‘Jesus didn’t lead like this’: Act of witness at Holy Trinity Brompton

Join Christianity Uncuters this afternoon – Tuesday 14th May – in an act of witness at Holy Trinity, Brompton.

More info here https://www.facebook.com/events/193868040761889/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

Info from facebook event:

‘Holy Trinity Brompton have their “Leadership Conference” this week. They’ve got an impressive range of guests…but some less impressive.

Directors from Serco and Goldman Sachs, companies with horrendous human rights track records – think nuclear weapons, healthcare and food speculation to name but a few. We’re appalled that a church is giving a platform to these people and worse still, marketing them as great leaders and role models. Jesus didn’t lead like this. It doesn’t matter how good you are at communicating – it’s the message that counts.

In light of this, some of us are going to show our displeasure in the form of flyering and conversation. We found out about this today so we’ve had to move fast, but they’re going to print tomorrow and we’ll also have a banner. We’ll chat to punters on their way into the speaker session in the evening.

The main event takes places at the Royal Albert Hall but, due to how many exits there are, we’re going to to go the overflow venue, St Paul’s, their church in Brompton Road.

PLEASE JOIN US

Whether you can be there in person to talk to people and hand out flyers or not, please tweet with us to #LC13

This is what it’s about: http://leadershipconference.htb.org.uk/‘

 

Coverage of our event on Ekklesia here.

The Philpotts, ‘lifestyle choices’ and the government’s welfare agenda

A reflection written by a member of Christianity Uncut who wishes to remain anonymous. It does not necessarily represent the views of all members of Christianity Uncut.

The Philpott case has dominated the news over the last week, with George Osborne and then David Cameron muddying the waters between political discourse and the horrific story of a violent man and his partners.

That such senior government figures have used the story to bolster their own welfare cuts agenda is shameless and despicable. Owen Jones has countered the ministers’ suggestions by making some excellent and very valid points. However these have unfortunately but unsurprisingly received far less attention than those of George Osborne and David Cameron.

Owen Jones’ central point is ‘that the Philpotts say nothing about anyone, except for themselves, just as the serial murderer GP Harold Shipman said nothing about middle-class professionals’. Perhaps still more analogously he went on to observe that the case of Stephen Seddon, found guilty of murdering his parents to gain his inheritance the previous week, did not cause politicians to question our system of inheritance or inheritance tax.

It’s hardly surprising that the Conservatives, whose policy shortly before the last general election was to increase the threshold at which inheritance tax was paid to £1m, would not suggest that lowering the level and percentage of inheritance tax might help prevent such murders in future. Not that I’m suggesting such a discussion should be had over the Seddon case: I merely seek to further illustrate that these men with immense power are abusing their positions by opening up or continuing a political debate over an individual, tragic case. Six children have died – using their deaths as an opportunity for furthering political ends is deeply disturbing.

From what I’ve read of the Philpott case it seems just as likely that Mick Philpott sought to father so many children as a means of control over the women he abused, as that his prolific brood was down to a greed for benefit money. His intimate relationships seem to have been characteristically abusive on many levels, which supports this suggestion. After all, he also seems to have had control over all of the money his partners earned too – benefits were not the Philpotts’ only source of income, whatever some media outlets might like us to think. Suggesting that Philpott was motivated by benefits money detracts attention from the horrendous abuse he put several women through: if anything, this case could have been far better used as an attempt to highlight the possible nature of domestic  abuse and raise awareness of some of its signs.

Instead Osborne and Cameron have vilified a whole section of our society and seemingly implied that many benefits claimants could be serial killers in the making. Therefore, the rhetoric goes, we need to ‘ask questions’ about ‘welfare’, those it is given to, and their ‘lifestyle choices’. I’m deeply concerned that these politicians have implied that mere ‘lifestyle choices’ can directly lead to someone becoming a killer.

The reality is of course that very few benefit claimants are able to make any kind of lifestyle choice: the vast, vast majority need the financial support they receive, and few have any choice about how to spend their money. Claimants’ needs dictate that they prioritise essentials like food and heating, and there is little room left for choice. This was already the case before some of the ‘reforms’ this government has brought in, but it will be the case to an even greater extent now that the ‘welfare changes’ are coming in to effect.

A glance at the rising cost of food and fuel is all that is needed to demonstrate that the cut made by limiting the rise in benefit payments to lower than inflation (1 per cent) will make life incredibly hard for hundreds of thousands of people.

Even if more benefit claimants could afford to make lifestyle choices, I firmly believe in the freedom of each person to determine their own financial priorities, within reason. Christ frees us and values each of us equally, and yet this government seeks to deny many the freedom to choose their own priorities that financial wealth brings to others because it deems them to be less worthy on some level.  Following Christ’s example we should love all people equally, and not seek to distinguish between those who are ‘worthy’ and those who are not, as this government’s rhetoric encourages us to. Personally, I do not watch television and save money in that way, but I prioritise healthy and therefore often more costly food and I believe that everyone should be fully entitled to make such choices.

Birmingham City Council recently announced that it would be giving out Asda vouchers as emergency welfare payments. Restricting people’s spending to goods from one supplier is bad enough, but what’s more, the vouchers could not be used for certain items, including phone-related expenditure. This is absolutely shocking: many isolated people, particularly disabled people, depend on their phones for support that sustains their mental health, or for liaising with key support workers in their life. The impact that this scheme could have on someone might be devastating or even fatal.

All benefits claimants are worthy of our love, just as all wealthy people are. Let’s not be fooled by Osborne and Cameron’s scapegoating of the Philpott case into thinking that there are many benefits claimants making such ‘lifestyle choices’, or that is our place to judge the priorities of those claimants who are able to choose between things like television, healthy food, a mobile phone top up, or an occasional beer.

Christian charities face Christian protests over use of workfare labour

Christian organisations including the Salvation Army and the YMCA are participating in “workfare” schemes, using workers who must work without pay or face losing their benefits. Christianity Uncut is writing to the charities to urge them to withdraw from the schemes as a public witness against forced labour.

The call comes at the start of a week of action against workfare. The action has been called by the group Boycott Workfare for the week of 18-24 March. During the week, Christianity Uncut is planning to write to all Christian organisations using workfare labour.

Christianity Uncut welcome the fact that most churches and Christian organisations are not participating in workfare. We encourage them to sign the pledge promising that they will not do so in future.

Chris Wood, a spokesperson for Christianity Uncut, said:

“Workfare workers are not volunteers – their work is not voluntary but obligatory, and they should be paid a living wage. Instead they are being threatened with losing the benefits on which they live if they refuse to take part in this forced labour scheme.

“We are deeply saddened that charities such as the Salvation Army and YMCA are undermining the good work they do, and their witness to Christ, by participating in workfare schemes. Throughout the economy, workfare is increasing poverty and unemployment by reducing the jobs available for paid staff. Christians need to make a public witness against workfare and proclaim Jesus’ teaching that ‘The worker is worthy of his pay’ (Luke 10,7).”

There are numerous workfare schemes currently in operation. Each requires claimants to work without pay or face possible destitution through sanctions (benefit stoppages), which can last for up to three years. A list of schemes currently in operation can be found at http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?page_id=663.

Protests, creative actions and online pickets against workfare will take place on 18-24 March across the UK in a week of action called by the Boycott Workfare network to escalate the campaign against forced unpaid work. More information and a list of actions can be found at http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1996.

 

Christians call for repentance from Starbuck’s on Ash Wednesday

Following the Ash Wednesday service at Sunderland Minster, Rev Chris Howson led tax kustice campaigners to Starbuck’s coffee shop in The Bridges.

During the period of Lent, Chris, an Anglican chaplain at Sunderland University has called for people to “give up” their visits to companies that avoid paying tax. His call is supported by Christianity Uncut.

Ash has long been used by the church as a symbol of repentance. Chris prayed in the street he daubed a temporary symbol of the cross, in ash, on the window of Starbuck’s and called upon them to change their ways.

Christians urged to fast from tax-dodging companies during Lent

Christianity Uncut have today issued the following news release:

Christians urged to fast from tax-dodging companies during Lent

Christians are being encouraged to do no business with tax-dodging corporations such as Amazon and Starbuck’s for the duration of Lent as a public witness against the sins of corporate tax avoidance.

As Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday (13 February), the Rev Chris Howson, a Church of England priest in Sunderland, will anoint his local branch of Starbuck’s with ashes, traditionally used as a call to repentance.

Christianity Uncut, a network of anti-capitalist Christians, suggest that a crackdown on tax avoidance is a better way of reducing the national deficit than cutting public services and the welfare state.

They recognise that individual Christians will reach different conclusions about which companies to target and whether to continue with the boycott beyond Lent. But they suggested that lots of Christians working acting on the issue in their personal spending could be both an important witness and a form of economic pressure.

Rev Chris Howson, a Church of England priest in Sunderland, said:

“Tax justice is a pressing issue. Amazon, with its aggressive tax avoidance policy, can easily out-compete British-based high street firms. For lent, there will be no more cheap books for me from this tax dodger! As for Starbuck’s, not only has it evaded millions of pounds of corporation tax over the last few years, it has tried to publicly bribe the government, instead of simply paying its tax!”

Other ideas for the ‘tax justice fast’ include moving money from banks that have avoided tax, such as Barclay’s, and committing to shopping locally.

Rev Chris Howson added:

“Join me, and let’s support those who pay their taxes so that our kids get a decent education, bins are collected, and people can be looked after by the NHS. Make up your own version of the Tax Justice Fast for Lent!”

A year of resistance

As we near the end of the year, we want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s been involved in Christianity Uncut over the last twelve months.

In 2012, we:

• Showed solidarity with the Occupy movement, particularly by praying at the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange. At least five members of Christianity Uncut were dragged from the steps of the cathedral by police as they knelt in prayer.

• Called for a real jubilee of economic justice – rather than a celebration of human monarchy – in June. This made more people aware that “jubilee” in the original, biblical sense is about the cancellation of debts, freeing of slave and redistribution of land.

• Backed UK Uncut actions against government cuts and corporate tax avoidance.

• Joined Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and UK Uncut in protesting outside the offices of Atos, the company that has thrown thousands of disabled people off benefits through biased assessments. We pointed out that Atos “bring bad news to the poor”, whereas Jesus’ Gospel is about “good news to the poor”. 

• Held an act of witness outside the official church service of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, encouraging worshippers to follow Jesus’ example of siding with the poor and to reject the Tories’ cuts agenda.

• Joined with Occupy London Stock Exchange in an action at St Paul’s Cathedral, calling on the cathedral authorities to take an active stand against the cuts. This has led to a meeting with cathedral authorities at which we discussed how we can work with the cathedral to challenge economic injustice. More details will be available soon.

• Joined with thousands of people of many religions and none in marching for “A Future That Works” and alternatives to government cuts.

• Called on Church House, the administrative headquarters of the Church of England, not to host a gathering of arms dealers in November. Along with members of the Campaign Against Arms Trade, Christian CND and Pax Christi, we held a peaceful prayer vigil outside the event.

• Christianity Uncut has appeared on the BBC World Service, BBC News website and in publciations including the Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Church Times, Ekklesia, The Friend, Reform and Third Way.

Much of this action has been carried out in solidarity with people of many religions and none who are resisting economic injustice with active nonviolence. UK Uncut, Occupy and DPAC, along with several faith-based groups and many others, have spoken out and campaigned against the government’s policy of punishing the poor for the sins of the rich.

The impact of austerity is clear. Housing Justice, an ecumenical Christian charity, estimate that rough sleeping in London has increased by a staggering 40% in a year. Food banks have now appeared in many British cities. DPAC report that every week, 73 people die shortly after being thrown off benefits. Many are suicides. 

At the same time, the richest people have had their taxes cut. Corporations avoid tax while ministers offer only lukewarm criticisms and no action. The arms trade continues to be subsidised and plans for the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system are going ahead. The government recently spent £1.2bn on a submarine.

In this situation, a number of church leaders have rightly spoken out. Many other Christians have taken a stand and become involved in campaigning. Some denominations have made statements and commitments on particular issues. This is great. But if we are to follow Jesus’ example of siding with the poor, we need to go a lot further. We need to let the government know that British Christians are part of a mass movement resisting austerity.

Recently, Starbucks agreed to pay slightly more tax after mass protests. It is nowhere near enough. We need to keep protesting against Starbucks. But the very fact that they felt the need to do this shows that groups such as UK Uncut have made an impact on the terms of political debate. Tax dodging has become a major political issue. Activism can make a difference. But we have so much further to go.

If you would like to join in Christianity Uncut actions, or help out with publicity and administration, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at christiansagainstcuts@gmail.com. May God help us to do so much more together than we can manage alone.

Email the Archbishop about arms dealers’ conference at Church House

Plans for a conference of arms dealers at Church House have provoked shock, sadness and anger in recent days. There will be an act of prayer and witness outside the conference tomorrow (Thursday) morning, from 7.45am, as the arms dealers are entering.

Church House is the administrative headquarters of the Church of England. The Church House conference centre is owned by the Church House Corporation, the president of which is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Williams has often expressed his opposition to the arms trade in the past, and we are encouraging concerned people of all religions and none to email him about the conference.

You can send a quick email via this link on the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) website.

The act of witness and email to Rowan Williams are backed by CAAT, Christianity Uncut, Pax Christi, Christian CND, the Speak Network and other concerned Christians.

 

Arms dealers to meet at Church House

On Thursday morning (1st November), Christians around the world will celebrate All Saints’ Day. Meanwhile, Church House – the administrative headquarters of the Church of England – will host a conference for arms dealers. They will discuss “future air power”, which is likely to involve a focus on remote-controlled drones.

The news has shocked, saddened and angered many Christians, both within the Church of England and beyond. The issue has been covered by the Independent, Church Times and Premier Christian Radio.

Act of witness

A group of Christians will gather outside Church House (in Westminster, London) from 7.45am. They will begin an act of prayer and witness at around 8.00am. It will last about half an hour, and take place while many of the arms dealers and other participants are entering the building. There are more details on Facebook.

The act of witness is backed by Christianity Uncut, Pax Christi, the Christian Network of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Christian CND. It is open to all. The prayer will take an Anglican form, but Christians from other traditions, as well as non-Christians, are equally welcome.

Feeble excuses

There have been a number of inaccurate claims about the conference.

It has been claimed that the Church House Conference Centre is independent of Church House, and thus of the Church of England. We have investigated this and it is clear that it is a legal technicality. The conference centre is a wholly owned subsidiary company of Church House Corporation, whose president is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Church of England’s spokesperson has now largely given up on this line of argument.

It has also been claimed that this is not really an arms dealers’ conference, as it has been booked by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) rather than by an arms company. However, RUSI is a very right-wing thinktank that lobbies in favour of the arms trade and high military spending.

The conference webpage lists several multinational arms companies as sponsors, many of which arm oppressive regimes that have turned weapons on their own people. They are all involved in the manufacture of drones.

Church House is relying on a distinction between a conference booked by an arms company and a conference of arms dealers booked by a pro-arms lobby group. This distinction is at best naive and at worst misleading.

Prayer and resistance

If you can’t join us on Thursday morning, please pray about the issues wherever you are. You can also phone or email the Church House Conference Centre and email the Archbishop of Canterbury as president of Church House Corporation. We encourage everyone to communicate nonviolently in a spirit of peaceful persuasion rather than personal abuse.

We applaud the Church of England for rejecting most investments in arms companies. Now they need to live up to the same values in the use of their buildings.

Another way

Chris Howson, a Church of England priest from Sunderland and member of Christianity Uncut, is among those to have criticised the conference. He says:

“The Church of England should endeavour to make a stand against all forms of warfare, especially those that dish out death and destruction from thousands of miles away. It should instead seek to offer nonviolent, faithful responses to global issues based of Christian teaching. When Jesus asked us to ‘love our enemies’ we can assume that he did not mean ‘drop bombs on gatherings of people that might contain some enemies’.

“If we as a church expect credibility and respect, then we must not associate ourselves with, or profit from, agents of death and destruction.”

Al Barrett, a Church of England priest in Birmingham, is another to have expressed his shock. He said:

“I find it utterly staggering and shameful that my denominational headquarters should be providing space to an event, sponsored by weapons manufacturers, promoting armed conflict. The fact that this is being done as a commercial relationship makes it no less offensive. If the Church has learnt anything from the past few years, it should surely be that Jesus is calling us to take sides, in our words, in our actions, in our business dealings: with the poor, with the peace-makers, with those who hunger and thirst for justice, and emphatically not with the rich, the powerful, and those who create and deploy weapons of mass destruction.

“If the Church wants to model the hospitality of Jesus, it should invite the conference delegates in, without accepting any payment, to sit and eat with those people of the poorest countries of our world who have been maimed, widowed and orphaned by the weapons these delegates have manufactured, traded and deployed.”

Christians join marches for alternatives to government cuts

The following news release was issued today (21.10.12):

Christians join marches for alternatives to government cuts

Christianity Uncut have urged ministers not to “punish the poor for the sins of the rich”. They joined with thousands of people of many religions and none to march in London, Belfast and Glasgow yesterday (20 October) for “A Future That Works”.

Supporters of Christianity Uncut were present at all three marches. The group received messages from many Christians who were unable to join the marches in person but offered their support and prayers.

Christianity Uncut said that many churches are witnessing the effects of growing poverty, unemployment and homelessness in their own communities. They urged Christians to be at the forefront of campaigns for alternatives, such as a crackdown on corporate tax dodging, the cancellation of the Trident nuclear weapons system and a cap on private sector rents.

Sally Rush, who travelled from Milton Keynes to join the march in London, said:

“As a Christian, as well as part of wider society, I believe I have a responsibility to campaign against the causes of poverty as well as working to minimise the effects. For me regularly praying “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” means I have to actively engage in seeking that kingdom. That’s why I’m marching.”

ENDS

 

Notes to editors

1. Christianity Uncut is an informal network of Christians campaigning against the UK government’s cuts agenda and the injustices of capitalism. We are inspired by the example of Jesus, who took nonviolent direct action in the Jerusalem Temple, in solidarity with people who are poor, exploited and marginalised. 
2. Christianity Uncut is committed to active nonviolence in all its work, rejecting both violence and passivity. Christianity Uncut is committed to campaigning alongside people of other religions and of none and to love and respect for its opponents. Christianity Uncut rejects verbal abuse and personal hatred.
3. The marches for “A Future That Works” were organised by the Trades Union Congress with the support of a range of trades unions and civil society organisations.
4. Photographs of Christianity Uncut supporters marching yesterday are available on request.

Join us to march for A Future That Works

This Saturday (20 October), thousands of people across the UK will march in a favour of a better future than the one offered by the government’s cuts agenda and the corporations that back it. Thousands of Christians will join with people of many other religions and of none to call on the government not to punish the poor for the sins of the rich.

We want to see a future in which economic policies benefit society as a whole, not just the super-rich, in which the needs of the poorest people are prioritised, the world’s resources are shared and the planet is protected, not destroyed. We don’t want an economic crash caused by the sins of capitalism used as an excuse to hurt the poorest people, and those in the middle, while trillions of pounds is siphoned off into tax havens and spending on nuclear weapons continues unabated.

March with Christianity Uncut

There will be simultaneous marches in London, Glasgow and Belfast. Christianity Uncut will have an organised presence at the London march, though we believe there will also be Christianity Uncut supporters at the other two venues.

To join us at the London march, please gather at 11.00am outside Westminster Quaker Meeting House in St Martin’s Lane. The nearest tube station is Leicester Square. We will be marching alongside our friends from the Quakers. We will move off at 11.30, to join the start of the march at Embankment. The march begins at 12.00 and will finish in Hyde Park.

Watch out for the large Christianity Uncut banner, as well as other Christian symbols or placards. We don’t have specific Christianity Uncut placards to give out, so please feel free to design and bring your own. There will be more general placards available on the march.

Tell your friends

You can publicise the details of the Christianity Uncut meeting point on Facebook and Twitter – and, of course, by word of mouth. However, we are not too concerned about how many people march with Christianity Uncut – we’re more concerned about how many people join the march as a whole. We know there will be thousands of Christians marching with other groups and, equally importantly, thousands of people of other religions and of none.

Nonetheless, a visible Christian presence on the march is a reminder that many Christians see standing against economic sin as a natural part of their faith. It is also an encouragement to other Christians to recognise the centrality of wealth, poverty and power in the teachings of Jesus and much of the Bible.

We realise that not everyone can make the march in person. If that’s the case for you, you can still declare your support online. And, of course, you can pray – for all who are marching, for the journalists who will report on it, for the politicians who should listen and for other people who will see or hear about the march.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at christiansagainstcuts@gmail.com.