Schools in Vellore

Arni School

Sipcot School

One of the interesting aspects of  my recent visit to Vellore was the opportunity to visit a number of schools.  Several of the group were teachers and they had the opportunity to spend a few days teaching, which they all found to be an interesting and enriching experience.  Wherever we went, we were given a warm welcome, often being 'shawled' or garlanded or receiving some other present.  Many of the schools put on a cultural programme, mostly of dance, but there was also some singing and, in one case, karate.  The Diocese is trying to place an emphasis on good education for girls.  There certainly seems to be lots of enthusiasm among the teachers we met.  Some of the schools we visited were in urban areas while others were very rural.  It was interesting that the school that most resembled a British one - in my view - was, admittedly, a very new school, but in a very rural location - Edayakuppam.  Some of the schools are Tamil medium - so teaching in Tamil - while others are English medium.  Resources are somewhat limited, though variable - and the layout seems to be traditional on the whole.  We also visited the Diocese's Teacher Training College.  The church is certainly making a difference in matters of education.  So, where should we be making a difference in the UK context?

Edayakuppam School

Remembering Lesslie Newbigin

Introduction to at talk given while I was in Vellore to a group of ministers ......  I want to reflect with you on the theme of leadership.  As ministers of the gospel we are called to do and to be many things.  How do we create the vision that will inspire us to achieve the ministry to which God calls us?  We are called to be pastors – to care for our people.  We are called to preach the Word and to conduct the Sacraments.  We are called to be teachers, helping our people understand the depths of the Christian Way and what the Bible says to us.  We are called to engage in mission – to tell the good news to those who don’t know it.  In England we often talk of the role of a minister as a facilitator, enabling others to play a full part in the life of the church. 

But the word I would use to sum up all of these is the word ‘leadership’.  We are called to be leaders.

When we try to think of what it means to be a good leader, it is helpful to look for examples of people we might follow.  In a conversation I had yesterday evening, I was reminded of a link I have with this part of the world which goes back way before I had any involvement with the link between Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Coucil and the Diocese of Vellore.  Many, possibly all, of you will know the name of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin.  Some of you may have met him.  When Bishop Lesslie finally returned to England after all his service in South India, he became for a while the minister of a tiny inner city United Reformed Church in Birmingham, in an area called Winson Green.  They were going to close that church until Bishop Lesslie said it mustn’t happen.  He offered to become the minister and, despite advancing years, served there through much of the 1980s.  I was not the next, but the one after that, minister of that church, serving there from 1994 to 1998.  Bishop Lesslie, of course, loved the ideas of unity that he saw formed in the Church of South India – and his hope had long been for that congregation to unite with the local Church of England congregation to form a single church.  I am delighted to say that his vision became reality during my ministry.  In January 1997 Bishop Lesslie, then living in London, came back to Winson Green in Birmingham to preach at the service at which we signed a covenant to become one.  Exactly a year later, and just days before Bishop’s Lesslie death, we did exactly that.  We closed the United Reformed building and became one church, worshipping together, doing everything together.  Sometimes, as in that example, it takes a long time for the vision to become reality – but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep working on it.

Bishop Lesslie was a great pastor, a great preacher, a great teacher, a great evangelist – and so a great example for us.

Vellore Visit

It is ten days since we got back from Vellore.  Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, which I currently chair, has a long-established twinning link with the Diocese of Vellore within the Church of South India.  I spent the middle two weeks of February in India leading a group who were on a visit to the Diocese.  Schools were the main focus of this trip and so about half of the group of eighteen were teachers.  They each spent several days teaching in schools.  While there, we all visited schools, hospitals, churches and other projects.  It was fascinating to see how a growing church is functioning and making an important contribution in a culture that is very definitely not Christian.  How do we make the contribution that God calls us to make in our context?  How do we contribute to the infrastructure that supports society in a situation where many key things are state-funded and yet there are massive needs within large chunks of society?  What do we need to learn from different parts of the world?

Doing New Things

God is constantly working in unexpected ways, doing new things, engaging with the world, not necessarily in the way that we may want, though that may sometimes be the case, but in the way that makes God’s difference to the world.  We can actually be part of this transforming opportunity because God wants us to be part of the enterprise of the Kingdom.  We are not called to do everything, though some of us sometimes seem to think we are; but, with God’s help, may we do effectively those things to which we are actually called, even when we struggle to cope with some of God’s surprises!  May we be ready to do the new things to which God calls us, remembering that God has a place and a role for each one of us – and God doesn’t call us to things where we won’t fit in and that we can't manage.

Power

I have begun reading "The End of Power" by Moses Naim, the first book suggested by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, for his 'year of books'.  I have to admit that I have only managed the first chapter so far, but that is because of the problem in finding the time, and not that I am not caught up in what I have read so far.

Naim recognises the importance of power and how we use it through the whole of life.  We need power.  "A world where players have enough power to block everyone else's initiatives but no one has the power to impose its preferred course of action is a world where decisions are not taken, taken too late, or watered down to the point of ineffectiveness."

Power is everywhere.  "Power plays out in every field in which we contend, compete, or organise: international politics and war, domestic politics, business, scientific inquiry, religion, social action such as philanthropy and activism, and social and cultural relations of all kinds."

However, Naim suggests that power is decaying, and it is decaying because it is being spread more thinly.  He suggests that in most fields we are experiencing a wider sharing of power which is effecting how power impacts on life in general.  Power-sharing might seem to be good - as indeed it can be - but we need to take account of how that then changes our ability to deal with a wide range of important issues.

As Naim puts it: "The decay of power is an exhilarating trend in the sense that it has made space for new ventures, new companies, and, all over the world, new voices and more opportunities.  But its consequences for stability are fraught with danger.  How can we continue the welcome advances of plural voices and opinions, initiative and innovation, without at the same time driving ourselves into a crippling paralysis that could undo this progress very quickly?"

These are interesting questions, and it is interesting to reflect on what they say to the life of the church.  How do we use power?  How do we share power?  Are there places where we misuse it?

Misusing power can be incredibly damaging, but using it appropriately is vital.

New Year's Resolutions

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions this year and, if you did, are they still intact?  Writing for The Guardian, Oliver Burkeman says that he has long campaigned for the abolition of New Year’s resolutions but, recognising their continuing popularity, he wants to suggest three – which he then suggests we should all take up. 

First, he suggests that we should take up meditating.  If we think we haven’t got the time, just five minutes a day will do it – but just that bit of space is worth making.  Secondly, he suggests stopping doing something this year.  This is not about giving up a bad habit, but recognising that most of us take on too many things.  What is it we could/should be giving up?  And, thirdly, he encourages us to resolve to cut everyone a massive amount of slack, including ourselves. Well, if you haven’t made your own, and you want some, I hope that these suggestions might help.  

Morris Williams

Morris Williams was an Anglican clergyman and a poet commonly known as Nicander.  He was born in August 1809 and died on 3^rd January 1874.  He began to write poetry and so was encouraged to an education.  He was then ordained deacon by the Bishop of Chester in 1835 and priest by the Bishop of St. Asaph in 1836.  In 1840 he married Ann Jones of Denbigh and they had five daughters and three sons.

He assisted with the Welsh revision of the Book of Common Prayer and took an active part in Welsh literary life.  He both adjudicated and competed at the National Eisteddfod and his writing included frequent contributions to Welsh magazines, translating Aesop's Fables into Welsh, and composing a number of hymns.  He was one of the pioneers of the Oxford Movement in the Diocese of Bangor and is commemorated by a marble pulpit dedicated to him in Bangor Cathedral.

His hymns had a profound effect on the spiritual lives of many in Wales.  He wrote, for example, of God’s grace and the need for the Spirit to nourish us.

As one of his hymns says (in an English translation by Naomi Starkey):

With the life-giving rain of your Holy Spirit

You refresh the Church, your vineyard,

Until its blooms are many and fair,

And its fruits like the garden of paradise.

Where do we see the Holy Spirit refreshing our churches?  What effect is that having?  Who are the people who inspire us today?

Sources:

wbo.llgc.org.uk – Dictionary of Welsh Biography

www.archivewales.org.uk 

Rachel Boulding: “Companions on the Bethlehem Road”