I have blogged in the past about Tsedaqah House and the work young people who join the community are engaged with. The primary focus of the work that community members are engaged with is social justice with a particular emphasis on reflecting and acting on injustice associated with the slave trade and global inequality. As a community member each of us commits to engage in social action and participate in community life. During lock down the way we have engaged in social action and sough social justice has inevitably changed significantly. I have been taking an active role in supporting the Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector by being part of the emergency resilience cell groups. These groups were set up at the beginning of the covid-19 lockdown to work remotely to support the combined efforts of the lead officers in ensuring that medical supplies, food and other emergency provision was delivered to those shielding and the vulnerable. We have worked together to co-ordinate this work – meeting remotely 4-8 times a week. I have been impressed by the compassion and dedication of those involved in these cell groups. The responsibility of the work has been huge but they have borne this burden diligently and with good spirit. As we slowly emerge from lockdown we are seeing a shift in the emphasis from emergency provision to a sustainable ‘resilience ready’ response. This means that the VCFSE sector will need to pick up much of the support currently provided by government via boroughs. The VCFSE sector will need all of our support and prayers as we together find new ways to support the vulnerable and those in particular need. Nelson (seen in the photo above holding a scone baked by my baker husband Mark!) has been supporting Micah Liverpool with packing bags for the foodbank, writing articles and blog posts (see his recent post here) and he is also responsible for curating this website. Jen Williams is working remotely to support the work of Together Liverpool and writing articles about the social action of churches for the Diocese of Liverpool bulletin and website. So, please do pray for our Tsedaqah community – particularly for Nelson and Jen as they discern their future and work for social justice in community life. Also please do pray for the common good that we might all seek it together and see God’s generous love surround all who seek social justice for God’s world. The Together for the Common Good prayer https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/what-you-can-do/pray Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. + Come Holy Spirit. We welcome you here in our midst. Govern our hearts and minds, govern every aspect of our time together. Be in every thought and word; in every intention and motive. Lord, we thank you for those who have been an inspiration to us. Thank you, for calling us through the Gospel to work together, and for each other. We pray for others working for the Common Good and for those who resist it. Bind us together across our traditions and move our heart's desire closer to the heart of your desire for us. Lord, give us the grace do your will, and make our mission a joy. In the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Canon Ellen While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html.
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On July 4th, 1776, a group of British subjects got together in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to sign a document they’d spent many hours debating we know as “The Declaration of Independence.” They were doing something quite radical: employing rational thought to justify their taking up arms against the British crown and declaring themselves independent from its rule. The document they signed reads, “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” The signers had high hopes for the country they were envisioning: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But perhaps now more than ever, this vision of the United States is aspirational at best. Full equality has yet to be realized, yet to be won in the United States, for all who are created equal. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has brought to public attention the inequalities and abuses afforded Black Americans by white supremacy knit into the fabric of the United States. Americans have been systematically and intentionally denied the rights, endowed by their Creator, that are theirs unalienably. There were slaveholders among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, who drafted much of the Declaration, was a famous slaveholder who fathered many children with female slaves. Even George Washington didn’t release his slaves until the death of his wife. (While Washington wasn’t present at the signing, he was General of the Continental Army that was the fighting force behind the Declaration.) The signers of a document that professed the equality of all humanity owned other human beings. And as United States, we’re still coming to terms with the fact that we were built largely by slavery. A great place to start learning about the legacy of slavery in the United States is to participate in the Virtual Pilgrimage for Racial Justice that the Church of the Heavenly Rest, an Episcopal Church in the US, led last week. The first video of the pilgrimage is here: https://www.facebook.com/heavenlyrest/videos/564156074490988/?eid=ARAq495gww0mVCSSrdFutXFOHQ7EnaYlNT8S8_205s295WVvPrPoFevvxA1JfMGo1jFB5Pi8TJ4tpGyR. There’s tons of literature concerning the history of racism in the US, but an accessible introduction is Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, by Karen E. and Barbara J. Fields (It may take some hunting to find this book, but a good place to start is here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1645-racecraft. Or, try Amazon in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Racecraft-Soul-Inequality-American-Life-ebook/dp/B00G2DO7OO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr or Amazon in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Racecraft-Soul-Inequality-American-Life/dp/1781683131. The Diocese of Liverpool has been paving the way in acknowledging the slavery-ridden past of the city and the church. To learn more, visit the Triangle of Hope website: https://thetriangleofhope.com/, the Tsedaqah Community website: https://thetriangleofhope.com/tsedaqah, and order the book, Two Triangles, by Ken Pye and Canon Malcolm Rogers that traces slavery in Liverpool to the present day and begins to look to a future marked by reparation and reconciliation. The link to the book is here: https://www.cathedralshop.com/products/two-triangles-by-ken-pye once the Cathedral shop is open again, or try here: https://www.discover-liverpool.com/publications/books/two-triangles-liverpool-slavery-and-the-church/. I don’t celebrate July Fourth proud of everything the country of which I am a citizen has done in its past. But I will celebrate the holiday in the hope that we will actually inch closer to the dream of equality in the United States within my lifetime and beyond. Nelson Residential Tsedaqah Community Member While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. Two things have struck me in the news this week. The first was the woman from Leicester who on being interviewed felt that Leicester was being picked on because they were going back into lock-down after a second spike with Covid 19. The second piece of news came from Rugby (which of course is not far from Leicester) and the report about what this city council is doing because of the overwhelming amount of rubbish being left in parks and public spaces. These two pieces of news contrasted with a banner I saw at the Albert Dock which said ‘…looking out for each other is what Liverpool does’. This contrast made me reflect on the nature of human beings. We are naturally egotistical and we look after ourselves. We have seen this in action at the start of the pandemic when people were stockpiling pasta and toilet paper. We continue to see it as people rush to beaches in the hot weather and as they leave their rubbish in parks, on the beaches and in our streets. But Liverpool in its statement ‘looking out for each other is what Liverpool does’ is asking us to stop, to think, and to act differently. Just like Jesus asked us to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’ we are being asked to consider others. As I continue to reflect on ‘looking out for each other’ I am reminded of a village called, Eyam in the Derbyshire Peak District, which self-isolated itself during the Plague of 1665 to avoid spreading the disease to neighbouring villages. They sacrificed themselves for 14 months and lost most of the villagers. They are an example of looking out for each other. We in Liverpool have our own examples of people looking out for each other. Kitty Wilkinson known, as the Saint of the Slums, during the 1832 Liverpool cholera epidemic offered her boiler to others so that could wash their infected clothes. There are many more examples of people ‘looking out for each other’ during the past few months so let us not give in to our natural instinct of looking out for ourselves. Let us take our rubbish home and, if we are asked to go into a second lock-down, let us do it graciously knowing that we are saving others by doing so. Jesus said: ‘Love Your Neighbour as Yourself.’ Dean Sue While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. I need to begin with a confession that I have waited over 40 years to get off my chest. In 1977 I was in a small smokey bar in Oxford when Liverpool were playing in the final of the European Cup. The match was being shown live on a small black and white television around which a large number of us were gathered. As far as anyone in the bar knew I was Bob from Liverpool and therefore everyone was very happy for me as Liverpool were winning. Near the end Tommy Smith ( a particular villain amongst Evertonians) crashed in a spectacular header and the pub erupted. I was slapped on the back and drinks appeared from nowhere. In my defence I never actually claimed to support Liverpool but shamefully I accepted the drinks without mentioning that my heart was in fact blue! When I was nine my best friend’s dad had season tickets for Anfield. An illness in the family meant that for a number of months there was a ticket going spare. In those days and at that age going to a match was a really big deal and so I was thrilled to be asked to go along. However after the second game my friend’s father said to me on the way home that unless I started supporting Liverpool he would not take me again. I have often wondered how life would have been if I had taken him up on the ultimatum. Of course even for a nine year old it was completely out of the question and he was as good as his word never asking me again. It’s not that I haven’t tasted the thrill of my team’s success. I went to every home game in the 1969 - 70 season when we won the Championship and gloried in the similar successes in 1984 – 85 (when the European Cup Winners Cup was also won) and 1986 – 87. There have been FA Cup wins and compared to most supporters I should be content with my lot. However there has always been Liverpool in the background waiting to outdo and surpass any success that my team might achieve. More Championships (and now Premiership); more FA Cup victories; much more European success; more sensational comebacks; more triumphant bus journeys through town. For what it is worth I offer congratulations once again for this latest achievement. Being an Evertonian may not be easy but I hope it is good for the soul and you never know we are not too far away from next season…………… Canon Bob While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. |
supporting you during these uncertain times AuthorLiverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter. Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God Archives
September 2022
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Prayer for Liverpool
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Liverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter.
Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk |