Vicar's letter
| How are we to live in England today? |
Vicar's letter |
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Jack Straw, the Member of Parliament for Blackburn, made a brave speech and as a consequence England is having a much needed conversation about how distinctive and how similar the large number of different communities in England do well to be. Jack Straw said that while he accepted people’s right to wear clothes of their choice, he requested those veiled to take their veils off their face as it aided his communication with them. A classroom assistant has been suspended for refusing to remove her veil when helping children to learn. An airline hostess has been suspended for refusing to hide a small cross on a chain.
Several years ago, Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, reflected on these matters and said that in today’s England, we all need to be bi–lingual. We need to speak the language of our own culture and we need to speak a common language. Without our own language we loose what is distinctive about our faith; without a common language it is impossible to live well together. There is a not entirely different sort of discussion in the 2nd book of Kings, chapters 18 & 19, paralleled in Isaiah, chapters 36 & 37. The question there was when to use Hebrew and when to use Aramaic.
These considerations about language need to apply beyond verbal language to a whole range of cultural behaviour. While it is important, I believe, to encourage this bi-lingual approach it is not without very difficult questions some of which we face in our local schools. While Archbishop Courtenay School is distinctively a Church of England School so that its values, its worship, its ethos are inspired by the Church of England it respects, welcomes and encourages pupils from other cultures. Many values of some of the other cultural groups are the same in ideals but often better in practice; thus most Nepali children are much more polite and well behaved than some others. Veils and scarves would be difficult to manage. Veils because we believe a smiling face is important for building an ethos of respect, affirmation and self esteem let alone the aid to communication through clearer speech and the ability of some to lip read. Scarves because their distinctiveness, can make the needed community solidarity harder to build. There may also be safety issues with some activities. Should these important goals be subsumed to issues particular to the culture of the person concerned? Again, some cultures value men and women differently; to what extent can this be accepted and to what extent challenged. Issues we face even within the Church of England.
I am sure that quiet calm discussion over a very long time is needed. Sometime we will arrive a good solutions; sometimes we will go wrong and have to revise our understandings later. I do though rejoice in the cultural diversity we have in our part of Maidstone; I strongly believe we all need to strive to be both at home in our own culture and open to engaging with other cultures; seeking to form common bonds; we all need too to continue to struggle with the more difficult issues. May God guide us all as we seek to assist these matters.
Christopher Morgan - Jones
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