Showing posts with label equality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equality. Show all posts

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Gender and Leadership

With the naming of Rev Libby Lane as the first woman bishop in the Church of England I thought I would share this article on gender and leadership which appears in the latest issue of "The Unitarian" (December 2014).

Listening and talking to those from other Churches and indeed other faith groups can be illuminating. What we in our Unitarian and Free Christian community now take for granted is still contested in other churches. The whole issue of gender and leadership remains controversial.

The Church of England has finally approved the ordination of women as bishops having celebrated the 20th anniversary of women in the priesthood. 2014 also marked the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women by the Methodist Church.  The United Reformed Church will commemorate the 100th anniversary in 2017 of women ministers within the Congregational churches. Pope Francis stated this year that “women must have a greater presence in the decision-making areas” of the Roman Catholic Church.

I heard Kate Coleman speak at a conference I helped organize for MODEM on “Emerging Themes in Leadership” on “Gender, Leadership and the Church”. She said that it grieved her to have to say on so many situations that she is the first women in a leadership role. She is a Baptist minister and first woman chair of the Council of the Evangelical Alliance and former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. She emphasised the power of personal history in shaping our perspectives; not least that she once belonged to a Church that did not believe in women in leadership positions.
In many ways Unitarians have much to be proud of. Gertrude von Petzold was in 1904 admitted into our ministry at Narborough Road Free Christian (Unitarian) Church, Leicester, the first woman to have full ministerial status in any British Denomination. Mrs Sydney Martineau was President of the General Assembly in 1929-30. Women have comprised increasing numbers of ministers and GA Presidents (seven of the last 15).

We would undoubtedly find offensive the conservative theological justifications for discrimination – either that women are inferior and incapable of leadership (Traditional view) or that they are equal but should not lead in the home or church (Complementarian view). We would surely advocate an Egalitarian approach that Kate outlined as the third view; that women are equal in being and in leadership.

However, we should not rest on our laurels. A look at the Roll of Presidents in the Annual Report will reveal few women Presidents in the first column and that equality took a long time to come. Women ministers for so long did not receive calls to the “plum” ministries. We have not had a woman General Secretary/Chief Officer. So whilst we have come further than others on the journey to equality and made lots of progress in recent years we still need to be careful about the assumptions we make about appropriate roles and positions.

We are influenced more than we think by wider society and we should pay attention to the conclusions of the Everyday Sexism project ( http://everydaysexism.com/) that sexism does exist, it is faced by women every day and is a valid problem to discuss. Yes, even in Church.

Kate highlighted that “Great leaders don’t just appear, they are crafted over time” (Reggie McNeal) and urged provision of systematic training for women. Elizabeth Welch, former Moderator of the URC, observed the paradox that “those in power think themselves powerless; yet those who feel powerless think those in power have too much”. Males and females need to take note as gender is not only an issue for women. A good start would be to make sure we reflect on this in all our decision-making and in the design of GA leadership programmes.

Friday, 28 March 2014

Celebrating Same Sex Marriage in England and Wales

Just come back from a press conference arranged by the Cutting Edge Consortium (CEC) to celebrate the introduction of same sex marriage in England and Wales on 29 March 2014.

I am on the far left and great to meet again Rabbi Danny Rich (Liberal Judaism), Paul Parker (Quakers), Rabbi Laura Janner Klausner (Movement for Reform Judaism), Rev Sharron Ferguson (MCC and LGCM), Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham and Maria Exall (CEC).

Whilst lots of joy it must be tempered with knowledge that there is much more to be done. The press conference soon focused on the Church of England's position; with two retired Bishops also commenting.

Look out for an article which I was asked to do appearing in tomorrow's Pink News.

Friday, 11 January 2013

Faith and Finance

I was intrigued last evening to attend a panel discussion with the title "What Can Faith and Finance Learn from Each Other" arranged by the Faiths Forum for London, Council of Christians and Jews and PwC, in whose stunning premises we met on the London's Riverside.

There was an impressive panel assembled;

  • Alpesh Patel, Principal, Praefinium partners, author and broadcaster
  • Revd Charles Hodson, Church of England and freelance business TV anchor
  • Lord Fink, CEO, ISAM and former CEO of Man Group
  • Tarek el-Diwany, partner of Zest Advisory, author on Islamic finance
The panel addressed not only what finance could learn from faith but also the converse, drawing upon their experience of the world of business.

I was struck by the statement made by PwC's premises; a new gleaming glass tower with a wonderful atrium. This was the wealth generated by the private sector in the midst of growing inequality in London. It was pleasing that the London Living Wage was highlighted when Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Business and Finance, replied to the panel. Corporate social responsibility is in vogue but must mean much more than being willing to host community and faith groups, valuable as this is. 

Points which struck me:
  • the importance of trust in the City and in life; sadly missing in the "Banking Crisis" 
  • be good at your job and do your duty and the fruits will follow
  • be brave in the face of others in standing up for what is right
  • significance of positive and negative role models to personal development 
  • it is not creating wealth and maximising profits that matter according to Abrahamic faiths but what you do with it, which however, contrasted with view of the Dharmic faiths that we need to free from wealth and desire
In terms of what faith can learn from finance just think about capitalism's single minded focus on profit and then what faith groups are about? It was also emphasised that modern finance capitalism in Britain took two hundred years to develop; it was not done overnight, yet overturned perhaps thousands of years of religious teaching, for example against interest and usury. Faith's response needed to be similarly long-term and professional.

It was interesting that members of PcW's five faith networks attended and that the role of faith was recognised so explicitly in the workplace. Yet as one attendee emphasised the former role of workplace industrial chaplain has disappeared within the Churches.

To find out more read the twitter stream on the event hashtag #faithfinance


  

Thursday, 8 March 2012

Accord Coalition Inclusivity Award 2012


Unitarians have a strong concern for inclusive schooling and have been working  with like-minded partners in the Accord Coalition. Accord today named Lammas School and Sports College in Leyton, East London as the winner of this year’s Inclusivity Award.

The Inclusivity Award, open to all schools in England and Wales, recognises and celebrates those schools that do most within the legal framework and community that they find themselves in to promote inclusiveness, the growth of mutual understanding and forge links within and between different communities.

Lammas School won strong praise from the expert panel of judges for its use of inclusive assemblies to forge shared values, the importance assigned to community cohesion, the popularity of its Religious Education, which was the school’s strongest subject at GCSE in 2011, its sensitivity towards the diverse backgrounds of it pupils, who speak over fifty languages and its ability to adapt to the changing cultural and religious profile of its student body

In second place is St George’s Voluntary Aided School, a Christian faith school in Harpenden, Hertfordshire which earned high praise from the judges for its outstanding work in tackling homophobic bullying. The Independent had an article today which focused on the exceptional anti-homophobic bullying work of the second placed St George’s School.

In third place is Crown Hills Community College in Leicester. The College, which is in the top 4% of schools for Oftsed’s Value Added Score, was praised by the judges for its effort to challenge prejudice and the dangers of stereotypes, such as through focusing on conflict in Israeli and Palatine, and for its attempts to broad the horizons of its pupils through a range of external and extra curricula activities.

I was pleased to be invited to be one of the judges for the 2012 Award earlier this year. The others on the panel of judges were:

• Baroness Kishwer Falkner (Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice in the House of Lords)
• Lisa Nandy MP (Labour MP for Wigan and member on the House of Commons Education Select Committee)
• Manzoor Moghal (Founder and Chair of the Muslim Forum)
• Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE (former Chairman of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Minister of the Maidenhead Synagogue)

For more information on the Award and the Accord Coalition




Thursday, 23 February 2012

LGBT History Month: A Unitarian Hero - Dudley Cave


I occasionally come across references in the media to people whom I know were Unitarians. This month it was in BBC History magazine 9, Vol 13, no 2 February 2012) in an article by Stephen Bourne on how, during a rare period of tolerance, homosexuals served with distinction during World War Two. One of those quoted was Dudley Cave, a well known Unitarian who died in 1999.

Dudley Cave was a pioneer for gay rights within the British Unitarian movement and much more widely as well as being an advocate for peace and reconciliation. I recall seeing him on television on one of the early “gay” programmes in the 1990’s. We should remember him in Gay History month.

In the article it explains he was conscripted into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, in 1941, aged 20. “He later recalled a conversation he overhead between two of his comrades. One referred to him as a “nancy boy” while the other protested that Dudley couldn’t be because he was “terribly brave in action”. Dudley understood that in their minds he could not be brave and homosexual, that the two were incompatible”.

It seems that homosexuality was unofficially tolerated in the armed forces for the duration of the war. Dudley reflected “They used us when it suited them, and them victimised us when the country was no longer in danger. I am glad I served but I am angry that military homophobia was allowed to wreck so many lives for over 50 years after we gave our all for a freedom that gay people were denied”.

Cave was posted to the Far East. During the fall of Singapore in 1942, he was captured by the Japanese. Marched north in a prisoner-of-war labour detachment, his unit was put to work on the Thai-Burma railway, 10 miles beyond the bridge on the River Kwai. He ended up in Changi Prison, Singapore where be began to accept his homosexuality. A British army medical officer gave him a copy of Havelock Ellis's "enlightened, eye-opening" 1920 book Sexual Inversion. It made him feel "much better about being gay".

In an article in The Inquirer (19 March 1994) entitled “A Gay Man in a Liberal Congregations”, based on an address to Golders Green Unitarians, he describes the reality of being gay in the 1950s; “Being gay, having a love that dare not speak its name, was disabling. I knew that I was a second-class citizen, perhaps even sub-human; my self-image was very low. I had to conceal my real feelings with every action, every word”. In 1954, Cave was dismissed as manager of the Majestic Cinema in Wembley after it was discovered he was gay. In the same year, Cave met the man who became his life partner, Bernard Williams, an RAF veteran and schoolteacher. They lived and campaigned together for 40 years.

In 1971 he decided to “have another look at the Unitarians” having been previously disappointed with their traditional worship. Things had changed and an “Integroup” was being launched as a “straight-gay integration” society at Golders Green Unitarians with Rev Keith Gilley. Within the denomination he has been described by Rev Dr Ann Peart (1.) as one of the “comparatively few people” active in promoting lesbian and gay rights and of openness and toleration in acceptance of LGBT people for ministerial training and ministry, recognition of same sex blessings in churches and support for homosexual human rights.

As secretary of Golders Green Integroup he was invited on to the launch committee of “London Gay Switchboard”. A gay bereavement support group at the church developed into the Lesbian and Gay Bereavement Project in 1980. This was the first organisation with the word “gay” in its title to win charity status, and not without a struggle. Drawing upon his bereavement skills, he was a consultant to the National Funerals College, which was important as the tide of deaths from AIDS grew. Although shy his ability as a speaker blossomed and he appeared increasingly on the media. He was also prominent as a Unitarian lay preacher and contributed to “Daring to Speak Love’s Name: a gay and lesbian prayer book”.

For 20 years, he battled against the Royal British Legion's refusal to acknowledge that lesbian and gay people served and died in wars defending Britain. He also challenged the Legion over its opposition to the participation of gay organisations in Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Dudley was a leading figure in the promotion of peace and reconciliation with Japan. "I will never forget what the Japanese did to us, but the time has come for forgiveness," he wrote to a friend. He was involved with the Buddhist Peace Temple near the River Kwai, and lectured extensively on the need for rapprochement between former adversaries.

Rev Keith Gilley summed up his life: “He embodied the Unitarian principles of Freedom, Reason and Tolerance, not only with these two issues with which he will always be associated but with so many others – equality in terms of colour, race, sex and in relation to disabled people signified almost as much with him as gay rights and peace issues” (Obituary, The Inquirer, 19 June 1999).

Peter Tatchell wrote of him as “Anti-Fascist, soldier, prisoner of war, advocate of peace and reconciliation, gay rights pioneer, Dudley Cave was above all a Humanitarian” (Obituary, The Independent, 31 May 1999).

A true Unitarian Hero in LGBT History Month

(1.) “Peart, Ann (2003) “Of warmth and love and passion: Unitarians and (homo)sexuality” in “Unitarian Perspectives on Contemporary Social Issues” (Chryssides, George D. (ed)) . Lindsey Press. Available from Unitarian Headquarters. 

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

The 3rd National Conference LGBT LIVES: achieving our equality, challenging faith-based homophobia & transphobia


Faith-based Homophobia and Transphobia unfortunately remains a problem and needs to be challenged.

I am therefore pleased to give my support to the 3rd National Conference organised by The Cutting Edge Consortium which will take place on Saturday 21 April 2012 10am-5pm Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

Speakers will include:

. Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association
. Angela Eagle MP
. Nicholas Holtam Bishop of Salisbury
. Aidan O’Neill QC
. Sarah Veale Trades Union Congress

Workshops include:

• ensuring equal access to health & public services
• ending religious exemptions in employment relating to sexual orientation
• promoting inclusive education
• making schools safe for LGBT young people
• celebrating our relationships
• accepting the right to found a family

Individuals: £10/15 Delegates: £25/50 Corporate: £100

For more details and Conference Registration contact: CEC, PO Box 24632 London E9 6XF.
cuttingedgeconsortium1@googlemail.com

www.cuttingedgeconsortium.co.uk

The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches has given its support to The Cutting Edge Consortium,

The boundary of people of faith and LGBT people is truly at the "cutting edge" and explodes the myth of faith versus LGBT rights. I is therefore important to work with a range of faith and non-faith organisations to achieve equality.

.