The end of the experiment.

Dear friends,

Do you remember where you were on 7/7 ? Twenty years ago yesterday the whole of Checkendon Primary School were on a grand day out. A number of governors and parents were in the party, myself included. The late Mr John Robinson, of Checkendon Court, had very generously arranged for a heritage train ride on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway, down on the south coast. We were to have a whole train to ourselves! As you can imagine, everyone was really excited. A fleet of minibuses collected us bright and early, took us all down to the seaside, and we piled onto the steam train, chuffed along, ate our picnic on the Dungeoness shingle, thrilled at the sea (the sea!) and chuffed back again. It was a wonderful day, full of joy and excitement. A whole train! A whole day! For the whole school!

It wasn’t until we were coming back in our minibuses along the bottom side of the M25 later in the afternoon that we realised that something was very wrong. The overhead gantries all read the same,  ominous message: “ALL LONDON STATIONS CLOSED. TURN ON RADIO.” The driver duly did so, and then we heard very quickly about the bombings in central London. Many people had died. The children in our minibus chattered on excitedly, unaware, but the adults among us sat in grim silence. “That’s the end of multiculturalism, then,” I remember saying to the teacher next to me. We could so easily have gone through London on that day.

There is still, twenty years later, the ridiculous assumption being pedalled that “all cultures are equal.” They are not. Every culture has a different “deck” or set of attributes. Some cultures are cruel to animals, and have little thought for the natural world. Other cultures are defined by control, aggression and authority. Some have little regard for the value of human life, or give higher value to the male. The very idea of “equality” is, for example, only found in Western (Christian) cultures. Democracy is not the same as autocracy (is this where the US is heading?), theocracy (Iran), or kleptocracy (Russia). A culture based on Judaeo-Christian values (this is our heritage) is not the same as one based on Islamic, or Hindu ideas.

The recent votes in the house of Commons to completely decriminalise abortion and to move ahead with euthanasia demonstrate to me that we in our governance at least have unhooked the ship of state from its cultural anchor. We are now adrift. Have the suicide bombers of 7th July 2005 got their wish, I wonder? The mayor of London at the time, Ken Livingstone, not one with whom I would normally have agreed, summed it up well when he said “these people want to put us back a thousand years.”

Worship Services for Sunday 13th July

9.30am Morning Prayer at St John’s Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies.

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

Pray for

George White and Karina Brown, to be married at Checkendon a week Saturday. Give thanks to God for the gifts of life, love, and the hopes that are poured in as couples set up home together. Pray for any families that you know, for God’s blessing on them as the end of the school year approaches.

Give thanks to God for your local school, for pupils, teachers and volunteers. Remember your headteacher and school governing body, and ask God that they may all have courage, resilience, and the physical and emotional resources needed for leadership in these complicated times.

Ask God to be close to those living alone, or “alone in care”. Pray for those who care for neighbours and family members and who freely give of themselves to improve another person’s quality of life.

Lastly, ask God to comfort anyone known to you who has lost a loved one through violence, or sudden death.

May the peace of God, that passes all understanding, be with you.

Your Rector, Kevin Davies

Bonus PS. “The Lord is close to those who are brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Ps 34:18) Sometimes finding a way through grief and loss can take us to difficult places of question and doubt. The death of one of her daughters in the 7th July attacks meant that Julie Nicholson found she could no longer preach about forgiveness. She found it impossible to continue her ministry as a priest, and resigned her orders. The BBC dramatised her story in 2015, and have recently returned the drama to the iPlayer; it is not for the faint hearted, but a good reminder of the reality of that horrible day and its aftermath.