Insider or Outsider?
I think I’m one of life’s outsiders. If I was walking past Broadcasting House today, I’d have to carry on walking. Once upon a time I was an insider, I would have walked through the cluster of people standing in the cold for a celebrity autograph, secretly enjoying the envious glances as I entered the hallowed portals into the magic world of the wireless. Sadly today I'm an outsider, stripped of my BBC Club card, but thankfully not (yet) my modest BBC Pension.The world is divided into outsiders and insiders, and, going off the subject slightly, the sad thing is that most people think, when it comes to the church, they are outsiders. Walking past a church is for many, just like walking past the gates of Downing Street the Foreign Office or the Houses of Parliament.
But back to this week, when I became an insider – for just a few exciting hours. Instead of walking past the Houses of Parliament in the driving rain, I had in my pocket a pass from Black Rod not only go in, but take pictures. (Google Black Rod- I don’t have time to explain). The House of Lords, the second chamber, still has 26 bishops and mine is one of them, so I was there to chat, interview him take pictures and then hear the opening Questions where he had tabled one about payments to farmers. Not only that, but having expected
to see the debate from the balcony or ‘strangers gallery’ I ended up , thanks to another red bordered invitation card handed to me by a man in a morning suit, ‘Below the Bar’ (no, its not what you think) and actually in the Chamber itself, alongside people like Nigel Lawson, Betty Boothroyd and the nice Muslim peer who's just back from the Sudan rescuing the Teddy Bear One.
It was a full house but only the bishops had bothered to dress up and the debate was much livelier than I’d expected. The whole issue of the church and state, faith representation in the Lords, and the impression that gives to the rest of the country about the Church of England is an interesting one… Bishop John Packer’s view is, I think, that while we have this system its important that a Christian voice is heard, though he’d like to see other denominations in the house – not just the C of E.
I was to remain an insider for the rest of the day – next stop Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury for our Diocesan Communicators Network Day. We talked about professional development, we heard from Tim Livesey about Lambeth and the Lambeth conference plans, and I have a 30 minute Power Point presentation on The Sabbatical, or as I called it ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. I majored on the emphasis from the top in Rome on communications and communications training. Rather rashly, and encouraged by the small representative DC Panel, I was also bring to the meeting the offer to lead an annual conference to Rome in 2009. I was anticipating some questions and objections. Instead I almost had my hand bitten off. Everyone wants to come. Oh dear. Now its phone calls to Rome, pathfinding visits to test hotels, research on the best restaurants and bars. Its tough but someone has to do it.
For some reason I headed home when I should have been making my way past the Norwegian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square to St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street (do I sound like Samuel Pepys yet?) where the Bishop of London was speaking in a debate organised by the think-tank Theos on the relationship between the Church and the Media.
Pure gold (especially reflecting on on the subject earlier in the day of the contrast between the Gregorian University in Rome and what our trainee priests are offered here at home). This is a snippet:
“Too much of the education of ministers of religion is dominated by learning the communications techniques of the day before yesterday in yesterday’s world. We may be able to write treatises to confute Cardinal Bellarmine but the ability to put a message on a blackberry; to enter the nous-sphere of 18-30 year olds; to produce a two minute video artfully shot with consummate professionalism to simulate the naivety and the believability of a home movie; to deliver a “mighty atom,” a message or a story which gets under the radar and reverberates in the inner spaces of people who are programmed to turn off as soon as you say “I take my text from the Prophet Haggai”; to develop the capacity to interpret the signs of the times through art – all these things should be part of the formation of Christian communicators today.”
Amen to that. My only regret was that I wasn’t there to hear it and now feel like an outsider again. Poor me. Thank goodness for the internet.
But back to this week, when I became an insider – for just a few exciting hours. Instead of walking past the Houses of Parliament in the driving rain, I had in my pocket a pass from Black Rod not only go in, but take pictures. (Google Black Rod- I don’t have time to explain). The House of Lords, the second chamber, still has 26 bishops and mine is one of them, so I was there to chat, interview him take pictures and then hear the opening Questions where he had tabled one about payments to farmers. Not only that, but having expected
to see the debate from the balcony or ‘strangers gallery’ I ended up , thanks to another red bordered invitation card handed to me by a man in a morning suit, ‘Below the Bar’ (no, its not what you think) and actually in the Chamber itself, alongside people like Nigel Lawson, Betty Boothroyd and the nice Muslim peer who's just back from the Sudan rescuing the Teddy Bear One.It was a full house but only the bishops had bothered to dress up and the debate was much livelier than I’d expected. The whole issue of the church and state, faith representation in the Lords, and the impression that gives to the rest of the country about the Church of England is an interesting one… Bishop John Packer’s view is, I think, that while we have this system its important that a Christian voice is heard, though he’d like to see other denominations in the house – not just the C of E.
I was to remain an insider for the rest of the day – next stop Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury for our Diocesan Communicators Network Day. We talked about professional development, we heard from Tim Livesey about Lambeth and the Lambeth conference plans, and I have a 30 minute Power Point presentation on The Sabbatical, or as I called it ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. I majored on the emphasis from the top in Rome on communications and communications training. Rather rashly, and encouraged by the small representative DC Panel, I was also bring to the meeting the offer to lead an annual conference to Rome in 2009. I was anticipating some questions and objections. Instead I almost had my hand bitten off. Everyone wants to come. Oh dear. Now its phone calls to Rome, pathfinding visits to test hotels, research on the best restaurants and bars. Its tough but someone has to do it.
For some reason I headed home when I should have been making my way past the Norwegian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square to St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street (do I sound like Samuel Pepys yet?) where the Bishop of London was speaking in a debate organised by the think-tank Theos on the relationship between the Church and the Media.
Pure gold (especially reflecting on on the subject earlier in the day of the contrast between the Gregorian University in Rome and what our trainee priests are offered here at home). This is a snippet:
“Too much of the education of ministers of religion is dominated by learning the communications techniques of the day before yesterday in yesterday’s world. We may be able to write treatises to confute Cardinal Bellarmine but the ability to put a message on a blackberry; to enter the nous-sphere of 18-30 year olds; to produce a two minute video artfully shot with consummate professionalism to simulate the naivety and the believability of a home movie; to deliver a “mighty atom,” a message or a story which gets under the radar and reverberates in the inner spaces of people who are programmed to turn off as soon as you say “I take my text from the Prophet Haggai”; to develop the capacity to interpret the signs of the times through art – all these things should be part of the formation of Christian communicators today.”
Amen to that. My only regret was that I wasn’t there to hear it and now feel like an outsider again. Poor me. Thank goodness for the internet.
Labels: Bishop of London speech, Church, church and media, Lambeth, Lords, Parliament, Rome
posted by John Carter @ 11:02 am
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