The more important issue, however, is this. Why do rich people give so much money to politicians or political parties? No doubt some do for the same reasons as they give to charities - genuine compassion/belief or publicity - but others, particularly those who try to conceal their identity, because they seek influence. Am I too cynical in suggesting that they are acting - successfully it seems - to preserve their tax privileges?

What could be done about it? As a first step, private schools should lose charitable status and their profits be taxed like any other business. But is there any chance of this or any other government doing this?

1982 Albiger Petersberg
Auslese
Anbaugebiet Rheinhessen

For some reason we didn’t drink it soon after. It was marked “Qualitatswein mit Pradicat”, but what was its real quality? Twenty-five years ago, German wine was out of fashion anyway. It lay on the bottom shelf of the wine storage cabinet for as long as we have had the cabinet. But last night, 23rd January 2007, I opened it – with difficulty: the cork disintegrated. So I strained it through a tea-strainer into a jug and then into a decanter. We drank it with neighbours Beryl and John. It was a honey-golden colour and tasted as it looked, not cloyingly sweet, but smooth, delicate and delicious.

1. Taxes. Taxation is not an unnecessary burden but what we pay for the basic structures of society – health, education, roads, policing, etc – and the means towards a fairer more equitable society. We buy these things just as we buy food and clothing and shelter. And just as we want efficiency in the production of food and clothing and shelter so we want efficiency in the collection and use of taxes. Inheritance Tax is efficient and reduces inequality.

2. Europe. Membership of the EU doesn’t diminish British influence in the world but enhances it. The EU has more clout than any individual country of the 27. The new Treaty (not a constitution) facilitates more positive European contributions to world peace, happiness and prosperity. For example, the European Parliament will be able to demand changes to the CAP and so cut poverty in other continents.

3. Personal Freedoms. These must be protected from erosion in the name of security. Terrorists win if we lose freedoms. Does not the potential misuse of ID cards outweigh potential benefits? Are the police under adequate control? Do religious bigots have too much influence on legislation and public policy?

We were taken on fascinating excursions around the mainly flat countryside, including:
• An excavated pre-Christian Viking graveyard at Lindholm (over the years they switched from bodily burial to cremation but still with interment and then back to bodily burial again) and museum with archaeological finds and models.
• the tip beyond Skagen where the Baltic and the North Sea meet
• the Nordyllands museum of modern art
• and in Aalborg the magnificent Renaissance "stenhus" built by Jens Bangs as a riposte to the exclusive city elders (complete with a gargoyle sticking its tongue out towards their smaller Town Hall).

Some casual impressions: Aalborg still an industrial town with smoking chimneys and new high-tech firms, clean environment, happy and welcoming people, much use of English in street signs (job center, shopping center, takeaway).

A wonderful seven days. Mange tak, Anne Karin and Hans.

This was probably – we're not quite sure – our 16th Festival since 1991. We stayed from Tuesday to Saturday at Linton Farm, just off the A40 near Highnam, about 5 miles northwest of the city. There were remarkably few signs of the floods that deprived the city of running water until the very start of the festival. There were, however, notices warning us not to drink tap water and rely on bottled supplies that were in free abundance at the Festival Club. We saw the now famous bowsers being collected from the streets and there were still plenty of sandbags around house doorways. The superintendent of the Gloucester Chorus (whom we knew from Hereford last year) told us about the determination of everyone when things were at their worst that the Festival would go ahead. Special arrangements were made for rehearsals; for example, portaloos were brought in for the exclusive use of the Hereford and Worcester contingents, while the Cathedral staff used the water from the cloister fountains. In the event only one concert had to be rearranged – from Tewksbury Abbey to Cheltenham Town Hall. It was an enjoyable festival, with plenty of warm sunshine – usual for 3Q but unusual in 2007. We exchanged brief conversations with people met in previous years, made new acquaintances and saw many of the 3Q characters – like the Scotsman who wears alternatively a kilt or grey morning dress and is always in a hurry, and the elderly and helpful steward who competes for the most colourful waistcoat to accompany black morning dress.

Our Day-by-Day Diary

Tuesday Evening Concert: Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. This setting of John Henry Newman's poem seemed just a little muddied to us, but then we did have the cheapest and unreserved seats just inside the Pilgrims Door. Others we spoke to later, however, also expressed some disappointment.

Wednesday Used Festival Society privilege to listen to morning rehearsal for evening concert – Hayden Theresienmesse, Walton Sonata for Strings and Hayden Trumpet Concerto.
It was interesting to hear conductor Geraint Bowen (with microphone) reminding chorus where to take breath and get timing right ("it won't happen by accident") and one side of his several conversations with the Philharmonia leader James Clark. With the youthful soloists he seemed quite happy (as it seemed to us he truly should be). When it came to the Trumpet Concerto, due deference was paid to soloist Crispian Steele-Perkins who seemed such an engaging personality that we quickly booked for his next day lecture.

Gloucester's eateries make much less effort than those in Hereford to cater for 3Q visitors wanting a meal before a 7.45 pm concert. Most are closed by late afternoon. There was one Bar and Grill that did put on a special menu. And did stay open late. We dined there at 8pm. Never before were we served pasta accompanied by salad, chips and garlic bread; we just about managed to rise from the table.

Our booking was for the late evening concert by Black Voices, a female quintet, singing Spiritual Journey written and arranged by Ken Burton and marking the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. African origins, pain and loss, plotting escape and liberation were effectively and movingly heard.

Thursday In the morning we drove out to Painswick. Most of the commercial premises are Estate Agents or curio shops, but we did find a Londis from which we bought a picnic to eat in the churchyard. Then we ascended Cud Hill to relax in the sunshine and survey the panorama over Gloucester to the Malvern Hills and beyond.

Crispian Steele-Perkins didn't disappoint. He explained – and played - the evolution of the trumpet from an ox horn to the modern trumpet and cornet (on which he played the intro to the Antiques Roadshow). We bought an autographed copy of his CD The English Trumpet (Purcell, Jeremiah Clark and Handel).

The evening concert by the Ex Cathedra Choir, Soloists and Baroque Ensemble was Monteverdi Vespers. This 1613 collection blends "traditional" and "modern" sacred chants and secular motets. It was wonderful!

Friday There's always plenty to see in a 3Q city. I visited the Canal Museum archives on Wednesday while Mary viewed the Museum itself. A marquee on the Cathedral lawn hosted an exhibition of work by The Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen. We bought a small wall hanging to take to Ann-Karin and Hans.

The Three Cathedral Choirs Concert was in the afternoon – Cantatas by Kuhnau (arr. Bach) and Bach, and Vivaldi's Magnificat and Gloria. Crispian Steele-Perkins (again!) accompanied the guest soprano soloists.

The evening concert comprised one of Elgar's less known works – The Spirit of England (1917) – and Holst's best known – The Planets. Both performances were memorable. Elgar's patriotism didn't descend into jingoism – he had too many German friends for that. His sympathetic setting of Lawrence Binyon's poems The Fourth of August (the day war broke out), To Women (suffering at home) and For the Fallen (4th Stanza "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old …") emphasises the pity of war. Holst's suite was magnificently performed. The final movement – Neptune, the mystic - ended with the wordless choir of women's voices out of sight and fading as they moved away and the TV screen being gradually blackened-out.

Saturday In the morning, an organ recital by John Scott. A varied programme: 17th C Buxtenhude; 18th C Bach; and 20th C Langlais, Joubert, Durufle and Hugh Wood (who was in the audience). The organ growled in some pieces and danced in others

John Scott was the guest speaker at the Festival Society Lunch and spoke very well about music making today. Dame Janet Baker as eloquently as ever gave the vote of thanks – including those who had made the Festival possible in spite of the floods.

Evensong was preceded by an organ recital by Christopher Allsop from Worcester and was conducted by Adrian Lucas. The congregation sang – not very appropriately? – "Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom". The blessing was given by the Bishop.

The final concert was Mahler's Symphony Number 8 – a choral work in two parts. This was the only concert for which we had "seeing" seats (i.e. not dependent on the TV screen) – in fact in the seventh row. Thus Part I "Veni, creator spiritus" sung fff by seven soloists (often together with the chorus) was deafening. Part II "Closing scene from Faust, Act II" in German - more varied in volume and in content - was more enjoyable. A massive work. An unforgettable experience. But better from further back than Row 7.

Nick Cohen in the introduction to his "What's Left: how liberals lost their way" (review to come) remembers his childhood in a political family in the 1970s. For political reasons, his mother would not buy oranges from Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Israel or the USA. "When Franco fell ill in 1975, we were in a race to the death. Either he died of Parkinson's disease or we died of scurvy…." I also remember growing up in a political household – in the 1940s and early 50s. With rationing in force and few "exotic" fruits available, food boycotts were not an option, but debate was free – in particular between my parents, my father's brother and my mother's brother and sister and brother in law.

My Grandad, Mum's father, was born in Abertillery, Monmouthshire. He started working life as a coalminer, but ill health forced him out of the pits and he found work – and my Grandma - in Frome in Somerset, before moving to Slough. He was a railway linesman and a loyal member of the NUR. I remember some bits of the tale of a strike not long before he retired when the union branch walked quite a few miles to a rally and then on the way back his legs gave out and his comrades carried him home. Stan, his son, was very like him in looks and character. He worked on Slough Trading Estate as an engineering fitter. He was an active member of the AEU and the Labour Party. He died – at work - of a heart attack in his forties, leaving his wife, Vi, with two young children. His fiercely independent widow, spurned help and rather cut herself off from the rest of the family.

Mum and her sister, Olive, influenced by the Peace Pledge Union and Methodist Minister Reg Brighton were earnest pacifists. Olive's husband, Ted, and Vi, but none of the others, went to the Secondary School until they were 16. (Mum left school at 12, the others at 14). Ted was the intellectual of the family – and a declared communist (though whether actually a Party Member is open to doubt). Like Stan, he worked in engineering, as a toolmaker. He left a job with Fairy Aviation shortly before the war because of its concentration on military work.

My paternal grandfather, who died when dad was only 10, was a painter and decorator. His widow remarried and then, widowed a second time, worked as an insurance agent. She died before I was born. Dad was a convinced Liberal. He remembered celebrating the election of the last Liberal MP for Slough (then part of the High Wycombe constituency), I guess in the early 1920s. The MP, Lady Terrington (or Torrington), appeared before a crowd on the balcony of the old town hall in the High Street (near where the Town Square is today) and was kissed by the Methodist Minister. No separation of religion and politics then then. Dad's brother, also Stan, was not very politically aware, but in politics as in most other things relied on his big brother for guidance. He was a plumber and worked for the Water Board. Dad began work as a general assistant in a builder's merchant's yard. The owner, WG Naish, had to dismiss a corrupt office manager, noticed that dad was numerate and had a good writing hand, and took him into the office. He did well there and was eventually appointed manager of this small firm. In the 1930s he was able to buy a house, a car and a television set. Nevertheless, I submit, we were a Working Class family.

There was not much disagreement among these family members about the 1930s (when they were all in their twenties and thirties. Everything bad was because of the Conservatives (and the Labour traitor, Ramsey McDonald). Liberals, Labour, Communists – they were all on the left, the only place for a decent person with any intelligence to be. I don't know what their attitude was to Chamberlain's "peace in our time" piece of paper after his 1938 meeting with Hitler. But I guess even the pacifists were sceptical. Dad subscribed to the "Left Book Club" from which came Guilty Men by Michael Foot and others exposing the shame of Appeasement. (Also in that series was Tory MP listing the compromising financial and other links of Conservative MPs that I used as source material in a mock election at school in 1951.)

The men of the family were either in "reserved" occupations (necessary for the war effort) or too old to be called up for military service. At the start of the war and the Hitler-Stalin Pact the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker was banned. As a Liberal – we had the Manchester Guardian and the News Chronicle delivered daily and Reynolds News on Sundays - Dad thought this a gross breach of civil liberties. Thus when Germany invaded Russia, which became our ally and the ban on the Worker was lifted, Dad became a subscriber as a point of principle. But reading it so angered him that after a few months Mum persuaded him that he had made his point but should now stop taking it for the state of his health. I read it too. It didn't upset me and became part of my infant political education (I was seven or eight). I remember the campaign "Second Front Now" urging an allied assault in Western Europe to support the gallant Russians in the East. There were also two cartoon characters (one called Ernie?) urging the faithful to send money to keep the paper going. Each month there was a target that was desperately hard to meet, but somehow it always was.

The main arena for discussion was at our home after the evening service at the Methodist Central Hall. (In those days the main service was in the evening; there was Sunday School in the afternoon; the morning service was for the especially pious or elderly.) I went with Mum and Dad from aged about eight and joined Uncle Ted, Auntie Olive and my cousin Geoff (three years my senior.) Discussion was not all about politics but soon after the War the agenda was often set by the TV weekly debate between Labour MP Michael Foot and the historian AJP Taylor (both very much on the left) and WJ Brown, an independent MP, and Conservative MP Quentin Hogg (later to inherit the title Lord Hailsham and become one of Margaret Thatcher's despised dinosaurs) - both very much on the right. Unlike today's "Question Time", when I suspect party managers have a say in who's in the panel, it was the same four every week. Of course, however clever were the arguments from the right, they were faulty, kowtowing to the powers of wealth and privilege. The Labour Government elected in 1945 had its faults but it did introduce the Welfare State; it did plan for full employment; it did represent ordinary people; it was everything the Conservative Governments of the 1930s were not. And Nationalisation of the coalmines, gas, electricity and the railways, while in the main leaving manufacturing industry and commercial services to competitive private enterprise, seemed a fair socialist compromise.

None of the family, or their friends I met, was Conservative. Those who voted Conservative were either wicked or, like our neighbours, stupid. Gradually, however, I learnt the distinctions on the left. Dad worked hard for the generally forlorn Liberal candidates for the new Eton and Slough constituency and for the local council. There was one great success when Doris Smallbone was elected as Liberal councillor for Langley. But the Liberals were not far enough left for me. Indeed Mum's brother Stan's TU Labourism was not radical enough. I remember, however, when I told him I wanted to study economics, he was sure that would keep me on the left. But Uncle Ted's communism didn't appeal even if I thought the party had some good points. One of my favourite memories is of election night in 1951. Mum, Dad and I went to hear the result declared at the Town Hall (the same one as we have today). The Conservatives were very confident that their candidate Cobb would overturn the Labour majority, which had shrunk between 1945 and 1950. He didn't, but the small Liberal vote was greater than the Labour majority. The space in front of the Town Hall was packed, mostly by Conservatives. Several tall young men by were chanting "We Want Cobb". Mum, all of five foot tall, looked up at them and with all the vehemence she could muster shouted "WELL YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM". They were struck dumb.

Gradually also I learnt that not all Conservatives were either wicked or stupid. Some were just misguided. A friend in the sixth form was Terry Groome, a very good athlete – and a Conservative. He was shocked when I, a bass in the school choir, kept my lips closed during the National Anthem at Speech Day. Terry applied to the London School of Economics and encouraged me to apply too. In the event he went there at 18 while I did National Service first. So I met up with him again in my first year and his third in 1954. He was still a Conservative and still a promising athlete (400 metres). Sadly he died the next year during his National Service. By this time my socialism was waning. The study of economics, as my uncle prophesied, didn't shift me from the left, but it did turn me towards liberalism – at the low point for the Liberal Party. I recall a small group of us at LSE hearing the news in 1956 that a seat had been lost in a Welsh by-election, reducing the number of MPs to five. It was not until some years later that I actually joined the Liberal Party, but I have stayed ever since, becoming a Liberal Democrat when the Liberals and Social Democrats merged.

24th May 2007

From reading this book – and the privilege of meeting the author recently – I have learned a lot about early Methodism. We may know that Methodism began in the "holy clubs" in Oxford, that John Wesley (1703-1791) made an unsuccessful missionary tour of America and that it was only after his "heart was strangely warmed" in 1738 that his evangelical zeal became effective. But we may not know much about the role of Charles Wesley, the tercentenary of whose birth we celebrate this year, apart from writing the hymns that still mean so much to us today. And I suspect few of us know much about their friend George Whitefield. This book seeks to show that Charles and George were just as important as John as preachers and pastors. It also graphically describes what all three suffered for the cause – assaults by mobs and the strain of travelling up and down the country on horseback, year in year out, on poor or nonexistent roads. It also dissects the rows the three had with each other and with their associates and how the movement was so nearly derailed in the 1760s by wild enthusiasms among their converts. And throughout his life, Charles Wesley was dogged by ill health such as that which forced him to leave John behind in their ill-fated "American Adventure".

The about to retire head of Kingswood (a Methodist independent boarding school) has written an intriguing biography, the first major study of the younger brother of John Wesley (1703-1791) for a century and a half (Thomas Jackson's "Life" in 1841). He feels very strongly that Charles' contribution to the development of Methodism has been grossly underestimated. The title Gary Best first chose was "A Man Made for Friendship", contrasting Charles Wesley's gift with John's readiness to be friendly only with those who agreed with him. In fact it is apparent that Gary Best does not like John Wesley very much, being particularly scathing about his skills in self-promotion. For example, in his introduction he claims "John Wesley had the advantage of living far longer and so was able to rewrite the history of Methodism and so diminish Whitefield's role" as well as that of Charles.

It is interesting to compare this work with Henry Rack's "Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism" (Epworth, 1989). Rack does paint a "warts and all" portrait but adheres to the traditional view of John Wesley as the founder and shaper of Methodism. Best by contrast emphasises that Whitefield was the first to call his societies "Methodist", the first to use lay preachers, a more effective preacher than either of the brothers and a major force in Methodism until his death in 1770. Where he (and a number of other Church of England clerical supporters) diverged from the Wesleys was, of course, over predestination. It seems strange that Whitefield could be content with the belief that all his preaching could do was identify those in his congregations that were predestined by God to be saved, while the Wesley's Arminianism gave their preaching the incentive of the conviction that all can be saved.

Of course, the subject of the book is Charles Wesley. Unlike his brother, he kept a journal only intermittently and usually preached extempore – so few written records (apart from many letters). But the testimony of hearers convinces Best that his preaching was more powerful and effective than John's. A Joseph Williams heard him in Bristol: "I found him standing on a table, in an erect posture, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven in prayer, surrounded with, I guess, more than a thousand people; some few of them persons of fashion, both men and women, but most of them of the lower rank of mankind … He prayed with uncommon fervency, fluency, and a variety of proper expression. He then preached about an hour … in such manner as I have seldom, if ever, heard any minister preach … to convince his hearers that … God is willing to be reconciled to all, even the worst of sinners". Eventually ill health forced him to travel much less. Then he concentrated on the vital work of pastoring the growing societies in London and Bristol. Another crucial role was preventing the separation of Methodism from the Established Church and recruiting Church of England clergy to the cause. Indeed by restraining John from ordaining some of his lay preachers in 1760 "he delayed a break with the Church of England … for the next 20 years".

In his later years the ailing Charles lived in London, encouraging his musically gifted sons and accordingly mixing with the aristocracy. But he did not neglect his ministry – visiting prisons (we can hardly imagine how wretched jail conditions were in those days), helping the poor, preaching and turning down opportunities for clerical advancement and a legacy because he would not leave his work among the Methodists, saying: "If you are ashamed of poverty you are ashamed of your Master."

On the broader political plane, in their early days the brothers had to defend themselves against the charge of Jacobinism, that is support of the Catholic Pretender to the throne. Their vigorous support for King George thus gave them a position at the start of the American War of Independence. But their principles caused them trouble with both sides. Though not pacifists, they were against violent warfare if at all possible. They had some sympathy with the claims of the colonists for freedom but denounced their hypocrisy in denying that freedom for slaves (among whom their were many Methodist converts). Way back in 1736 both Charles and John had seen the horrors of slavery at first hand. In 1774, John Wesley published his "Thoughts upon Slavery". He denied that slavery had any right to exist: "Not withstanding ten thousand laws, right is right and wrong is wrong". And, as is well known, nearly two decades later his deathbed letter encouraged William Wilberforce to keep going with his bill to abolish the slave trade – which, as we commemorate this year was not enacted for another 16 years.

The previous paragraph shows how difficult it is to write about Charles Wesley without also writing about John. Indeed Henry Rack gave one of his chapters the title "Brothers in Love". They had many arguments but then almost always stood together. Best affirms that Charles provided "the warmth of character which kept many loyal to his more autocratic and severe brother". I think it must be said that Best is unduly harsh on John Wesley. He had the determination to keep the Methodists together, introducing rules, clear statements of doctrine and membership tickets. Both brothers longed to stay within the Church. But John was perhaps the more realistic in seeing that Charles hope of mass recruitment of clergy was in vain and that separation was in the end inevitable. Both believed passionately in free will, that the God's offer of salvation was for all to accept or reject, but Charles sometimes allowed his gift for friendship with Calvinist believers in predestination to cloud his judgement.

We owe Gary Best a debt of gratitude for reminding us that there was so much more to Charles Wesley than his hymns. He wrote thousands and many other of his communications were in verse, some pretty appalling verse. But now it is the hymns in our current Hymns and Psalms that we have – and neglect at our peril. Let's read (and sing) them afresh. They are written in plain language, with few words that are not easy to understand and they affirm the essential doctrines of our faith and so are the creed of the Methodist Church. Two points that resonate for me in so many of Charles Wesley's hymns:

First, salvation is for all, not just for the Elect. This is not just some archaic theological word game but a statement of vital importance in a world as divided as ever by wealth, class, race, colour and faith. Freedom, justice, worth, self-belief are for all!

Second, we worship One God. The Trinity cannot be divided in terms of job description (creator, saviour and enabler or whatever) or by setting one person against another (as in the surely heretical penal substitutionary theory of the atonement). The three "persons" (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are not three Gods but how the one loving God reveals himself to us.

Thy sovereign grace to all extends,
Immense and unconfined;
From age to age it never ends;
It reaches all mankind. (H&P 46)

Endless scenes of wonder rise
From that mysterious tree,
Crucified before our eyes
Where we our Maker see;
Jesus, Lord, what hast thou done? (H&P 166)

He bids us eat and drink
Imperishable food;
What'er the Almighty can
To pardoned sinners give,
The fullness of our God made man
We here with Christ receive (H&P 614)

Forth in thy name, O Lord I go,
My daily labour to pursue (H&P 381)

John Atherton: Marginalization, SCM 2003, £14.99

Eric James in his review for the Church Times (15th August) says he "has read no more important book of Christian thought in the past 20 years". O course I have read less, but I would say the same. In fact Eric James tells us very little about the book beyond the headings, apart from his fears that the language is too academic for the ordinary reader. I'm not sure he's right about that. Certainly it's not an easy read, but this is at least partly, perhaps largely, because the subject matter, as Atherton sees it, is extremely complex and interconnected. The book consists of three complex and interconnected essays. Atherton eschews "grand narratives" and will have nothing to do with any approach that puts theology on a pinnacle. It must take its place with all the other 'ologies and 'isms that might have a bearing on why global economic developments that bring great benefits to so many leave so many others marginalized. There are marginalized countries and there are marginalized communities and individuals within both rich and poor countries, eg in parts of Manchester (where Atherton is based). There are marginalized churches with falling membership and in financial difficulties - facing closure like many in the Manchester Anglican diocese. Marginalized churches are often situated in marginalized communities: the "double whammy" Atherton calls it. Generally speaking, in the rich West the critical question for the Church is "can the modern person believe?, while in the poor South the question is "how can the poor be liberated from oppression?" In the marginalized communities of Manchester both questions apply. A key text is John 10:10 "I have come that they may have life, and may have it in all its fullness." Atherton's objectives are to discover causes, consequences and cures for marginalization. It is, he would have us understand, an unfinished project, using words the economist, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) "a mine rather than a railway".

Taken by themselves, many of Atherton's observations may seem old hat or unsurprising, for example as stated above that marginalized churches are often situated in marginalized communities. But what he does best is to take some well-worn idea, expose it to the light of well-researched evidence and then either show that it is wrong or that it is right but needs to be added to the mix of other ideas. For example, he demonstrates that it is not, as so many believe, post-enlightenment scepticism that has led to falling church attendance but the other way round - that falling church attendance means loss of exposure to character-forming worship, especially hymns and sermons, and then loss of belief and Christian behaviour. And he mixes an intoxicating cocktail. His big ideas are, first, the interconnectedness and complexity of so much of modern life and thought and, second, that marginalization is not just a problem for the marginalized; it affects us all.

It is, perhaps, worthwhile before going any further to attempt draw together Atherton's main points.

1. There are similarities (in location, vulnerability, causes) between marginalized communities (relatively poor, excluded) and marginalized churches (facing threat of closure).
2. It is necessary to examine causes, situations, relationships before attempting theological analysis and prescription; so much is interconnected.
3. This study must be inter/multi disciplinary - connecting sociology, economics, politics, theology etc - and we must listen to marginalized people who may use alternative means of communication (song, storytelling and ways that engage the heart as well as the mind).
4. Praxis (interaction of experience and critical theory) should come before further theoretical analysis using the toolkits of theology and other disciplines - and then it's a continuing process: an "endless cycle of interaction between faith and life & work".
5. Global technological and economic changes should increase the resources for a better life for all peoples but have increased inequality and marginalization, by treating people and land as exploitable resources and through lack of good governance in many countries. Attention should be given to the work of the UN Human Development Reports, in particular the Human Development Index, which takes into account education, health and life expectation standards as well as income in international comparisons. This could be amplified to take account of gender-related development, human rights, inequality within nations and care for the environment.
6. Churches today are "multilayered": their members come with varying degrees of commitment; members' fellowship may be through networking rather than geographical links; Christianity is fundamentally a way of life, not a body of doctrine. But churches (especially non-fundamentalist ones) have an important role as centres of community and sources of volunteers. Worship, especially hymns and sermons, is character and behaviour forming. It is important that churches should have a pronounced "bias towards inclusivity" and that those in marginalized communities should be supported and encouraged to help build up local communities.
7. Many theologians commenting on economics are "either economically illiterate or perverse". But the fundamental economic problem of how to use scarce resources (most resources are scarce) will not go away. There is need for a renewed Christian Political Economy, connecting "engineering economics" (positive, value-free) and "ethical economics" (normative) with "performative" theology. Although pluralism means the idea of Common Good has had its day there is still value in forming middle axioms (intermediate, middle ground between general moral principles and detailed policy prescriptions). The various faiths can work together to erode marginalization, which affect them all to build overlapping consensuses. [Economists will have a few quibbles about Atherton's understandings of their subject. One example: as Lionel Robbins showed long ago, the utilitarians and the classical political economists of the 19th Century did not advocate minimal government and were very sympathetic to the claims of the poor for justice and higher wages. Another example: the appropriate comparison with the Gross National Product of Norway is not the total sales of General Motors but the net output, the value-added, the total incomes (profits and wages) of General Motors. But these quibbles don't amount to much. At least broad-minded economists (the majority), though perhaps not those not shut into their little boxes, will rejoice to read this book.]
8. Two examples of the role of religious economics ("performative theology") - the Jubilee campaign for debt relief and the development of Muslim interest-free banking - illustrate the possibilities for micro-economic policies in addition to the macro economics supporting the UN Human Development Reports.

I am conscious that the above does not do justice to the complex, many-faceted detail of the book and it may not show (a) how firmly John Atherton has his feet on the ground and (b) the breadth of his reading (over the centuries). His analysis feeds on many living examples of life in marginalized Manchester and elsewhere in Britain, Africa, Asia and South America and much economic, political and theological research, including that from feminist and non-European perspectives. Two writers he makes much use of are the economist Amartya Sen and the theologian Robin Gill. From Sen he gets his hope for a renewed ethical economics and the emphasis on human development. "Working with Gill's empirical research keeps our feet firmly on the ground of church as hymn-singing and meals on wheels." He contrasts his essentially practical approach with what he calls "the idealizing and romanticizing of a thereby essentially exclusionary church by Hauerwas" and (quoting Elaine Graham, Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology at Manchester) "the sociological fictions and fantasies (of) the post modern Christendom of Millbank, (both of) which bear no resemblance to the lived experience of Church and culture in Britain today".

This is a very important book about very important matters, not only for Christians but also for all involved in regeneration and encouragement of social enterprise in marginalized communities. But if Christians do not heed its message, the churches will very soon be ghettos for like-minded ostriches. And society and the communities within it will be much the poorer.

© Richard Hall, October 2003

The obituary mentions influences on Bruce Kenrick: Donald Soper and the Notting Hill Housing Trust he inspired, Soper's disciple Donald Mason, a tall, striking young Methodist minister we met on various occasions, the hymn writer Geoffrey Ainger, Des Wilson, the first Director of Shelter and Eamonn Casey who was RC Parish priest in Slough (and a friend of Mary's father), successor of Kenrick as Chairman of Shelter and later Bishop of Derry.

We formed a Shelter Group in Slough, largely from St. Andrew's members, to help publicise locally the issue of homelessness and the need for urgent government action and to raise money for the campaign. It was at the time of town centre redevelopment and Len Gibbs, one of our members, working in the Borough's Development Department, knew which shops were empty. Thus we were able to run a Christmas shop in what had been Foster's Clothing Store. I found a place in London that sold dolls in all sizes and so came home on several evenings bearing large numbers of naked female figures. (Why are dolls almost always girls?) We recruited an army of older ladies from the congregation and elsewhere who sewed or knitted a tremendous variety of clothing for these dolls. They became our best selling product. We also had a very well made model of a hospital, which did not sell. Have you ever seen a model/toy hospital? While railways, roads, shops are favourites, it seems that hospitals reminding people of illness and death are a no-no .

We had another successful shop the next Christmas and also organised a sponsored walk to raise awareness among teenagers. Some of us also spoke at church meetings around the town.
Bruce Kenrick left Shelter fairly early on and we lost interest when it moved on from being a national publicity movement towards direct action such as illegal squatting. But it did succeed in prompting the Wilson Government to raise the priority of housing in its programme.

Bruce Kenrick was a Church of Scotland and later on a URC minister. The obituary reminds us as a student in New York he got involved in the East Harlem project among marginalized communities. In 1962 his "Come Out the Wilderness" advocated social engagement under strong lay leadership within the churches. I have pulled down from the shelves my dog-eared, yellowing copy of this book, which tells the story of the East Harlem project, initially led by Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists, in the gang-dominated slums. An extract from Chapter 7: "Image of God":

To neglect the social is to be more 'spiritual' than Jesus. … It was East Harlem's crying need for social healing that had compelled so many of its people to reject the church as irrelevant, for its preoccupation with 'things of the spirit' seemed to sanctify the unjust world which they endured. … The core of the Gospel is … that the Word became flesh. And this means that that the Gospel has to be expressed in very human terms, in terms of social action, in terms of flesh and blood. Words alone are not enough.

But neither are deeds. … The point of the Gospel is not just to patch up society's wounds; it is also to grapple with the wills of the men who have inflicted those wounds, and who might well inflict them again. The Gospel has to get beneath the skin. It has to penetrate men's hearts and there renew the springs of life right where society begins. This means evangelism. It means the imperative necessity of preaching. … Communicating the gospel … is not horizontal – between men and men. It is vertical – between God and men. … While both have to be pursued at the same time, the horizontal cancer cannot be finally excised without the vertical gift of God's grace. There has to be an Advent. Sometimes it comes in strange ways.

What has changed in 40 years?

The missing jobs have not moved into surrounding areas. Windsor & Maidenhead also has 75 thousand jobs, scarcely up on 2000 and South Bucks, with 29 thousand, is two thousand down on 2000. What's this about the booming local economy?

1 Today in London a demo demands that a ballerina of the English National Ballet should be sacked because an undercover reporter from The Guardian discovered her membership of the BNP. So far as I know she has not used her position to advance BNP views, not worn a placard on stage saying "expel all non-whites". Indeed her husband would fall foul of such an edict. What a victory it would be for the BNP if she were sacked.
2 A group of fundamentalist Christians demonstrate against an anti-discrimination bill because they believe it would illegalise their discrimination against homosexual people.
3 As surely anyone can see, that is a minority Christians viewpoint. But Polly Toynbee, a stalwart defender of toleration, except when it concerns Christian activists, uses it to argue that "the faiths use their greatest firepower not to challenge gross inequality …. but other people's sexuality. … Given an ounce of power they use it to deny basic liberties." (Guardian 9th January)
4 A few days earlier (Guardian 3rd January) Neal Lawson, an atheist, had noted that much good work in the community is done by faith groups: "if they preach the cause of the poor and the needy in our bloated materialistic world, then they are my people". Dear Polly calls such words "backsliding" and a torrent of angry letters from secularists was published.
Liberals or bigots?