Last week I slowed dowN – I switched everything off and went on a long walk. In fact I walked the St Cuthbert’s Way from Melrose in the Scottish borders to Holy Island in Northumberland.And the world opened up to me. I saw orchids growing in the hedgerow. A hare racing up the path ahead of me. Seals basking on the rocks. A cairn on an isolated hill top in the Cheviots. None of this could be seen from a car window. I had to get off the beaten track. I had to slow down.I slowed down to what some people call the speed of thought, or what I like to think of as God’s pace, walking speed, the speed of prayer.Someone once said that Jesus changed the world at three miles per hour. What they meant, is that he walked everywhere. And as he walked, he met people and listened to them and ministered to them and talked to them and changed them. And what might also be implied, is that our feverish demand for speed, and for getting everything done yesterday, is also changing the world, but not necessarily for the better. It seems these days that many of us, including me, want to get from A to B in the quickest possible time by the shortest possible route. But not only does this put every moment of the day under enormous stress and the endless pressure to produce and achieve, it means I miss out on all the beauty in between, things that can only really be appreciated by slowing down. Some things – you might even say the best things – simply can’t be done in a hurry. Like producing the best wine, or cooking a really good stew, or growing a garden. And as I walked, this was my prayer: Lord, make me slow to rush ahead of you – because that’s what I think is happening in so much that is wrong and confused in our world today and we see it’s devastating effects in displaced people, heat waves, flood, forest fire and famine - but make us quick to follow where you lead, and find a new and better way of inhabiting this earth.You’re probably not able to go on pilgrimage this week as I was lucky enough to do last week, in fact it’s been hard to get anywhere with the various strike action – so perhaps there has been a chance for some slow time, downtime, time to enjoy your day. I might take a long cut home. Throw away the teabags and rediscover the lost happiness of those two minutes we used to have when we warmed the pot and waited for the tea to mash. I’m going to switch off the telly tonight. Put a chair in the window. Look at the world. See what I can see. Count my blessings.You see, I don’t want any more time saving devices in my life, because they just add to the pressure of fitting more in. I want some time creating devices. Things that will slow me down.
THE central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has condemned Russia’s “armed aggression” and “illegal invasion” of Ukraine, and has invited the Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church to attend its meetings as an observer. But the way has also been cleared for Russian Orthodox leaders to attend the WCC Assembly this summer.“Our hearts grieve that, after eight years of unresolved crisis and conflict in the eastern regions of Ukraine, the Russian Federation launched an illegal invasion of its neighbour, a sovereign state — this tragic development represents a terrible failure of diplomacy, responsibility, and accountability to international law,” the committee said.“We declare that war, with the killing and all the other miserable consequences it entails, is incompatible with God’s very nature and will for humanity and against our fundamental Christian and ecumenical principles, and we reject any misuse of religious language and authority to justify armed aggression.”The statement was published at the close of a four-day meeting to prepare an agenda for the 11th WCC plenary, which opens in Karlsruhe on 31 August on the theme “Reconciliation and Unity”.The Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, a theologian from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, has been elected as the WCC’s new secretary-general.The central committee’s statement said that Russia’s invasion on 24 February had inflicted “an appalling toll of death, destruction and displacement” on the people of Ukraine, where thousands of civilians had been killed, cities reduced to ruins, and more than 14 million people — a quarter of the population — forced to flee their homes.There had been “many reports of atrocities which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”, the statement continued, including “sexual and gender-based violence” and a “heightened vulnerability to human trafficking”. The conflict had also led to a “massive proliferation of weapons”.“The effects threaten to tip many millions of already food-insecure people into famine around the world, to provoke widespread social and political instability, to destroy the post-World War IIinternational security architecture, to provoke a new global arms race, and to accelerate our trajectory towards climate catastrophe,” the central committee said.“We acknowledge and welcome the commitment of the Moscow Patriarchate — representing the WCC’s constituency in both Russia and Ukraine — to engage in encounter and dialogue under WCC auspices. . . Dialogue remains an obvious urgent necessity to address such a critical situation for the people of Ukraine, the future of the world and the ecumenical movement.”Calls have mounted for the Russian Orthodox Church to be barred from WCC meetings, after unsuccessful appeals for Patriarch Kirill to condemn the invasion and urge a ceasefire and negotiations.In March, the Church named a 23-member delegation team for the Karlsruhe plenary, headed by its foreign-relations director, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), although its final composition remains unclear after Hilarion’s demotion in early June by the Church’s Holy Synod (News, 17 June).In May, the Moscow Patriarchate welcomed the outcome of an inter-Orthodox consultation in Cyprus, in preparation for the WCC plenary, after its final report urged peace in Ukraine but made no mention of Russia’s invasion.On 22-26 May, a team from the WCC and Geneva-based ACT Alliance, grouping more than 140 faith-based member-organisations, visited the Russian-Ukrainian border area around Rostov-on-Don, at the Moscow Patriarchate’s invitation, to view the Russian Church’s work with refugees from the war.In an opening report to the central committee on 15 June, the WCC’s Orthodox acting secretary-general, the Revd Professor Ioan Sauca, said that the WCC, whose 352 member-Churches represent about 580 million Christians worldwide, had consistently denounced the conflict, while also maintaining contact and dialogue with Churches in Russia and Ukraine.He said that the WCC had been asked in letters and messages to expel the Russian Orthodox Church because of its wartime stance, and said that he understood how anger and frustration could impel “immediate radical decisions”.The WCC was created, however, as an “open platform for dialogue encounter, for discussion, and challenging one another”, Professor Sauca told the committee. “If we exclude those we do not like or agree with, with whom are we going to speak, and how can we advance to reconciliation and a lasting just peace?“It would be very easy to use the language of politicians, but we are called to use the language of our faith. It is easy to exclude, excommunicate, and demonise, but we are called as the WCC to meet and listen, even if and when we disagree.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury has presented HM The Queen with a special 'Canterbury Cross' for Her Majesty's 'unstinting' service to the Church of England over seventy years. The Archbishop made the presentation during an audience with Her Majesty at Windsor Castle today.The Canterbury Cross was given to The Queen in recognition and gratitude for Her Majesty’s “unstinting support of the Church throughout her reign” and to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year.Archbishop Justin Welby gave the Cross as “a heartfelt symbol of the love, loyalty and affection in which the Church of England holds Her Majesty”.In the citation for the Cross, which was presented to Her Majesty as a framed piece of calligraphy, the Archbishop wrote:“Throughout her reign, Her Majesty has duly upheld both the Christian religion and the Church of England in her roles as Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Whether in the formality of opening sessions of General Synod or the more intimate context of her personal addresses to the nation and Commonwealth at Christmas, Her Majesty has made manifest her own deep faith and its relevance to all that she undertakes.“Her subtle understanding of the changing position of the Established Church in England has sustained and encouraged laity and clergy alike. Her care for the unity of her people and the welfare of the least fortunate have been a constant inspiration to the whole Church. Hers is an example of the Christian life well led.“This presentation of the Canterbury Cross is a heartfelt symbol of the love, loyalty and affection in which the Church of England holds Her Majesty and it represents the recognition and gratitude of her whole Church for her seventy years of unstinting service. God Save The Queen!”The Canterbury Cross is presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury for service to the Church of England. The cross is made of silver; a specially cast version was made for Her Majesty with platinum inserts in honour of the Platinum Jubilee.As Supreme Governor of the Church of England and ‘Defender of the Faith’, Her Majesty has regularly opened sessions of the General Synod of the Church of England.In 2012, The Queen paid tribute to “the particular mission of Christianity and the general value of faith in this country” during a speech at Lambeth Palace. Her Majesty’s Christmas addresses to the nation and the Commonwealth have often included wisdom from her understanding of Scripture and the Christian faith.
