Letter from Archdeacon of Worcester

We live in tumultuouspolitical times, so much so that many people are literally switching off fromTV and radio news. It does indeed seem that megaphone diplomacy, which, ofcourse, is no diplomacy at all, is playing a bigger part in our publicdiscourse. We must not have a false sense that history automatically getsbetter as we learn to live better, when it is clear that human sinfulness canmess things up just as effectively today as it ever did.

So as Christians wemust not be nave about progress, but nor must we despair or give up hopeeither. We have a Gospel to proclaim and it is Good News. Our calling as Churchin every generation is to be a community of hope, and if you look at the worldin which Jesus lived, it was clearly as chaotic and seemingly hopeless as ourstoday. We must be realistic and yet bearers of hope.

What concerns me abouttodays politics is the poverty of our political discourse and conversation.Whatever else populism might or might not be, the language it uses isdesigned for newspaper headlines or media news feeds. It tries to give simpleanswers to complex questions. It feeds peoples sense of unfairness. Itrequires an enemy and puts people down. It does not have any nuances, allow forcompromise or considered thought. Twentieth-century history shows us where itcan lead.

This is simply notgood enough as a way of doing politics, or building a stable world order andcountry, nor indeed of running a church. Whenever we are tempted to caricaturesomeone elses belief and way of living out the faith, we need to checkourselves and remember wise words from the letter of James in the NewTestament: you must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick tolisten, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce Godsrighteousness.

Being quick to listen what might that look like in our public life?

Archdeacon Robert Jones