Tate and Lyle go Fairtrade

Manufacturing giant Tate & Lyle's decision to switch its retail cane sugars range to Fair Trade has been welcomed by development campaigners and church aid agencies - but the need to move the social justice agenda in economics remains, they say.

- Article

After posting below I went to my google homepage and saw this story on my news reader. I have always said that the victories for fairtrade will not come with niche companies, but with normal suppliers of coffee, tea, chocolate, or in this case sugar, going over to fairtrade.

This is different to Nestlé's partners blend, because that was still only a niche product, so that they could say they had a product available, and also that consumers didn't have an appetite for fairly traded goods. Greenwashing indeed.

It is even better than Taylors of Harrogate, who have a number of fairtrade lines, and who, even when not officially marked, better than most in the tea industry. (Because the production of higher quality tea is always going to depend on smaller plantations with better practices, and because of good management and careful puchasing).

The taking over of a whole line means that large numbers of consumers will accidentally buy fairtrade, hopefully learning something as a result. The concept will be demonstrated as commercially viable, and consumers who would buy fairtrade if they could are more likely to do so.

So, if you just buy normal sugar, I would suggest buying Tate and Lyle, and partnering it with some nice fairtrade tea, little of which is better than the Taylors stuff, but I can also recommend Clipper (for their black teas, less so their green and aromatic stuff).

Links:
Ekklesia Story
Tate and Lyle - Press release
Fairtrade Foundation
Fairtrade sales approach £500m

Visceral Theology

A visceral theology majors in the sense of touch rather than in the sense of hearing ... The sacred must be rediscovered in what moves and touches us, in what makes us tremble, in what is proximate rather than remoe, ordinary rather than extraordinary, natuive rather than imported

A visceral theology therefore demands reawakening of the body, the resurrection of the bodily

If the church fails to develop a visceral theology and fails to help modern man rediscover and reverence his flesh and his feelings, it will neglect a source of common grace as well as the seed from which his compassion grows.

- Sam Keen

It is highly probable that sexual activity, the frenetic preoccupation with sex that characterises western culture, is in so many cases not the expression of sexual interest at all, but rather a search for the satisfaction of the need for contact.

- Ashley Montague

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him...

- Col 2.9-10

This is my first reaction to the SCM Conference in Hope, it is probable that I will follow this with at least one other post. I didn't want to try and fit it all into one very confused post. I can assure you it will all be interconnected.

This concept is definitely an interesting one, the word 'visceral' is certainly an arresting one. Perhaps one of my favourites, I can say it again and again. It is not erotic, but it certainly evokes tangibility.

I am not a very tactile person as a rule, I do not always tend to hug my friends, for instance. But I like to think I am comfortable with touch. When I went to Footsteps Nicola went through a phase of trying to get us comfortable with touching each other, without it being silly, or weird, or sexy or whatever. It makes you realise just how reified touch has become.

Christians have touched each other for years, sharing the Peace. It is interesting that this is one of the elements of church life which many people really dislike. It is often described as being a hygiene issue. but hygiene has nothing to do with it. (x's hands are likely no less hygienic than the hands of whoever prepared your cup of tea, or put out your biscuits, or gave you your hymnbook etc) Jesus used touch as a central part of his ministry, dialogues of ritual purity made some people untouchable, perhaps like the Dalit community, but Jesus flouted the regulations and he touched the ritually unclean on a regular basis. He touched lepers, bleeding women, foreigners, to him no one was unclean. The importance of this cannot be understated, it is often ignored as just a detail, but it cannot be dismissed as such if we believe in a Christ who was Bodily Incarnated. I think touch and the body is central, and deeply relevant. For all I do not like the fuss about Lady Diana, one of the best things she did was to touch AIDS sufferers. The dialogues of ritual purity are alive and well, children practice them in the playground, "the lergy" as a way of defining community and excluding the outsider. Every school I suspect had one child who was "manky", excluded and, perhaps crucially, untouched.

Two workshops at the movement challenged me to think again about touch, space and physicality, I attended an excellent session on Mime, and a very interesting session on Celtic Spirituality, the latter I may return to, perhaps tangentially in a separate post. The former was mainly creative, Martin taught us some mime basics, how to create simple illusions, how to portray certain characters. We then split into two groups to create a simple sketch (ours wasn't as simple as perhaps it should have been) I was surprised to discover that most of the Celtic Spirituality session was spent exploring our attitudes to space, and our bodies. There was a thesis that traditional Latin descended Christianity had a poor attitude to the body, with which I sort of agree, but do not believe it is as simple as that, nor that there is any evidence that the "Celtic Church", if such a thing ever existed, was any different.

Touch, and physicality fitted quite well into the theme of interconnectedness. The language we use is dominated by concepts of touch, we keep "in touch", we are "connected", or make a "connection", we might "touch base" with someone "touch on", an issue. Unsurprisingly nothing makes one feel more connected than physically touching to something. Putting a hand on someone's shoulder, a resting arm over a treasured possession, or the hearth of the family household. Pope John Paul II earned a certain amount of popularity for the simple, humble action, of kissing the tarmac in a new country. Not demonstrating his allegiance or humility through words, but through a simple physical action. I can't remember where I read a quote suggesting he would have done better to move off the Tarmac and kiss the earth that sustains the people of that country. As I understand visceral theology it is the concept that by becoming comfortable with my own body, with my own space, and the physical connections with the world, I will become more in tune with the reality of the incarnation, as well as battling the malaise of loneliness, negative body image and fulfilling the basic human desire to be touched.

Coming Soon...

I have just returned from the SCM conference, and I have some plans for forthcoming posts.

I wish to post in response to the conference, the ideas are connected but complicated, so that I may make a handful of short posts, rather than attempt one great rambling one. Expect tales of mime, merriment and marshmallows.

I have also been awarded a book in the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme, In Search of Adam. This will be the second Early Reviewer book I will receive, the first being Boy A, which I discussed last year.

The eagle eyed may notice a new link on the left: For all the Saints. I hope to be contributing very soon, generally speaking I recommend it as an interesting blog.

Dissapointed with Ekklesia

Recently, as a result of all the fuss about the ABC's comments re: Sharia law, Ekklesia has run a series of articles regarding the establishment of the Church of England.

There are a couple of elements about this that annoy me, Ekklesia has always been a bit worthy, but usually contains good, well measured stuff. Unfortunately the recent spate of articles have been very much beneath them.

Yes, Ekklesia is disestablishmentarianist, which is fine. I'm not particularly, I just think there are bigger things to worry about, and don't think it hurts to have a handful of bishops in the House of Lords. However, I appreciate that there are good reasons to oppose the establishment of the Church of England. Perhaps a more "national church" model would be better? Anyway, these good reasons are not that ++ Cantaur has been attacked by the media. Any more than Prince Charles is a good reason for the abolition of the monastery. If you object to the Establishment of the CofE you should do so quod rem. Making cheap mileage out of the ABCs poor media reception is below a news source which pretends to advocate "open" discussion of faith in society.

The strategy is flawed in several ways.

1) As the leader of the historic national church the ABC would be an object of media scrutiny, established or otherwise.

2) The fuss about the ABCs comments was absolute bollocks, and it reflects poorly on Ekklesia that they wish to make mileage out of that fuss. The ABC should be praised for his original speech, if not for his poor media management (he was naive to think that the BBC was beyond over simplification and leading headlines).

3) If there is an argument to be made about establishment it should be made on principle, not on poor individual cases, doing so just cheapens the point being made.

This post has been by way of a rant, I am annoyed that an otherwise good news source has debased itself so much, by jumping on a horrific media bandwagon in order to beat a worn drum.

Blake at the Whitworth

On Sunday last I went to the Blake exhibition at the Whitworth, I thought I would share my thoughts.

Firstly on the exhibition itself, the exhibition was actually two exhibitions. One, Mind Forg'd Manacles, showcased Blake on slavery, of one form and another, this was certainly the better of the two, very carefully curated. The other, Blake's Shadow explored Blake's influence. Unfortunately as both exhibitions were quite small, (In a space that usually contains just one) and as the later mainly featured works inspired by Blake, the whole experience was a bit Blake light, which for a double exhibition about the man, is a bit sad.

Mind Forg'd Manacles was very interesting, as I have said, it put works by Blake, including some of his illustrated verse, that related to forms of slavery, these were placed alongside an area with various abolitionist images. With a study area with works such as Equiano sitting alongside the normal heavy art tomes. In some ways this was not the most interesting part.

I have to stress that slavery does very much still exist, and in not that dissimilar a form as that supposedly abolished in the western world. Whilst people are not shipped from Africa to work in American plantations, they are still shipped from eastern Europe to work Britain's brothels.

However, the most interesting forms of slavery with which Blake is concerned are not the more obvious forms like these. The very title, Mind Forg'd Manacles, point beyond physical enslavement to mental enslavement. If we return to the African slave trade for a moment. If an African has to undergo the transatlantic passage, with only humiliation, degradation and back breaking labour to look forward to that is one thing. But it is the lesser crime, if his oppressors also make him think he deserves it. I doubt any African born slaves thought that, but there is a possibility that some did, and that some later slaves, or later non-slave blacks, internalised their oppression. When a husband beats his wife, he not only injures her physically, but wounds her self worth terribly, in cases of domestic abuse there is a very real danger of the abused party being so broken as to think they deserve the violence perpetrated against them. This not only allows the violence to be perpetuated, but it is also an act of incredible violence against the individuality of the abused person.

It is this form of slavery and abuse that Blake often highlights, and which I find fascinating, fascinating because such slavery is deeply obscured even today. The study of the internalisation of oppression in Black Americans is, for instance, hugely contentious. In his often fantastical, allegorical art Blake can help illuminate this painful part of the human experience.

Another element of enslavement, little explored but touched on by Blake is the enslavement of the oppressor, when there is the enslavement of the oppressed, that is possibly reasonable, but there are some who would say that without a holistic view of oppression it can never be defeated. Rousseau thought that the master was as much degraded as his slave. Blake gives us images of near-gods in chains.

The opposite of slavery is freedom, and Blake explores freedom excellently, especially in those works which feed on Milton. Milton is a fascinating champion of freedom, especially since, like Pullman after him, freedom is from God.

Keyword Analysis etc

What follows perhaps interests me alone, I have been looking at how people have navigated here, I am getting people randomly appearing here from various places, and for various reasons. 50 of the last 500 page hits on this blog has been from people navigating here from google, actually 37 individual visitors (ish).

Most of them have been looking for something vaguely catholic, mainly via the author Duffy, since I posted it yesterday 2 people also sought out Karen Armstrong, one of them very kindly commented and pointed me towards a very interesting article. It says something about my interests that a non catholic is being mainly "sought out" (although that is too strong) for his catholic interests.

A remarkable number of people are interested in Stuart Lee, whose Podcast I reviewed here. Although I am not convinced that my treatment fo him really deserves so much attention.

Only 2 searches were even vaguely geeky, probably reflected the masses of material on such subjects all of which is more interesting than my comments.

Some people are seeking my blog out directly, or else googling latin nonsense for fun. 4 searches were actually aimed at Helen's excellent blog.

Most of the navigations are not searches, most of them are actually from the Ship of Fools, so hello shipmates! A link appears at the bottom of my posts, and enough people appear to be clicking them. Which is nice to know. My next biggest referrer is myself, or at least, my old blog, which appears to be getting enough people visiting despite looong periods of inactivity. I am also linked to from The Manchizzle, where I am classed as "Student and Academic". Experiments in Reading, links to me as does my lovely Natasha.

I apologise for that geeky diversion. Normal service will resume, very soon.

***Data***

Total: Christian themes - 23
Total: Old and Middle English themes - 18
Total: Catholic themes - 15

Re: OU, stuart lee, podcasts, old english - 14
+ "english podcasts duffy and armitage" - 1
+ "university of oxford podcast english lecture chaucer - 1"

Re: Duffy, Faith of our Fathers, Striping the Alters, - 11

Re: St Augustine's Confessions - 6

Re: Trigell, Boy A - 2

Re: Church Ahead of the Church - 2

"pimp my parataxis" - 4
"legoque scribo" - 2
"sir gawain armitage audio bbc" - 2
"karen armstrong" - 2
"reflections for catholic faith" - 2
"macbook air cds" - 2

In Praise of + James Jones, Liverpool

Natasha very kindly sent me this link.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, a conservative evangelical has argued that the Bible sanctions same-sex relationships, using the bonds between Jesus and John the disciple, and David and Jonathan as examples.

- From article, paraphrased

I would like to express my respect for such a decision. Whatever you think of homosexuality and Christianity you have to respect a man who can make such a huge abotu face. Going from vehement opposition of a prospective Gay Bishop to highly vocal, and quite contentious statements such as he has outlined in this essay in this new book. It takes a big man to do so.

He will doubtless get a lot of stick from various quarters for this decision, and so he needs all the more praise for it.

Almighty and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Send down upon James Jones our Bishop of Liverpool, all bishops, and other clergy, and upon the congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and, that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Adapted From Anglican Use Office, (Partride Hill Press, Mass., 2006)

Karen Armstrong, Through the Narrow Gate

Enter by the narrow gate, since the gate that leads to perdition is wide, and the road spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that lead to life, and only a few find it.

- Matthew 7:13

I have been reading Karen Armstrong on and off for a while now, I am an especial fan of her History of Myth and her History of Islam. While I was looking for books about Nuns, in what I like to think of as the Nun Studies Department (JRULM: B3 271.9x) I came across Through The Narrow Gate Her autobiographical work, and as far as I can tell her first? For those who do not know Karen Armstrong here is a brief bio: Born 1944, went to a convent school from which she entered an order of teaching nuns, (1962, aged 17!). Nowadays such early vocations do not happen, candidates for the religious orders are supposed to have had some time in the real world before taking the veil. But take the veil she did, she spent the early sixties in holy isolation, then went to Oxford in 1967. While at Oxford she left the order (1969).

Through the Narrow Gate is Armstrong's own story of this period, the Prelude is her breakdown, which is referred to only obliquely when it occurs chronologically, then it goes to her approaching a teacher at her convent school to tell her that she thinks she has a vocation. The book proper ends with her first day as an ex-nun, being remodeled by a couple of students, but otherwise panic stricken at the thought of being responsible for money, her own clothing, accommodation and herself, an individual. It is followed by an Afterword, casting a review from the vantage of 1980. The books jacket treats this as an exposé, it will "... shock you and move you. It is a nun's own story of a life that most of us could never, ever imagine . . ." It is a tale of "... indignity, squalor and emotional anguish". But treating it as a penny shocker is an injustice. Armstrong takes us on a deeply intimate journey, she exposes herself to her reader more than most of her readers will ever have exposed themselves to themselves.

It is true that at times the descriptions of convent life are, unpalatable, and I am sure that they are no longer repeated, more than forty years since Vatican 2. But the true horror is the way in which a young woman, not much older than me, is being torn apart by her faith, by her desire to be obedient, and her desire to think freely, torn apart by what she is told God wants, and what her instincts tell her God wants. It is more than physical labour, and material discomforts, it is a genuine, painful and drawn out crisis of faith. Crisis barely does it justice, it is a trauma, and the impression she gives is that it never heals. This is humbling to those of us who have had comparatively peaceful faith journeys. It is also inspiring, she doubts herself, and her vocation, but she never doubts God, and she leaves the religious life not because God has failed her, but because convent life, "Sister Martha" has failed God. She leaves the order to better serve God, firstly by better serving herself, and her own loves.

I'm sure you could mine this book as a source of criticism, but that is not what the book is about, it is simply the journey of one young woman, it is inspiring, tragic and compelling. If it has a message it is clothed in the Afterword:

But now I can honestly say that I wouldn't have missed the experience.

After everything we have read by that point, that comes as something of a shock, it turns many parts of the book on its head. The note she ends the book on is also worth repeating:

The nuns I lived with were women of charity and integrity. they were striving for a superhuman ideal and, not surprisingly, they made mistakes. They did their best for me, but between us we failed. Religious life is about love and love is about risk. Perhaps none of us risked enough.

The Rise and Fall of Double Houses

This was, as you will see below one of my suggestions for a potential thesis.

Unfortunately it looks like I will have to reject it.

A little explanation first, the Double House is a term which usually refers to a religious community consisting of monks and nuns or sisters. Imagine a Monastery and a convent side by side with a chapel inbetween, the two will function separately much of the time, but they will share a rule, and will come together for mass, and to pray the office. The dual community would normally be under the authority of an abbess. These foundations were not original to the Anglo-Saxons, nor were they unique to them. The structure has its origins in the eastern early church, and appeared especially in Neustrian Francia, and Ireland, there is some debate as to where the Anglo-Saxon model largely came from. The first, and most famous foundation was "Whitby"*, under abbess Hilda, founded under the aegis of Aidan, and thus betraying an Irish influence, however southern communities betray a Francian influence.

The Double House appears to have taken off especially in 'England', they are made more fascinating by the fact that the had a lifespan of about 200 years or so, Whitby lasted, for instance, from 657, while 867, where it fell victim to Viking raids. They are interesting firstly because of their singular appearance in the pre-conquest, pre-viking Anglo-Saxon church. There are questions to be answered as to why they took of so strongly, and why they disappeared so quickly. (The disappearance of the Double-Houses cannot entirely be blamed on the Vikings.)

They are also interesting because of their peculiar implications for gender roles. Within the House, the entire community, men and women is lead by a woman. What is more these Abbesses were a powerful force in the church itself, it was under the eyes of such a woman, i.e. Hilda, that the great Synod of 664 took place. Making this more remarkable again is the limited role of other women. The only role in which a woman could wield any direct power whatsoever was as an Abbess. The implications of this are, to say the least, enticing. The decline of the Double House, accompanied the decline of the role of women within the church generally. There is almost certainly a causal relationship. Either Double Houses declined because female authority was going out of fashion. Or the decline of Double Houses undermined the position of other Abbesses.

Unfortunately the evidence that I might base a Thesis on, is weak to non existent. Firstly the existence of these house is brief, and thus there is a narrow window of time in which contemporary sources could be produced. Where sources discuss Double Houses they are not providing us with a useful commentary, rather they are merely the backdrop to other events. Bede discusses Whitby only as the location of the Synod, and as a foundation of a holy woman, in his Prose Life of St Cuthbert he is interested in an Abbess only for her relationship with Cuthbert, not for her administrative abilities. What is more the concept of a Double House is a nebulous one. The image I begun with may not be accurate in all cases, some communities of women were just as likely to have been a group of vowesses, vaguely linked to a monastery, with no strong Abbess at all. Elsewhere a female community might have supported a lone male anchorite, or vica versa. The sources do not give always give us this information, where we know women and men are alongside one another, we have to guess that they follow the familiar model of Whitby, or Minster-in-Thanet, but we cannot know this for sure. So to try and write a detailed historical study of these houses seems to be a futile task. Such a study would make a sorry foundation for the gendered commentary I was hoping to write. Other scholars have come to a similar conclusion, and I have found no attempt at a dedicated study of the phenomena since 1899

I will pursue one or to other avenues before I give up completely, however I feel I must admit that this subject is closed with a heavy lock.

* The name Whitby is a Viking one, Hilda was the Abbess of a community at Streanæshalch, which from an early date (12th century) was assumed to be the place now known as Whitby, however, Messers Barnwell, Butler and Dunn, have identified the village of Strensall, just north of York as a more likely candidate for the house. Certainly both locations housed communities of some sort.

Bibloiography

Bede, Ecclesiastical History
Bede, Prose Life of St Cuthbert
Anonymous, Life of St Gregory (written at Whitby, but concerning Gregory)

Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses, (London, 2003)
Barnwell, Butler and Dunne, 'The Confusion of Conversion', in Carver, (ed.) The Cross Goes North (York, 2003)
Bateson, 'The Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries', TRHS, (1899)