Thinking Aloud

Euphoria?

I know that the clergy of the SEC don’t have much reason or opportunity to give themselves to financial euphoria. But we might find a sermon or two in a book which is being much recommended at the moment: JK Galbraith’s ‘A Short History of Financial Euphoria.’ Basically it’s the story of the euphoria which precedes the inevitable crash – and all human nature is in there – a sort of Palm Sunday and Good Friday of economics.

He suggests that there is a pattern – a mass psychosis of financial euphoria which precedes the crash. People make money and borrow more money to make more money. They suspend disbelief .. they acquire a vested interest in error .. vested interests rubbish any alternative thinking. He quotes WalterBagehot, ‘People are most credulous when they are most happy.’

Interesting too the comments on leadership of financial institutions – the bureaucratic mind is predisposed to select for leadership those with the most predictable ideas and then surrounds them with others who agree and do not criticise.

Ouch!

National Cycle Route No 76

Made my springtime effort to resume cycling – beautiful day and little wind. So since I was down in Dunfermline, I left the car at the Ferrytoll and headed off down Route 76 which is the ‘Round the Forth’ route – down the back of Rosyth Dockyard and on towards Kincardine – a sort of diocesan exploration. Anyone ever been to Limekilns and Charlestown? Georgeous – think I’ll retire there. Which reminds me that an American lady in a hired Golf loomed up beside me and asked if I knew where the Rest Room was. Maybe it was something to do with my ezy-fit lycra padded cycling shorts? And I was even able to get an Independent in the paper shop in Limekilns. All it seemed to lack was a nice coffee shop.

Conspiracy?

I don’t think I have ever before posted a criticism of another church or church leader here. But I can’t leave Bishop Devine’s comments on the gay community without comment. I’ve tried to find the full text of what he said but it doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere as yet – so I am relying on reports on the BBC website.

Many things to say – but I come down to this one.

Once you start seeing people and groups who are different from you as a conspiracy, you are at risk of not being able to see them as people and respond to them with openness, love and charity. Once you start to see people and groups who are different from you as a conspiracy, you are at risk of simply seeing them as a threat and being unable to measure, ponder and respond to what they are, what they think and what they say.

I believe that Jesus saw people and loved them as they were. In particular, he responded to people whom others cast out.

Moral Exhortation

I am sure you have been pondering the Vatican’s new ‘take’ on the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s a fascinating list which includes ‘genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs’

Clearly one could debate these endlessly. The original list included envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath, pride and sloth. But what is interesting, it seems to me, is how individualistic the old list was. And now, in an individualistic age, they recast the Seven Deadlies in communal and global mode.

Time of the Essence

We’re still gathering ourselves up after being away – still slapping on the moisturiser to deal with the after-effects of the sun. Yes! Poppy has returned from apartment-dwelling with Anna in Belfast. She doesn’t do Easyjet – prefers travelling as a paws passenger on the Stena HSS to Stranraer.

Meanwhile I’m still pondering the preaching and sermon-surfing issues raised by the Independent on Saturday – was there ever a skill or a discipline so widely misunderstood? I’m a believer that good communication tends to happen when there are time boundaries – broadcasting makes you that way. So I write about 400-500 words – certainly no more. Every word written out – and then I don’t read them. Strange.

Meanwhile I just happened to find this handy sermon-timer doing duty at traffic lights in Bangkok. It counts steadily down in green until your time is up. Then it counts in red. Every church should have one?

Saturday night fever

My Independent today carries a ‘Thou shalt not pinch sermons from the Internet’ piece about the tendency of young Catholic priests to download and read sermons as if their own. Can this be true? Are people really stupid enough to do this? I can’t bear to read my own old sermons – let alone anybody else’s.

But I do tend to do a bit of Saturday sermon-surfing – more to find something to give me something to think about than a great lump of undigested text to download. But at present I can’t find anything much that suits me. I had an affection for Sarah Laughed for a while – but she seems to have run out of steam. In truth, things have never been the same since Jane Williams stopped writing sermon notes in the Church Times.

Bogstead Again

It’s been some time since we have plumbed the depths of the Bogstead septic tank saga so I thought I should give you an update before I moved on to weightier matters of world mission, world peace, etc.

Basically No 1 has been supervising a small army of diggers, suckers-outers, cementers-inners, etc. in the repair and replacement of all the septic tanks. But all of that came to an abrupt halt when No 3’s tank – ‘delivered of the burden of the flesh’, as it were, rose vertically out of the ground, floating on the water table which is at an exceptionally high level.

So we’re taking a comfort break for contemplation of the next move.

Lagged

My goodness – I’m usually fairly resilient but the homeward trek was really quite something. I know that we had breakfast three times on Monday morning – or was it Monday morning? I was reading Amy Tan and then got tired and watched ‘How Green was my Valley’ – which I thought was great – and then Calendar Girls and the Jungle Book. But I foundered on Muppets Treasure Island with Billy Connolly and Chinese subtitles.

So straight in to leading a Quiet Day on Tuesday .. and I downloaded 474 e mails most of which offered to perk me up in various unmentionable ways .. and all sorts of issues and difficulties have arisen in my absence and they have all been dealt with .. and they all got on just fine without me. Great!

Time to go Home

Andy Pandy time again – and about time too. Diocesan Synod is next Saturday and I’m beginning to get that dangerous clarity of vision which comes from not dealing with the difficult stuff day in, day out.

Some of the pithy sayings of Australia will have limited application in March in Perthshire. ‘Slip, slop, slap’ seems to be something about putting on sunblock and covering up. ‘Sip ‘n cycle’ describes the Melbourne desire to emulate European lifestyles – where – so they think – everyone cycles to work and pauses for a quick Espresso en route.

As always, the way people say things is just delightful. I still savour the announcement from the wonderful chef-and-everything-else Jacquie in the midst of a series of crises on our sailing trip that ‘her risotto was not adequately prepped’ [it sounded like ‘pripped’]

See you soon

Sitting Targets

As you can see, I’ve been having a bit of difficulty capturing wildlife in the wild, as it were. So I found these a bit less challenging. If we need them for a pageant, we’ll be able to get them here.

Interesting to find that the Faith Schools issue is very much alive downunder. The Head of the National Curriculum Board suggests that the rapid growth of faith-based schools ‘has threatened the social cohesion of the nation’. The Age, the local newspaper here, reports it very much as an issue to do with creationist teaching in schools under the control of the religious right.

Also interesting [and impressive – in this culturally somewhat American place] is the constant concern with issues of environment and climate change. Not surprising really when water supply is a constant problem. The government is responding to a report by economist Ross Garnaut which looks like being at least as influential as the Stern Report of 2006. The mood is of the need to be alarmed – but it is positive as well – a bit like the way in which Big Arnie in California has been carving out his own very popular response to the same issues. One of the papers reports the Executive Chairman of Macquarrie Bank responding to a ‘Who is going to be the richest person in the world in the next ten years?’ question from a school child. Responding, he talked about the need to convert the world from one energy-producing system to another. ‘The people …. who actually make that happen, I think, will end up being the wealthiest people in the world.’