| Issue: # 55 |
2 October 2009 |
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Lately we've had public and media outrage about politicians wangling expenses and bankers pocketing ill-gotten bonuses. But much of this is dwarfed by the massive implications of the bribery and corruption allegations against British and European arms giant BAE Systems.
In this bulletin we run a feature article from Symon Hill, who now works with Ekklesia, but who in the recent past was involved in the landmark legal case brought by two NGOs to challenge the way the Serious Fraud Office dropped a past investigation into the company's arms deals with Saudi Arabia, under pressure from the UK government.
Now, it seems, the SFO has even bigger allegations to make and a substantial amount of evidence to back them up. As a fitting counterpoint to sordid tales of arms merchants, therefore, we are glad to include alongside it an encouraging piece about the way churches have been involved in a practical 'swords into ploughshares' initiative in Mozambique - formerly wracked with conflict and still living with the legacy.
The links between religion, patriarchy and violence are painstakingly exposed and analysed by Grace Jantzen in our book recommendation, Violence to Eternity, which forms part of the late writers stirring philosophy of religion trilogy, part of which has been published posthumously. Jantzen was from a Mennonite background and became a Quaker.
The highlighted event is a major conference on 'Religion and the News', hosted next weekend by Cumberland Lodge in Windsor, and featuring a wide range of experienced speakers and media contributors, including Ekklesia's Simon Barrow.
We also feature provocative quotations on faith, reason and politics; Savi Hensman's latest probing report on the state of Anglicanism, and information about a questioning new report on the global economy from relief, development and advocacy agency Christian Aid. |
| Ekklesia works on a not-for-profit basis, and deliberately maintains its independence from large institutions and their funding. If you value this bulletin please consider making a donation to keep it going and support Ekklesia's work. You can do it through PayPal here |
| Time for BAE to face justice |
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By Symon Hill
One of the players in the previous landmark attempt to hold the British arms giant to account (now an associate director of Ekklesia) examines what is at stake in the Serious Fraud Offices' decision to prosecute BAE Systems on charges of multi-million pound bribery. He also looks at the government's collusion with the arms industry.
Read the full article here
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| Transforming guns into tools of hope |
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By Juan Michel Niall
The World Council of Churches' media office describes how churches are involved in vital initiatives to collect and destroy weapons and clean up areas of unexploded ordnance in Mozambique, seventeen years after the conflict there, so the land can be farmed. It is a practical manifestation of the biblical vision of 'swords into ploughshares'.
Read the full article here |
| Quota |
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Sayings from the week and wisdom from the tradition
"Faith is not certainty so much as it is acting-as-if, in great hope."
- Paul Krugman
"A lot of the authentic meanings of the New Testament have become ideologized or mythologized away. Religion has become a very comfortable ideology for a dollar-worshipping culture. The scandal of the New Testament - the fact that it backs what America calls the losers, that it thinks the dispossessed will inherit the kingdom of God before the respectable bourgeois - all of that has been replaced, particularly in the States, by an idolatrous version."
- Terry Eagleton
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| Research Focus |
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A better future for the Anglican Communion by Savitri Hensman
Savi Hensman continues her ground-breaking investigations into the way one denomination handles the challenges of a fast-changing era, and its implications for 'doing church' in post-Christendom. This paper describes the background to Archbishop Rowan Williams' recent interventions, examines the evidence on which his main points are based, discusses their implications, and corrects some mistaken assumptions about history and practice. On the way it tackles a number of key theological issues as well as the divisions on sexuality. It suggests that a two-level Anglican Communion would be practically and spiritually harmful and signals a different approach, less focused on institutional structures, that could be more effective in addressing divisions and ultimately enabling Anglicans to move towards a deeper unity.
Read the full paper here
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| Ekklesia has launched a new subscription service giving a detailed, inside track on the news agenda for the coming 6 weeks. Suitable for church leaders, campaign groups, local government and anyone working in or with the media, it is already taken by the Times newspaper, Reuters and the BBC. Find out more here |
| Media and web debate |
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 Ekklesia in the news this week
Cath News, the most-read Catholic news site in Australia, recently picked up Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley's article about channelling anger into a loving quest for environmental and social justice. http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=16345 Our call for churches who appoint bishops to the military to offer similar support for unarmed forces was picked up in Germany, and by Swedish magazine Dagen. http://www.dagen.se/dagen/article.aspx?id=182244 Ekklesia news has also recently been referenced by Kerknet in the Netherlands and by news agencies in the US and China.
Ekklesia works on a not-for-profit basis. Please support Ekklesia's work with the press and other media by donating through PayPal here |
| Event: Religion and the News |
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A Cumberland Lodge conference running from 11-13 October 2009 There can be no doubt that religious news sells these days, particularly when it concerns scandal and controversy. How are religious news stories presented in Britain? Aimed at journalists, press associations, faith representatives and academics this conference will offer practical recommendations to affect future practice among communicators in the press, television and radio and in the public relations offices of the major religions. The speakers and presenters are: Jobeda Ali, Director, Fair Knowledge & Founder of the Muslim Women's Summit; Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari Muslim Council of Great Britain; Simon Barrow, Director, Ekklesia; Charlie Beckett, Director, POLIS; Andrew Brown, Editor, CIF Belief, The Guardian; Zaki Cooper, Trustee of the Council of Christians and Jews; Professor Malcolm Evans Professor of Public International Law, University of Bristol; Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, The Times; Rt Rev Lord Harries of Pentregarth; Professor the Worshipful Mark Hill QC; Imam Monawar Hussain Muslim Tutor, Eton; Christopher Landau, Religious Correspondent, BBC World Service; Dr Jolyon Mitchell, New College Edinburgh University; Catherine Pepinster, Editor, The Tablet; Professor Gurch Randhawa, Director, Institute for Health Research, University of Bedfordshire; Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis UK; the Revd Canon Roger Royle, broadcaster and writer; the Revd Ruth Scott, Anglican priest, writer and broadcaster; Dr Indarjit Singh OBE, Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations; and the Rt Revd Dr Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham. More information here |
| Thinking in Action |
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Challenging global economic orthodoxies
A new report from the UK-based international development agency, Christian Aid, shows why policy makers and campaigners alike must address the de-regulation, liberalisation and privatisation that poor countries have had to endure for the last few decades. 'Getting Back on the Rails: The Private Sector and Development' comes in the wake of the recent G20 finance ministers meeting in London.
Read a briefing with a link to the report here |
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Reading Allowed |
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 Violence to Eternity by Grace M Jantzen
Grace Jantzen shows how men's fear of the female is often implicated in religious violence. In her critique of violence in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures she examines a range of themes that show the western preoccupation with necrophilia. However, Jantzen, an internationally recognised feminist philosopher of religion, recognises that submerged beneath these themes in Judaism and Christianity are traces of an alternative world of beauty and life. She puts forward a powerful analysis of patriarchy and violence and reveals the hidden positive power of natality. This is part of a trilogy from a highly rated scholar whose work was recently cut short by illness and death. It leaves us a strong legacy.
ISBN: 9780415290357 (Routledge, 2008), 252pp, £18.99
For more information and to purchase through Ekklesia click here | |
