Churches Weekly Newsletter, 11 September 2022
The Leeds Diocesan Clergy Conference took place this week at Liverpool Hope University. This was the first gathering of all Leeds clergy in six years; we were accommodated in student rooms on the Hope Park Campus. Contributiors included The Archbishop of York Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, historian Tom Holland, hymn writer, liturgist and broadcaster Revd John Bell, journalist Samira Ahmed and broadcaster and social entrepreneur Ngunan Adamu. Their varied presentations were each remarkable in their own way and each added a good deal to the overriding theme – one of hope.
The narrative of hope spills out from our scriptures, not least The Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise to a God who turns around the expectations of all society’s lowly outsiders in the truest act of levelling-up imaginable. The Archbishop based his talk on this text (Luke 1:44-56) and over the course of the conference it re-emerged in various forms in our worship and in discussions with other guest speakers.
One of these was Ngunan Adamu, a remarkable ‘Nigerian Scouser’ who, following the promptings of the divine spirit has overcome many societal barriers to become a successful radio presenter and producer and an award winning entrepreneur as founder of the iWoman Academy, which uses radio training to empower and build confidence in women.
Another, quite different, speaker was the historian Tom Holland, whose epic 2019 book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind makes the strong case that “Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence the single most transformative development in Western history; that Christianity's enduring impact upon the West can be seen in the emergence of much that has traditionally been cast as its nemesis: in science, in secularism, and even in atheism.” For an agnostic Holland is an astonishingly enthusiastic evangelist for the Christian faith and he encouraged his clergy audience to celebrate the wonderful strangeness of Christianity and the many positive effects it continues to have as its influence plays out in the life of the world.
Through these rich exchanges and many others we were left convinced that despite the pressures to consume and conform, hope is present in the lives of so many faithful people, and that, to paraphrase Archbishop Stephen, God couldn't be more bored by our society’s empty rituals or glowing self assessments; rather His joy is in creating a new community, a new humanity who see ourselves as God sees us: valued and loved, and full of hope.
On arriving home from the conference the news emerged of the death of Queen Elizabeth II; news which provokes great sadness at the loss of one whose steadying, uniting, caring presence has enriched all our lives. But with all the subsequent reflections on Her late Majesty's life and character, the theme of hope continued: the firm hope of eternal life for Elizabeth with all the saints in the faith she held so dearly; and as King Charles succeeds his mother, hope emerges in that she has clearly prepared him very well for the role of monarch. As we worship God together this weekend and give thanks for Queen Elizabeth's life and pray for King Charles and the Royal Family, we do so holding fast to that hope, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
