Tending the Garden of our Mind Last year’s BBC Reith Lectures were given by forensic psychologist Dr Gwen Adshead who has studied the minds of society’s most violent perpetrators for more than 30 years. Dr Adshead has come to the conclusion that the capacity for evil is to be found in all of us and in one lecture she suggests that individual minds are like a garden that needs close tending so that its boundaries are not obscured and lost. Neglected weeds so easily choke all else to death in an untended garden, and so she proposes the importance of cultivating goodness in the individual mind, and so more widely in communities. ‘We need to grow goodness by practicing compassionate states of mind which can lead to the growth of tolerance, gentleness and patience. Such virtues act as a protection against violent and destructive states of mind.’ Dr Adshead believes that defending against such states of mind means developing a capacity to take horrible emotions, like rage and hatred, seriously. We especially need to recognise in ourselves the kind of anger that leads to a wish to hurt others, so that we then take care to protect ourselves and one another. She concludes that this kind of self-care is vital given the wilderness of combative attitudes and aggressive ideologies to which we’re regularly exposed. It is perhaps especially important for those of us who have suffered trauma and for whom anger may be a constant struggle to manage – anger which could so easily be the connection with later violence. St Paul urged us long ago in similar vein: ‘Whatever is true, pure, pleasing and excellent … think about these things … and the God of peace will be with you.’ The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
As I write, the results of the recent UK General Election are being digested. We’ll all carry from this period in our nations’ history a particular memory of the fast-moving political developments of the last week. For myself, I’ve noted how often our new Prime Minister has referred to the privilege of having been ‘elected to serve’ our country as opposed to his party having ‘won power’. It was Pope Gregory the Great who first described his role as Servus servorum Dei (‘Servant of the Servants of God’), a title that has been used on papal documents ever since, and a designation that disturbs and challenges any inappropriately exalted estimation of the full range of other Christian leadership roles enacted today. And as if, by way of a divine prompt to me personally, my wife has surprised me with a card and a box of chocolates on this, the Fortieth Anniversary of my ordination as Deacon in Norwich Cathedral. I was ordained Priest in the same Cathedral the following year: but, like all priests, I remain in deacon’s ‘orders’ as well as priest’s ‘orders’. I remain essentially a servant. The word deacon means ‘servant’, and given the sobering words of Jesus, ‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all’, I have in my own way as much in mind to ponder at present as Sir Keir Starmer. One beautiful Christian prayer perfectly expresses this aspiration for all Christian people, lay and ordained: ‘Almighty God, you have broken the tyranny of sin and sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts whereby we call you Father: give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service.’ Amen to that! The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
The Impossible (and Unnecessary) Choice The ever-popular BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs concludes each episode by asking its celebrity guest to choose just one luxury and one book for their imaginary far-away exile. They will already have The Bible and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare available - as if that wouldn’t be enough. I struggle to decide what book I’d choose: perhaps it might always be “the one I’m reading at the moment”. For many of us a favourite book is at once companion, doorway into another world, glimpse into the mind of its author, source of delight and more besides. For many years I foolishly pooh-poohed those (like my dear wife) who, as I thought, escaped everyday reality by reading novels. I wanted to deal with reality, things that matter. But mercifully, I now know better. My more recent cumulative experience of numerous readings of books such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Hilary Mantel’s trilogy Wolf Hall and Marilyn Robinson’s four (so far) superlative Gilead novels, have transformed my understanding. There’s not much that beats a good book - other than a good friend with whom to endlessly enthuse, discuss and share one’s favourites. ‘Mind you’, quipped Professor C S Lewis, ‘a book’s no good to me until I’ve read it two or three times.’ Well, goodness knows how many times I’ve read parts of The Bible and still I wouldn’t want to live without that very close to hand. I confess, I’ve yet to make a proper start on Shakespeare, so a challenge awaits. However, for sheer absorption, imagination, profound insight, tears and laughter, give me Tolkien’s masterpiece. But, oh what a relief … I don’t have to choose! The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
Counting the cost of Christmas In late October, the popular BBC R4 consumer programme You and Yours asked how much listeners planned to spend this Christmas? It signalled the start of our annual national anxiety fest, as once again we heap countless unrealistic expectations upon each other. All will be focussed on ensuring at great cost that for one or two days in mid-winter everything will be ‘just right’, everybody warm, reassuring, peaceful and generous with each other. Truly, the year that soon draws to a close has brought many grim events – some of which continue to weigh heavily upon our collective human heart. The desire to blank out the darkness and despair is understandable. But an authentic Christian celebration of Christmas offers a realistic way of acknowledging that pain, expressing prayerful yearnings for justice and peace, and renewing the rich experience of shared communal blessings and joy. When, as the Gospel declares on Christmas Eve, ‘the Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it’, it speaks of a conviction that the Eternal Creator God entered our time and space in Bethlehem, was born as Jesus to live, suffer violence and be killed - but also be raised by Resurrection from death. This was and remains the great Sign, Promise and Hope that God has, in our place and on our behalf, overcome humankind’s great enemy (death), and so turned a corner in human history. Our share in that unshakeable Hope and new life remains to this very day for each to receive. By listening carefully to the traditional Christmas readings in church, on radio or TV, and to the best Christmas carols, this enduring message can be heard again, strikingly and memorably expressed – and, in one sense, it’ll cost us not a penny. The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
