Christ Church Moreton Hall

The truth about the crime figures.

The news has been dominated over the last few days by the crime figures. What is interesting about them is not what they say but how people are receiving them. Discrepancies about how they are collected and changes in the rules about what crime goes into what category, have lead to genuine concerns about their validity and therefore their usefulness.

However there is one trend that most analysts and historians agree on. In the 19th century and first half of the 20th Century, where there was high levels of church attendance the ways usually low levels of crime and violence. This was true of the young in particular. When the receive good moral teaching backed up by good adult examples and when they are shown both love and forgiveness within a clear code of wrong and right, everyone benefits.

When this begins to decline so crime figures and social disintegration begin to rise. I feel very sorry for the schools right now as they try and teach good citizenship but find themselves un-supported by the very families they are trying to help. What is also true, is that we all feel less safe now and have lower levels of peace of mind than we did 10 or 20 years ago.

By now almost all of us will have felt the full effects of the prices going up at the pumps, at the food store, on our electrical bills and on our mortgage and credit card repayments. Almost everyone on the estate will be dreading each morning's post and the brown envelopes that come with it. Even though we are planning to go on holiday and probably will do, nonetheless nagging in the back of our minds will be the question of can I really afford this.

Despite what the politicians say and don't say we should all know that there is actually very little they can do to change things. The rises in fuel prices have been decided in other countries. The growing affluence of China and India means they are buying up more of their share of the world's food supply causing prices to rise. Perhaps saddest of all the growing of specialist crops to produce alternatives to oil has reduced the amount of land available for ordinary foodstuffs and that too is making prices rise.

But in the midst of all our concerns and anxieties just stop and consider this for a moment. While we may be struggling to pay our bills, for many across the world they will be struggling to fill their bellies. While we find our politicians remote and ineffectual, many will find their politicians despotic and cruel and completely unaccountable. And while we may struggle to hang on to our homes with or without negative equity, there will be so many this year who will be struggling to rebuild their homes out of corrugated iron and whatever pieces of wood they can find following monsoon, earthquake, land clearance, political violence, as well as tsunamis and cyclones. Yes, things are bad. But they are not as bad as the media would have us believe with the scaremongering headlines. I am old enough to have lived through not just 12% inflation but 25% inflation and we are nowhere near that yet.

If you can get Premier Christian Radio I will be on at the following times... they hope.
More important than listening is praying. Please pray for me in what will be a very important Synod for us all.

Friday 4 July 2008

8:20am Premier's Inspirational Breakfast
5:20am Premier Drive

Saturday 5 July 2008

9:45am Premier's Big Breakfast with Tony Miles

Sunday 6 July 2008

9am Premier Sunday Breakfast with Andy Walton (I am on for an hour!)

Monday 7 July 2008

8:20am Premier's Inspirational Breakfast
5:20pm Premier Drive
6:20pm (Possibly) Women Bishop vote results

Tuesday 8 July 2008

8:20am Premier's Inspirational Breakfast
5:20pm Premier Drive

In the middle of May was Christian Aid week, and in 2007 we collected £1600 from the generous people of Moreton Hall. Other churches help us cover the estate and I don’t know what they collected last year.

As we held the service on the 11th people could not be reminded of both Burma’s cyclone and China’s Earthquake. But also in the news that week was the news that every year in Britain 3.6 million tons of food is thrown away un-eaten. 60% of it has not gone past its sell by date and is still unwrapped. We spend £10.2 billion on food we never eat. That means ever year each man woman and child spend nearly £170 each on food that will never get to the table let alone to the mouth. If only that money was not thrown away, look how much more could be done for those in need.

Maybe these things touched people hearts this year, or maybe they remembered that the coins notes and cheques that go into that big red envelope means some people in Africa don’t starve to death. It means, children won’t have to sit there and watch their parents die of Aids. It also means someone will not have to watch their children die of a curable disease because they only have dirty water to drink.

 For me this week the news has been dominated by two stories.

The first is the plight of 100s of thousands of Burmese people, dead and dying after the cyclone with millions of tons of aid, just a plane flight away, and yet their own government is reluctant accept  help, because they are afraid of western influences on their country. 

The second is about this country. Every year in Britain 3.6 million tons of food is thrown away un-eaten, 60% of it has not gone past its sell by date and is still unwrapped. We spend £10.2 billion on food we never eat. That means ever year each man woman and child spend nearly £170 each on food that will never get to the table let alone to the mouth.