Priestley’s Progress

Dear friends,

Easter approaches, reminding us that God is not dead, and that hope, life, and joy may yet be found amidst the unravelling of the global orchestra. The new music is however from an old score, just one we’ve not heard in our generation. The writer JB Priestley toured England in 1933 surveying the carnage of the Great Depression and wrote trenchantly with brutal honesty about what he saw in his  “English Journey”, which has recently been re-issued. Here is a short excerpt:

“I do not know what will happen to the cotton industry. Possibly this is only the worst of its periodic collapses. I suspect, however, that not all the re-organisation, and rationalisation, and trade agreements and quotas and tariffs and embargoes in the world will bring back to Lancashire what Lancashire has lost.”

You can replace “cotton” and “Lancashire” with “motor” and “America”, or “steel” and “the UK”, but it is our own move almost a century backwards to such protectionist language which struck me. However when friends start behaving oddly, and enemies are emboldened to kick sand or blow smoke, then Priestley’s next assessment becomes even more pertinent. “With her trade leaving her, her businesses going bankrupt, her mills silent and vacant, her workpeople by the thousand losing their employment, Lancashire needed a plan, a big plan. She still needs it.”

In Priestley’s time, the economic challenges (to Lancashire cotton) came from the far East, specifically from India (a trade boycott on UK cotton to further the independence movement)  the Empire of Japan (new market competition) and technological change (loom automation being exported worldwide). Unfortunately for the world, Germany later in 1933 signed up to Herr Hitler’s plan for national revival, which, a few years on, took everyone’s attention. Arguably, as Scunthorpe shows, a plan in our own land is still needed, one that is realistic about the political situation, the nature of the global market, and that does not run away from the challenges of technological change.

Holy Week

Tues 15th, Wed 16th April, at 7.30pm each day. Compline at St John’s Stoke Row. A short service of prayer to end the day and lead us into Holy Week.

Maundy Thursday, 17th April. 7.30pm. Team Service at St John’s Stoke Row. The communion of the Last Supper begins our Easter worship. Celebrant the Revd Romey Poston

Good Friday 18th April, 10.30am. All age Easter Activities in Checkendon School Hall.  Explore the Easter message in an hour of informal and friendly activities….with hot cross buns too.

Easter Day, 20th April

9.30am. Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Romey Poston

11am. Easter Celebration (with communion) at St Peter and St Paul, Checkendon, with Canon Kevin Davies. Let us rejoice and be glad together!

From the rising of the sun

Which Psalm is this phrase from, and what is the message? I hope you’ve been enjoying the fair spring weather this last week, and are able to join us at one of the coming Easter services around the Team. In the garden the early rhubarb is in full flush, and some already in the freezer. Jam and Chutney recipes are being dusted off. The late flowering narcissi are glorious (see below) bringing happy memories of a certain wedding this time last year. Tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes have all been sown (indoors) and some lettuces have cautiously been put out under plastic. The pampas has had its biennial “firing” which itself perhaps offers an economic model that could be usefully exported; some plants in the garden respond well to being burned to the ground, but they are few and far between. Something giving a lot of joy right now is the pair of pied wagtails who have decided to nest on the roof, under the solar panels. The male is prim and elegant in his black and white, with bobbing tail along the ridge tiles. The female is smaller, with a darker grey colouring, although her gait also follows the family line. She scurries (wobbles?) around the currant bushes first thing in the morning, picking up, and then putting down, pieces of grass or debris, like a bargain hunter at the sales checking the labels for an item of a particular size. Not for her the “early worm”. Just something good enough for her nest. Her attention to detail is also worthy of an economic treatise.

The Psalm is 113, and the message is “Praise God from morning till night”. The Lord is worthy of our praises, which we see not only in the beauty of this world which we do our best to despoil, but principally in the power of resurrection love, bringing life – even in the places where only death is expected. I look forward to seeing you on Easter Day.

Your Rector, Canon Kevin.

Two splendid narcissi voice their praises: a “White Marvel” and a “Lemon Beauty”.