A partial diagnosis

Dear friends,

I’ve been trying for a while to get some kind of comprehension of our national condition. What is the matter with us? The symptoms are many and varied, but the overall malaise and sense of unease seems to be all pervading. It is cheap and convenient to list the external global factors, but I am coming to the conclusion that there is a reason that is closer to home, and far more personal. Starting with one of the symptoms, we are, quite simply, exhausted and overburdened with meddlesome regulation. There is just too much law. The result is that, as a people, we are losing our respect for it, and losing our capacity to comprehend it, never mind follow it.

A few simple examples will suffice : Take roads. The arbitrary imposition of a 20mph speed limit has made no difference to the numbers of those who roar through our villages. (I say this as one who walks daily.) Why is this?   And why can the electricity/broadband/water company  arbitrarily close/open/close/open/close/half open the road at a whim? Whether an unenforceable speed restriction, or an unforeseen detour, we chafe at the imposition, and the decline of freedom. Take tax. Then take some more… The Government has a department whose aim is to extract from you what you legally are required to pay. But do you, in all honesty, hand on heart, say that that you actually know what that amount is? Haven’t you heard of the 1984 exemption? Or the pre-tax legitimisation deduction for those born in June? So, you employ a tax accountant, whose task is to stay ahead of these things, who charges you so that you pay less, by claiming more. Take education. One of the reasons budgets are so tight is that most schools now need to employ extra staff – usually at leadership grade – in order to complete the paperwork required by the school inspection processes, and by other statutory agencies. While they are doing this, they are not teaching, or driving any standards anywhere, or making any improvements. What has been achieved is the spectacular creation of a number of exciting new industries; Data Protection, Safeguarding, Special Needs. The result is that children get forgotten, as there are so many other boxes to be ticked, so many forms to complete.

With this over-regulation, the world we try to navigate is becoming overcomplicated, petty and pedantic, and as a result most people either keep their heads down, or pay lip service only. But, and this is the nub, this duality eats away at us. We are (as Jesus noticed of the working people of his day) “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”. So it is no wonder that things are beginning to creak, and systems are failing. It is all for show, and the truth is becoming lost to us. In my reading this week I came across this sentence, which I think very much serves as a warning to us. No, it is not about Germany in the 1930’s, though there are important lessons for us from that history. This is Italy, in 1936, when Mussolini had been in power for fourteen years:

“The accepted difference between what was required and what was performed, between theory and practice, appearance and reality in the whole field (  ) contributed on the one hand to preserve (the people) from complete servility and degradation of spirit, but on the other hand it engendered that scant respect for law, that insufferance of regulations, that lack of social conscience which were and remain grave defects of national character.”

This, from the Italian historians of that period, Salvatorelli and Mira. Their observation rang bells with me; as it seems that we too are wandering, blindly down this road. When we no longer expect our politicians to tell the truth, when we do not believe that our doctor is really in it to help us, when we take it for granted that if we are asked to pay in cash we are being complicit in tax evasion, when we make up lies about ourselves or others on the internet, we too are in danger of embedding this kind of institutional, corporate and personal hypocrisy into our national life.

For me, a light came on this week. We are, as a nation, losing our taste for sincerity.

Sunday 23rd November

9.30am Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Kevin Davies

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Revd James Leach

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

And a treat(ment)

When one is all at sea in a potage of lies, what better than the lifebelt of truth? This is a more recent version of a song we discovered during the Covid years: Andrea Bocelli’s “Lord’s Prayer.” Enjoy the scenery, soak yourself in the music, and let the words of Christ resonate with your spirit.

Advent Sunday this year is on the 30th November, and there are services at all the Team ministry churches. Services for December and Christmas for all our churches are now live on the Team ministry website. Do take a moment to diary these!

Lastly, spare a prayer for staff, pupils and governors at Checkendon School today and tomorrow, as an Ofsted Inspection is underway. In the spirit of my musings above, let us pray that it is of a “light touch”, and helpful.

Thank you all for your support for our churches. Let us walk in the light, as He is in the Light. (1 John 1:5-2:2).

Your Rector, Kevin Davies.