Reader Writes October 2023

There’s a Greek fable that on his way to the cross Jesus stopped beside a woman selling

cups of milk; “decaocto” she demanded (18 drachma), but the Lord had only 17 drachma

and she refused to let him have a drop. So, alas for all of us really, he turned her into a

collared dove condemned to sing its monotonous cry “deca-oct, deca-oct” for ever and

ever. So when we hear the collared dove we can let it remind us of the almost universal

tragedy that mankind has managed to turn everything into a price; money rules us. We’d

like to think that it is only how we use it that matters, but tragically we are in the grip of an

aggressive market system that we know consumes lives, communities and the earth itself.

I suppose the obvious thing to admit is that we are so far into the belly of the beast that we

are incapable of seeing the danger; we submit ruinously to the appetite and destruction of

the liberal market economic system. Water has been in the news a lot this summer; I’m

risking being simplistic but I think it is fair to say that privatised water companies with all

their finance and technical resources have none the less been guilty of egregious pollution

of our rivers and beaches in order to pay executives and share-holders very handsomely

and as a priority. That’s capitalism and liberal market economics; what can you do?!

To cap the litany of destruction and danger is oil and gas extraction. The big oil companies

wring their hands saying that we desperately need secure and affordable energy,

otherwise how can we afford to develop the low-carbon future we know we need. So their

shareholders’ demands trump even climate breakdown; and politics follows business. The

present government is tearing up its carbon commitments because it will win votes.

But it’s wonderful to know that that is not how mankind and human society naturally

behaves and wishes to live. Take our own community of Kington; up and down the High

Street and within almost countless voluntary organisations, people give of their time and

goodwill freely and happily. They are endlessly helpful and generous. Open Arms Kington

is a new community-owned not-for-profit project that has acquired our much loved Oxford

Arms and is developing it into a pub, a venue, a hub, a community home! Let’s support it!

We need lots of funding to get it into good sustainable shape, but this has nothing to do

with profit; only vision and inspiration and open arms.

A church community is just the same; repair and maintenance of a Grade 1 listed building

is part of our responsibility; our reaching out to the community and the welcome we offer is

the same. But especially important for the practicing Christian is that there is nothing

transactional about our spiritual lives; God provides us with his love and assurances

entirely freely. It is by grace. And we offer ourselves also entirely freely. In total contrast to

the heartless submission to prices and profit, Jesus promised us in John’s Gospel that “I

have come that you may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” Jn10:10. That ‘fullness’ is

something for us to take hold of and live out in God’s love.

Robert MacCurrach