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In praise of iTunesU

I am now well on my way through another iTunesU course. This one, on The Hebrew Bible in Judaism and Christianity, given by professor from Harvard is five star excellent. Twenty six filmed one hour lectures that show just the professor but includes the voices of the class with some additional captioning. The extra treasure trove are the lecture notes for the whole of the course with hyperlinks to many of the extra readings.

This is not a course for the feint hearted or those who want an easy life. The lectures are best preceded and succeeded by a close reading of the paper or on line notes.
 Go to iTunesU follow links to Harvard and then to this course.

Overall, I am reminded of the day when universities were thought to be a public good. They still could be.

Homophobic bullying in schools

In my work with younger LGBT people I am saddened by the continuing high levels of emotional and psychological distress they experience - even with increasing degrees of social acceptance and legislative changes. There is still much to do. Last week's Stonewall report on gay men's health reports that 3% of those surveyed had contemplated suicide in last year. My own clinical experience, gained over 30+ years, is that those from religious backgrounds where the religion was taken seriously in the family are more likely to be at risk of emotional distress and psychological illness.

Here we have an anti-bullying in schools video which,whilst being a little schmaltzy, makes the point that there have to be big cultural changes in schools. It comes from Ireland. I wonder if the UK governments would feel able to produce their own versions and what about the many faith schools treatment of their sexual minority young people.

 There has to be a greater degree of support and openness on the part of both staff and students. What do you think?

Sheep and their minders

Readers will know my views on sheep metaphors in the scriptures. They have a value but can be limited Yesterday, I heard a convincing homily where the assumed sheep turned into the shepherd. The homilist turned the tables and spoke of his humility in the face of those to whom he is called to minister. Of the man with a wife who had a dementing condition but chose not to have treatment for his own cancer lest he be unavailable to care for his wife. Of the homilist, when he was a teacher (“a tin pot dictator”), telling off a youngster for missing his homework only to find the child was acting as carer to his sick mother and siblings. Sheep in reality being shepherds.

Being in a wheelchair

There are many adjustments that I have had to make in the last couple of years. One of them is having to use a wheelchair as my mobility is now much reduced. I have become a collector of dropped pavements, or more precisely, the lack of them. Of facilities that claim to be disabled friendly and are not. Of the still large number of places, like restaurants, out of bounds unless elaborate arrangements are made in advance. I am grateful to various departments of he city council who actually do listen to comments – for instance the problem with tree roots pushing up pavements and making my wheelchair journeys quite hazardous – and without fuss something done to smooth the my progress and that of many others with poor mobility; of high levels of disabled person support for example at Leicester Station or at the Tigers; of the sheer ease of arriving at John Lewis’ car park, getting across the glass bridge and into John Lewis’ shop itself – complete with its flat floors that are wheel chair friendly.

One of the unexpected adjustments, however, is becoming invisible, or as good as invisible. An incident: I had been away and arrived back on Eurostar at St Pancras. The crowds getting off the train were anxious to be on their way. The concourse was very busy, it was a Friday night, a man on his mobile phone walked straight into me, stood on my foot, the wheel chair paddle cracked, I yelped, He shouted out, “Never saw you mate” and was gone. Immediately, I was surrounded by a crowd of fellow travellers anxious to help. I was in tears not so much at the man, though I could have given some words of advice, but at the kindness of strangers. Although the wheelchair was repaired, it has never been the same since. Nor have I. Now I am much more wary of my relative invisibility. I have become much more willing to anticipate being not seen. I suppose I have become much more assertive at announcing my presence. Some would think this a form of  unnecessary militancy. The idea of the grateful disabled person is sort of nice, but the sound of angry one is decidedly not so nice– but I have come to see it is necessary.

It’s the small things that make so much of life harder – and easier.

Rome goes for US sisters

The news that Rome is very unhappy with religious sisters (not nuns, please) in the USA is no surprise. What is surprising is the venom barely hidden in the attack. I think the boys in black may live to regret this move. Anyone with any nouse at all knows that the objects of their wrath are held in great respect and admiration by most Catholics - lay and ordained. The sisters are the ones who not only do the donkey, and often dirty, work but they have a no-nonsense approach to the world and to the silly men in black which is grounded in common sense.

Gone, long ago, are the dragons of my childhood. The sisters of today are tough women, not demanding the best seats in the house, who get on with their charism whatever it is. The silly men in black in Rome and their apparatchiks do not wipe that many bottoms I imagine and until they do they should sit back and let sister get on with the real work of Jesus.

I imagine that the silly men in black will be arriving in the UK soon. God help them.

Spitizer says sorry

http://www.truthwinsout.org/news/2012/04/24542/ Dr. Robert Spitzer Apologizes to Gay Community for Infamous ‘Ex-Gay’ Study Posted April 25th, 2012 by John M. Becker Today, in a letter to Dr. Ken Zucker obtained exclusively by Truth Wins Out, Dr. Robert Spitzer made an unprecedented apology to the gay community — and victims of reparative therapy in particular — for his infamous, now-repudiated 2001 study that claimed some “highly motivated” homosexuals could go from gay to straight: Several months ago I told you that because of my revised view of my 2001 study of reparative therapy changing sexual orientation, I was considering writing something that would acknowledge that I now judged the major critiques of the study as largely correct. After discussing my revised view of the study with Gabriel Arana, a reporter for American Prospect, and with Malcolm Ritter, an Associated Press science writer, I decided that I had to make public my current thinking about the study. Here it is. Basic Research Question. From the beginning it was: “can some version of reparative therapy enable individuals to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual?” Realizing that the study design made it impossible to answer this question, I suggested that the study could be viewed as answering the question, “how do individuals undergoing reparative therapy describe changes in sexual orientation?” – a not very interesting question. The Fatal Flaw in the Study – There was no way to judge the credibility of subject reports of change in sexual orientation. I offered several (unconvincing) reasons why it was reasonable to assume that the subject’s reports of change were credible and not self-deception or outright lying. But the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject’s accounts of change were valid. I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals. Robert Spitzer. M.D. Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Zucker, to whom Spitzer’s letter is addressed, is the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the journal in which Spitzer’s study was originally published in 2001. At that time, the study was a surprise that created a media firestorm which captured the nation’s attention. Dr. Spitzer was the last person in America one would have expected to produce a study bolstering the claims of ‘ex-gay’ activists — after all, he had previously led the charge in 1972-73 to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association. Earlier this month, Dr. Spitzer dealt “ex-gay” programs a fatal blow by officially renouncing his study in the American Prospect article he mentions in his letter above. That renunciation kicked out the final leg from the stool on which the proponents of ‘ex-gay’ therapy based their already shaky claims of success, or as Arana put it, removed from the ex-gay “fringe movement. . . its only shred of scientific support.” Dr. Spitzer’s apology to the victims of “pray away the gay” therapy and the greater LGBT community marks a watershed moment in the fight against the “ex-gay” myth. We commend him for it, because not only will it solidify his legacy as a respected doctor and significant historical figure, but it will help to greatly hasten the day when the scourge that is reparative therapy is eradicated forever and LGBT people can live openly, honestly, and true to themselves. -- Jack Drescher, MD President Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry

Stonewall research confirms my clinical intuitions....

Working with a primary focus on gay men this survey opens minds...Mental health In the last year, three per cent of gay men and five per cent of bisexual men have attempted to take their own life. Just 0.4 per cent of men in general attempted to take their own life in the same period One in sixteen (six per cent) gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life in the last year. Less than one per cent of men in general aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life in the same period One in fourteen gay and bisexual men deliberately harmed themselves in the last year compared to just 1 in 33 men in general who have ever harmed themselves One in six (15 per cent) gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 24 have harmed themselves in the last year compared to seven per cent of men in general aged 16 to 24 who have ever deliberately harmed themselves

Home Office consultation on civil marriage

For those who have not yet seen or completed the Home Office consultation on civil marriage here is a link http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/equal-civil-marriage/
Please send it to others who might want to fill it in. I hear that 300,000 have signed the petition against it.

The Sixteen in Leicester

The return of the wonderfully disciplined travelling choir from The Sixteeen, under the direction of Harry Christophers. They are on tour travelling with religious music of the early modern period often linked with the new spirituality that became prevalent in what we now call the spanish netherlands. Josquin, Bommel and Lassus.

It will seem ungracious but it was difficult to share the enthusiasms for the works when they were not given much of a history by way of explanation. The programme notes were interesting, in that thy covered the ground, but in way that did not shed much understanding (to me anywhere) on the music as music

If only Harry Christophers had been able to spend two or three minutes speaking about and illustrating  what was coming next and how it linked to what had gone before.

The audience loved the sound but I was uncertain how much they understood of the context of the music - or in fact cared about it. For me, the most satisfactory part of the evening - apart from the sociability and the glass of wine - was the men of the choir singing the monody in the alternate versus of the two versions of the magnificat. The rest of the evening left me thinking about how necessary was the reform of music for the liturgy  at the reformation. The Council of Trent does not feature well in my circles but in this matter its insistence on simple, note for word, music was important even if it did not get adopted all that well.

Pink

I am starting work on a paper on the colour pink. This follows the one on yellow that I gave at the Association of Art Historians at their Warwick University conference last year. It awaits being turned into a chapter  of a book mapping the symposium of which it was a part.  This next effort, more precisely, on psychodynamic understandings of pink is full of challenge. I would be interested in blog followers letting me have an idea of their understandings of pink. Why is it such a dangerous colour for many men and yet attractive to others in a risky way? Why are men considered brave if they wear pink shirts or pullovers? Is it just because of a link with homosexuality? Why do you think pink is linked to homosexuality? How culturally specific are these pink links?

If you could take a moment to give me your thoughts on pink I would be most grateful and gladly note your contribution if it gets to print.

The Proms

What a feast? Offers of carer help welcome.

On travelling alone by train for the first time in almost a year

Today, I managed to travel to and from London by train, alone, and this feels like a personal achievement that my supporters will enjoy sharing with me. The only strangeness was the ordinariness of the day. After so much time in hospital then living a very secluded life being out in the hurly-burly of life was challenging but fine.

One or two things did strike me: how little changes with some train staff, mainly men on-board staff, who can create such a negative atmosphere so quickly it is almost a gift. The staff of East Midlands Trains at Leicester were excellent but those at St Pancras are unbelievable: scruffy, borderline rude, determined to speak a version of English which puts off not only foreigners but even the locals. The lack of communication and cooperation with the St Pancras staff is hard to understand. The St Pancras staff also need some beefing up. Today's arrival woman was simply not up to the task. It really is not good enough for a disabled person who has asked for arrival help, on being helped down to the platform, then has to feel bad about asking for a push for the length of a Eurostar train. I thought the expectation was that if you arrived on the EMT platforms and were heading to the Eurostar entrance you would be helped down there.

 The departure woman was marginally more skilful. I was still put on an empty train 45 minutes before its departure and could not see anyone else. She said she wanted me on board before she went off duty, so I was grateful for her thoughtfulness there.

Why does it have to be like this? All I had to do was move a few hundred metres from the EMT arrivals disaster area and go into Carluccio's where such a different atmosphere exists - largely created by the large number of Italian staff. The contrast with EMT and St Pan staff is marked.

St Pancras itself is starting to look shabby already. The nadir today was the lavatories on the man concourse. They are down a slight incline. The incline stops the door of the disabled wc being fully opened. The state of the facility was disgusting. I asked a person who seemed to be on duty to do something about it. He came back with a mop and tided things up somewhat. Later, I noticed the whole facility had been closed. I will spare readers detailed photographs of the evidence.

It looks as if St Pancras needs a good reviewing as to its facilities. As with airports, the shopping experience seems to have overtaken more basic needs - such as the lavatories.

Finally, the EMT staff at Leicester station seem to be working hard to make the passenger experience as good as it can be amidst the extensive work that is going on. I look forward to the new station.

You are living stones

I gather from Fr John Daly ic that over 70 people attended the YALS group sessions held at St Joseph's last Tuesday throughout the day. What a good idea to have three opportunities for people to give their views, listen to other people and BE TOGETHER? I understand that morale was high and people expressed great pleasure at being able to meet others. We need to think more deeply about this. In the New Testament the word Koinonia is often used. This is sometimes translated as fellowship and many of our Christian brothers and sisters use it very easily. Catholics less so. I think this is a pity as koinonia is precisely what many of us want/need. I often hear myself say, "But we are the Church" in an attempt to challenge us all to remember that The Church is more, much more, than the pope, bishop and priests. We are (all) Church. Events like the YALS day can be important vehicles for being together, taking responsibility as adults and getting on with building the Kingdom (as we say in the Pater Noster, Our Father....)

The next step is to keep up the momentum, deepen the koinonia/fellowship, and enjoy the process...

You can read the paper work on YALS here:
http://www.ndcys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/YALS.pdf

One personal project I would like to push forward is to make audio/visual record of parishioners talking about "What the parish means to me..." The idea for this came to me some months back during communion at mass one Sunday. A family, I think newly arrived from another country, were together at the sanctuary. A tiny baby was lying over his/her mother's shoulder fast asleep. The man and the other children stood receiving communion around the mother/new baby. It was profoundly moving. Quiet, wordless music enveloped the congregation at communion. I thought then, what is the story here? who are these people? from where do they come? How can I get to know them and hear their story?

An idea came to me to make this audio/visual record that would be record of where we are as a parish in 2012. There are so many important things going on in the parish which reflects not just suburban Leicester but a vibrant world of many colours, ethnicities, cultures, patterns of living, coming together each weekend to celebrate the great thanksgiving, the eucharist, the mass.

If you want to support this project either by being interviewed, being photographed or simply with your good will that would be lovely. Your encouragement is needed. 07912 359 559 gets a warm response.

A friend writes.....

My Dear Bernard,

First a 'big thank you for having 'Pange Lingua' on your web. Really cheered me. Please find three important attachments from today's "Observer."

Just a personal experience on arriving in Britain. In the former British Colonies, the contact we have with the English is through the Civil Servants who worked and of the Europeans through the Missionary Priests in predominantly Catholic areas like we come from.

Hence, we have this pre-conceived idea that all English are well read in their literature, politics, etc, etc. As for we colonials, we have read all most all the English Classics from Dickens to Hardy, Shakespeare to Brontes. In Colombo and major cities and in the Catholic suburbs, most state assisted schools were run by Religious Orders, mainly OMI, SJ, OSB. Hence, there was upper and lower middle-class and skilled blue-collar workers children fluent in English and well read.

When products of these societies arrive in England, they have this belief that they are coming to a 'Mother Country' and they will be accepted as part of that family. At the start it is difficult to distinguish between naked racism and subtle racism. We have the advantage of being able to navigate confidently between two cultures and two languages, at the drop of a hat. We are confused, as to why the host community look at us in a different way. Why are you not accepting us as part of or an extension of your society? After all, it was Macauly who said when he designed the education system for the colonials: "we want Indians in colour but British in values and aspirations."

This how the conflict starts. On arrival, we do not meet Ratigans, Bowmans, Wisharts and Clarks. Our first experience is in the shop, in public transport, in the Church. It is later we learn and adjust ourselves to face real life in the mother country. In the Church they look at you in a strange way because you are able to recite the Sanctus, Angus, Gloria and Credo without any problems. How can he or she do that? They are not white.

I thought, these views will help you to do your project with a better understanding.

All the best,

Love

Shirley

Thine be the glory

Quite the best of tunes

You are living stones

This is a consultation process from Malcolm Bishop of Nottingham on the future shape of the diocese. It is a good opportunity to think deeply about structures and processes, authority and responsibilities in the church. Perhaps we can move on from sheep metaphors to more adult models of understanding our relations with each other?

Before we rush to the structures it is important to consider basic values.
How is the local church reflecting the catholicity, diversity if you will, of the area in which it sits? Ethnicity? Gender? Sexualities? How do the outcasts, the lepers, feel about our church? Are they welcome? Are we reaching out to the poor, the sick, the pissed off with us? If not why not? What is the point of change if we just become another version of what we are now? How do we welcome back those who have left because they felt unwanted? We have a massive job with those who walked away. Messages from those who have left to become members of other faith groups report that a major reason was the unfriendliness of Catholic churches. If you think our or your church isntt like that fine. Have you tried asking for people's opinions. Especially black people's experiences.


A number of questions or possibilities come to mind.

What is the optimum size for a parish? Do we need buildings owned or leased by ecclesial units?
Should we move to a parish model where there is an elected committee that run the practical side of things, especially money, plant, employment issues leaving the priest for sacramental work, teaching, counselling and the spiritual development of the parish?
This requires a major shift in lay and clergy mind sets (and Canon Law), training and good will.

Liturgy matters:
I prefer one mass per Sunday, and an end to two evening masses at weekends (both Saturday and Sunday), for most parishes. Surely we can devise a liturgy where all can feel welcomed. Do we really have to provide masses for half empty churches? Once Sunday morning is over surely our priests deserve some time off. Sunday second vespers is a fine parish service but does not need a priest. Is it possible to have early morning celebrations of mass during the week sometimes rather than at 10am?

More training for church musicians to animate Sunday masses and Triduum liturgies.

A total rethink of school policy Is needed with much thought being given to shifting resources to adult Christian education and training. Catholic schools are not necessarily the best way of educating Catholic children. I would like to see the evidence that they 'work'.

Greater use of Internet for adult Catholic education. See www.ktotv.com for French examples available 24/7, much use of liturgy from Notre Dame de Paris and Community of Jerusalem. A UK version of it could make more of the liturgy from Westminster Cathedral, Blackfriars Oxford, the great Benedictine monastic schools and links from the liturgies in Rome.

Need for lay ministers for baptisms funerals and marriages. If no mass is required then no priest required. Laity need training for these roles but well tried models are available in Methodist local preachers and Anglican lay readers. The wheel is already invented. If we are going to have first class expensive musical liturgies at e.g. Westminster why are they not streamed to the TV and internet? In terms of spreading the good news we have much to learn. We also need to balance this 'high' liturgy with liturgy that is much more popular (if hated by the musical snobs amongst us) and represents streams such as the Charismatics. We remember from where the word 'liturgy' comes.

There is a need to think plan and act now.

Low Sunday

thomas is a favourite of mine.

Is there a cure for homosexuality?

This is a very interesting question. it implies that homosexuality is an illness. You think it is you will want a cure, I presume. I have read much of the literature claiming treatment for homosexuality and my judgement is that it is deeply flawed and dangerous. If you want a flavour read Nicolosi's works. Some of it is embarrassingly shallow.