Speaking out with others – and maybe listening and acting too?

Strategies are strange things – I spent a lot of my working life writing them conscious that colleagues, many of whom were front line health workers, were not entirely convinced of their usefulness.  At their worst they are perhaps tick box exercises, but at their best and I’d like to think our three year strategy at St James’s is an example of this, they represent a collective resolve, a public statement of intent that helps keep us on track and hold ourselves to account.  Ourselves meaning everyone, congregation, staff, clergy, volunteers, PCC and so on.

In this Season of Creation one objective in particular is close to my heart, ‘Speak out with others’   It is one of the benefits for St James’s of being a member of Citizens UK, which brings people from very different organisations (churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, colleges, trade unions and other community groups) together to get to know each other, build power and win change.  The issues of common concern are decided by listening to grassroots members and developing campaigns about issues that matter to us all.

Climate change is one of those issues at a National level. As Maia, a West London Citizen says:

‘What keeps me awake at night is that young people are having our futures stolen by decision-makers who talk about the climate crisis like it’s something way off into the future – as if the destruction of our only home is a distant inconvenience.  But we have seen how the climate crisis is right on our doorstep.  And what fills me with hope is US because WE are taking this opportunity to make change.’

Priorities for the climate change campaign include transport for our times and this year a group of us from St James’s joined Citizens from across London to campaign for free bus travel for asylum seekers at City Hall.

We didn’t win change that day but we were listened to, the campaign continues, and politicians will be held to account.

Speaking out with others feels good and right, but like a lot of people I have been wondering whether we are missing out a step.  In an era dominated by culture wars and algorithms, really listening to others especially those who we might think of as different to us, or who have different ideas, feels important or the divisions in our society will keep growing.  I have just come back from Greenbelt where the Methodist Church ran a dry bar, the Hope and Anchor, which was the venue for ‘awkward’ conversations around a variety of topics, with the emphasis on listening and sharing rather than reaching a consensus or ‘winning’ the argument.  It was interesting and it made me wonder about the value of doing something similar at St James’s?

In similar vein, Citizens UK has a new strategic aim, ‘relate across difference’, and has been trialling Weaving Trusts as a way of getting lots of different people and organisations to connect with each other at scale within a single event, through a ‘carousel of conversations’.  Feedback has been very promising and on Sunday 2 November  there will be Weaving Trust meeting at Bloomsbury Baptist Church from 1.30pm to 3.30pm, that will be focussed on issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees.  Westminster Citizens, our International Groups, and organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers have been invited.  If you’d like to come along contact Claire at churchwardens@sjp.org.uk

And then again listening and speaking out with others is all very well, but we also need to act.  Probably the best talk I went to at Greenbelt was one by Mike Berners Lee titled ‘A Climate of Truth’.  His central premise was actually that it isn’t too late to change what he describes as the Polycrisis we are facing, but we all of us need to ‘up our game’ and act now, along with the importance of holding ourselves and our politicians to a higher standard of truth, and kindness.

I bought the book and got it signed, and have included the proof here because when I very briefly met him, I confessed that I was going to have to try harder, hence the Be Brave, and he signed his name because he said it applied to himself too, which made me feel better! I also included it here because I found the Carbon Literacy Course that Deborah and Dee organised really worthwhile, not least because of the pledges we were encouraged to make in order to complete the course.  It has surprised me how much I want to keep the pledges I made, to which I have now added ‘Be Brave’.

Finally it just so happens that one of my Carbon Literacy Course pledges involved setting up a meeting/Citizens House Group to talk about Thames Water.   It is an issue close to my heart for a number of reasons but it’s not my reasons that matter (see reference to grass roots consensus above), so on 7 September at 12.45pm we will be holding a Citizens House Meeting at St James’s to find out what you think about Thames Water.  Do we want to join a campaign with others?  Why or why not?  What should be the focus?  Come along and have your say. We’ll also hold an online meeting at 5pm click here for the Zoom link.