The Sunday Archive: The Pilot, October 1997 - Part 1
The Dean’s Letter
AS I WRITE this article, which will be eventually read when the event itself will be long passed, here in the Island, in the nation, possibly in many places through the world, countless people are still in shock and grief at the tragic sudden, and, I suppose, totally unnecessary, death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
It is fascinating how a major catastrophe can bring out the best in people, or the worst in people. This week many, many people, have worked unselfishly long hours, or gone to considerable effort, and not a little expense, to show their feelings and so give comfort and encouragement to two families that most of us do not know, and with whom we have had little or no contact. The attitude and reaction of the staff of the Lord Chamberlain's office in London and of many others, like the bookbinder here in Jersey who broke his holiday to prepare overnight the leather-bound tome so that other Islanders, and indeed visitors to the Island, could stand for hours waiting to enter their names in the Book of Remembrance and express their love of, and their thanksgiving for, the Princess, revealed a very pleasant side of human nature. On the mainland people journeyed for hours, to stand for even more hours, missing the last train home in some cases, to do the same thing.
While others, admittedly a few, reacted by muttering and complaining about every decision which other people, with the best will in the world, were making. I am not saying that all the decisions were the right ones, but to ring up and be rude or abusive to wives, secretaries and people who were not responsible for those decisions, reveals an unpleasant side of human nature.
But anger will always be one of the possible characteristics of grief. And perhaps many more people were angry with God. They may even have "rung him up" and sounded off at Him. They wondered how He could allow such a ghastly event to happen. They seemed to think that because a very popular Princess was involved God should have stepped in to stop it. But why for a Princess in France? Why not for a class roomful of children in Scotland a year ago, or in Wales many years ago, or even for a townful of children two thousand years ago? The famous and the great, as well as the innocent and the lovely, are as liable to suffer as the unknown and the unremarkable, and as the downright wicked person and the unlovely, and all those of us in between too. No one is exempt. Not even God himself.
God never promised us that life would not be unfair, only that when it was, He would be there with us. The God of the Christian is not a distant deity, but an intimate being who stands beside us in the good times and in the bad, on a Sunday morning in a beautiful cathedral and in the tangled wreckage of our lives, both of which are equally man-made.
A month on when you read this, life for most people will have reverted to normal – and sadly that will probably also mean that many of them who contacted God at the time of the tragedy will have stopped communicating with Him – that is until the next time. It is a shame that we cannot be with Him in the good times as well as in the bad.
JOHN SEAFORD
AS I WRITE this article, which will be eventually read when the event itself will be long passed, here in the Island, in the nation, possibly in many places through the world, countless people are still in shock and grief at the tragic sudden, and, I suppose, totally unnecessary, death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
It is fascinating how a major catastrophe can bring out the best in people, or the worst in people. This week many, many people, have worked unselfishly long hours, or gone to considerable effort, and not a little expense, to show their feelings and so give comfort and encouragement to two families that most of us do not know, and with whom we have had little or no contact. The attitude and reaction of the staff of the Lord Chamberlain's office in London and of many others, like the bookbinder here in Jersey who broke his holiday to prepare overnight the leather-bound tome so that other Islanders, and indeed visitors to the Island, could stand for hours waiting to enter their names in the Book of Remembrance and express their love of, and their thanksgiving for, the Princess, revealed a very pleasant side of human nature. On the mainland people journeyed for hours, to stand for even more hours, missing the last train home in some cases, to do the same thing.
While others, admittedly a few, reacted by muttering and complaining about every decision which other people, with the best will in the world, were making. I am not saying that all the decisions were the right ones, but to ring up and be rude or abusive to wives, secretaries and people who were not responsible for those decisions, reveals an unpleasant side of human nature.
But anger will always be one of the possible characteristics of grief. And perhaps many more people were angry with God. They may even have "rung him up" and sounded off at Him. They wondered how He could allow such a ghastly event to happen. They seemed to think that because a very popular Princess was involved God should have stepped in to stop it. But why for a Princess in France? Why not for a class roomful of children in Scotland a year ago, or in Wales many years ago, or even for a townful of children two thousand years ago? The famous and the great, as well as the innocent and the lovely, are as liable to suffer as the unknown and the unremarkable, and as the downright wicked person and the unlovely, and all those of us in between too. No one is exempt. Not even God himself.
God never promised us that life would not be unfair, only that when it was, He would be there with us. The God of the Christian is not a distant deity, but an intimate being who stands beside us in the good times and in the bad, on a Sunday morning in a beautiful cathedral and in the tangled wreckage of our lives, both of which are equally man-made.
A month on when you read this, life for most people will have reverted to normal – and sadly that will probably also mean that many of them who contacted God at the time of the tragedy will have stopped communicating with Him – that is until the next time. It is a shame that we cannot be with Him in the good times as well as in the bad.
JOHN SEAFORD
DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES
By Denis Pipon
THE death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned each one of us, as did the death of John F Kennedy. We each one know the hour of the day, the day of the week and what we were doing when we heard the news of her violent death. How could those entrusted with her care and protection, race through the streets of Paris and into, ironically, that well lit tunnel at two or three times the speed limit set for those beautiful boulevards? How could those entrusted with her care, protection and safety ignore the normal risk factors of outstripping the vehicles, the motorcycles or else in pursuit? How Diana's death came upon us individually, nationally, globally, that huge sea of loss, of grief, of emotion and feeling? Stunned, we knew not what to do; those of us who could identify with Diana in our eating disorders, in our addictions, in our loneliness, in our break up of marriage, and in the deceit of our spouse in marriage, stripped of our position, shunned and rejected, left to fend for ourselves, to fight through injustices. These, the things that Diana surmounted.
We could identify, we the churched; the non-churched. We were offered two books of condolences, we were looking for, awaiting the invitation of, the open doors of our local church, identifying ourselves with the crying needs of Diana, Princess of Wales, looking for the intimacy and understanding of grief that we, as Christians and as members of Christ's church here on earth claim to share.
Up and down the length and breadth of the United Kingdom special services were held, Mass was said in the Roman Catholic churches, candle-lit vigils were held. Locally we were willing to accept the open air ecumenical afternoon service; a service now so well rehearsed and not unlike other services that had gone before it. We each one of us asked the question, how could GOD call someone so young and with so much more to give?
Here was the opportunity for the Church to help us in our understanding, to answer the questions about life, about death and their meaning and their purpose.
Will our invitations, will our response to others, will our reflections and pause shared with others, will our approach, be any different towards and beyond the millennium, the year 2000. Will we share with others, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son, the only Son of God, Redeemer of the World? — DENIS PIPON
By David Edwards
THIS edition of The PILOT is my last as editor. After nearly two years I am relinquishing the role, in order to enable me to spend more time in study for the lay ministry.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dean and the clergy for their contributions and the encouragement they have given me over the past 21 months, despite on occasions, my nagging them for copy, when deadlines had passed.
My sincere thanks go to all the contributors for their articles, written on a wide variety of topics, that have provided stimulating, humorous, informative and often thought-provoking articles. There is a great team behind the scenes who deserve recognition and praise, who beaver away quietly, to ensure that The PILOT is available in the Island churches, and copies are sent out to subscribers.
MOTHERS' UNION
By CAROLE RICHARDSON, Deanery Co-ordinator
AUTUMN is traditionally a time of new beginnings. Children are returning to school and we, refreshed by the summer break, think ahead, perhaps planning for the months ahead, the harvest or even our winter wardrobes!
The Mothers' Union starts again. I think this is a good time for us all to reflect on the past year and to plan head. A lot has happened to the MU on the mainland. We hear of discontent, and have been able to comment on the National Opinion Polls and their views of our Association. Subscriptions will go up once again to £14 (0.85 of this stays in the Diocese to pay for "pool speakers" etc, and £4 of this is for the magazine, once again optional; the remaining money is given towards the upkeep of Mary Sumner House).
The MU has done valuable work "overseas" and this is reflected in the events which our local branches have held in lieu of the usual Annual Overseas Sale. We have an ageing membership, and it is not easy for some branches to hold events, and thanks must go to everyone who did!
I hope you will all support St Martin's who are holding a Bring and Buy in St Martin's Public Hall on 8th October at 2.30 pm and when Dr Michael Marks will give a talk on his work at the Bush Hospital.
I am most glad to be able to tell members that Lady Bailhache has kindly agreed to become our local Vice-President, and we would like to thank her most sincerely for this. It is lovely for us to have a young Vice-President who is very much a "family" person, and one whose family has had "roots" in the Mothers' Union for many years.
By CAROLE RICHARDSON, Deanery Co-ordinator
AUTUMN is traditionally a time of new beginnings. Children are returning to school and we, refreshed by the summer break, think ahead, perhaps planning for the months ahead, the harvest or even our winter wardrobes!
The Mothers' Union starts again. I think this is a good time for us all to reflect on the past year and to plan head. A lot has happened to the MU on the mainland. We hear of discontent, and have been able to comment on the National Opinion Polls and their views of our Association. Subscriptions will go up once again to £14 (0.85 of this stays in the Diocese to pay for "pool speakers" etc, and £4 of this is for the magazine, once again optional; the remaining money is given towards the upkeep of Mary Sumner House).
The MU has done valuable work "overseas" and this is reflected in the events which our local branches have held in lieu of the usual Annual Overseas Sale. We have an ageing membership, and it is not easy for some branches to hold events, and thanks must go to everyone who did!
I hope you will all support St Martin's who are holding a Bring and Buy in St Martin's Public Hall on 8th October at 2.30 pm and when Dr Michael Marks will give a talk on his work at the Bush Hospital.
I am most glad to be able to tell members that Lady Bailhache has kindly agreed to become our local Vice-President, and we would like to thank her most sincerely for this. It is lovely for us to have a young Vice-President who is very much a "family" person, and one whose family has had "roots" in the Mothers' Union for many years.
GEOFF HOUGHTON submits his Thoughts on the States Strategic Policy Debate
NOTWITHSTANDING our more cynical inclinations, most of us would agree that States members diligently fulfil an onerous responsibility in leading our community. The Strategic Policy Debate, which this year is expected to take place in October, is a key event in which this exercise of leadership is most clearly visible. Even a casual reading of the States Strategic Policy Review and Action Plan reveals the immense practical complexities of governing our Island, balancing many conflicting priorities of its population to create a stable and prosperous community. If nothing else we would certainly want to hold in our prayers States members engaged in this task.
As individual Christians we will no doubt differ in our assessment of the relative effectiveness of particular policy choices made by the States. However, at a more fundamental level, allegiance to the agendas of our Lord remain our crucial shared point of reference. In our fallen state we will not be surprised to find that the kingdom Jesus announced to be at last breaking into this world is at many points in opposition to our priorities which often remain, in the final analysis, in hock to the principalities and powers which He decisively confronted at Calgary.
Enabled by the Spirit we too might now expect to be engaged in various ways in the outworking of these conflicts in ourselves and in the life of our community. With this in mind we might consider, amongst many other issues, the present States stance on Overseas Aid. We are all aware of the scale of deprivation beyond our shores (for example, in the sober estimate of the World Bank, 1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty on less than $1 per day and this number is increasing). Perhaps less well known are the real advances being made in eradicating poverty, for example over the last thirty years global child death rates have been halved
Specifically as Christians we might read poverty statistics as an indictment of our sinful human condition rather 'than an inevitable consequence of economic or natural forces. (We might also be wary of assuming humankind can extricate itself by its own efforts alone.)
But can Jersey as a community afford to participate in global efforts to address this scandal? Emphatically yes. To meet the modest UN target (0.7% of our national income) Jersey would have to contribute about £12 million. Compare this with Jersey's £50 million annual household expenditure on alcohol and tobacco (a figure which incidentally gives some perspective on well meaning but misplaced arguments for us to meet all other requests of States Committees before considering Overseas Aid). In fact we contribute just £2.7 million from a States budget of £378 million. This, in proportion to per capita income, is half that of Portugal and less that any other significant developed country. Luxembourg, which has a broadly similar small country economy, contributes $148 per capita compared to our $50 (or, in terms of national income, 0.38% compared to our 0.14%).
But at the end of the day, whilst comparisons can be revealing they remain rooted in the standards of this world. They do not have the compelling power to turn us around to embrace a new possibility of life. As Christians perhaps more than anyone else would we not hope, like Mother Theresa, to be faithful to wholly different values in our personal lives and, as far as we are able, in this community's priorities? After all, the kingdom which our Lord taught us to pray for may be much more than the liberation from material and political oppression that his contemporaries fervently sought but it is certainly not less.
NOTWITHSTANDING our more cynical inclinations, most of us would agree that States members diligently fulfil an onerous responsibility in leading our community. The Strategic Policy Debate, which this year is expected to take place in October, is a key event in which this exercise of leadership is most clearly visible. Even a casual reading of the States Strategic Policy Review and Action Plan reveals the immense practical complexities of governing our Island, balancing many conflicting priorities of its population to create a stable and prosperous community. If nothing else we would certainly want to hold in our prayers States members engaged in this task.
As individual Christians we will no doubt differ in our assessment of the relative effectiveness of particular policy choices made by the States. However, at a more fundamental level, allegiance to the agendas of our Lord remain our crucial shared point of reference. In our fallen state we will not be surprised to find that the kingdom Jesus announced to be at last breaking into this world is at many points in opposition to our priorities which often remain, in the final analysis, in hock to the principalities and powers which He decisively confronted at Calgary.
Enabled by the Spirit we too might now expect to be engaged in various ways in the outworking of these conflicts in ourselves and in the life of our community. With this in mind we might consider, amongst many other issues, the present States stance on Overseas Aid. We are all aware of the scale of deprivation beyond our shores (for example, in the sober estimate of the World Bank, 1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty on less than $1 per day and this number is increasing). Perhaps less well known are the real advances being made in eradicating poverty, for example over the last thirty years global child death rates have been halved
Specifically as Christians we might read poverty statistics as an indictment of our sinful human condition rather 'than an inevitable consequence of economic or natural forces. (We might also be wary of assuming humankind can extricate itself by its own efforts alone.)
But can Jersey as a community afford to participate in global efforts to address this scandal? Emphatically yes. To meet the modest UN target (0.7% of our national income) Jersey would have to contribute about £12 million. Compare this with Jersey's £50 million annual household expenditure on alcohol and tobacco (a figure which incidentally gives some perspective on well meaning but misplaced arguments for us to meet all other requests of States Committees before considering Overseas Aid). In fact we contribute just £2.7 million from a States budget of £378 million. This, in proportion to per capita income, is half that of Portugal and less that any other significant developed country. Luxembourg, which has a broadly similar small country economy, contributes $148 per capita compared to our $50 (or, in terms of national income, 0.38% compared to our 0.14%).
But at the end of the day, whilst comparisons can be revealing they remain rooted in the standards of this world. They do not have the compelling power to turn us around to embrace a new possibility of life. As Christians perhaps more than anyone else would we not hope, like Mother Theresa, to be faithful to wholly different values in our personal lives and, as far as we are able, in this community's priorities? After all, the kingdom which our Lord taught us to pray for may be much more than the liberation from material and political oppression that his contemporaries fervently sought but it is certainly not less.
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