have a tattoo? if so what and where? – If you don’t have one, would you? where would you have it and what would it be? (This isn’t Davids question but we thought we would throw and extra one in to warm you up).
Is justice more important than peace?
There are Palestinians Christians (less than 2% of the Palestinian population) and our sisters and brothers in organisations like Kairos Palestine (Home (kairospalestine.ps)) describe the Israeli occupation of the West Bank a sin and call on us to boycott and divest from Israeli firms. Is the occupation a sin? Should we as British Christians be involved in political boycotts?
When Jesus said that ‘the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to… set the oppressed free’ (Luke 4:18), how might those oppressed by today’s occupation take hope from his words?
Since 1967 the West Bank has been occupied and is divided into – Areas A, B and C
Today, Area A constitutes 18 percent of the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA) controls most affairs in this area, including internal security.
In Area B, which comprises about 21 percent of the West Bank, the PA controls education, health and the economy.
In both areas, Israeli authorities have full external security control.
This means that the Israeli military retains the right to enter these areas at any time, typically to raid homes or detain individuals under the pretext of security.
About 2.8 million Palestinians live crowded into Areas A and B whose major Palestinian cities and towns are Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus.
Area C is the largest section of the West Bank, comprising about 60 percent of the Palestinian territory.
It is also the site of the vast majority of the more than 200 illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where more than 400,000 settlers live.
Although control of part of this area was meant to be transferred to the PA in 1999 as per the Oslo Accords, the handover did not materialise, leaving security, planning and construction matters in the hands of Israel.
Four members of her family were killed as they sought sanctuary at St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza on Thursday 19th October. Israel said that they targeted a Hamas building, the church was next to the strike and it caused walls of the church compound to collapse. St. Porphyrios Church was their church, they were living there because their homes had been destroyed by previous Israeli Airstrikes, they worked for Christian organisations working with young people in Gaza. I stood in St. Porphyrios Church a year ago when I visited Gaza.
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
1917 a letter, known as the Balfour Declaration, regarded as one of the most contested documents in the modern history of the Middle East, commits the British government to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.
1947 the UN votes for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under special international administration.
1948 British rulers leave and Jewish leaders declare the creation of the state of Israel. A war soon follows with troops from neighbouring Arab countries invading. This leads to Israel gaining control of even more territory, Approximately 700,000 Palestinians flee or are driven from their land in what Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe” in Arabic. An estimated 15,000 Palestinians are killed, including in a series of massacres.
1956 (Suez Crisis) Israel invades Egypt, including the Gaza Strip
1957 Israel withdraws from Egyptian land, with the exception of the Gaza Strip
1967 a war known as the “Six-Day War” breaks out, in which Israel occupies East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Settlement construction begins in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A two-tier system is created, with Jewish settlers afforded all the rights and privileges of being Israeli citizens, whereas Palestinians are forced to live under a military occupation. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
1973on Yom Kippur invading forces from Egypt and Syria launch a coordinated attack on Israel in an attempt to gain better terms for the Arab countries in the region. There are heavy death tolls on both sides. 2,656 Israeli soldiers are killed. Precise figures of Arab casualties are difficult to ascertain, but the lowest casualty estimate is 8,000.
1978 Israel and Egypt sign a series of agreements known as the Camp David Accords. It also sets out a framework for Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza.
1987 1st intifada (Palestinian Uprising) this conflict and Israel’s response lead to formation of Hamas
1993 Oslo Accords agreement reached on two-state solution, except fails to reach agreement on Settlements and Jerusalem. Hamas opposes deal & conducts a series of suicide bombings in Israel.
2000 a Second Intifada begins and clashes continue until 2005, with hundreds of casualties on both sides.
2005 Israeli forces withdraw troops from Gaza but impose a military blockade on the region.
2006 Hamas wins a majority of seats in elections Israel and the US cut off aid to Palestinians because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
2008Israel attacks Gaza after rocket fire from Gaza, involving the use of white phosphorous gas, which international law restricts the use of during war.
2012 Eight days of intense conflict after Israel kills Hamas military chief
2014 Hamas kidnaps and kills three Israeli teenagers – a seven-week conflict follows
2018, 2021 & 2022 violent conflict erupts between Gaza and Israel as well as a growth in violence across the West Bank
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
This weeks guest blog is from Caleb! for those gathering for our conversation we will be at the Enigma Tap from 7:30pm
Before I start, please bear in mind that, as I said in a previous blog, I don’t speak out of particular experience here. I have learned from knowing people and some study. Also please note that there are several aspects of this overall topic that I haven’t even had a chance to mention and the blog is already too long.
When it comes to sex/gender, some people don’t fit into the normal boxes.
Here are some characteristics of sex/gender:
Chromosomes. Most people have either XX (female) or XY (male). Some have X, XXY, XXX, XYY, XXYY, or something I don’t understand called 45,X/46,XY (let’s be honest, I don’t understand any of the others either).
External genitals. Most people have a vagina and vulva (female) or a penis and scrotum (male). For some it’s not so simple: for example, the penis and the clitoris are two versions of the same organ. We categorise it as one or the other based on size, where the urethral opening is, and what the rest of the genitals look like. But sometimes it develops in such a way that it’s not easy to categorise it as one or the other.
Internal genitals. Most people have ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes (female) or testicles (male). Some people have neither or both: e.g. testicles and a uterus.
Reproductive/sexual capacity. Most people have the ability to menstruate, produce eggs and carry babies (female) or the ability to produce sperm (male). For some people it’s neither or a bit of each.
Other development at puberty. Most people develop features like breasts (female) or features like a deeper voice (male). For some people it’s neither or a bit of each.
Personal gender identity. Most people feel like they are a woman/girl or a man/boy. Some people feel like they’re neither, some combination, somewhere in between, something else, or just don’t really feel like any gender/sex.
Brain patterns. Most people’s brains follow a general pattern of being more of a female brain or more of a male brain. (This doesn’t mean that you necessarily have stereotypical male or female personality traits, just that there are general patterns.) For some people it’s somewhere in between.
Social gender identity. Most people are treated by those around them as either a woman/girl or a man/boy. This includes what pronouns people use about them, how people interact with them, what stereotypical expectations people have of them, how much power a sexist society gives them, etc. Some people are treated by those around them as something other than male or female.
Most people are either male in all these ways or female in all of these ways. But some people don’t clearly fit into either male or female on one or more of the categories. This includes some intersex people and non-binary people.
As well as this, some people fit into ‘male’ on some categories but ‘female’ on others. For example, some other types of intersex people are ‘male’ on one category (e.g. they have XY chromosomes) but ‘female’ on another (e.g. genitals). A transgender person might be ‘female’ on genitals, chromosomes etc, but ‘male’ on gender identity and brain patterns.
All of these examples of gender/sex diversity are very different from one another. And each situation is very rare. But I worship a God who is willing to leave the safe 99 to rescue the 1 who is in trouble (Luke 15:3-7). I think we need to care about people regardless of how rare their experiences are.
There have always been people with minority sex/gender experiences like these. Their experiences are real and scientifically provable, and they have existed in all times and places. They are not an invention of recent LGBT+ movements.
Cultures come up with different language and concepts to describe and understand people who don’t fit the standard boxes. Examples include: hermaphrodite, eunuch, two-spirit (some Native American nations), hijra (South Asia), kuchu (Uganda), takatāpui (Māori), faʻafafine (Sāmoa), molly or Uranian (England), androgynous, transvestite, etc.
Currently, some of the most common words that people with these experiences want us to use in referring to them are intersex, transgender, and non-binary.
Language changes with time. And sometimes people change the language they think is best to describe them (e.g. comedian Eddie Izzard used to identify as a transvestite man, but now identifies as a transgender woman). That’s OK. The person hasn’t changed. What may have changed is their understanding of themself, the language and concepts that society presented to them as possibilities, and/or the ways that they felt it was safe to express themselves.
I think we should respect the language, names, pronouns, and identity that people tell us best reflects who they are in their context. I think we should affirm and believe what they tell us about their reality as part of God’s diverse creation. I think we should include them, listen to them and learn from their experiences, and just treat them respectfully as human beings!
I definitely don’t think we should give in to our fear of difference, and believe or repeat harmful lies about transender or intersex people. There is a growing tide of transphobia especially in England, and it makes trans people unsafe. One of its main narratives (intentionally or unintentionally) portrays trans people as dangerous to cisgender* women. As the narrative goes, there is a real risk that people claiming to be trans women are actually making it up to try to sneak into spaces like women’s toilets to assault women, and the solution to this is to make sure women’s spaces are “single-sex” i.e. exclude trans women (but also presumably exclude trans men).
This narrative is misleading and damaging in a number of ways. To name some problems with this view: People don’t develop a whole (marginalised) identity over years just to attack women. All women, including trans women, are vulnerable to violence in patriarchal societies, and sadly this violence is mostly likely to happen in intimate relationships. The evidence tells us that trans people are very rarely violent, but sadly they’re very commonly victims of violence. In toilets, trans women are all-too-frequently attacked by cisgender women. If they are forced to use men’s toilets they are frequently attacked by cisgender men.
This narrative that trans people are dangerous is similar to other narratives that dehumanise and oppress other marginalised groups. For example, racism portrays black men as a threat to white women. (This was the pretext for a lot of lynchings in the USA and the justification for the KKK.) Women are indeed vulnerable to violence, but that doesn’t mean we should believe ideologies that use this fact about women’s vulnerability to spin a false, harmful narrative about another (overlapping) vulnerable group like black people or trans people.
But what is my Christian basis for inclusion? Well, I haven’t left myself much room to go into that. So I will simply remind you of the concept of a “trajectory” in Scripture that I talked about in my blog “A Question of Gender, part 2” two months ago. And I will briefly mention the following Biblical passages and ask you to try to discern a trajectory and a central message about God from these passages about people whose gender or sex don’t fit the standard boxes.
Genesis 1:26-28: “Male and female he created them”—please note that this language doesn’t necessarily mean that there is nothing in between. Genesis 1 also talks about “the heavens (skies) and the earth,” land and sea, creatures of the land or seas or skies. But God also created all the in-betweens or hybrids like the atmosphere, beaches and estuaries, amphibians and seabirds.
Leviticus 21:16-23: A law excluding “eunuchs” (described as people with “crushed testicles”) from God’s temple. Such people may identify as intersex or transgender today, depending on the cause. This part of the Bible has many laws of exclusion that we have to reckon with as Christians, for example some quite ugly words against people with bodily impairments in the same passage.
Deuteronomy 22:5: A law against cross-dressing (people who may identify as trans today).
Isaiah 56:3-8: A prophecy that God will bless and include foreigners and eunuchs, two groups who were previously excluded from God’s people, and accept them in God’s “house of prayer.”
Matthew 19:12: Jesus refers to the different categories of “eunuchs” that were known to exist at the time. Nobody quite knows what he meant with the mysterious phrase about people becoming eunuchs for the kingdom of God (some people in the early church took it literally and castrated themselves; these days people often take it to mean “celibate,” though most eunuchs weren’t actually celibate). But it’s clear that Jesus acknowledges the reality that some people don’t fit into standard gender categories, either because of how they were born or because of their actions or actions of other people. And Jesus makes no judgement of any of them.
Acts 8:26-40: God guides Philip to talk to a Ethiopian eunuch. Philip helps the eunuch understand a passage from Isaiah by connecting it to Jesus, and he baptises him. Like in Isaiah 56 but unlike in Leviticus 21, verse 36 says there is nothing to prevent him (a foreigner and a eunuch, not a circumcised Jew) from fellowship with God.
* The prefix “cis” is the opposite of the prefix “trans”. “Cisgender” or “cis” just means “not transgender”.
Questions for discussion
What’s a situation where you’ve felt you didn’t fit in to the standard boxes?
What media depictions of minority gender/sex experiences have you come across?
If you are willing to share, what are some experiences with gender/sex diversity that have affected you? (either your own experience or those of people you know)
Have you observed changing understandings and languages around gender/sex diversity over your life? What have you found helpful or challenging about this?
What do you think is the ‘trajectory’ of the Bible on gender/sex diversity?
Why do you think there is an increasingly prominent anti-trans movement in England especially?
How do we make sure Beachcomber FX is a welcoming, safe, inclusive, and enjoyable community for transgender, intersex, and non-binary people?
Photo by Alexander Grey: https://www.pexels.com/photo/multicolored-paint-drippings-1212407/
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
I find myself taking a lot of photos of the beach, the Sea and the sky. I like the horizontal lines, and I like them to have order. Sea and sky meet in the middle of the photos as a central horizonal divide. If the beach is involved, then I like things in thirds – thank you very much. Which came first my love for equal framing or my love for Wes Anderson?
Anyway, in Newbiggin we have a statue out in the bay. Two figures stand staring out to sea. There is a smaller “couple” on the prom and up-close you see that they are facing slightly away from each other. It gives the sense of them being together and yet, they are alone in their thoughts. They stare out to sea into the liminal intersection between sea and sky – Is God there?
In her book ‘Grounded’ Diana Butler Bass argues that our scientific understanding of the way the earth and the universe works has challenged some of our ways of speaking about the mystery of God. Christianity has become caught between a literal certain view of the bible and the challenge of science. Now whether people really thought God lived in the sky or whether it acted as a useful metaphor: God was outside; somewhere else; across the numinous divide. This vertical faith puts us down here and God up there, and she suggests that where steeples and spires come in. Our gaze is lifted upwards as the building point to the sky. But now we know God’s not there – where do we go? She suggests that horizon allows us to reframe our view as a horizontal faith. Heaven is far away and yet so close.
‘The sky begins at our feet. Thus, we actually live in the heavens now, in the space in which earth and sky meet.’1
Is this why I have an existential draw and reaction to standing on the shore and looking out to sea? I certainly don’t think I’m alone in this. Whether it be on a mountaintop, on the flat plains (as Diana found), or by the sea staring at the intersection between land or sea and sky, in the always-just-out-of-view line communion – I sense God.
‘When I think of the far-off qualities of God, I no longer think “up”; Instead, I consider God beyond the horizon, just beyond the place where sky meets the ground. The spirit calls our gaze outward, to lift our eyes to the edge. The Spiritual revolution is the shift from a vertical God to the God-with-us. Dirt and water are understandable and tangible, icons of earthly sacredness. But we need the sky to remind us that no matter how close God is, God is still the one who hovers at the horizon.’2
This weeks blog was written by John Cooper. We will be meeting in Gardens again this week so if you would like to meet up at 7:30pm we will be at David and Naomi’s house. If you would like to come please let David know via Discord, Messenger, Carrier Pigeon etc
Questions:
Sunset or Sunrise?
Where is your favourite spot to sit and admire the sky meeting earth or sea? Could you bring a photo?
Have you had a moment of revelation/ numinosity/ transcendence when you have looked at the horizon?
What do you think about Diana Butler Bass’s idea of vertical faith? How have you seen it in action?
Has your view changed, and, of so, how would the horizon help you find God in the horizontal?
1 Diana Butler Bass. (2017). Grounded : finding God in the world–a spiritual revolution. Harperone, An Imprint Of Harpercollins Publishers. P120
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
This weeks blog comes a friend of ours called Tracey Hume who is a deacon in the Methodist Church and currently works as the Newcastle Methodist District’s Community Engagement Enabler. She has also been pivotal in setting up a Poverty and Truth Commission in Gateshead.
We all know that the cost of living is going up. Fuel bills, cost of petrol,food, and so on. But, as usual, those who have the least are affected disproportionally. Did you know that the median increase in our weekly food shop is around 6.5-8% but the increase for the cheapest brands is actually nearer 16%. Those struggling the most before the increases are now hit even harder. The average utility bills are up by 50% but if you have a pay as you go meter, which many on low incomes do, your increase is 56%.
For some time people have been making really difficult choices about heat or eat etc. The issue now is that the cost of living has increased so significantly but the income for those on benefits has not increased, in fact, the £20 uplift introduced in Lockdown was removed in October and wages, in real terms, have not really risen. On a news programme this week I heard of a family who had had to sell all their furniture in order to pay their fuel bill! That’s not a choice, that’s destitution. What happens when their next bill comes in? We are all having to make choices about how we spend our money at the moment but probably not to that extent.
This week I was approached by Public Health in Gateshead because they have a pot of money given by the Government which they want to use for “Warm Places”. These are community spaces where people can go to get warm, get a hot drink and maybe a hot meal. They are keen that the faith sector be involved. I am exploring places where this might work (despite the church’s own concerns about how they will pay their fuel bills for large, energy-inefficient buildings) but part of me wanted to cry, “What has our country come to that warm spaces are needed?”
The oft-quoted Martin Luther King Junior once said this:
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.”
Shane Claiborne and his friend John Perkins say:
‘We’ve all heard the saying “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life.” The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond. As we consider economics, some of us will give people fish, others will teach people to fish. But still others must be looking at who owns the pond and who polluted it…we must storm the fence that has been built around the pond and make sure everyone can get to it, for there is enough fish for all of us.’
As churches we can often be very good at trying to deal with the emergency provision, we run Foodbanks, Clothes Banks and so on, all good stuff, but when the demand for this provision just keeps on climbing when will we spend as much time trying to challenge the reasons people need to access these things at all? We pray “on earth as it is in heaven” but for the most-part, these folks are in a daily hell.
How has the cost of living increases affected you and your family? What choices are you having to make?
What are the messages we hear in the media and from Government about those who find themselves on the lowest incomes?
How can we help change the narrative around this?
What are your reactions to the quotes from Shane/John and Martin Luther King Jr?
How can we challenge the reasons why people are in poverty? How can we ensure that these voices (often unheard or ignored) are heard?
Where can we find hope when the predictions about more increases in cost of living are on the horizon leading to more people in poverty?
We are meeting at the Crescent Club in Cullercoats at 7:30pm for all those who would like to join us.
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
