Our flight back to Bristol left at lunchtime, and the connecting buses and train got us home by four thirty, just in time for me to make my way up to St Mike's for the weekly tutorial meeting, at which Chris talked about his year's project, which involved getting people in his placement parish thinking about what they wanted a church website to achieve for them - quite a task when the majority are only slightly acquainted with internet use, often through children or grand-children, rather than personally. It was a very insightful presentation, which may well lead to him sharing his considerable expertise with others in College in an informal session before the term ends.
Having uploaded my 'Cartooning for Peace' pictures to Picasaweb before leaving Geneva, I also sent the link to tutor group members, and challenged them to think of ways they might use any of the striking and often controversial images on display during a College meditation or prayer session. How often we pray for peace or about peace without really facing up the disturbing difficult and divisive issues that lie behind the need for peace.
Finally, Radko Mladic is on trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in den Haag, seemingly contemptuous of the process, indifferent to the suffering and death the army under his command meted out during the Bosnian war. It is a deeply serious affair, ensuring that truth is told for the sake of surviving victims, and so that the rest of us can learn the lessons of those tragic events in which too much power was given over to people who thrived on ill-will and hatred of others.
Sometimes, it is only the political satirists of this world, whose critical scorn is poured out upon the lies and pretensions of the powerful, who can catch the world's attention - provided their voices are not hastily extinguished. Sadly, the churches' record on freedom of speech is sometimes little better than that of other conservative faith groups. We have a long way to go before we can really say that we are following our Master completely on this count.
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