Linguistic Slack

What word can we use today?

15 men from Preston Plucknett, at the time a village of just a few hundred, died in the first world war. 232 men and women from Yeovil died in the 2 wars combined. And that is a drop in the ocean compared to the (literally) countless millions who died across the globe. We simply don't know, it could be 100 million, a few million more, or a few million less.

How do we describe that? Many vicars and service leaders today will be turning to poetry, and all of us will be turning to silence.

Language tends to get hyper-inflated during an election campaign. Add that to our growing culture  of conversing in feelings and interpretations (usually highly personal ones), and that's a toxic brew for anyone who values meaning.

In his TED talk 'How to speak so that other people will want to listen', Julian Treasure asks 'Exaggeration: it demeans our language - if I see something that really is awesome, what do I call it?' A few years earlier, Jesus put it this way: "Let your yes be yes, and let your no be no, anything beyond this comes from the evil one". Embroidering our language, exaggerating for effect, ultimately renders language useless. God is a communicating God, his first act is to speak creation into being, and part of being in God's image is the ability to communicate. Without truthful, clear language, communication, and ultimately relationships, are impossible.

Remembrance Sunday reminds us of lots of things. Maybe it reminds us too to leave ourselves some linguistic slack. Whatever we are tweeting our response to, whatever x or y is supposed to have said or done which cuts across our interests or personal space, it is minor compared to 100 million deaths. We cannot use the same language about it, or its perpetrators. For example, you aren't a fascist or a Stalinist, you're just someone who thinks the state should be slightly less, or slightly more, involved in taxation and spending.

Lets rediscover adjectives which de-escalate strife, rather than those which amplify it. The Great British Understatement deserves a comeback, because there are only a few things which are truly worthy of our most extreme language, and fewer still to which the only true response is silence.

Remembrance 2016

 The Royal British Legion creates a video every year for Remembrance Day, here's the 2016 one. We will remember them.

'Break the Cycle' - Doctor Who's sermon on Matthew 6 and the Iraq war.

Doctor Who usually peaks around Remembrance Day. This year is no exception, the following dialogue from Saturdays episode (starts from about 32 mins in, full section from 30m 22s). It's a cracking script & dialogue, covering war, forgiveness, repentance, Iraq, pride, sin, you name it. The Doctor is in blue, 'Zygella' the adversary in red, trying to justify her actions... 

It’s not fair

Oh it’s not fair, oh I didn’t realise that, it’s not fair! You know what? My TARDIS doesn’t work properly and I don’t have my own personal tailor.

The things don’t equate

These things have happened Zygella, they are facts. You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. You’re not superior to people who were cruel to you, you’re just a whole bunch of new cruel people. A whole bunch of new cruel people, who’ll be cruel to some other people, who’ll end up being cruel to you. The only way anyone can live in peace is if they’re prepared to forgive...why don’t you break the cycle.

Why should we?

What is it that you actually want?

War

Ah, right! And when this war is over, when you have a homeland free from humans (insert own personal enemies here) what do you think it’s going to be like? You know, have you thought about it, have you given it any consideration? Because you’re very close to getting what you want. What’s it going to be like? Paint me a picture. Are you going to live in houses, are people going to work, will there be holidays? Oh, will there be music? Do you think people will be allowed to play violins? who’s going to make the violins? Well? Oh, You don’t actually know do you? Because like every other tantrumming child in history, Bonnie, you don’t actually know what you want.  

So let me ask you a question about this brave new world of yours. When you’ve killed all the bad guys, and when its all perfect and just an fair, when you have finally got It exactly the way you want it, what are you going to do with the people like you, the troublemakers. How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one.

We’ll win

Oh will you? Well maybe… maybe you will win. But nobody wins for long, the wheel just keeps on turning, so come on, break the cycle.

… when you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who’s going to die. You don’t know whose children are going to scream and burn! How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered. How much blood will be spilt before everyone has to do what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning – sit down and talk! … listen to me, listen, I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It's just a fancy word for changing your mind.

I will not change my mind

Then you will die stupid. Alternatively, you could step away..

..No, I’m not stopping this Doctor..do you think they’ll let me go after what I’ve done

You’re all the same you screaming kids, you know that? 'Look at me, I’m unforgiveable', well here’s the unforeseeable – I forgive you. After all you’ve done. I forgive you. 

Remember

Remembrance Video Clips

2 good video clips for use this weekend, the first from ReelWorship, simple and powerful:



the second is U2's Peace on Earth, as used in the Lincoln U2charist last year

Remember

2 Minutes Silence Video for Remembrance Day

This was produced for last year, but it's very simple and very effective. Planning to use it at 11am on 11.11.11 at Yeovil College, and again on Sunday 13th.

Teenagers and the 2 Minutes Silence

Young people today......

In a survey of over 1,000 adults conducted by ComRes, 93% of 18-24 year-olds said that when at school they had observed two minutes' silence on Remembrance Day, compared with only 73% of 45-55 year-olds. Eighty-six per cent of 18-24 year-olds said that they believed more should be done to encourage people to observe the two minutes' silence, compared with only 72% of 45-55 year-olds.

The poll was undertaken to explore public attitudes towards corporate acts of remembrance and grief. It found that 82% of Britons observed one or two minutes' silence on 11 November 2009. Sixty-three per cent watched the service at the Cenotaph on television or listened to it on the radio on Remembrance Sunday. Twenty-two per cent attended a church service. Ninety-six per cent said that they believed it was important to have a special day for everyone together in Britain to remember those who have died in war.

I helped out with an 11th Nov service in Yeovil College canteen, and it was packed. 200-300 students there, plus a healthy turnout from the staff. This doesn't surprise me, and is a shot across the bows of anyone who doubts the spiritual seriousness of younger people. It may look different, but it's there.

full report here.

Remembrance Day Dilemma

A tweet on Saturday night got me wondering. "This is beyond hideous. Am now trying to produce order of service which will square circles of traditional expectations & youthful boredom."

1. the Remembrance Service is a standard part of the church's year, and it's expected on the 2nd Sunday of November every year. It has standard elements: wreath laying at the local war memorial, certain hymns, involvement of uniformed organisations and the Royal British Legion etc. It's a right and proper part of what we do, to remember the dead and their sacrifice, and to give thanks.

2. But: those who come from the uniformed organisations are met with church at its most traditional - solemn processions, organ music, a format which it's difficult to do much with if you want to be creative or child/youth-friendly. At the same time it's a big day for some of them: being in the flag party for a big civic event is quite something for a 13 year old.

3. Result - if Remembrance Day is one of the few bits of exposure to the church which those youngsters get, then it may leave them with a skewed view of the church, one rooted in a culture several generations adrift from their own. So preserving the traditions in the present may be turning people off in the long term.

4. At the same time, young people are keenly aware of issues of war and peace, and in this part of the world there are many with Forces connections. We had a short Remembrance ceremony at Yeovil College last year, and (without any great publicity) roughly 100 students were present to remember, and reflect. We used war poetry, some video clips, a bit of U2, and a prayer. It's been even higher profile this year, so there could be quite a crowd on Weds morning. Using 'Fortunate Sons' by the Lost Dogs (a war lament by a rock group) with war images on powerpoint, the poem 'Flanders Fields', the traditional 'we will remember them' response, and a couple of short prayers.

5. Is it possible to reinvent Remembrance Day, or does it have to remain forever bound to 'I Vow to Thee My Country' (a sub-Christian hymn, unless you substitute the word 'Saviour' for 'Country', but then it isn't a bit of patriotic music anymore) and 'they shall not grow old'. 'We that are left' have grown old, and most have died, so that particular poem is drifting so far from its historical moorings that it's no longer a lament for lost comrades. There are new poems to be written for Iraq and Afghanistan. How much can we tinker with the formula without upsetting people for whom the very familiarity is a key part of the event itself?

6. Our situation is unusual: the 2nd Sunday of most months sees a traditional service at the church, and a 'Cafe Service' in the local community centre. At the cafe service on Sunday we kept a minutes silence, got the children making poppies, and thought about a wider theme of 'arguments' - what causes them, and what the Bible says about them. Because it's always the 2nd Sunday of November, there's always a link to Remembrance, and we recognise that it's Remembrance Sunday. At the same time that's only part of what goes on in the service, rather than taking it over completely. As a result there's a choice for worshippers, and on Sunday morning we had a number of families present who, had it been a traditional Remembrance service, may well not have come at all.

7. Is there more flexibility outside the church? Many will remember on the 11th itself, not on Remembrance Sunday. Local supermarkets will announce it over the tannoy. Factories stop. There may be a chance for someone to offer a brief 'thought', or a prayer, or something which makes it more than just silence. Ritual is one of the few things which people still expect the church to do well, and this is one where we can help wider society mark it meaningfully.

another way of joining the dots here: 'Black Swan Song' by Athelete

Remembrance Day

Powerful meditation on Remembrance Day at Diamond Geezer, and thought provoking article on how the church should approach it by Jonathan Bartley, HT for both to the CT blog.

Unfortunately the politicians have been too busy scrambling over one another this morning to trump each others tax cut plans. Just stop for a minute and thank God you're in a free democracy.

Popped in to Yeovil College this morning to lead a short act of Remembrance. I was expecting a couple of dozen students in the refectory, caught by surprise over their coffee. Instead the place was packed, well over 100 there, and several staff, one of whom offered to read 'they shall not grow old'.