Latest plans for walk of repentance for homophobia

Posted on by symonhill

I’m delighted to report that the starting venue for my pilgrimage of repentance for homophobia has been confirmed. I will begin with a talk at Carr’s Lane Church in central Birmingham on the evening of Wednesday 15 June. I will then begin walking from there the next day.

I will then pass through towns and cities including Coventry, Leamington Spa and Oxford before arriving in London on 1 July, the evening before Pride.

I am very grateful to Carr’s Lane for their hosting offer, and to my friend John Cooper for his help with arranging it. I’m very pleased, partly because it’s great to have another venue confirmed, but also because the starting venue is particularly significant. A number of individuals, churches and groups in the Birmingham area have been really supportive and encouraging, so are likely to help in promoting the event.

I admit that on the whole I have found it harder than I hoped, or even expected, to find churches willing to host talks in some of the places I am visting. In a few places, there have been supportive individuals who have told their church about my pilgrimage and found that there has been more oppositon than they had hoped.

By confirming the talk at Carr’s Lane, I am of course announcing not only the starting venue but also the starting date. It’s just over two weeks before I’ll arrive in London, meaning my initial estimate that the walk would take around three weeks has turned out to be a bit inaccurate.  I hope the slightly shorter time won’t lead anyone to conlude that the walk is less meaingful!

There are now three events confirmed for my pilgrimage, all in city centre churches. The other two are in Oxford (Sunday 26 June) and London (Friday 1 July).  I am very close to confirming with one other church, and still talking with a few others. I am also pleased to have received an offer from a church that may not be close enough to the likely route. I am working out whether it will be feasible to vary the route in order to visit them.

For more news on my pilgrimage, please visit http://www.repenting.wordpress.com.

Bad arguments against voting Yes: Misleading maps

Posted on by symonhill

If you’ve received a leaflet from the ‘No to AV’ campaign, you may have noticed a map of the world showing that only three countries use the Alternative Vote system. But there are lots of things the map does not show.

The rightness or wrongness of AV does not depend on how many countries use it. Nonetheless, I admit that the experience of other countries is relevant to the debate.

However, the map is just one of many misleading items to feature in the leaflet. While it accurately depicts the countries that back AV, it fails to tell us how many use First-Past-the-Post (FPTP).

Many thanks to James Elford, who contacted me via Twitter to send me a link to a more detailed map. This one shows that FPTP is used by only a few more countries than AV. You can see it at http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=7166.

I admit I haven’t examined this map in detail or checked its categorisation of each country’s electoral system. But I accept its general point about the misleading nature of the map used by the No campaign.

A yet more detailed map would show us how many more countries use forms of proportional representation. I would much rather have a proportional system than either FPTP or AV. But the referendum is not asking us whether we want AV. It is asking us to choose between AV and FPTP. This is a very different question.

Churches should not uphold monarchy

Posted on by symonhill

 I appeared on Channel 4 on Wednesday (13 April), suggesting that a monarch should not be head of a church. I spoke for just under two minutes, as one of a series of short clips in which people with different views responded to the question “Should the queen stand down as head of the Church of England?”.

The clip can be viewed by clicking here.  My Ekklesia colleague Simon Barrow blogged about it here.

The 4thought website also shows the others expressing views on the issue.

4thought is on after Channel 4 news every day, featuring a different religious or ethical question every few days. 

It felt rather odd to be interviewed for over an hour and then see the result edited down to less than two minutes. However, I’m very grateful to the people at 4thought, who have managed to edit me very fairly and summarise my view very well.

My concerns about the Church of England’s links to the monarchy are partly about symbolism, but also the practical consequences of that symbolism. The royal link implies an endorsement of values of hierarchy and privilege at odds with the teaching of Jesus. This constrains the Church’s ability to speak out for independent and radical views and values.

Of course, the monarchical ties are only one factor among many that constrain the Church’s progressive voice. Like most of the other factors, it is a legacy of Christendom – the time when Christianity was linked to wealth and power, holding considerable sway over society. As we move away from Christian privilege in a multifaith society, we can welcome post-Christendom as an opportunity to look again at Jesus’ radical teachings. The injustices of monarchy are the last thing we should be holding on to.

Walking to church

Posted on by symonhill

 Last Sunday, I walked to church. What makes this unusual is that the church in question was six miles from my home and I would usually travel by train or tube.

Walking there was a great experience, not only because it helped me to get in training for my pilgrimage in June, but because it was great to see so much of London in such nice weather and to remind myself of how good it feels to walk relatively long distances.

I’m sorry to say that in over six years of living in London (in four different parts of the city), this is the first time that I have walked from home to central London. I had a satisfied feeling as I arrived at places to which I have never previously walked from home – London Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, the First Out cafe in New Oxford Street and finally Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, where the minister Simon Perry gave a helpful sermon about violence in the Old Testament.  

This is the church that will also mark the end of my pilgrimage for repentance for homophobia this summer. I will speak at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on the evening of 1 July, the day before Pride. By that point, a six-mile walk is unlikely to feel like a long distance. While my training is now progressing more rapidly, I’m aware that I really need to pick up the pace before I begin the pilgrimage from Birmingham in around two months’ time.

I’ve just read an article about pilgrimage by Adam Weymouth in the March issue of Third Way. He is walking from England to Jerusalem, which makes Birmingham to London sound rather feeble by comparison. I was struck by his description of the realities and benefits of pilgrimage:

“I saw the destination as a framework, a crucial part that would distinguish the journey from a directionless wander, in the same that an artist fixes his [or her] ideas within the confines of the canvas. But in engaging with that painting, with that line on the map, spaces are created that allow much deeper ideas and experiences to emerge.”

Thinly veiled prejudice

Posted on by symonhill

The first steps in a legal challenge to the French ban on face coverings have already been taken. Twelve Muslim women were arrested outside Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, apparently for an unauthorised protest rather than for wearing the niqab – ten of the twelve were not wearing it.

This protest and others undermined the notion that any woman wearing the niqab is disempowered and deprived of independence. Kenza Drider, a 32-year-old French woman, appeared to show a great deal of independence when she contacted the media in advance and tipped them off about her movements before travelling on a train from Avignon to Paris wearing a niqab.

 A challenge to the European Court of Human Rights can’t come soon enough. The notion that a relatively democratic European country is making laws about what clothes its citizens are allowed to wear should outrage anyone committed to free expression. 

Supporters of the ban have at times avoided the main issue by talking about women being forced to cover their faces by their husbands or parents. It’s outrageous to pressurise somewhere to wear a niqab against her will. But it’s no less outrageous to oblige her not to wear it when she would freely choose to do so.

The issue then is not about one form of dress versus another. It is about clothes that are freely chosen against those that result from force or social pressure. People may be pressurised into wearing a niqab, or they may be pressurised into dressing in the latest fashions when they would rather not. Or they may choose these things freely.

I respect the fact that some women find the niqab liberating and empowering. I recognise that others believe it to be a requirement for them. But I understand that others fear that the niqab is oppressive or ethically wrong. But it is a big leap from regarding something as wrong to calling for it to be banned.

I’m relieved that there have been few calls for a ban in Britain. Inside Parliament, a ban has the support of only one MP. Outside Parliament, a ban is backed by the UK Independence Party and the Daily Express, both of which are cheerleaders for a number of other far-right causes.

Sarkozy may hope to distract attention away from his own dreadful policies by targeting a small minority of the margins of society. Thankfully, women with the courage of Kenza Drider don’t seem likely to let him do so.