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After Corona

24/8/2020

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What will life be like after corona? Some are eager to get back to normality, some are anxious as things begin to change and others hope that life will change for the better. Recently Pope Francis encouraged us with a verse from the Aeneid,  "What comes to my mind is a verse from the Aeneid in the midst of defeat: the counsel is not to give up, but save yourself for better times, for in those times remembering what has happened will help us. Take care of yourselves for a future that will come."  The Scottish Government is also concerned for the future of society and has set up a group to consider just that. A spinoff has been several conversations about what we have valued and learned from the experience of this virus.  

There’s been a lot to be grateful for – the way in which local charities, places of worship, community groups and even some businesses  immediately came together to meet the needs of the locality and work to ensure no-one in need or in crisis was overlooked. Some charities quickly changed their focus to respond to different and relevant needs. It showed how speedily groups can mobilise and contribute to the well-being of their community. There was a sense of neighbourliness around, described by someone as a well-spring of kindness – places of worship continued with food banks or provided meals for the homeless and those in need, neighbours checked out on one another and strangers greeted one another in passing.

The virus turned the accepted pyramidical structure of society on its head. The important people in society were not those thought to be at the top – the politicians or experts who of course had their own difficulties in making decisions about legislating for the wellbeing of society but we all became aware of how much we depended on those like nurses and care workers, bus drivers, shopkeepers, delivery workers, garbage workers and the many others who are responsible for the safe and smooth running of society. Without them the infrastructure crumbles.

Many of us – at least those of us that are the elders in the community – learned to keep in touch through Zoom and Skype. Computers were shown to be essential for education and communication. But it also showed up the need for good internet connection, access to computers as well as education on how to use them. Would it be possible to make sure every family has a computer? Some local authorities and organisations had very useful information on websites and even e-mailed updates every week, sometimes through local community councils. But what’s the point of that if the most vulnerable cannot access it?

What else could do with changing? One thing is support for the Third Sector. We’ve seen how much British society depends on charities and voluntary organisations, yet they’re always vulnerable and in fear of being closed down through lack of funding.  The Third Sector needs more assurance than annual funding and, though it needs to be accountable, should not be burdened by excessive paperwork.  Nor should funding be focussed on new projects while denying core funding that is needed to carry out the projects.  

Equal pay is another issues crying out for change. Women are still not paid the same as men even while doing the same job in many industries, those working in the care sector should be paid well and appropriately. It should not be the case that universal credit is more than a person can earn. What’s the point of working when this is the case? Should a universal basic income not be considered?   This would also help those suffering from food and fuel poverty.

Included in our conversations was concern for asylum seekers, their inability to access funds or their inability to work and contribute to society. There was a desire for some kind of civic assembly that would be a platform for civic involvement.  This would give everyone, including people of faith, an opportunity to speak out and get involved.  For some this would seem to have nothing to do with faith but it has everything to do with faith and religion. All religions uphold justice and the dignity of all people.  They all believe in community and the interrelatedness of all people. They have a care for creation, a vision of equality and service, a recognition of the weaknesses of human nature that focusses on greed and power, a vision that gives support and help in counteracting this. There will be many people of faith who see their faith as a private concern but we all share a common future and to be involved in society is to take seriously our duty of civic engagement. It is to work together for the common good.

As Jonathan Sacks has said
“(Society) is where we set aside all considerations of wealth and power and value people for what they are and what they give. It is where Jew and Christian, Muslim and Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh, can come together, bound by their commonalities, enlarged by their differences. It is where we join in civil conversations about the kind of society we wish to create for the sake of our grandchildren not yet born. It is where we share an overarching identity, a first language of citizenship, despite our different second languages of ethnicity or faith. It is where strangers can become friends. It is not a vehicle of salvation, but it is the most effective form yet devised for respectful coexistence. Society is the home we build together when we bring our several gifts to the common good.” (Jonathan Sacks, The Home we Build Together P.240) 

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4 Moments in Time

10/8/2020

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Last week it was hard to get away from the horrors of the Second World War, horrors exposing the depths of degradation and cruelty that human beings can sink to.  War is a terrible event at any time but somehow the cool intention that brought about the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago and the unspeakable murders in the death camps of Nazi Germany revealed to us all the depths to which our human nature can fall. 

It was on the 6th August 1945 that the United States, with the agreement of the British Government, dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima, hoping to gain the immediate surrender of the Japanese Emperor and so bring the Second World War to an end - without risking US casualties on the ground. When that didn’t happen a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.  And had the Emperor not surrendered five days after that there were plans to drop more atomic bombs on other Japanese cities.  The massive blasts completely destroyed the cities, killed hundreds of thousands of citizens and left many suffering from radiation poisoning. 

I’ve been privileged to visit Hiroshima, a city that has resurrected itself but retains evidence of the horrors of the bomb in its Memorial Peace Park through the skeletal remains of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall which has been left standing just as it was after the blast and the museum giving an insight into the terrible destruction and suffering of human lives.  To see simply a shadow on a step – all that remains of someone who was vaporised because they were at the epicentre of the blast is unforgettable. I will never forget it. If anything showed me the horrors of nuclear weapons it was that. Nor will I forget the walk and prayers for peace on the evening of 5th August and the annual peace service itself.  At 8.15, the exact time at which the bomb fell there was a profound moment of silence and the release of white doves of peace. Hiroshima, which for us all is a reminder of the horrors of nuclear weapons has become a symbol of peace with its unceasing call to abandon nuclear weapons – unheeded by the most powerful countries in the world.   

It so happens that in the Catholic Church the 9th August, the day the bomb fell on Nagasaki, is celebrated as the feast of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 51.  Sr Teresa Benedicta was born Edith Stein and the youngest child of a large Jewish family. She was an academic, a convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite nun in Cologne but was transferred with her sister to a convent in the Netherlands because the community feared for her safety.  She herself did not believe she would escape the persecution of her people and her community described how she began "quietly training herself for life in a concentration camp, by enduring cold and hunger" after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She was indeed arrested, as was her sister, because of her Jewish roots and sent to Auschwitz to die in the gas chambers.

I’ve also been to Auschwitz though can’t say it was a privilege to be there but it was an important and sobering visit. To see the gas chambers, the ovens where people’s bodies were burned, the pits where their remains were put, the pictures detailing the names and ages of those murdered, the huge piles of hair, suitcases, shoes etc that had belonged to the victims of such hate. I had wondered before I went if there would be a spirit of evil about the place but in fact I felt it was beyond evil. It was dead in spite of the birds singing in the Birch trees surrounding Birkenau. There seemed to be no hope in this place of death.  I wondered how souls could rest having died in such horrific circumstances and understand why the victims must be remembered, lamented and prayed for. The Holocaust of course has seared into the soul of the Jewish community and someone once said that to understand Judaism today apart from the Holocaust was to understand Christianity apart from the Crucifixion of Jesus.

It also happened that our branch of the Council of Christians and Jews had a zoom meeting recently  at which we heard of the life and death of Jane Haining, a Scottish woman who also died at Auschwitz. She began life on 6th June 1897 in the small village of Dunscore in Scotland but eventually found herself in Budapest as matron of the Jewish and Christian girls boarding at a school run by the Church of Scotland, a position she dearly loved. Her biographers show her as an excellent, efficient, happy, energetic, a loving and well-loved matron who suffered greatly at the threat to her pupils’ survival. When the Church of Scotland, fearing for her safety, advised her to return home she opted to stay in Hungary with her charges. She tearfully sewed yellow badges on to the clothing of the Jewish children and the story goes that the Christian children in the school chose to sew yellow badges on to their own clothing in solidarity with their friends. She was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in May 1944 and died there three months later, probably as a result of starvation and the camp's catastrophic living conditions.  She is recognised by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.  

So two events, two amazing women, all now interconnected with a message for us all as we face a future after coronavirus. Let’s make it a safe and happy one. 

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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