On 20th January 2008 Newham CSM held its annual service, addressed by Andrew Bradstock, Gen. Sec. of CSM at St Mary Magdelene Church, East Ham. This was followed by the AGM.
In a service led by Fr Fred Ashford Okei CSM members joined together for a time of fellowshp and rededication. The speaker was Andrew Bradstock (CSM Director) and his talk is reprinted below.
Thank you for the invitation to join with you at this annual event. I am very excited about the growth and development of this branch. Branches are vital to CSM - they provide a precious space for us to meet and are a vital way that we as members can be involved in our Movement. CSM’s branches are growing – in our last magazine reports from branches took up a page and a half, and I can’t remember when that last happened. I’m also excited about CSM - we’ve recently renewed our values, we have a more stable financial base and we have a new vision and spirit among our leadership. We are working hard with both the Party and the churches - including helping Stephen Timms in his new role as Party vice chair for faith groups - and have some interesting projects on the go. So it is great to be here, and do let us know if there is anything we can do at the office to help you.
On this very date next year – 20 January – the next US President (the 44th) will be inaugurated.
It will have been a long process, and it’s the most open contest for a generation. Considering the influence that she (or will it be he?!) will have over our lives, we may think that we should have a say in the election of the next President. But nevertheless I’m finding it compelling observing the race to the White House.
Many observers here in the UK are bemused that religion is such a factor in US elections.
Over here, if a politician is too overt about their religion, they risk being misunderstood or even described (in the words of one well-known Christian politician!) as a “nutter”. At least, that’s a perception (and I don’t altogether agree with it).
But in the US, anyone serious about achieving high office really needs a faith - or to play up whatever faith they have. As a commentator in Time Magazine said this week, somewhat despairingly, ‘these days presidential candidates are required to wear their religion on their sleeve’. The ‘religious’ vote is large and it’s important, and you alienate it at your peril…
The idea that ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ might mix should not worry us as Christian Socialists – that’s what we’re about, bringing our faith to bear on our politics, being open about the fact that it is our faith that drives us to politics, acknowledging that there is no area of life to which God is not relevant, including governance.
But a worry that we may share with sceptics is (a) the strident way some Christians in the US have tried to impose their faith on others – you’d almost believe some of them wanted a theocracy; and (b) the very narrow range of issues which define their agenda, which they seem to think constitute a Christian contribution to politics.
People who advocate keeping ‘religion’ out of politics seize upon points like this to make their case – that religious people only want to force their views down others’ throats, that they are out of touch, other-worldly, have nothing to say to the real world of politics.
And if that were the only model there was of faith relating to politics we would probably agree with them that religion should be kept well away from politics. However, where we differ is in saying that the answer to ‘bad’ religion is not ‘no religion’ but ‘good religion’ – and I hope that that’s what we promote in CSM.
Because as Christian socialists we are not about forcing our beliefs on others but sharing our values, feeding our ideas into the public arena, seeing them inform the policy process. We are about arguing our case using the democratic channels available and winning people over because of the attractiveness and validity of what we say - because they also see the importance of values in politics.
We want people to understand that it is our faith that motivates us – the engine in our car, without which the car won’t move. And that leads us to make a very positive contribution to politics.
Because, unlike those with a very narrow agenda, we understand that our faith relates to all areas of life. Sometimes Christians, even the church itself, give the impression that all they’re concerned with is sexuality or human embryos or assisted dying – and these are important – but the Bible is also shot through with God’s much wider concern for a just society. I believe that we see in Scripture a God concerned about the way we live as communities, about the way our society is structured, about the values that underpin it - which presents an exciting challenge to us.
If you’d have to search the Bible quite hard to find teaching on the issues that preoccupy many Christians, warnings about the misuse of power, about mistreating the poor and the stranger, about storing up wealth in this life, appear on almost every page – the Jubilee, the Psalms, the prophets, the life and mission of Jesus himself.
The radical US church leader Jim Wallis tells the story of how, as a young student, he went through the Bible cutting out EVERY reference to poverty, justice, equality and so on, finding himself left with a very thin and tattered book indeed. Then with others he toured US churches saying to congregations ‘this is your Bible’ - because they had largely ignored its social teaching. In his latest book Wallis has coined the phrase, apropos how many politicians in the US approach religion, ‘God’s Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn’t get it’!
The reading we had from Isaiah [61:1-3] accentuates that: it’s the passage Jesus read in the synagogue at the start of his ministry – his agenda, his manifesto if you like – to bring good news to the oppressed, liberty to the captives, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (which is a reference to the Jubilee and demonstrates that that principle is not just an ‘old testament’ one).
Jesus’ whole life bore witness to a distinctive set of values, values which challenged those of the prevailing order. He offered a new model of community, using as models those usually despised – prostitutes, tax-collectors, beggars, social outcasts, children.
The second reading [John 18:28-40] summed this up – ‘My kingdom is not of this world, is not “from here”, is not rooted in your values’, Jesus tells those who are firmly locked into the status quo. No wonder his early followers were accused of ‘turning the world upside down’ [Acts 17:6]: they believed in the possibility of transforming both individuals - by offering forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ - and communities.
So in CSM I hope we are people who take seriously what the Bible says about ‘doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God’ [Micah 6:8], and seek to make it relevant today, who try to live out - because that’s the way to really get the message across - those radically alternative (sometimes subversive) values we see in the witness and teaching of the One we follow, the One who came that we – and all who are made in God’s image - might have ‘life in all its fulness’.
At the AGM the following members were elected as office holders:
Chair Clive Furness
Secretary (and Treasurer) Chris Aubrey
Prayer Secretary Jill McWilliam
Executive Members David Aubrey and Jill Lamont
The meeting agreed to affiliate to the CLPs of West Ham and EastHam. The following delegates were elected to represent CSM:
West Ham David Aubrey
East Ham Quintin Peppiat