ROWAN Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has written a thought-provoking article for the New Statesman. You can read it here…We throw around the term “culture wars” so freely that it has become hard to recognise and understand what a real and bloody war about culture looks like. Vladimir Putin sees himself as the protagonist in a battle for the survival of an integral Christian culture as surely as Islamic State casts itself as the defender of Islamic cultural purity. Of course there are profound operational, historical and political differences, and it would be foolish to ignore these, or to slip into the sort of panic that is prompted by Islamist extremism. But a realistic picture of what lies behind the appalling conflict in Ukraine has to reckon with the parallels – and has to recognise that secular geopolitical calculations and bargains may not give us the tools for making sense of what is going on.Putin’s close ally and supporter, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, made it clear in an extraordinary sermon delivered on 6 March, the day before Orthodox Lent began, that he regarded the Russian campaign as a war to defend Orthodox civilisation against Western corruption, of which gay pride marches were singled out as the leading symptom. This was no accident: despite high recorded levels of prejudice against LGBT+ people in Ukraine, recent Ukrainian policy has liberalised, and Kyiv has a high-profile activist community and annual parade.For the Patriarch, this is both a normalising of grossly sinful behaviour and a pollution of Russian Christian identity, since Kyiv is where Russian Christianity has its origins. About three-quarters of Ukraine’s population identify as Orthodox, and it has a high level of church attendance, but its Orthodoxy coexists with the expressions of a very different set of cultural norms. It is difficult enough to cope with religious diversity: Russia’s recent history shows very low tolerance of non-Orthodox Christian (not to mention Jewish and Muslim) minorities. The prospects for minorities in Ukraine in the event of a Russian victory are not promising. But what is worse in the eyes of a certain type of Russian Orthodox is the toleration of ideological diversity in the public sphere.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”Amos 5:24Ill-treating workers is not just business. In God’s eyes it is sin.P&O has sacked 800 people in Dover, a town dependent on shipping. Dover is a major part of the Diocese of Canterbury which we serve as Bishops.The extraordinary move is at the command of DP World, the Dubai based and owned parent company, which made record profits last year. The move is cynically timed for a moment when world attention is on Ukraine. Done without warning or consultation it is inhumane, treats human beings as a commodity of no basic value or dignity and is completely unethical.We call on Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, to prevent P&O operating until proper consultation has been carried out. Consultation will have to be done with independent oversight as all confidence in P&O management is gone. We call on the UK Government to make urgent and forceful representations to the Government of Dubai, a historic and close ally of the UK.It is essential that if this move cannot be prevented legally that Dover receive extraordinary financial and development assistance.The Right Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of DoverThe Most Reverend & Right HonourableJustin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
2003 is the total number of page views across our A Church Near You website during the past week. That creates a new landmark high in people visiting our site.Remember, a visitor may visit more than one of our pages on a single visit. The Church of England gets this information from the website servers. With this method, even people who opt out of cookies are counted, which improves accuracy compared to Google Analytics.There will be many parishes whose websites can claim much higher levels of interest but we've grown steadily over the past three years. In fact we've seen our growth increase almost ten-fold.So thank you to all you readers who are visiting our site and reading our information, prayers and news stories. We would be nothing without you.
Our joint parish Holy Communion service tomorrow is at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Dunsfold at 10am. Our celebrant is Reverend Rutton Viccajee.<br>We hope you be with us but if you're housebound or elsewhere you can join us via this Zoom link.<a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09">https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09</a><br>Also, don't forget that Sheila Jones is hosting our next Lent lunch, next Thursday. She still has some places available so please call her on 200204 and you can help our parish raise funds for the Bishop of Guildford's Communities Fund.
