I booked a ticket ages ago for the annual THEOS lecture. This year the lecture was held for the first time outside of London at Methodist Central Hall in Manchester and it was given by Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester.
I love Manchester and its spirit. I trained for ministry here from 1994 to 1997 and living here changed my life. It always feels like coming home when I visit. I stood and rang Lis on Piccadilly Gardens earlier and it was like it was 31 years ago when I landed nervously in the city as a southerner!
Central Hall was reintroduced to me when I needed to see an ecumenical project. My now friend Ian Rutherford invited me over. The place does an amazing work in the city in partnership with others and Ian and other faith leaders work with the Mayor to increase community respect and wellbeing. Andy Burnham sees faith communities as vital in building relationships.
It was a privilege in a packed Central Hall tonight to hear the Mayor give a lecture on moving from a crisis of trust to a culture of encounter. He talked about government systems treating people as numbers, which hammers hope out of them. He said if you don’t start with the person you’ve no chance. He said to us we need to start with him investing in the local again. Manchester has found devolution positive and there are lots of groups working to major things better. One is a faith group. The Mayor warned us we face a choice at the next general election - working together or a dark path we’ve never been down before. He told us we should give hope to people every single day, and be strong. He was inspiring. Manchester has always had spirit in adversity. The Peterloo riots, the IRA bomb in 1996, the Arianda Grande concert and the recent attack on a synagogue recently. People at all four of these have said “enough - this cannot be.”
After a nice Thai dinner I checked into my hotel as because I live in the sticks I can’t get back tonight. I needed a drink. In the bar were Ross and Kyle. Ross once I told him I was a church minister started to pour out his story of his mistakes and his past and his search for meaning. An hour later he thanked me for listening and told me as he is chef at a posh hotel at Langdale in Ambleside, that dinner is on him if I visit. Kyle was slightly worse for wear and told me he knows a vicar in Blackpool then he disappeared to the loo! I was reminded tonight Christian hope all about relationships and building people up. We need a new commitment to being together and understanding each other again. Manchester has had it for ages! For Manchester is the place where people do things… ‘Don’t talk about what you are going to do, do it.’ That is the Manchester habit. And in the past through the manifestation of this quality the word Manchester became a synonym for energy and freedom and the right to do and to think without shackles.” Edward Abbott Parry was Judge of Manchester County Court 1894-1911.
Tonight has been an inspiration. We need to change the world together. Whether Andy Burnham is beginning to think about returning to Westminster and wanting to be PM, I don’t know but tonight he has inspired me to make a difference where I can and to stop and see what’s around me and then work out how I can speak hope into it…
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