Religion
What's the point of “church” ?
Published 17 January 2008
The nation's debt crisis may not seem a very spiritual matter, but any free counsel the C of E can give is to be commended
January often finds the Church of England trying to consolidate the friendly press it tends to get over Christmas. So I wasn't surprised to hear its New Year announcement of a campaign entitled "Matter of Life and Debt", by which advice is to be offered from pulpits and within community groups to people struggling with dues they cannot pay - be these to the mortgage lender or the loan shark.
I'm not a believer but I take an interest in the Church's social work, having just published a novel about an Anglican "slum priest" trying to make himself useful in a deprived quarter of Newcastle. Secular critics can be quick to chide the Church for hypocrisy or sanctimony, not least given its conflicted views on the practice of usury. But clearly our national indebtedness is at a crisis level, and surely any good counsel given freely is to be commended.
Before Christmas I was in Byker on east Tyneside, where Peter Robinson, a clergyman, has established an outstanding urban mission. Arriving in 1999 to find a dilapidated church, he raised money for a multi-purpose new-build centre offering Barnardo's daycare, meeting and counselling rooms, and even a kitchen devoted to nutritional best practice.
The centre has proved especially beneficial to youths excluded from school and victims of domestic abuse. It might look as if temporal concerns outweigh the spiritual there, but the locals all call this place "church". I would defy any visitor not to be moved by the whole endeavour, which seems to me the very best of what the Church can do.
The business of money
My novel was part-inspired by what I understood of Tony Blair's religious faith, and how the sadly early death of his churchgoing mother, Hazel, made the young Blair resolve to make something of his life. I used to wonder how that life might have unfolded had he become a "slum priest" instead of an Islington barrister.
Blair's legacy remains a matter of public interest, certainly at the Today programme, which responded to news of Blair's appointment at J P Morgan by conducting a vox pop at a working men's club in Birmingham. The drinkers' views are as natural and obvious as Today's clear conviction that it is above the whole sordid business of making money.
Scanning the Irish papers, I see that invitations have gone out to Blair and Bill Clinton for an event to mark the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, widely seen as a fine hour for both former leaders. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party, predictable as rain, will not be attending.
I find myself remembering the unionist politician David Ervine, who died following a heart attack exactly one year ago. I met Ervine several times, liking and admiring him greatly, but his socialistic Progressive Unionist Party could never quite surmount its ties to the unregenerate world of paramilitary loyalism. When people questioned Ervine's very participation in politics, he would contend that if Northern Ireland were ever to attain "normality", some abnormal measures were needed. Such could be said to have culminated in the Paisley/McGuinness-led Assembly at Stormont.
Writers' roulette
I'm keeping an interested eye on the Writers Guild strike in Hollywood. The Writers Guild is more commonly reported on for its famous process of arbitration over credits - an essential chore when a script has been shaped by several hands. Credits are Hollywood's chief currency and passport to glory - something I'm reminded of this week when I chat to the screenwriter Quinn Redeker, who was nominated for an Oscar as co-author of The Deer Hunter, though he considered his original script a mere "adventure yarn" before it was pumped up into a grander statement on America and Vietnam by the director Michael Cimino.
But the central metaphor of Redeker's story was Russian roulette; and I dare say that's what you and I remember best about The Deer Hunter. A complicated business, at any rate, and I would have discussed it with him at greater length, but he had a pressing appointment with a picket line at Gate 2 of the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank.
"Crusaders" by Richard T Kelly is published by Faber & Faber (£14.99)
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
