Reflecting on the riots

Two services this morning out in the Vale, first at Saint Marychurch with its round Celtic llan of a churchyard, then at St Hilary. The tower at St Marychurch is currently cordoned off with Heras fencing. A large crack has appeared in the south-west corner of the tower. Fortunatley the crack doesn't penetrate right through to the interior of the tower, it's just the stone dressing of its core that needs attention, doubtless expensive for a small community. As I entered I was greeted by a lady offering free bags of cooking apples, gratefully received. At St Hilary, another lady was selling one kilo bags of lovely ripe Victoria plums a quid each for church funds. I gladly stumped up for a bag to take home, though I was certain Clare would be getting somer at the Riverside farmers' market. She's been making the most of the abundance of a good season of summer fruit, first with strawberry and then damson jam making. Maybe plum jam as well? Or just lots of good eating.
 

When I came to check my sermon last night, one I'd written in fit of zeal last Monday knowing we'd be away several days, it seemed less than relevant, after the week's urban riots. I'd worked with a Gospel about the healing of the Canaanite woman's daughter, a favourite of mine for reflecting on how Jesus approached inter-faith and cross cultural encounters. So I re-edited the text radically, to focus on examining the spiritual context of public disorder. In the end I didn't need to abandon the 'inter-faith Jesus' theme, as I was able to point how how he applauded the faith of people different from his own beliefs and culture, enabling us to admire people other than Christians, like Tariq Jahan, whose son was murdered in Winson Green last Tuesday, standing up for values clearly recognisable to Christians and others of good will. I've posted the text of it for downloading here.

It was interesting to observe that the press has made little of the fact that Mr Jahan is muslim, that his son was killed in the holy month of Ramadhan, that his appeal for peace, not retaliation or revenge in response was a consistent witness to the inner meaning of Ramadhan discipline. Only at the peace rally in Winson Green  televised after lunch today, did Mr Jahan himself mention for the first time this week that he's muslim and that it's Ramadhan. In the end it's example that counts.

At Evensong in St German's we observed the Assumption of our Lady, which gave me an opportunity to use three of my favourite Marian verses from the Byzantine liturgical corpus. At the end of it, I was just too tired to join the others who went on to St Mary's for an eumenical event with festive procession and fireworks in honour of the feast, grateful for a quiet evening at home instead.