Reflecting on being drawn to Southport

Gabby Hinsliff writing recently in the Guardian commented that about where things are around us: “the country still contains many more people quietly working to put things back together than it does nihilists trying to smash them apart.” 

I sat and received worship on my Sunday off yesterday at Ripon Cathedral. The Dean always looks very pleased when he sees me sitting in the congregation! He found me in the peace and beamed widely! He preached a belter yesterday about the Israelites complaining in the desert but more seriously after condemning all the violence of the last few days he asked the question what do these people hurling bricks and setting shops and more seriously hotels asylum seekers in them want? After the service I was joined at coffee by a lady up here on holiday in her caravan. She told me “these people have a point. We have people on benefits in our village.” How have we got to this? A situation where anyone not like us is a threat to us. Imagine being one of those asylum seekers in that hotel in Rotherham with people outside shouting “Yorkshire” at you. Very frightening. 

I’ve been wanting to get to Southport for many weeks to complete the marking of the 25th anniversary of my ordination in the town. Last night we managed to get there. It was good to find Leyland Road Methodist Church where my ordination service was and Southport Theatre on the promenade (back then the Floral Hall) where I was received into full connexion. Then to try and see the sea - which was out there somewhere - and yes - that is Blackpool Tower lit up blurred in the distance! 

More powerful than a pilgrimage to mark my anniversary and remember was a walk very late last night to the flowers and toys and teddies laid in memory of the three little girls who were killed at a dance class last Monday. What struck me was there were a lot of people there and everyone stood or walked round the flowers and other things there in silence. It was very powerful to be there even just ten minutes. 

 Marie-Anne, the Methodist Superintendent in Southport was interviewed the other day by the BBC. She said there was a "strong community feeling that we're bigger than all of this and we will build a better world for our young people as they grow up". She said she had seen "so many acts of kindness" take place since the attack and churches across the town were "committing ourselves to work for peace and reconciliation in our communities". "Southport has really pulled together," she said. "Every act of kindness is saying we are against this hate, these acts of violence." 

What has been heartening in every community that has been attacked by the violence of a minority has the next morning been flooded with people coming together to clean up and in days following has seen different faiths coming together to celebrate community and solidarity. It’s good to hear strong words from government but we also need all of us to condemn bigotry and narrowness and misinformation and speaking of people without knowing what it means to walk in their shoes. I’m sitting writing this in the market square. Two people VERY worse for wear are discussing the state of the world. He says “wtf is the world coming to? If you want to embrace it you can.” She says they are about to fall out and calls him a horrible person. I may move :) He’s going on about which people in the world he detests. How have we suddenly gone back to the dark ages? 

I read this on a Church of Scotland website earlier: 

“At the moment we are a nation which is not at peace with itself and yes we need to listen and take note of those things which trouble people and yes that does include immigration and feelings of being excluded. And equally on all sides we will get nowhere if we demonise people whoever they are. I think there is a huge task of re-building community and healing to happen in many places across the land. At the heart of this task must be a hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice. 

Let’s be clear this is not an easy task and there will be no quick fix, but even in the darkness of the last few days there has been hope as people stand together and say enough, this is not the country we want to be.

For us who come to Jesus, for us who believe in Jesus, my prayer is that sustained by the Bread of Life we will be those who seek to bring light and love into our daily engagements and actions, and that when we can speak up, we speak in a way to build bridges and not walls – always hope rather than hate. We commit ourselves to work with everyone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for love and peace  – we join our voices with everyone who says enough, enough of hate and division. This is not who we are, this is not who we want to be.”

I couldn’t put it better myself. We need a commitment to community and we need to ask for forgiveness. It was rather poignant the service in the service in the cathedral yesterday was sung by the choir of Holy Trinity in Southport. The motet they sang asked God for a new beginning: O sweet, O merciful. O Jesus, Son of Mary, have mercy on me. Amen. 

The way forward it seems to me begins with mercy from above then a commitment this last week isn’t who we are. 

Genuine inclusive love: reflecting on Southport

“I don’t understand it, no one does. I don’t understand how Monday has flipped the town upside down. It’s scary.”

I shouldn’t be thinking on holiday, but this week in Southport and the aftermath there and elsewhere need careful reflection. The words of a mum trying to explain to her daughter why her friend won’t be at school with her in September is heart breaking. Three little girls enjoying themselves at a dance class full of Taylor Swift joy, well, we cannot imagine the pain of loss and tragedy. I know two Methodist presbyters in Southport, Marie Anne the Circuit Superintendent, who was on breakfast tv news the other morning, and Martin, Southport Hospital Chaplain, who spoke at the vigil and said 'To be known around the world for a defining incident has shook us all.' I was ordained in Southport. I’m planning a visit in my 25th anniversary year back there soon. It may have pockets of problems, but it comes over as a genteel seaside town. If you’ve ever shopped on Lord Street, you’ll know that. It hit me that this could have happened anywhere. What if I’d been the local Methodist minister. What would I have said? 

The death of three little girls and others injured including the dance class teacher is a tragedy but there is another. The rise of extremism and narrow views is deeply worrying. We are all made in the image of God, and who are we to say anyone is less than us if that is so. As one of the hymns in our book says “we have privatised God’s grace.” Enough is enough was the theme of the protest around Downing Street, we want our country back, stop the boats! It’s interesting isn’t it that the police in Merseyside have told us the suspect was born here. We’ve seen what happens when narrow extremism rises up in history. What motivates people to be so threatened by the other and believe certain rhetoric they read on social media? I think the Prime Minister had the right tone in his press conference earlier tonight. He condemned "violent disorder, clearly whipped up online", describing it as crime, "not protest.” 

What is also worrying is that people will believe anything! There’s two men who appear on market day here every Thursday. They spout narrow theology and offer a Jesus who is to my mind unattractive and dangerous. The man on the cheese stall opposite them told me today they are a “bloody nuisance”! I was horrified tonight to see a post on our local information site Blow Your Horn Ripon. It said “has anyone heard that they are building a mosque up Clotherholme Road?” To which there was a reply “we have one in Harrogate. I hope Ripon isn’t going to follow suit.” Lord, have mercy. 

Then there’s America! We are seeing slander there. She’s Indian and she’s black. Even Christians are putting stuff out there… “Just remember the same media that is telling you how great Kamala is is the same one telling you Joe was sharp as a tack.” How have we got so nasty? Thank God our political system has yes, weeks of each party leader taking lumps out of each other but after it’s done the defeated Prime Minister rings his successor to concede and then weeks later the two of them are seen laughing and joking as they walk from the Commons to the Lords to hear the King’s speech. 

I think tonight we are in a world where two narratives are fighting each other to be the dominant voice heard. We aren’t a country of violence and narrowness. There is a voice and a commitment that cleans up the streets of carnage and bricks in Southport and in Hartlepool and says the violence and hatred won’t have the last word. People work hard for compassion and cohesion and respect and peace. We need to shout louder that God would have us do justice - or pray for it when we can’t be physically at the place where peace needs to come. We can only make a difference where we are. 

I have few answers to what’s going on in the world tonight but I do know God stands in the mess and I do know on the cross Jesus takes on the sins of the world and gives us a new beginning. We were at Ampleforth Abbey today. I spotted this display board in the new visitors centre. Compare these words with the words of those who would make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own… 

Tonight I pray for peace and a commitment to radical and joy filled inclusiveness and where’s that’s scary, Lord, come and reassure people and remind them of your grace which is huge and unlimited. And sometimes when there’s a large news story happening just keep me alert with coffee… 

I end these rambling thoughts then like this: Thomas Merton wrote that any person who is made to feel as though he or she doesn’t belong, who is marginalized and rejected by power, is another Christ. He was rejected, remember. 

And maybe I also end this with these words of Jeremy Corbyn, who a lot of us still have time for…

This morning I’m thinking of the grieving families of Bebe, Elsie & Alice. We will not let acts of hatred tarnish their memory.

The mob in Southport may have gone home, but the threat of the far right remains.

This is a wake-up call for those who have emboldened them by parroting their rhetoric and pandering to their ideas.

The only antidote to hatred is hope. The vast majority of people in Southport, and across the country, respond to horror the only way they know how: with compassion, unity and solidarity.

They should inspire us that, if we come together, we can bring about a kinder and safer society for all.

Writing this I shudder at the narrowness and the arrogance that says “I am threatened by you. Go away.” Instead, well, there is a different way which has a God who enfolds everyone and yearns for them to flourish… may that world come… soon.