The film "Whale Rider" (directed by Niki Caro, New Zealand, 2002) just released on DVD opens with an unusual birthing scene and invites a parallel with the Christmas story. The gentle voice of a young girl narrates an ancient Maori cultural myth, the story of a long-awaited great leader who is coming to bring new life to a dying tribe.

This anticipated leader traces his lineage to the ancestor "Paikea," a revered hero whom tribal lore describes as having arrived from the legendary island Hawaiiki, miraculously, on the back of a whale.

"But now we were waiting for the firstborn of the new generation, for the descendant of the whale rider," she discloses, "for the boy who would be chief."

I found in my music collection ​the song by Atahualpa Yupanqui - it perhaps helps us understand anticlericalism.

Reading an extract from a Jesuit magazine I was interested in the following paragraph:

The Latin American bishops in 2007 led by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio deplored “a Catholic faith reduced… to a collection of rules and prohibitions, to fragmented devotional practices… to the repetition of doctrinal principles, to bland or nervous moralizing.” They wrote, “Being Christian is… the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

Robert M Ellis has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a Cambridge BA in Oriental Studies and Theology writes in PCN (USA):

Despite a Christian family background, I have never managed to be a Christian in the way defined by most churches. I am not a ‘believer’, and could recite no creed without a sense of hypocrisy and conflict. But after many years of engagement with other traditions – Buddhist, philosophical and psychological – it has become increasingly clear to me that ‘belief’ is not what Christianity is most importantly about. It is quite possible to drink deeply of what Christianity has to offer, indeed to be ‘Christian’ in all the ways that matter – morally, spiritually and intellectually – without ‘believing’ such absolute propositions as that God exists, or that Jesus is the Son of God, or that Jesus saves believers from sin. Indeed, I will go further. Such beliefs have no positive practical effects on the lives of Christians, beyond being shortcuts to group conformity which may also have many negative effects.

Harriet Sherwood, religion correspondent of The Guardian tweeted about a letter sent to the newspaper from prominent humanists who are making a fresh appeal to the BBC to open up Radio 4’s Thought for the Day to non-religious voices.

Amongst the signatories is the philosopher Julian Baggini, a guest of PCN at our conference in London next June, the comedian Ed Byrne, the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, the Labour MP Nick Brown and the Bake Off celebrity Sandi Toksvig.

They are among 33 patrons of the charity Humanists UK who have signed a letter calling on Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, calling for the ban on humanists presenting Thought for the Day to be lifted.

The letter says: “Over half the British population do not belong to any religion and around a quarter have a humanist worldview. By barring humanists from Thought for the Day, the BBC is blatantly failing in its remit to reflect the diversity of beliefs of its audience and wider population, and its legal duty to treat non-religious and religious beliefs equally.” It adds: “To many, the exclusion of humanists from Thought for the Day sends a very clear message that humanists do not have as much to contribute as religious people to one of the BBC’s most high-profile ethical slots.”

Humanists UK has campaigned for 16 years to open Thought for the Day up to non-religious voices. Andrew Copson, the chief executive of Humanists UK, said the BBC had “blatant disregard” for non-religious people who wanted to contribute reflections but were barred from doing so.

“It is deeply concerning and frankly undemocratic that, despite decades of humanist and secular campaigning to reform Thought for the Day, the BBC still will not budge and instead continues to shut out our voices time and time again.” The majority of contributors to Thought for the Day are Christian, although there are regular Muslim and Jewish contributors and occasional Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

A flurry of correspondence ensued, including this letter from Adrian, chair of PCN:

“Of course Thought for the Day (letters 13 Nov) should be open to humanists for their contribution to the stream of voices, religious and non-religious, commenting on the important ethical issues of our time. No religion or ideology has a monopoly on truth, no matter how loud the voices, how certain the viewpoints. Surely we should be looking beyond the divisions in an increasingly tribalistic world and see what is good and life affirming in all faith and non-faith traditions? Bring it on! Lets have some thoughts for each day which lift up our spirits to face whatever that day brings! “

What do PCN members think? Lets have your views!

The Church Times reported that the Dean of Blackburn Cathedral, Very Revd Peter Howell, has persuaded the cathedral authorities to spend £18,000 on marketing a gin, called ‘Cathedra’, which will cost around £45 per bottle. The cathedral see this as a fund raising venture and an opportunity, says the Dean, ‘to engage with all aspects of society’…..Indeed click on the cathedral website and the first item which faces you is a bottle of gin!

Is this really what cathedrals should be doing? In 2016 there were 51,507 alcohol-specific deaths in the UK and over 300,000 alcohol -caused hospital admissions. No doubt the cathedral parishioners who can afford to spend £45 on this gin will not be visiting our town and city centres on Saturday night, blighted by the drunken revelry which necessitates the need for stretched police and ambulance services to be on hand. What next does the Dean of Blackburn intend to do? Special cathedral brand cigarettes? Maybe fruit machines in the transept?

If the cathedral truly wants to 'engage with different groups of people' why not try talking to them about a different kind of Spirit? Maybe the way to engage with people under the age of 40 who might well be drinking gin on a night out, is not to offer them a different brand of gin but a fresh look at what Christian faith might look like today?

What do PCN readers think about this?

Adrian Alker

Challenging ‘Belief’ and the Evangelical Bias: Student Christianity in English Universities by Mathew Guest, Sonya Sharma, Kristin Aune and Rob Warner provides interesting food for thought for any who think liberal Christianity has no future and that the answer lies in firm Evangelicalism. The study shows a significant number of students who self identify as Christians but whose faith is expressed in fluid terms. One reviewer thought the study to show Christian traditions transforming into "wells" rathe than "fenced off" enclosures.

Such a view seems to me a serious challenge to a current train of thought in the CofE which sees the future in fenced off enclosures of Christians committed to a particular theological rationale. Certainly of the Christian students in the study only a small minority identified with the usual Christian Union line and that should be a warning against the too easy move to a one size fits all approach.

The full study report can be found here: Challenging ‘Belief’ and the Evangelical Bias: Student Christianity in English Universities by Mathew Guest, Sonya Sharma, Kristin Aune and Rob Warner

John Bell's hymn " if the war goes on " sung to the tune The Road to Basra gives pause for deep thought this Remembrance Sunday as we reflect with thankfulness for all those who have served to preserve freedom but with deep concern over our arms sales furthering needless destruction across the world.

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Looking back over the blogs on the PCN website I was struck again by the item of May this year by Martyn Percy, Dean of Christchurch, Oxford. Martyn’s focus at the time was a challenge to the whole "Thy Kingdom Come" prayer campaign getting under way. A campaign that had come to symbolise, for many of us, the wrongheaded attempt to rebrand the Church of England. The Church, I believe, is becoming more managerial in the worst possible way and aggressive PR is part of the package. As Martyn wrote ‘It is like a business doing even more hard selling, with increasing desperation, but unwilling to ask the consumers why they aren’t buying.’

this is a paper about theology, and is not a paper about the relationship between science and religion, and most certainly not a paper about evolution verses creationism or even so-called ‘intelligent design’; neither of those are questions I think are really worth asking.

This website will carry news from across the water in order to give some insight into currents of thought in the progressive Christianity in North America. There is a ferment of ideas which can only be beneficial to us over here as well as to the folk over there. Those progressive voices are across Reformed and Catholic faith groups. .

My Palestinian friend, Imad Karam, says that a primary problem in his part of the world is that Palestinians and Israelis are both trapped in their own narratives. I’m sure that this entrapment is true for so many situations, whether with international conflicts, religious affiliations, husband/wife clashes or even football team allegiances which sometimes turn to crowd violence. Is there a universal vision which we humans, with our many different cultures and beliefs, can all buy into? And what are the implications for followers of Jesus?

Starting today, the Church of England joins other Christian communities in ten days of prayer ‘for more people to come to know Jesus Christ’, In his essay, Martyn Percy calls on the Church of England to reflect on what kind of kingdom it is building, as its focus on charismatic evangelism over the last thirty years risks achieving little and alienating many. This is a synopsis of his essay which you can read in full here

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