JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM

“And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green?” No, they did not. “And was the holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen?” Again the answer’s “No”. The feet in the first line belong to Jesus. The Lamb of God is another way of describing Jesus. “And did the countenance divine shine forth upon those clouded hills?” Countenance is a long word which means face … and still the answer’s “No”. “And was Jerusalem builded here amongst those dark satanic mills?” The answer’s obviously no. The geography is all wrong. Jerusalem lies at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea, some 2 ½ thousand miles from the cotton mills in northern England where people worked in virtual slavery.

“Bring me my bow of burning gold.” Well what’s this verse about? There’s lots of powerful fighting imagery. Then we get “I will not cease from mental fight, … till we have built Jerusalem”.  How can you build Jerusalem in England? It’s nonsense. And that’s one of the reasons why this hymn is banned in a number of churches. Some people say that this hymn tries to claim that England is the correct place for the holy city. Some say it spreads a lie, that somehow Jesus came to England. Some say the fighting talk and building Jerusalem in England is about stealing part of history and putting it where it doesn’t belong – a bit like the Elgin Marbles.

To find meaning we have to dig deeper. The words were written by William Blake, early in the 19^th century. He is described as a mystic – most people cannot understand his poems, but I think there is a clue in the title, Jerusalem. Now the “Jeru” part means “city”. The “salem” part means peace. Jerusalem means City of Peace. Many of you may be familiar with the Muslim greeting “Salaam alaikum” – peace be with you. Indeed, the “slam” bit in the word Islam is a contraction of salem, meaning peace. The Hebrew version is similar; the word used is “shalom”. So Jerusalem is the City of Peace.

William Blake asks a question. What if Jesus came to England? What would he see? What would he say? What would he do? In our national life we have a minster of our government who has claimed many thousands of pounds more than she should in expenses while her own party denounces benefits cheats. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, yet 3 million people in this country are so poor that they need food from foodbanks. I think Jesus would notice.

And what if Jesus came to Wolverhampton? What if Jesus came to our school? What if Jesus came to our lessons? Would he be pleased? What if Jesus came to our homes? What might he see? What might he say? What might he do to put things right? And we are moving towards a Christian understanding of Jesus; what if Jesus could be inside my thinking, my seeing, my speaking?

Jesus is highly regarded by all world religions. He challenges us whatever our religious background, even if we claim to have none. In this poem, William Blake asks us to build peace. And couldn’t we all do with more peace in our lives, a bit less stress, fewer arguments, less rushing? Peace between parents and children; peace between teachers and students; peace between brothers and sisters; peace between classmates and friends.

This is one message in the events marked and remembered at Easter. It’s about reconciliation, the putting right of relationships. It’s about hope, new life, from egg to chicken. It’s about the possibility of transformation, of change for the better. And that’s a message we can all agree on, those of any religion and those with none. Let’s build peace here in WGS. Together we promise to fight to make it happen here in England, here in Wolverhampton, here in this school. So now we are going to sing and celebrate this message of Peace. 

Let’s stand.

Expedition 2013

A little essay on "Why am I going on Expedition 2013?" A few thoughts.

There lots of reasons why people travel.

1. There's negative reasons. I want to get away (run away) from troubles eg. annoying people (parent, brother, sister) or difficult problem (debt, bad memories).

2. There's trivial reasons. I'm not going to get a sun tan in England, so I might as well try somewhere else. And trivial reasons give way to trivial grumbles eg. Expedition 2013 was OK but it (a) played havoc with my nail varnish or (b) made me miss Taiwan’s got Talent on TV.

Reasons 1 and 2 don't really apply to Expedition 2013, I hope.

There's reasons which are much more specific to the country.

3. Culture. I want to hear music and language. I want to eat different food. I want to see dance and dress.

4. Social. I want to meet people and understand more about their way of life. I want to talk and join in with what they do. I want to help in some way with their difficulties (health, poverty, education). I want to laugh and dance and sing with Ugandan people.

5. I want to see - mountains, lakes, wildlife.

6. I want to experience - white water rafting, trekking in jungle.

Then there's reasons to do with personal development.

7. I want to get on well with the others on Expedition 2013 and make good friends - possibly friends for life. I want to give a proper contribution to helping make the month a success by being willing to help and taking the responsibilities of leadership seriously.

8. I want to improve my personal fitness and endurance and hygiene (Where did I put my toothbrush?).

9. I want to learn a language or how to travel as a student internationally.

10. I want to learn how to plan travel, book accommodation and transport.

11. I want to improve personal organisation though this experience.

12. I want to be challenged by poverty, by joy amongst people who have very few of the things that make me happy.

Finally, and more searchingly, there's the reflective journey. Fundamentally, this is the most important aspect of Expedition because if you don't do this bit, then you will be unchanged by the experience. Call this what you will. Pilgrimage perhaps, where the physical journey is accompanied by an inner journey of self discovery. You hear it all the time amongst student travellers "I want to find myself, what life's all about." Often it's more about questions than answers. It's about hearing different points of view and forming a judgement about your own beliefs and the way you want to live your life, what values you have, what morals and responsibilities you hold.

13. In the thick and chaos of lots of things happening and lots of people talking, I want to learn to listen to the honest and authentic me. I want my values, my assumptions to be tested and questioned. I want to be open to changing the way I think and what I believe.

Well there's much more I could say and no doubt there's other reasons why people travel, but I hope it helps you think about what your reasons are. It might be a good idea to form a picture in your mind of what you are doing/seeing/hearing/smelling/tasting/touching/feeling when you try to capture an answer to the question “Why am I going on Expedition 2013?” There are no single right answers! And you could go for the easy way out by saying “I’m going with an open mind to see what the experience says to me”. But it’s better to be more focussed than that. Wishing you all the best as you prepare. Dr E.

Who Guides us through Life?

Sixth Form Assembly Tuesday 6 March 2012

How do we know what to do? Who or what governs our behaviour?

Simple observation of babies beginning to speak shows that most learning, at least in the early stages in life, comes through copying – first parents, then other people. And sometimes we are influenced by people on TV, or perhaps later in life, people we read about. These people we call “role models”. Let me put a question to you, now. If you wanted to be somebody, who would you choose? If, in your dreams, you were able to model your life on someone else, who would it be? We see someone, perhaps on tele, and we think “He’s cool: she’s cool” or hot or whatever term of approval you use nowadays. In short, people learn from people.

Well there’s plenty of high achievers around, people who have done great things, earned lots of money, influenced and led many people. There’s religious folk, Jesus, Guru Nanak and so on. There’s political leaders past and present, David Cameron, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. Or you could choose great military leaders, Julius Caesar, for example. And I guess many of you might hold an ambition to be a famous footballer or a star of stage or screen or catwalk. I guess Justin Bieber or Adele might be a role model for some, at least at one time of life, even if you might not want to admit it now. You might find a fictional character to be inspirational, perhaps and all action hero, Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. And I know it stretches credulity, but you could do worse than see some teachers as role models.

There may be lots of potential leaders, but most of us, most of the time, don’t think about who might be a suitable person to follow. And we don’t spend time thinking about the best leader. If you find yourself confused and unsure about who to follow, be reassured; most adults never get round to thinking about these matters either. Most of us, most of the time, just muddle through. We don’t stop to think about what we’re really like and who we might like to be.

So today, I want to draw to your attention a character who is very popular, known to everyone here, and who has admirable qualities which are simply not shown by most leaders. The qualities I have in mind are honesty and unpretentiousness – a bit of a mouthful, that word “unpretentious” but it means a person who does not think too highly of himself, he doesn’t think he’s more important than others; he simply is who he is.

So let me introduce him. He’s bald. He’s bug-eyed. A potato-head with a gut many a dart’s player would be proud to possess. Pray silence, ladies and gentlemen, for we are proud to introduce Homer J Simpson. Yes, Homer; the clueless husband who swills beer and is the totally unreliable Safety Inspector of Springfield Nuclear Power Station. In the title sequence, he makes Chernobyl look fail safe. In his desperate attempt to rush home at the end of his shift, he discards radioactive pellets like popcorn at the end of a drive-in movie. The world is definitely not safe in his hands.

And from the opening titles to the closing credits he is slobbery personified. Bad taste is his style. He’s the staunch enemy of workaholics. And of course, any resemblance to teachers and head teachers past or present is purely coincidental.

Can this loser be a leader, a role model, for us? Can we learn and look up to him?

First, there can be little argument that he is a popular leader. His face stares at us from T shirts, and biscuit wrappers and pencil cases and just lots of merchandise. I’m not going to ask you to put up your hands if you have or have had a Simpsons quilt cover or pillow case, but I guess that might apply to more than a few of you. Homer is undoubtedly the star of the show. He is the show’s focus, and while Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Marge have a leading role in a few episodes, all action revolves around Homer at the centre. The show is run and re-run on TV stations the world over. In February, just last month, the 500^th Simpson episode was aired – and that number is particularly significant to this school in its 500^th year. There are scores of websites celebrating Homer’s wit and wisdom.

And why is this? Some might dismiss Homer as a banana-skinned lump of lard. But he is a convincing character, one of the funniest in decades of television. He’s no hero. Not for him the lofty ideals or epic poetry from which his name comes. But we do like him. We do relate to him. After having a few too many drinks, at one o’clock in the morning, he tells his fellow drinkers he’s going to drive home and spend some quality time with the kids. He loves nothing better than vegging out in front of the TV with his family. His motto might be “The family that gazes together stays together”.

He lives in a very small world of familiar places people and pleasures. I admit, I don’t like the fact that he’s narrow-minded, perhaps even prejudiced at times. World events don’t touch Homer. A fantasy big hit in baseball is far more important than disasters overseas. And he doesn’t have any ambitions to escape the narrow horizons of Springfield, suburbia USA.

Yet we find his life thoroughly recognisable – unlike the lives of most of our leaders, unlike most of our role models. The problem with most leaders is that they are too perfect, too remote, too unlike us. Our political leaders have polished images, stage-managed applause, choreographed laughter and mannerisms. These days, even spin doctors require image consultants. Pop idols spend hours on their make-up. Photographs are enhanced and air-brushed. And fictional leaders, while admirable, are fiction, after all, and not real.

But in Homer, what you see is what you get. He is as he appears. He is neither a romantic husband to Marge, nor a wise father to Bart, Lisa and Maggie. But the love he shows is unmistakeably genuine. He falls out with his neighbours – but he doesn’t bear grudges. His schemes usually fail, but he’s happy nonetheless. He doesn’t give up on seeking happiness – either for himself and his family. He has a big heart, and his heart is in the right place, at home.

It’s no wonder we love Homer Simpson. We dream of perfection, but we know that the reality is somewhat shabbier. In Homer Simpson we identify. He is the exquisitely fashioned icon of imperfection. In other words, he’s just like me. He’s just like you. He’s just like all of us.

One parting idea. Some of you will be disappointed I didn’t talk about elephants or God, as I did last time. I didn’t need to. By stealth and subterfuge, I’ve just smuggled past the barriers that normally block talking about God the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. Ask an RS student about it.

Thanks for listening.

The Elephant in the Room

Sixth Form Assembly Tue 15 Nov 2011

There is an elephant in the room. It’s so huge and so obvious – yet no one comments on it and everyone pretends it’s not there. Because of its huge size, we have to squeeze past it, we have to make adjustments. Everything we do is affected by its presence. This particular elephant is important and invisible, and he has a name. His name is God.

This phrase “the elephant in the room” is used sometimes when people ignore the obvious, when the really obvious matter ought to be considered because it is most important. But if the obvious issue is difficult, it is often easier for most to ignore it and, on the whole, people muddle through life without thinking too much about God. Let’s face it, there’s much more interesting things to talk about, what with Strictly on tv, the latest iPad and the Christmas release of computer games, and wasn’t the football interesting at the weekend; one team scored one goal and so did the other. We spend most of our time avoiding talking about the elephant in the room.

Of course, religious issues are important in world politics. Let’s take Al Khaida. At the root of addressing the problem of suicide bombers, we need to speak about and understand what jihad means to Muslims. Another example: If the Israeli conflict is to be resolved, a Jewish understanding of promised land needs to be discussed.

And religious issues and values are important personally. You are at a stage in life when you are beginning to take more and more decisions for yourself. You are beginning to take responsibility for decisions like the way you drive. You might kill a pedestrian because of a poor decision; you might kill your friend as a passenger in your car. You are deciding what is right and wrong all the time. You are making choices about your future. You are making decisions about your sexuality and how it is expressed. You are making decisions about how you use time and money, how much you give yourself and how much you give to others. So for two reasons, the geopolitical and the personal, it is important for you to be able to speak about God and values that arise from belief.

One way or another, each of us has to find values upon which we take these decisions. On the whole, we develop a shared understanding of these boundaries, these chosen limits to our behaviour, but by and large, we have lost the vocabulary to talk about the values that lead to these limits. Generally, we just muddle through, not knowing clear reasons for why we believe what we believe. And this is the point of why I am speaking to you. I want to help you begin to explore and find a vocabulary to speak about religious issues. To do that, I am going to tell you a little about why I believe in God.

How is it that a scientist who thinks evidence is important also holds a faith? How did I as a teenager move from unbelief towards belief? I guess as a starting point I wasn’t unnerved about thinking for myself. I have never been a “follow the leader” sort of person, doing what someone says because of that person’s influence or authority. I read what many people thought – and then made up my own mind. Another key influence was that, as a teenager, I fell in love – and that experience gave a big opportunity to reassess what I thought. In the end the desire for evidence-based knowledge and the knowledge of love combined to shape my views.

There’s many scientists who are believers, and there’s some atheists such as Dawkins or Hawking who get a lot more publicity than others. Dawkins argues that God does not exist. He says God is not required to explain evolution. Stephen Hawking says God is not required to explain how the universe came to into existence. But they do not argue that love does not exist because such a stance would be derisory. They would be laughed off stage. Because it is obvious to anyone that love exists. To love is to be human. Love forms the basis of most literature and drama and music. But what is the evidence that love exists? If you dissect the human heart, you cannot find love. Science tells us about hormones and pheromones. Sociology tells me that by falling in love, you are just doing what everybody else does. In the same way, if you study the human ear you cannot find music. When you grind up a skeleton, there is no courage in bones. And you can study bodies as long as you want, but you will not find sport or dance. Facial muscles will not provide any information about joy or laughter. This is because love and music and courage and dance and sport and joy and laughter belong to human experience.

I found and continue to find deep truths in bible verses. “God is love; those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” For me, God exists because love exists. If I can rephrase Descartes, I doubt therefore I think. I think therefore I am. I love, therefore God exists. I believe God is as much part of the human condition as loving or thinking or laughing.

Arguments from scientists denying God are fundamentally flawed. Scientists make faith-based assumptions which are largely unacknowledged. They assume that there is a physical world – without proof. All knowledge of the world is derived from human experience. Yet we know that the senses can be fooled; there are no certainties in or from observations. The philosophy of science recognises this, with the most commonly held view being that knowledge is provisional, being constantly refined and developed, and arises from a consensus of informed opinion. Scientific atheists do not like to discuss the philosophy of science or the nature of knowledge (epistemology) because the weakness of their position is so easily exposed. Moreover they do not like to consider the consequences of their world view. If God does not exist, what can be the basis of morality? On what grounds can we resist an oppressor eg Hitler? Why should I not steal a neighbour’s car or his wife, for that matter, assuming I can avoid the negative consequences of the neighbour’s anger? Evolution points towards survival of the fittest, generally the strongest, those who can control the greatest resources and produce the largest number of progeny. A godless world view denies personal responsibility; it denies personhood describing us as merely intelligent animals, it denies the value of individuals. A godless world literally dehumanises us.

I do not believe because some well-meaning but misguided Christian challenges me by asking if I have been born again. Such a person misunderstands Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and simply gets everybody’s backs up. I do not believe because a famous or influential person tells me to do so. I do not believe because I will get a free ticket to heaven. Nor do I believe in the fear of hell.

Because I fell in love as a teenager, I read some love poetry, and I had ample time to reflect on the meaning of this one short poem. “Love is a city set on a hill: You cannot possess the citadel from the outside.” In other words, you cannot experience or know love for yourself without actually being in love. Faith is like love; you cannot know about faith without practising it. It’s a chicken and egg thing.

But adopting belief or faith suddenly gives meaning to all of human experience. Music and drama and dance and birth and death and love and courage take on new and more profound meanings in a godly perspective. Belief in God was the first and most important step of faith for me, and then other much smaller steps drew me to Christianity. It would be so much more convenient not to believe in God because I wouldn’t have to go to church or give away money or help others. I can’t prove God. I can’t prove love. But for me, I find life is immeasurably richer and more secure knowing God, knowing love. And I feel sad for anyone who cuts themselves off from this profound joy.


Well there you go; not your usual Tuesday morning assembly, but something to think about. I hope you feel able to discuss elephants or other matters at lunchtime – and don’t let Richard Dawkins or Stephen Hawking do your thinking for you. Thanks for listening. John Edlin 4/10/11 Revised 15/11/11

Dreams 4

We'll finish with a final assembly on the theme of vision. First a song by the Eurhythmics. Again, I would ask you to focus on the words.

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree
I travel the world an the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something

Let's make it clear I am not recommending this song, or any of the songs played this week, as good music. We're listening to them to put us in touch with popular ideas. You might describe it as "pop without being kinetic", to misquote from the recent middle school play. It's perhaps worth noting in passing that this was one of the most popular songs of the 1980s in this country. Thousands of pairs of shoes and hundreds of dance floors have been worn down to the sound of "Sweet Dreams".

For all the catchy beat and syncopation, there's little of great significance in the words. Nevertheless, the idea "Everybody's looking for something" clearly identifies the mood of the eighties. For Annie Lennox who wrote the song, the "something" that everyone wanted was
related to getting on in life; in her words "moving on";
related to making sure that "people who want to use you" didn't get their way,
and related to making sure that "people who want to be used by you" were so used.

In short, what people wanted was to be "moving on", taking advantage of others on the way.

This selfishness expressed in the song is about as far as you can get away from a Christian sentiment, nor is the idea in line with our school philosophy; indeed, it is a telling insight of nineteen eighties greed. Nevertheless, there is the recognition that "everybody's looking for something"; the feeling that we want more than we have. The feeling that we should become better than we really are at present, feelings that are common to everyone. People dream of a better life for themselves. "Man transcends man."

Well, there's only 14 shopping days to go till Christmas - and what have dreams to do with the festive season? And how do these assemblies on the theme of vision relate to the time of year? Perhaps we have hopes for Christmas day in terms of the presents we hope to receive. Perhaps we have dreams about parties and puddings. Perhaps we'll do a karaoke to Val Doonican's "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas".

However, I want to go a little deeper than that; I want to remind you of the time before the first Christmas.
Dreams played a major part in the preparations. John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, had a dream concerning his unborn child; the dream foretold that his son's job was to prepare and to announce the beginning of Jesus' ministry. And Mary had a vision or a dream; she learned she was to conceive a son to be named Jesus, which means "God's rescuer". And Joseph, Mary's husband to be, also had a dream about the unborn child; the baby Jesus was to have the title "Immanuel", meaning "God with us".

So here we are getting close to the point in the mystery of Christmas. This is a season when dreams, hopes, aspirations all come true. They came true historically in the birth of a child. They also come true now because we can approach the reality the Enya wanted on Wednesday, the perfect man with perfect values of justice desired by Tuesday's Wild West Hero. "Man transcends man." We want something more than we've got. We want to be something greater than we actually are. And Jesus, the transcendent Man who came at the first Christmas is, I believe, the one able to bridge the gap between what we are and what we might hope to become.

May your dreams come true this Christmas.

I'll finish with a verse from a song for Christmas.

Who would dream that what was needed
To transform and save the Earth
Might not be a plan or army
Proud in purpose, proved in worth?
Who would think, despite derision,
That a child would lead the way?
God surprises Earth with heaven
Coming here on Christmas Day.
(Wild Goose Songs 1)

"Let us learn to dream, and then perhaps we shall learn the truth."

Dreams 3

As yesterday, we're going to listen to a song. Let's concentrate on the words.

When the evening falls - Enya

When the evening falls and the daylight is fading
from within me calls - could it be I am sleeping?-
For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely
Close to home - I cannot say
Close to home - feeling O so far away.

As I walk the room, there before me a shadow
from another world where no other can follow
carry to my own, where I can cross over
Close to home - I cannot say
Close to home - feeling O so far away.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like listening to a wide variety of music is that music has the ability to express feelings I find very difficult to express in words. Music describes what words can't.

In this song, Enya describes an experience, perhaps in the quietness of evening in her bedroom, alone, late at night, an experience when she isn't quite sure what is real. Is she awake or is she dreaming? She's striving to make contact with reality - not the trivial reality of ordinary objects around her, the table and chairs, wardrobes and mirrors - but something much deeper, something of much greater significance and meaning.

Now, in the third verse, she indicates she has memories of such moments of insight, that contact with a deeper reality. She knows the experiences she's had are very special to her; her worry appears to be that in the hurly burly of so called "real life" she'll forget those rare moments of delight, those moments of vision or understanding when everything seems to fit into a fuller, a more profound perspective.

From my own experience, I know that this sort of contact with reality often takes one completely by surprise with its force and brilliance. Moreover these experiences cannot be manufactured or reproduced. They creep upon you and catch you off guard. All previous experience has to be reappraised in the encounter.

I read of scientists, you might describe them as professional sceptics of such experiences, but even they have similar experiences, often associated with notable discoveries. Pretty soon afterwards, the discoveries were taken for granted, yet the discoveries were always treasured by the scientists themselves, not least for the joy associated with them. These examples have been quoted in other assemblies, but they bear repetition.

Yanofsky, speaking of the measurements 12.3, 12.4, 12.8 and 0.08, said "The results were beautiful, clear and convincing. It was one of those rare and completely satisfying experiences that scientists yearn for".
Arthur Kornberg said of the way biochemicals are used in the body "What fantastic natural poetry".

Kekulé worked out the structure of the benzene molecule in 1865. He wasn't ashamed to address the Royal Society meeting as follows:
"I was sitting writing at my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gambolling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly to the background. My mental eye, rendered the more acute by repeated visions of this kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformations; long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together; all twisting and turning in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of his own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by flash of lightening I woke; ....... I spent the rest of the night working out the consequences of the hypothesis. Let us learn to dream gentlemen, and then perhaps we shall learn the truth."

Similar experiences have been recorded by poets, musicians and artists, a transcendent beauty above any reality previously known.

And what are the circumstances associated with these experiences? One person might be looking at a piece of sculpture or a painting, another at a sunset or listening to a piece of music; yet another may have the feeling whilst walking alone on the moors and hills; some people may find the reality through friendship or love. Whatever or whenever the experience, for that moment, time is suspended; nothing else matters.

The point I want to make is this: although these experiences are so nebulous, so ephemeral, so frustratingly hard to explain to others - yet they are real and profoundly important to the individual. For Enya, the frustration is indicated at the end of each verse: "Close to home - I cannot say Close to home - feeling O so far away".

We can't hold on to these experiences any more than we can hold on to dreams; we must simply enjoy them while they last and treasure them, trying not to forget. I believe these experiences are available to everyone, irrespective of conventional religious belief.

So like yesterday, I've tried to describe a way in which "Man transcends man". People experience realities which are beyond their own comprehension. Of course, our 20th century assumptions overemphasise comprehension, analysis, explanation. So often explaining is seen as explaining away, and consequently we lose a proper sense of awe or mystery. Those people who admit to such feelings are often seen as weak or insecure. But it might just happen to you, if your lucky, that you experience one of those rare and deeply satisfying insights through one of your school subjects. I hope so.

I'll finish by reminding you of those words by the scientist, August Kekulé:

"Let us learn to dream, and then perhaps we shall learn the truth."