Pensions Board and Palestinians

From the Rt Revd Michael Doe, the Very Revd Nicholas Frayling, and the Rt Revd John Pritchard

Sir, — As beneficiaries of the Church of England Pension Scheme, we are particularly concerned with the Board’s investments and the sources of the pensions that we receive. We fully acknowledge the leadership that the Board has shown with regard to mining companies and fossil-fuel extraction in the light of climate change, but, at a webinar last week, it again refused, as it has done for more than two years, to answer any question about its investments in the Israeli economy.

Since the Hamas massacre of 7 October, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, many of them children. We pensioners have the right to know: first, does the Pensions Board have any investments in Israeli companies, and, second, are we benefiting from any economic activity in the (illegal) Occupied Palestinian Territories?

Or, to put it more bluntly, as pensioners, have we Palestinian blood on our hands?

MICHAEL DOE, NICHOLAS FRAYLING, JOHN PRITCHARD
Addresses supplied

More on the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry

From Dr Imogen Wedd

Sir, — I must take issue with Michael Benson (Letters, 31 May). The sub-postmasters’ lawyers had only a few minutes to “speak truth to power” after their clients had endured decades of suffering. Had he considered that they were “rude and bullying”, Sir Wyn Williams would have called them to order, as he has done before.

The Revd Paula Vennells’s testimony left a deep and lasting impression on me for very different reasons. It has reinforced my view that it is important for us to examine ourselves honestly, and not to hide our failings and difficulties in a comforting and reassuring but spurious illusion of niceness.

A senior cleric recently said to me that the General Confession was generally omitted from evensong because it was seen to be “negative”. I disagree with this view profoundly. It allows us to be honest and to take comfort in knowing that we are forgivable rather than in pretending that all is well. There is a dreadful warning here. The death and destruction that we can perpetrate if we fail to admit our weaknesses and instead cloak them in a decorative self-image is unimaginably awful.

IMOGEN WEDD
Address supplied

From Jean Skelton

Sir,— The Church Times of 24 May refers on its front page to Paula Vennells apologising for the “blunders”. While one must always account for the naturally occurring phenomenon of language change and shifts in semantics and pragmatics of words, I must have missed the OED’s memo on how “blunder” was an apposite noun for the horrific fallout from the Post Office’s Horizon IT.

To collocate a word like “blunder” with a situation that resulted in suicides, breakdowns, people losing their homes, innocent people ostracised in their communities, hundreds impacted, is in contemporary parlance a gross deflation in language.

JEAN SKELTON
Milburn House, The Street
Moulton CB8 8RZ

From the Revd Larry Wright

Sir, — In the court of public opinion, the Revd Paula Vennells has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. The victims of this corporate scandal are rightly to be compensated, and a criminal investigation is now under way. One aspect of this tragedy is the insinuation that Ms Vennells is a religious hypocrite, as her faith failed to inform her judgement at key moments in her stewardship of the Post Office, and she showed a lack of compassion to the sub-postmasters.

Watching her in tears, her apologies, and the attendant public humiliation, we could view them as signs of contrition. If genuine, this is the way in which she may find the forgiveness open to all of us sinners. Only she, any confessor whom she has consulted, and God will know how sincere is her remorse.

LARRY WRIGHT
81 The Green
Kings Norton
Birmingham B38 8RU

Faith and certainty among Anglicans and others

From Mr Andy Kemp

Sir, — Canon Roger Arguile (Letter, 24 May) states that members of the Sea of Faith Network, along with Matthew Arnold, know nothing about tides. All religious language is metaphor, and few metaphors are perfect. Unfortunately, we live in very literal rather than littoral times, and the Church is doing a strong impression of being washed up.

Unless bishops and other denominational leaders come clean and own their disbelief in an interventionist God “out there”, many inside and many more outside the Church will continue to assume that being religious — or even “spiritual” — involves belief in the supernatural and the impossible. It really puts people off, and it prevents the language of our liturgy, our prayers, hymns, and songs, from moving on.

Over the past two centuries, the cognitive dissonance has become deafening: between what the Church purports to be about in its prayers and actions for love, justice, and peace in the world, and the often oppressive and abusive theology expressed in its worship and structures.

The Church has moved to the extremities of its tidal range — its high- and low-water marks — its Catholic and Evangelical certainties. Vast numbers of faithful “nones”, atheists, agnostics, non-realists, non-theists, humanists, and others, are out there, beached on the flats or submerged by the rising sea level.

The Church claims to be increasingly inclusive, open and welcoming to all, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, age, neurodiversity, and ability. But, in the week of Don Cupitt’s 90th birthday, it seems there is still a theology that “dare not speak its name”.

ANDY KEMP
(Methodist charity manager)
12 Sandringham Avenue
Hoylake, Wirral CH47 3BZ

From the Revd Richard Stainer

Sir, — I can agree with Steve Vince (Letters, 31 May) that there has probably been unkindness on both sides of the Living in Love and Faith argument. That is regrettable, of course. May I suggest, however, that he seems a little confused about the difference between faith and certainty.

Faith implies doubt; for you cannot have one without the other. Certainty precludes doubt. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who died and rose again for us. I cannot be certain of it, as that would require empirical proof, which none of us has. I have a strong sense of the Holy Spirit operating in my life, but I cannot prove it to satisfy scientific tests. I know my church exists, but I believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine.

The “sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life”, which Mr Vince mentions, is a powerful oxymoron. Hope is an expectation and desire combined. It is a probability, a promise, but it is by no means certain. Unfortunately, some Christians seem to express a certainty that denies faith. I think it is that which Arthur Burgess (Letters, 24 May) is concerned about; for it is causing the unkindness that denies the LGBTQ+ community equality within our Church.

RICHARD STAINER
High Hedges, Felsham Road
Bradfield St George
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk IP30 0AD

C of E plan for inquiries by Race Equality First

From the Revd Sulaiman Shahzad

Sir, — I refer to your report “C of E racist incidents to be investigated” (News, 31 May). It took the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce from 2021 three years to make their recommendation, and only our gracious Lord knows how many more years it will take Race Equality First to come with their conclusion or for further recommendations.

In the mean time, those who have been undergoing racial abuse in the Church will continue to suffer and endure repulsive and deplorable treatment. It was already concluded a few years back that the Church is institutionally racist. Is it not our responsibility to do something about it with more urgency?

My humble and sincere request to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the name of our Lord: please appoint three independent barristers who can be approached by those clergy who are genuinely racially abused. Of course, make it crystal-clear that false allegations will have dire consequences.

I am not a prophet, but one thing I can say with certainty is that there will be many clergy praying for the Archbishop’s longevity and prosperity if he provides them legal aid and protection. I have seen a few clergy racially abused in my time, and some of them have served in established churches, but they remained silent because of the fear, repercussions, and aftermath from their hierarchy afterwards. There is fear that once the clergy open their mouths and stand up for themselves, they are marked people.

To provide just a phone number for those racially abused to contact Race Equality First is not going to be effective. People need protection and security before they trust a person at the other end of the phone with their painful experiences.

I have been serving Christ for the past 27 years in the Church of England. It is the best thing that has happened to me. I enjoy every single moment of serving the Lord and wouldn’t swap it for the world.

SULAIMAN SHAHZAD
St Andrew’s Vicarage
276 Brampton Road
Bexleyheath
Kent DA7 5SF

 
Newport take on a democratic sense of purpose

From Canon Andrew Lightbown

Sir, — I read Alison Webster’s article “The loss of a collective purpose in democracy” (Comment, 31 May) with huge appreciation and interest. Here at Newport Cathedral, worshippers and visitors are reminded, every time they enter the cathedral precinct, that the insistence on democratic rights came at considerable cost.

In our grounds are buried, in unmarked graves, the bodies of Chartists killed at the Westgate Hotel in 1839, for insisting on the right to vote. Their sacrifice informs much of our contemporary spirituality. Here in Newport, an ever-growing and ecumenical group are pondering what it means to “seek the welfare of the city where we have been sent” in the understanding that as we “pray to the Lord on its behalf” we “will find our welfare” (Jeremiah 29.7).

The Chartists and then the Suffragettes bequeathed to our city a “goodly heritage” (Psalm 16, 6). Our job is to cherish, protect, and build on this rich politico-spiritual heritage, always asking “Who is our neighbour?” and “Whose welfare should we be praying and advocating for?” Perhaps these could be two of the guiding questions that Christians and others of good will consider as they prepare to cast their vote?

ANDREW LIGHTBOWN
The Canon’s House, Stow Hill
Newport NP20 4EA

Mrs Alexander’s rushes

From Mary Alexander

Sir, — The rushes in “All things bright and beautiful (Diary, 31 May) were being gathered to provide rush-lights, a free, if dim, form of lighting for cottage homes. Children’s little fingers could peel the outer green covering leaving the pith to be soaked in animal fat left over from cooking. I believe that the rushes growing in damp fields were normally used, but perhaps rushes from rivers were also suitable.

MARY ALEXANDER (no relation)
Little Cottage, Old Eridge Road
Eridge Green,
Tunbridge Wells TN3 9JF

Another liturgical ad-lib

From Mr Charles Parker
Sir, — My wife, the Revd Janet Parker, signs off with “Our Act of Worship is over, now let The Service begin” (Comment, 3 May; Letters, 24 and 31 May).
CHARLES PARKER
3 Green Lane, Linton
Cambridge CB21 4JZ