tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352747302024-03-14T06:17:15.715+00:00Catholic and ReformedThis is the blog of Dr. Jeremy Bonner. The views expressed herein are his alone and are in no way associated with any educational or religious institution with which he may be affiliated.Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-20016055957785415962022-05-08T10:06:00.001+01:002022-05-08T10:06:43.158+01:00Address by the President of Ukraine on the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, 8 May 2022<p></p><p><b>Can spring be black and white? Is there eternal February? Are golden
words devalued? Unfortunately, Ukraine knows the answers to all these
questions. Unfortunately, the answers are “yes”.
</b></p><p><b>Every year on May 8, together with the entire civilized world, we
honor everyone who defended the planet from Nazism during World War II.
Millions of lost lives, crippled destinies, tortured souls and millions
of reasons to say to evil: never again!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>We knew the price our ancestors paid for this wisdom. We knew how
important it is to preserve it and pass it on to posterity. But we had
no idea that our generation would witness the desecration of the words,
which, as it turned out, are not the truth for everyone.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>This year we say “Never again” differently. We hear “Never again”
differently. It sounds painful, cruel. Without an exclamation, but with a
question mark. You say: never again? Tell Ukraine about it.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>On February 24, the word “never” was erased. Shot and bombed. By
hundreds of missiles at 4am, which woke up the entire Ukraine. We heard
terrible explosions. We heard: again!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The city of Borodyanka is one of the many victims of this crime!
Behind me is one of many witnesses! Not a military facility, not a
secret base, but a simple nine-storey building. Can it pose a security
threat to Russia, to 1/8 of the land, the world’s second army, a nuclear
state? Can anything be more absurd than this question? It can.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>250kg high explosive bombs, with which the superpower shelled this
small town. And it went numb. It cannot say today: never again! It
cannot say anything today. But here everything is clear without words.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Just look at this house. There used to be walls here. They once had
photos on them. And in the photos there were those who once went through
the hell of war. Fifty men who were sent to Germany for forced labor.
Those who were burned alive when the Nazis burned more than 100 houses
here.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>250 soldiers who died on the fronts of World War II, and a total of
almost 1,000 residents of Borodyanka who fought and defeated Nazism. To
ensure: never again. They fought for the future of children, for the
life that was here until February 24.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Imagine people going to bed in each of these apartments. They wish
good night to each other. Turn off the light. Hug their loved ones.
Close their eyes. They dream of something. There is complete silence.
They all fall asleep, not knowing that not everyone will wake up. They
sleep soundly. They have a dream of something pleasant. But in a few
hours they will be awakened by missile explosions. And someone will
never wake up again. Never again.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The word “never” was dropped from this slogan. Amputated during the
so-called special operation. They stabbed a knife in the heart and,
looking into the eyes, said: “It’s not us!” Tortured with the words “not
everything is so unambiguous.” Killed “Never again”, saying: “We can
repeat.”</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>And so it happened. And the monsters began to repeat. And our
cities, which survived such a heinous occupation that 80 years are not
enough to forget about it, saw the occupier again. And got the second
date of occupation in their history. And some cities, such as Mariupol,
got the third. During the two years of occupation, the Nazis killed
10,000 civilians there. In two months of occupation, Russia killed
20,000.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Decades after World War II, darkness returned to Ukraine. And it
became black and white again. Again! Evil has returned. Again! In a
different uniform, under different slogans, but for the same purpose. A
bloody reconstruction of Nazism was organized in Ukraine. A fanatical
repetition of this regime. Its ideas, actions, words and symbols.
Maniacal detailed reproduction of its atrocities and “alibi”, which
allegedly give an evil sacred purpose. Repetition of its crimes and even
attempts to surpass the “teacher” and move him from the pedestal of the
greatest evil in human history. Set a new world record for xenophobia,
hatred, racism and the number of victims they can cause.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Never again! It was an ode of a wise man! Anthem of the civilized
world! But someone sang out of tune. Distorted “Never again” with notes
of doubt. Silenced, beginning his deadly aria of evil. And this is clear
to all countries that have seen the horrors of Nazism with their own
eyes. And today they are experiencing a terrible deja vu. See it again!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>All nations who have been branded “third-class”, slaves without the
right to their own state or to exist at all hear statements that exalt
one nation and erase others with ease. They claim that you don’t really
exist, you are artificially created, and therefore you have no rights.
Everyone hears the language of evil. Again!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>And together they acknowledge the painful truth: we have not
withstood even a century. Our Never again was enough for 77 years. We
missed the evil. It was reborn. Again and now!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>This is understood by all countries and nations who support Ukraine
today. And despite the new mask of the beast, they recognized him.
Because, unlike some, they remember what our ancestors fought for and
against. They did not confuse the first with the second, did not change
their places, did not forget.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The Poles didn’t forget, on whose land the Nazis began their march
and fired the first shot of World War II. Didn’t forget how evil first
accuses you, provokes you, calls you an aggressor, and then attacks at
4.45am saying it’s self-defense. And they saw how it repeated on our
land. They remember the Nazi-destroyed Warsaw. And they see what was
done to Mariupol.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The British people did not forget how the Nazis wiped out Coventry,
which was bombed 41 times. How the “Moonlight Sonata” from the Luftwaffe
sounded, when the city was continuously bombed for 11 hours. How its
historic center, factories, St. Michael’s Cathedral were destroyed. And
they saw missiles hit Kharkiv. How its historic center, factories and
the Assumption Cathedral were damaged. They remember London being bombed
for 57 nights in a row. Remember how V-2 hit Belfast, Portsmouth,
Liverpool. And they see cruise missiles hit Mykolaiv, Kramatorsk,
Chernihiv. They remember how Birmingham was bombed. And they see its
sister city Zaporizhzhia being damaged.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The Dutch remember this. How Rotterdam became the first city to be
completely destroyed when the Nazis dropped 97 tons of bombs on it.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The French remember this. Remember Oradour-sur-Glane, where the SS
burned half a thousand women and children alive. Mass hangings in Tulle,
the massacre in the village of Ascq. Thousands of people at a
resistance rally in occupied Lille. They saw what was done in Bucha,
Irpin, Borodyanka, Volnovakha and Trostyanets. They see the occupation
of Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk and other cities where people do not
give up. And thousands of them go to peaceful rallies, which are beyond
the power of the occupiers, and all they can do is shoot at civilians.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The Czechs have not forgotten this. How in less than a day, the
Nazis destroyed Lidice, leaving only ashes from the village. They saw
Popasna destroyed. There are not even ashes left from it. The Greeks,
who survived massacres and executions throughout the territory, the
blockade and the Great Famine, have not forgotten.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>This is remembered by Americans who fought evil on two fronts. Who
passed Pearl Harbor and Dunkirk with the Allies. And together we are
going through new, no less difficult battles.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>This is remembered by all Holocaust survivors - how one nation can hate another.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Danes, Georgians, Armenians,
Belgians, Norwegians and many others have not forgotten this - all those
who suffered from Nazism on their land and all those who defeated it in
the anti-Hitler coalition.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Unfortunately, there are those who, having survived all these
crimes, having lost millions of people who fought for victory and gained
it, have desecrated the memory of them and their feat today.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The one who allowed the shelling of the cities of Ukraine from his
land. The cities that, along with our ancestors, were liberated by his
ancestors.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>The one who spat in the face of his “Immortal Regiment”, placing torturers from Bucha next to it.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>And challenged all mankind. But forgot the main thing: any evil always ends the same – it ends.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Fellow Ukrainians!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Today, on the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, we pay homage
to all those who defended their homeland and the world from Nazism. We
note the feat of the Ukrainian people and their contribution to the
victory of the anti-Hitler coalition.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Explosions, shots, trenches, wounds, famine, bombing, blockades,
mass executions, punitive operations, occupation, concentration camps,
gas chambers, yellow stars, ghettos, Babyn Yar, Khatyn, captivity,
forced labor. They died so that each of us knows what these words mean
from books, not from our own experience. But it happened differently.
This is unfair to them all. But the truth will win. And we will overcome
everything!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>And the proof of this is called “Werewolf”. This is Hitler’s former
headquarters and bunker near Vinnytsia. And all that is left of it is a
few stones. Ruins. The ruins of a person who considered himself great
and invincible. This is a guide for all of us and future generations.
What our ancestors fought for. And proved that no evil can avoid
responsibility. Will not be able to hide in the bunker. There will be no
stone left of it. So we will overcome everything. And we know this for
sure, because our military and all our people are descendants of those
who overcame Nazism. So they will win again.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>And there will be peace again. Finally again!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>We will overcome the winter, which began on February 24, lasts on
May 8, but will definitely end, and the Ukrainian sun will melt it! And
we will meet our dawn together with the whole country. And family and
loved ones, friends and relatives will be together again! Finally again!
And over the temporarily occupied cities and villages our flag will fly
again. Finally again! And we will get together. And there will be
peace! Finally again! And no more black and white dreams, only a blue
and yellow dream. Finally again! Our ancestors fought for this.</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Eternal honor to all who fought against Nazism!</b></p><b>
</b><p><b>Eternal memory to all those killed during World War II!</b></p><p>(Posted by Daniel Boffey in today's online Guardian.)</p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-38478802559209121222022-03-02T10:42:00.001+00:002022-03-02T10:58:54.400+00:00Mourir Pour Kyiv?<p>It's a grey and sombre Ash Wednesday in Durham.</p><p>Two thousand miles to the east the Russian Army is pounding the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, which, eighty years ago, endured the horrors of German occupation. And while Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people stoically endure everything that Vladimir Putin can throw at them, the West praises their valour and offers arms, but refuses all calls for military intervention.</p><p>There are arguments for non-intervention certainly (although Boris Johnson did remark not so long ago that Ukraine was hardly "<span class="ILfuVd"><span class="hgKElc">a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing")</span></span>, but - as Zelenskyy himself attested in recent days - it would be foolish to imagine that, if Putin ultimately prevails in Ukraine he will not subsequently turn his attention westward. I am reminded of the famous <a href="https://www.herodote.net/4_mai_1939-evenement-19390504.php" target="_blank">newspaper article</a> by the future French collaborationist Marcel Deat in May 1939 in which he accused Poland of dragging France into an unnecessary war. What history records of the aftermath of the Munich Agreement has not been kind to the West; one wonders what it will say of us in our time.<br /></p><p>The resolution of Ukraine has been of the highest order in resisting one of the most powerful militaries in the world. In Russia, Alexei Navalny - another supremely courageous man - has called for daily protests to end the war. <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">"They say that someone who cannot attend a rally and does not risk being arrested for it cannot call for it," <a href="https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1498949282816221193" target="_blank">he writes on Twitter</a>. "I'm already in prison, so I think I can." Surely this is also the moment when the Moscow Patriarchate has the opportunity to affirm the common identity of Russian and Ukrainian and oppose this slaughter.</span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">The meaning of Ash Wednesday has never seemed more fitting than on March 2, 2022.<br /></span></p><br />Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-49825059997407823732021-08-23T10:04:00.000+01:002021-08-23T10:04:30.781+01:00Ephraim Radner and the Frailty of Contemporary Ecclesiology <p> As always, this should be read in its<a href="https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2021/08/18/searching-for-noahs-ark-report-120-from-the-field/" target="_blank"> entirety</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>I was by then disillusioned by the promise of jumping ship, as I am
still: was there really a better one, the “true ark,” plying the
currents in the night, unmarked by what seemed more and more a drifting
fleet of imposters? Burundi, then Rwanda, the urban centers of America,
then simply reading and looking about the world and its past and
present, made it quite clear to me that Catholics, Anglicans, and all
the welter of Protestants busying about had come to the same horrendous
moral shipwreck that my own little window onto the Great Lakes Region of
Africa had looked upon. It struck me as more likely that <em>all</em>
of them were but remnants, the battered timbers and rafts that had been
set loose from one once grand vessel, eight souls now holding on to this
or that within the tides, often too far from one another even to be
apprehended.</p>
<p>“Bring them together again!” I began to yearn, tying myself not so
much to a pristine boat, as to the task of repair, calling to this or
that passing group — and they to me — so that somehow, before the
currents swept us too far away from one another, we should lash our
boards together, bit by bit. Ecumenism became the new road for my
search. Though it couldn’t quite see the ark itself, the ecumenical
venture to which I now gave myself seemed to guess at the blueprint, its
earlier towering form; to recognize this or that piece of what was once
a lofty ship; to intuit the nails and fittings, like some great marine
jigsaw that skill, acuity, and patience might resolve.</p>
<p><span class="cb-dropcap-small">T</span>hat was some years ago. I now
think the ecumenical road is a journey of “defaults” — it is whatever it
is we simply end up being, as churches come and go, pressed up
together, pulled apart, refashioned by the waves. Our skills at putting
things back together seem to have withered, if ever we had them, and
acuity and patience both are out of fashion in church and civil society.
We have been drifting farther from each other, not closer, as the days
pass on. Eight souls were saved within the ark, and truly so, I believe.
But many souls have been lost within the ark as well. Who is who, and
where they are, and how far the distances, no one knows. We are left to
trust the tides, the long swirl of the currents, the default of the
globe’s encircling streams.</p>
<p>This long circling, I now believe, will wash up the (Roman) Catholic
Church that, by default, will gather up, in some fashion, the pieces of
everything else, including its own broken witness. Not as a “takeover.”
More like someone coming back to their home after a fire has burned it
down, and kicking through the embers and piles, the scattered bits of
uncharred belongings, and then taking them up and caring for them
together in some new setting where new homes are built.</p></blockquote><p></p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-48049495229270086202021-08-15T21:19:00.002+01:002021-08-15T21:20:24.492+01:00Inevitable Defeat?<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><u>I posted this at my LinkedIn account earlier today.</u><br /></span></p><div class="reader-article-content" dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Even as I write the
Taliban are entering the outskirts of Kabul, almost twenty years since
Ahmad Shah Massoud's assassination in Takhar Province and the assault on
the World Trade Center two days later. In the immediate aftermath,
certainly in 2001 and even in 2003, I would have counted myself a fellow
traveller with those Neoconservatives who pressed for intervention in
Afghanistan and Iraq, not least because those who talked most loftily of
respecting international law were also those who fell strangely silent
when the talk of human rights abuses switched to Cuba or Venezuela and
who seemed unfazed by the willingness of the United Nations to include
representatives of notoriously brutal regimes on the Human Rights
Council. In the case of Afghanistan, the hosting of Al Qaeda and the
Taliban's refusal to expel it after 9/11 certainly seemed reasonable
grounds for intervention. In the case of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I
could never understand why this was not couched in terms of the simple
fact that for over a decade the Iraqi regime remained in breach of many
aspects of the UN resolutions to which it had committed itself in the
ceasefire agreement in 1990 (the enduring complaints about the cost of
maintaining the no-fly zone were a staple of the 1990s). Recalling
further the betrayal of the Shia community, who were encouraged to rise
against Saddam Hussein only to be then left unprotected by the Coalition
(in contrast with the Kurds), there seemed ample justification both for
the removal of the regime and the promotion of a multi-ethnic state in
the Fertile Crescent.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The devil, of course, is in the detail. The
vignette of the forty-third president's victory address on board the USS
Abraham Lincoln beneath the banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished"
in retrospect proved symbolic of the shambles that characterised so much
of the peacekeeping and 'nation-building' of the next twenty years.
Ironically, for a nation that has long recognized the importance of
subsidiarity and federalism, all too many of the 'experts' failed to
recognise the enduring importance of the local community (which, after
all, helped sustain Kurdish resistance to the Baa'thist regime,
Mujahidin opposition to Russian occupation and, indeed, the Taliban
themselves). A sustained commitment to a federal model from the outset
might have kept in check the Sunni resentment that ultimately gave rise
to ISIS and empowered local ethnic communities in Afghanistan to resist
the Taliban (of course, it might also have given rise to a resurgence of
warlordism, but the evident bankruptcy of the Kabul regime and the
Afghan National Army today suggests that this would hardly have been
worse than the present situation).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I was only five years old when
South Vietnam fell, so for me it has always been a historical debate,
rather than a process through which I Iived. There are many issues on
which I disagree with the current president, but it seems incredibly
hypocritical of some of his political opponents to condemn him for
following through on a process that his predecessor set in motion. Bob
Dole's acid comment in the 1976 vice-presidential debate about the
deaths in "Democrat wars" in the twentieth century hardly holds true for
the twenty-first (though the death toll - of Americans at least - is
far less). Even if the Republican Party has now repudiated
nation-building, it was a Republican president who brought us to this
pass. I must confess that I better understand the old midwestern
isolationists (many of whose views on economic - though not cultural -
issues would suggest them to be men of the Left). They viewed the
priorities of the Old World - including colonialism - as incompatible
with those of the New World, but they did not offer up the United States
as the embodiment of the perfect society but rather as the nation most
predisposed to strive for that goal. For them it was a model that could
only be adopted, never imposed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The hubris with which the wars of
the early 2000s were launched has brought us to where we are today. The
sacrifices of military personnel - American and otherwise - and of
those Afghan and Iraqi citizens who struggled to build a civil society
would appear to have been thrown away on a cause which few politicians -
on the Left or the Right - have shown much interest in promoting. What
more can one say? </span></p></div>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-52441606296232124722021-05-26T11:59:00.008+01:002021-06-01T08:08:15.253+01:00If this is hate speech then what future for pluralism?<div style="text-align: left;"><p>In June 2019 the Reverend Dr. Bernard Randall delivered a sermon at Trent College, the private boarding school of which he was then chaplain, in which he sought to voice his concerns regarding the college's plans to develop an "LGBT+ inclusive curriculum". Full details of these events can be found <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9557845/School-reports-chaplain-telling-pupils-theyre-allowed-disagree-LGBT-teaching.html">here</a> (and elsewhere), but since the sermon appears to have been the catalyst for, amongst other things, the reporting of Dr. Randall by the school to the anti-terrorism unit of Derbyshire Police it seems as worthy a document as any for judging the state of free speech in general and freedom of religion in particular in British education.</p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>For more than thirty years, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/cacc0b40-c3a4-473b-86cc-11863c0b3f30">Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988)</a> has been excoriated for its prohibition of "promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." Regardless of one's views as to what constitutes an authentic marriage (and many opposite sex and ostensibly Christian partnerships would fall short of the desired standard), I doubt that Section 28 did little actively to promote family life and I fear it may well have further contributed to the diminution of the human dignity of those whose manner of living it condemned. Sadly, the same mindset that inspired the authors of Section 28 now appears to inform the views of the present generation of LGBT activists who are disinclined to entertain the possibility of constructive dissent</p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>At a time when the language of activists (liberal and conservative alike) is characterised by a 'take no prisoners' mentality, it is telling that the words of Dr. Randall (is it not interesting, in a world that tends to dismiss traditional religious teaching as the preserve of the uneducated, that the individual at the centre of the controversy is the holder of a PhD and the headmaster of Trent College is not) can be deemed "inflammatory, divisive and harmful". </p><p>"We should not descend into abuse," declares Dr. Randall, "we should
respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree. Above all, we
need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks – that’s
what loving your neighbour as yourself means." And further, "Whichever side of this
conflict of ideas you come down on, or even if you are unsure of some of
it, the most important thing is to remember that loving your neighbour
as yourself does not mean agreeing with everything he or she says; it
means that when we have these discussions there is no excuse for
personal attacks or abusive language."</p><p class="mol-para-with-font">It can be enlightening to reflect, as I sometimes remark to my students, on the evolution of the understanding of the term "toleration," particularly as it applies to religious communities. In the late 17th Century it was acknowledged that the transformation of the religious landscape effected by the Reformation could not be reversed and those states with religious minorities would have to find some means of accommodating them (there were, of course, exceptions to this principle, notably the French Huguenots either expelled or forcibly converted by the terms of the Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685). However, such religious toleration was far removed from the freedoms accorded Christians in North America after the Revolution. Membership of the state church was usually a requirement for active involvement in the life of the community and for holding civic office, with "Dissenters" excluded from the public square. The story of toleration in Europe in the 18th and 19th Centuries is one of the devlopment of a much more inclusive approach to religious minorities in which political constraints were lifted and their communities encouraged actively to contribute to the life of the wider society. Such a welcome carried with it a readiness to recognise that those who dissented from the prevailing orthodoxy had a right to do so without fear or favour. </p><p class="mol-para-with-font">I reproduce the text of Dr. Randall's sermon below. It seems to me to be as reasoned (and reasonable) expression of the 'minority' position as one could hope to find in this polarized age. "It is perfectly legitimate to think that
marriage should only properly be understood as being a lifelong
exclusive union of a man and a woman;" writes Dr. Randall, "indeed, that definition is written
into English law. You may perfectly
properly believe that, as an ideal, sexual activity belongs only within
such marriage, and that therefore any other kind is morally problematic.
That is the position of all the major faith groups – though note that
it doesn’t apply only to same-sex couples. And
it is a belief based not only on scripture but on a highly positive
view of marriage as the building block of a society where people of all
kinds flourish, and on recognising that there are many positive things
in life more important than sex, if only we’d let them be. This
viewpoint is recognised by many people as extremely liberating. And
it’s an ethical position which could also be arrived at independently of
any religious text, I think". </p><p class="mol-para-with-font">Many may disagree with his views, but pupils at Trent College are entitled not only to hold them but to express them without fear of sanction. <span class="ILfuVd"><span class="hgKElc">"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four," insists Winston Smith in George Orwell's <i>1984</i>. "If that is granted, all else follows.</span></span>" I can't help but wonder if that premise is ever more under threat in the increasingly <b>in</b>tolerant West. </p><h2 style="text-align: center;">Text of Dr. Randall's sermon, June 21, 2019</h2><p style="text-align: left;"> <i>I have a theory about Brexit. It seems to
me that people who voted to leave the European Union voted for largely
political reasons – to do with democratic self-determination; and people
who voted to remain did so for largely economic reasons – to do with
prosperity and jobs.</i></p></div><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>Of course I’m
simplifying here, and both sides claim to consider both, but it seems to
me that which set of ideas, which ideology, takes priority determines
which way many people voted.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And while
we can easily discuss facts, and try to find the truth behind factual
claims, ideals aren’t true or false in the same way.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And
so the problem with the often very heated and unpleasant debate ever
since the referendum is that people haven’t managed to cope with there
being two competing sets of ideals – two ideologies.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>Now
when ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should
respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree. Above all, we
need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks – that’s
what loving your neighbour as yourself means.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>By
all means discuss, have a reasoned debate about beliefs, but while it’s
OK to try and persuade each other, no one should be told they must
accept an ideology. Love the person, even where you profoundly dislike
the ideas. Don’t denigrate a person simply for having opinions and
beliefs which you don’t share.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>There
has been another set of competing ideals in the news recently. You may
have heard of the protests outside a Birmingham primary school over the
teachings of an LGBT-friendly ‘No Outsiders’ programme.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>In
a mostly Muslim community, this has been sensitive, because many
parents feel that their children are being pushed to accept ideas which
run counter to Islamic moral values.</i></p><i>And
in our own school community, I have been asked about a similar thing –
and the question was put to me in a very particular way – ‘How come we
are told we have to accept all this LGBT stuff in a Christian school?’ I
thought that was a very intelligent and thoughtful way of asking about
the conflict of values, rather than asking which is right, and which is
wrong.</i><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>So my answer is this: There are
some aspects of the Educate and Celebrate programme which are simply
factual – there are same-sex attracted people in our society, there are
people who experience gender dysphoria, and so on.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>There
are some areas where the two sets of values overlap – no one should be
discriminated against simply for who he or she is: That’s a Christian
value, based in loving our neighbours as ourselves.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>All these things should be accepted straightforwardly by all of us, and it’s right that equalities law reflects that.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>But
there are areas where the two sets of ideas are in conflict, and in
these areas you do not have to accept the ideas and ideologies of LGBT
activists. Indeed, since Trent exists ‘to educate boys and girls
according to the Protestant and Evangelical principles of the Church of
England’, anyone who tells you that you must accept contrary principles
is jeopardizing the school’s charitable status, and therefore it’s very
existence.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>You should no more be told
you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in
favour of Brexit, or must be Muslim – to both of which I’m sure most of
you would quite rightly object.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>I am
aware that there will be a good few in our community who will have been
struggling, if they feel they are being told that they must accept ideas
which run counter to their faith – or indeed non-faith – based
reasoning about the world.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font" id="ext-gen41"><i>So
I want to say to everyone, but especially to those who have been
troubled, that you are not obliged to accept someone else’s ideology.
You are perfectly at liberty to hear ideas out, and then think, ‘No, not
for me’.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>There are several areas where
many or most Christians (and, for that matter, people of other faiths,
too), will be in disagreement with LGBT activists, and where you must
make up your own mind. So it is perfectly legitimate to think that
marriage should only properly be understood as being a lifelong
exclusive union of a man and a woman; indeed, that definition is written
into English law.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>You may perfectly
properly believe that, as an ideal, sexual activity belongs only within
such marriage, and that therefore any other kind is morally problematic.
That is the position of all the major faith groups – though note that
it doesn’t apply only to same-sex couples.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And
it is a belief based not only on scripture but on a highly positive
view of marriage as the building block of a society where people of all
kinds flourish, and on recognising that there are many positive things
in life more important than sex, if only we’d let them be.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>This
viewpoint is recognised by many people as extremely liberating. And
it’s an ethical position which could also be arrived at independently of
any religious text, I think.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>In other
areas you are entitled to think, if it makes more sense to you, that
human beings are indeed male and female, that your sex can’t be changed,
that although the two sexes have most things in common, there are some
real, biologically based differences between them overall. And if you
think that, you would be in accord not only with the tradition of most
Christians, and other faiths, but much of the biological and
psychological sciences too.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>You are
entitled, if you wish, to look at some of the claims made about gender
identity and think that it is incoherent to say that, for example,
gender is quite independent of any biological factor, but that a
person’s physiology should be changed to match his or her claimed
gender; or incoherent to say that gender identity is both a matter of
individual determination and social conditioning at the same time, or
incoherent to make claims about being non-binary or gender-fluid by both
affirming and denying the gender stereotypes which exist in wider
society.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And if these claims, which do
seem to be made, are incoherent, then they cannot be more than partially
true. Yet truth is important as we try to make decisions about the
consequences of these ideas.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And you
might reasonably notice that some LGBT activists will happily lie about
gender identity being a legally protected characteristic (which it
isn’t), and from that observation wonder whether there are other areas
where their relationship to truth is looser than might be ideal.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>But,
by way of contrast, no one has the right to tell you that you must lie
about these matters, to say things you sincerely believe to be false –
that is the tactic of totalitarianism and dictatorship.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>On
a more positive note, Christians will want to have a discussion about
human identity which focuses on the things we all have in common, rather
than increasingly long lists of things which might divide.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>You
might be concerned that if you take the religious view on these matters
you will be attacked and accused of homophobia and the like. But
remember that religious belief is just as protected in law as sexual
orientation, and no one has the right to discriminate against you or be
abusive towards you.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>Remember too that
‘phobia’ words have a strict sense of extreme or irrational fear or
dislike, like arachnophobia, fear of spiders, or triskaidekaphobia, fear
of the number thirteen – well, there’s nothing extreme about sharing
your view with the Church of England, established by law, and of the
majority of the world’s population who belong to these faiths.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>Nor
is it irrational to hold these views, since they can be based both on
secular reasoning and on scriptures – and if, on other grounds, you are
sure that the scriptures reflect the mind of God, then they provide the
very best reasons possible for anything.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>But
‘homophobia’ and ‘transphobia’ have come to be used in a looser sense
to mean often simply, ‘You disagree with me and I’m going to refuse to
listen to you, and shame you to shut you down’. In other words, they
have sometimes come to be terms of abuse, used in a
dictionary-definition, bigoted and bullying way. You can safely ignore
these uses, although that takes real moral courage, I know.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>And
you may think that LGBT rights are different somehow, because no one
chooses to belong to the varied groups represented by these ideas. To
which I would remind you that equalities law does not recognise that
distinction – all equalities are in fact equal.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>So,
all in all, if you are at ease with ‘all this LGBT stuff’, you’re
entitled to keep to those ideas; if you are not comfortable with it, for
the various especially religious reasons, you should not feel required
to change.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>Whichever side of this
conflict of ideas you come down on, or even if you are unsure of some of
it, the most important thing is to remember that loving your neighbour
as yourself does not mean agreeing with everything he or she says; it
means that when we have these discussions there is no excuse for
personal attacks or abusive language.</i></p><p class="mol-para-with-font"><i>We
should all respect that people on each side of the debate have deep and
strongly held convictions. And because, unlike Brexit, this is not a
debate which is subject to a vote, it is an ongoing process, so there
should be a shared effort to find out what real truth looks like, and to
respect that that effort is made honestly and sincerely by all people,
even if not everybody comes up with the same answers for now.</i></p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-18485313303121757242021-05-12T21:03:00.003+01:002021-05-13T20:13:37.291+01:00The Red Wall Continues to Crumble?
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1919 the British Labour Party won control of Durham
County Council in the heart of the coal-producing Northeast, the first such
victory at that level of local government (directly elected county councils have
existed since 1888). Following three years of minority control from 1922 to
1925, Labour recovered full control of the county council, a state of affairs
that prevailed until May 6, 2021 when the party lost twenty seats and slumped to 37.7
percent of the popular vote. American readers will doubtless be put in mind of the
same West Virginia that backed Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Michael Dukakis in 1988
but gave two-thirds of its votes to Donald Trump in 2020. The fortunes of the
white working class and the political parties that once championed their
interests seem increasingly to have diverged, economically as well as
culturally, even if the political beneficiaries of that shift sometimes seem
unlikely inheritors of the populist mantle.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Votes in 2021</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Wards contested in 2021</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Seats won in 2021</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Change in seats 2017-2021</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Labour</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">48,146 (37.7%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">63</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">53</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">-20</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Conservative</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">34,621 (27.1%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">62</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">24</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">+14</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Liberal Democrat</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">15,442 (12.1%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">39</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">17</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">+3</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Green</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">3,418 (2.7%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">17</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">1</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">+1</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Derwent Independent</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">4,176 (3.3%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">10</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">5</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">-2</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Northeast Party</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">2,198 (1.7%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">6</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">4</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">+1</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.75pt;" valign="top" width="92">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Independent</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.85pt;" valign="top" width="60">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">19,692 (15.4%)</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.45pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">41</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="57">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">22</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-color: currentcolor windowtext windowtext currentcolor; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top: none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 44.15pt;" valign="top" width="59">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">+3</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a local resident (born within sound of cathedral bells half
a century ago) it has been fascinating to witness the culmination of a process
that began with the region’s sweeping endorsement of Brexit in 2016, continued
with the loss of three long-time Labour seats in County Durham, including the
Sedgefield constituency of former Prime Minister Tony Blair (like me an alumnus
of Durham Cathedral’s Chorister School) in 2019, and now has even deprived
Labour of power in its ancestral heartland. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Members of the county council are elected from sixty-three wards,
each of which return between one and three councillors. Electors in two-seat and
three-seat wards cast as many votes as there are seats allocated, meaning that
the party that secures the most votes may not win all the seats. I have attempted
to calculate levels of popular support by combining the vote for all candidates
from a particular party and dividing this by the number of seats allocated to
that ward. Only the Labour Party ran enough candidates to fill every seat on
the council, however, and I was obliged to treat “independent” as a generic
term, even though the majority of such candidates ran on their individual merits.
The vote totals are at best an approximation. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Arguably the most remarkable feature of the local election
was the success of the Conservative Party, who secured almost a fifth of the seats
and more than a quarter of the popular vote. This is a region in which the decimation
of the mining industry in the Thatcherite Eighties has cast a long shadow and
Conservatism has struggled to articulate a vision that can appeal to the
Geordie heartlands. “Brexit and Boris” seems – thus far – to have altered the
rules of the game, though whether the latter will succeed in creating a “<a href="https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1336">Joseph Chamberlain moment</a>”
remains to be seen. The local party ran candidates in every ward except Tow Law
(where none of the national parties stood) and won pluralities in thirteen
wards. Apart from a solitary win in Chester-le-Street, however, all the Conservative
councillors were returned for wards in the three parliamentary constituencies
in the south and west (Bishop Auckland, Northwest Durham and Sedgefield) that fell
to them in 2019. That they took eleven seats directly from Labour is no small achievement,
but also reflects the distinctive character of western Weardale, as compared with
the eastern ex-colliery communities of Easington and North Durham. Had the
party’s share of seats reflected their share of the vote, there would now be thirty-four
Conservatives on the county council rather than twenty-four. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By contrast, the Liberal Democrats adopted a more targeted
strategy, contesting only thirty-nine wards. An absence of candidates was particularly
noticeable in Easington, where they left nine of the eleven wards uncontested.
Their base remains in the City of Durham (home to the university) and the
communities around it, where they hold ten seats (over half their caucus). The
two seats lost by Labour in the City of Durham constituency in 2021 actually went
to an independent candidate and to a Green, who won the most votes in the town
of Brandon and is that party’s only representative on the county council. The
Liberal Democrats also took two seats from Labour in the town of Aycliffe and one
seat in the old steel town of Consett, where they now hold two of Consett’s three
seats.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The third component of the anti-Labour bloc is comprised of
independents, either affiliated with minor parties or running on their own
merits. There were twenty-nine such councillors elected in 2017 and thirty-one
in 2021. Independent candidates topped the poll in ten wards in 2021 and won almost
a quarter of the seats on the county council, despite winning only a fifth of
the popular vote. Nevertheless, the Independents can plausibly argue that they have
shown strength across the county, particularly in Easington and North Durham, where neither
Conservatives nor Liberal Democrats have much of a foothold.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, of course, there is the Labour Party itself. By no
means a spent force, the party continues to dominate in Easington (fifteen of
twenty-one seats) and has a narrow majority in North Durham (twelve out of
twenty-two seats). The real damage was inflicted in the west of the county
where the Conservatives gained ten seats from Labour. That alone would have
left Labour with exactly half the seats on the county council, but further losses
to the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents drove it to its historic
defeat. Of course, this is no guarantee that the former opposition can unite
behind a common agenda. It will be much easier for Labour to persuade eleven
independents to commit to confidence-and-supply than for Conservatives and
Liberal Democrats not only to agree upon a common programme, but to persuade
three-quarters of the independent councillors to go along with it. It should
still make for some interesting council debates. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="false"
DefSemiHidden="false" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="376">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hashtag"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Unresolved Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Link"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
table.MsoTableGrid
{mso-style-name:"Table Grid";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-priority:39;
mso-style-unhide:no;
border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-1759352998303685062021-04-16T16:50:00.006+01:002021-04-16T17:01:23.658+01:00"As long as we are not blinded by unjust temptations, as long as we do not let evil get its way through us, we are fulfilling our responsibility."<p> <img alt="jimmy lai handcuffs getty" height="240" src="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/images/jimmy_lai_handcuffs_getty.jpg?w=750&h=450" width="400" /></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (Image from the <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/45527/arrested-hong-kong-catholic-chose-those-handcuffs-for-justice-godfather-says" target="_blank">Catholic New Agency</a>, August 18, 2020) </span><br /></p><p>When it comes to successful businessmen, all too often I fear we are tempted to assume that they are pragmatists when it comes to matters of conscience. Today's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56770567" target="_blank">conviction</a> of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong attests to the fact that there will always be those willing to stand for a principle, even when self-interest might dictate otherwise. From Xinjiang to Hong Kong and even Taiwan, we are witnesses to the rise of an imperialistic China that is as intolerant of dissent as were the architects of the Cultural Revolution. China may not yet present a military threat comparable to that posed by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, but when it is host to almost one-fifth of the world's population what its government permits (and proscribes) matters to us all. Would that there were a greater willingness on the part of western governments to recognise the existential threat that the present regime poses (not least through the Belt and Road initiative) and to commit to supporting those within China who, like Jimmy Lai, are willing to sacrifice even their freedom in defense of those liberties that we in the West take for granted. </p><p> </p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-91771504301485359452021-04-16T11:07:00.011+01:002021-04-16T17:00:52.432+01:00New Article on the Anglican Church in North America<p>I have been indulging in some number crunching on the current state of the Anglican Church in North America, which the Living Church has been kind enough to publish on the Covenant blog. If you are interested you can find the article <a href="https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2021/04/16/missionary-anglicanism-redux-a-new-paradigm/">here</a>.</p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-52377764868765710512021-03-16T11:27:00.003+00:002021-03-16T11:28:43.812+00:00Enduring Colonialism?<p>Over the past year there have been a number of historical commentaries in the mainstream press that endeavour to explain the philosophical underpinnings of such movements as Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall. Some are more convincing than others. One account that caught my attention was Simukai Chigudu's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jan/14/rhodes-must-fall-oxford-colonialism-zimbabwe-simukai-chigudu?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB">'Colonialism had never really ended': my life in the shadow of Cecil Rhodes'</a>, with much of which I had no quarrel but which at times suffered from the same Manichaean tendencies that inform commentary of this kind. A month ago I wrote to Dr. Chigudu, assuming that, as one scholar to another, a conversation might develop that would be mutually beneficial. Since no reply has been forthcoming I must assume that Dr. Chigudu sees nothing worthy of a response, so I am posting it here.</p><br /><div dir="ltr" id="divRplyFwdMsg"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><b>From:</b> BONNER, JEREMY<br /><b>Sent:</b> 16 February 2021 09:41<br /><b>To:</b> simukai.chigudu@qeh.ox.ac.uk <simukai.chigudu@qeh.ox.ac.uk><br /><b>Subject:</b> My life in the shadow of Cecil Rhodes</span> <div> </div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Dr. Chigudu,</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
found the account that you provided to the <i>Guardian</i> most thought
provoking. It has taken me a while to compose this, but, wearing my
historian's hat, I thought I should articulate some of the concerns that
it provoked in me.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One
of the problems that I have with the narratives of institutional racism
and white privilege that have arisen of late is the way in which they
interrogate the past by the standards of the present and, at the same
time, treat current mores as if they were indistinguishable from those
of sixty years ago. The idea that some of my white working-class
neighbours (I should note here that my background is certainly
economically privileged) in the Northeast enjoy "white privilege" as
compared with, for example, the present MP for Spelthorne (whose
middle-class background is undoubtedly privileged) bears little relation
to reality and I would further point out that in 1975 - when Kwasi
Kwarteng was born - no Home Counties Conservative association would have
considered adopting a candidate of colour, regardless of his or her
political views. Does that mean that the UK is free from racism? Far
from it, any more than it is free from ageism or prejudice against those
with unpopular religious convictions (Muslims and traditionalist
Christians alike), but that makes it no more <i>institutionally</i> racist than it is institutionally anti-religious. <br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Your
thoughts on the situation in Zimbabwe inspire me to take the issue a
little further. My understanding was that with the Lancaster House
Agreement, Robert Mugabe reached an understanding with the white
minority by which he secured to them their economically privileged
status in exchange for a gentleman's agreement to stay out of politics
and ensure that Zimbabwe remained the breadbasket of Africa, securing
Zimbabwe against fifth columnists as it transitioned from an ally of
South Africa to a frontline state. That state of affairs remained in
effect until the 2000 referendum, which the MDC opposed less on the
grounds of land reform than on the new powers assigned to the executive.
You state at one point in your narrative that "Little to nothing was
said (in the early 2000s), in the media or elsewhere, of Zimbabwe’s
colonial legacy, or of the suffering of Black people under Mugabe’s
regime." I can't speak with confidence to the first point, but reporting
of the use of terror by the war veterans knew no colour bar and an
event like Operation Murambatsvina did draw attention. <br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You
also mention your learning for the first time of Gukurahundi. In recent
years many negative aspects of postcolonial Africa (from the Rwanda
genocide to Nigeria's <span class="x_aCOpRe"><span>Special Anti-Robbery Squad) have been explained with reference </span></span>to
colonial failings, and yet there are African states that have - for the
most part - handled multi-party democracy well for most of their
post-colonial history (Senegal and Botswana come to mind). Equally, the
tradition of strongman politics seems to take a long time dying; I can
remember in the early 1990s Frederick Chiluba vanquishing Kenneth Kaunda
at the polls and almost immediately thereafter going after political
opponents much as Kaunda had done in his political heyday - <i>plus ca change</i>.
And then there are the tragedies like Gukurahundi that seem to defy
easy explanations of a colonial legacy. I suppose one could argue that
where colonial administrators played off one ethnic group against
another, such animosities might subsequently spill over into violence,
but was not Gukurahundi an attempt by Mugabe to eliminate the only
alternative ethnic political power base (the Ndebele) in Zimbabwe? The
fact that North Korean mercenaries were employed to do it speaks
volumes. The remark of the Balliol academic that you quote was certainly
obtuse (and unworthy of a scholar), particularly to someone whom they
did not know, but I could have imagined saying much the same about the
politics (and politicians) of Northern Ireland in the past (and even
today). It doesn't have to be an expression of derision so much as one
of despair. Look at the recent metamorphosis of Ahmed Abiy or the police
state that is Eritrea. How do you fix that may not be the most delicate
of questions, but one can surely not deny that something needs fixing?
If the West tries to act (except in the case of apartheid, of course)
it's denounced as colonialist, if it holds off, it's denounced as
indifferent. <br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
have never set much store by statues myself (except where the
individual in question is of historical interest to me), but I can
appreciate that some feel differently. The recent trend towards
iconoclasm typified by Rhodes Must Fall, however, makes me uneasy. It
seems to be driven by the same impulse to obliterate the past that you
so eloquently document in discussing Rhodes's insistence that the Great
Zimbabwe statues were not African in origin. Doubtless you would insist
that the place for contextualizing such statues is in a museum not in
the public square, but the truth is that iconoclasm rarely stops with
the great offenders. We're already seeing a drive to eliminate public
representations of many who have been found to offend against
present-day orthodoxies of one sort or another and I see no signs of
this trend relaxing. Far more efficacious is the erection of new statues
that celebrate those previously excluded from the pantheon, and the
introduction of suitable contextualization for those already on display.
Human history is, ultimately, an exercise in documenting the interplay
of darkness and light, of the demons and angels of human nature, as
indeed your article makes very clear.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sincerely, Jeremy Bonner <br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><br /></div>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-18610733508254649292021-02-24T21:09:00.003+00:002021-02-25T01:22:09.510+00:00Go Forth Upon Thy Journey Christian Soul: Dianne Clode (1940-2021)<p>Earlier today, one of my oldest American friends passed from this world.</p><p>I first met Dianne in the early 1990s, when she was the coordinator for the Friday evening crew of the Grate Patrol (which prepared meals for the homeless in Washington DC) at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, K Street, in Foggy Bottom. A proud South Jersey woman, her civil service career was cut short by a diagnosis of MS for both her and her twin sister Cynthia, for whom she cared until her death in 1996 and of whom she still spoke with fondness many years later. Thankfully, her great fear that she would - like Cynthia - be totally incapacitated or at least confined to a wheelchair was never realised and she bore her condition with a patience that was awe-inspiring, even as she frankly confessed to close friends the toll that it inflicted upon her.</p><p>Brought to faith through Catholic Charistmatic Renewal, Dianne was aesthetically a high church Anglican but found herself unable to accommodate the ambivalence toward the sanctity of life that was characteristic of many in The Episcopal Church during the 1980s and 1990s. Her Christian identity was framed through a Catholic lens not so much because she found in it the ideal community but because the teaching of the Magisterium represented a bulwark against what she felt was a rising tide of cultural nihilism. Outspoken in her convictions, she was always compassionate in her deeds. From her long friendship with a neighbour whose life was sadly constrained by Aspergers' Syndrome to her financial and emotional support for a young single mother and her daughter (which continued until her death), she demonstrated that works were truly the fruit of a vibrant faith. </p><p>During her retirement she found a second calling as a "manuscript doctor" both for former government colleagues and private clients. Her forthrightness in editing and insistence that language be clear and concise was not always as appreciated by those she sought to help as it might have been, but I am grateful that my first published article in the <i>Journal of Mormon History</i> owed much to her editorial labours and in later years her commendations of my writing style were greatly appreciated.</p><p>It seems appropriate to provide a recording of the first part of Edward Elgar's <i>Dream of Gerontius</i>, a composition based on the poem by John Henry Newman, the Anglican divine whose reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 marked the end of the first phase of the Oxford Movement. Dianne would have identified not only with Newman's decision but also with the feelings of loss that - one suspects - must have framed the second half of his life. </p><p><b>Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!<br />
Go from this world! Go, in the Name of God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
The Omnipotent Father, Who created thee!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Go, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Son of the living God, Who bled for Thee!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Go, in the Name of the Holy Spirit,<br />
Who Hath been poured out on thee! Go in the name<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Of Angels and Archangels; in the name<br />
Of Thrones and Dominations; in the name</b><b> </b></p><p><b>Of Princedoms and of Powers; and in the name<br />
Of Cherubim and Seraphim; go forth!<br />
Go, in the name of Patriarchs and Prophets!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
And of Apostles and Evangelists,<br />
Of Martyrs and Confessors, in the name<br />
Of holy Monks and Hermits; in the name<br />
Of holy Virgins; and all Saints of God.<br />
Both men and women, go! Go on thy course;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
And may thy place today be found in peace,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
And may thy dwelling be the Holy Mount<br />
Of Sion: through the Same, through Christ<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Our Lord.</b>
</p><blockquote><p><b> </b></p>
</blockquote><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UAbOgpcSEYg" width="320" youtube-src-id="UAbOgpcSEYg"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p> <br /></p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-84134406832340851362020-08-21T21:44:00.003+01:002021-01-03T19:49:16.927+00:00In Memoriam<p><span style="color: #04ff00;"><span style="color: red;">The following tribute to my late father was authored by William Peak in 2014 and he has been kind enough to permit me to post it on this blog. You can find the original post <a href="http://williampeak.com/fine-man-gerald-bonner/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span> </span><br /></p><header class="entry-header">
<h1 class="entry-title" style="text-align: center;">A Fine Man: Gerald Bonner</h1>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="sep">Posted on </span><a href="http://williampeak.com/fine-man-gerald-bonner/" rel="bookmark" title="8:11 pm"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2014-11-28T20:11:21+00:00">November 28, 2014</time></a> </div>
</header>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">I
believe it was sometime in 1988 that I sent Gerald Bonner the telegram.
I was thinking about writing a novel, and I’d done just enough research
to know he was the expert when it came to the time and place in which I
wanted to set my story: Northumbria, the 7th century. So I sent him a
telegram (“Yes, Virginia, there was a time before e-mail.”) and asked if
I might meet with him when I came to England to research my book. Then I
sat back and waited for a reply.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">None came.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">To
say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I have great respect
for professional historians, and I am well aware of the fact I am not
one. So when my first attempt to contact one of the big names in the
field met with silence, I felt as if I’d been found out. See, I thought,
this is what you get for believing you could write a work of historical
fiction. The real pros, like Bonner, won’t have anything to do with
you.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">Still,
the tickets for England had already been purchased. So I made my trip,
visited all the sites and archives I’d hoped to visit, and then, despite
misgivings, drove up to Durham University where Bonner then served as a
professor of history in the Department of Theology and Religion. On my
second day there, I screwed up my courage, put on my best bib and
tucker, and marched into the great man’s office unannounced.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">And he met me with open arms.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">It
turned out he had received my telegram and had wanted to reply to it
but couldn’t. The form I’d filled out at the telegraph office had
required me to list both my home address and telephone number, and,
foolishly, I had assumed that this information would be transmitted
along with my telegram to its recipient. It hadn’t been, which explained
Bonner’s silence.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">But
the good professor wasn’t silent now. Despite the fact I didn’t have an
appointment, despite the fact he was a busy man with, I assume, any
number of classes to teach and projects to pursue, he dropped everything
and spent the better part of that afternoon talking with me and
advising me on my book. You cannot imagine how important it was to me to
have a man of Bonner’s stature take me and my ideas seriously. It gave
me courage, it strengthened my resolve, I found myself beginning to
believe in this novel I wanted to write. It could be done, I thought, it
could be written. I could write it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://williampeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Bonner-St-Cuthbert.jpg"><img alt="Bonner St Cuthbert" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-400" height="346" src="http://williampeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Bonner-St-Cuthbert.jpg" width="231" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "times"; font-size: 14pt;">The
book that grew out of that conversation in a Durham University office in
1988, The Oblate’s Confession, will be officially launched this Monday,
Dec. 1. Unfortunately, Gerald Bonner passed away last year. I hope he
would have been liked my book, for his encouragement and inspiration
helped create it. And he was such a fine man. At one point in our
conversation, I remember, I asked him if he ever read historical fiction
himself. “I like to take my history neat,” he replied, but then,
doubtless noticing the look of disappointment that must have passed over
my face, he added, “though I did rather enjoy that novel by the
American writer, Frederick Buechner, what was its name? Godric, that’s
it, Godric!” How kind a verbal postscript that was, how kind and how
characteristically generous. I owe Gerald Bonner a great deal. May he
rest in peace. </span></p>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-62251083733841610032020-07-09T11:37:00.001+01:002020-07-09T18:21:41.845+01:00Wise words from Francis Collins<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>It's one of the great tragedies of this current moment that scientifically based public-health measures have somehow been captured as cultural or political phenomena. Your chance of spreading the coronavirus to a vulnerable person has nothing to do with what culture you come from or what political party you belong to. Your responsibility is to try and prevent that from happening to vulnerable people around you. But our country's polarization is so extreme that it even seems to extend to a place like this - where it absolutely doesn't belong. That is really troubling because it's putting people at risk who shouldn't be. </b></span></blockquote>
<br />
The full interview is <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/anthony-faucis-boss-on-why-things-could-be-much-better-soon.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB" target="_blank">here</a> and is well worth reading. Dr. Collins is the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, but his opinion is as relevant to residents of the United Kingdom. We cannot know when we meet a stranger in a public place whether they live with someone vulnerable and therefore need to distance, so we should always act on the assumption that they do. As Collins notes about growing resistance to mask-wearing: "The mask is not for you. That's for everybody around you. If you care about your neighbours, your family, the people you encounter in the store - wear that mask." If people are asymptomatic (as many appear to be), they have no awareness of their potential to infect those vulnerable to a cytokine storm but they are still potential vectors. Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-34806861601727563392020-06-08T08:14:00.000+01:002020-06-08T08:14:42.877+01:00The Creed of AthanasiusYesterday (Trinity Sunday) is one of the days appointed for the recitation of the so-called Athanasian Creed, an excerpt of which appears below.<br />
<br />
<div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other: none is greater, or less than another;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together: and co-equal.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>So that in all things, as is aforesaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>He therefore that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation: that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.</i></div>
<div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>For the right Faith is that we believe and confess: that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds: and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Perfect God, and Perfect Man: of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead: and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Who although he be God and Man: yet he is not two, but one Christ;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh: but by taking of the Manhood into God;</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>One altogether, not by confusion of Substance: but by unity of Person.</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="vlnarrowspace" style="text-align: center;">
<i>For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man: so God and Man is one Christ.</i></div>
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-2462338456362081372020-05-28T17:41:00.004+01:002020-05-28T17:41:48.056+01:00The Cummings AffairThe following letter was sent to Dominic Cummings and copied to the Labour MP for the City of Durham (my home constituency) and the Tory MPs for Bishop Auckland, Northwest Durham and Sedgefield (all of whom seem reluctant to demonstrate their populist credentials in this matter).<br />
<br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<div class="MsoNormal">
28/5/20</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dear Mr. Cummings,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can well appreciate how, faced with an unknown illness,
even the most balanced of people might be tempted to act as you did, but reading
the accounts of your press conference (and the prime minister’s statement yesterday)
I am struck by how little empathy was expressed for ordinary people in similar
situations who adhered to the letter of the rules. Either you contravened the
spirit of the rules or – assuming your interpretation was correct – others were
unfairly obliged to submit to an unduly harsh discipline. If the latter was the
case, why, at least since you returned to work, have you failed to urge the
government in which you play such a prominent role to clarify that other parents
should have been allowed the same freedom to act as you did at the height of
the crisis? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time of the Lockdown, a neighbour of mine in Durham
City and I took steps to organise our neighbourhood. We have thankfully had no
situation of the sort that you and your wife faced, but I feel sure we would
have found a way to help a household where both parents were incapacitated and
young children needed care. If no such network existed in Islington, I still find
it incredible that in your circle of friends and neighbours there was no one to
whom you could turn, and even if that had been the case, the government advice
at the time was for parents in such a situation to approach their local
authority hub. Moreover, assuming that your trip to Durham <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> essential, is your job so important that it necessitated a return
to London upon recovery when one would have assumed that you could continue to provide
advice to the prime minister remotely? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The overriding impression is of an individual who believed
himself so vital to the governing process that he must be allowed to interpret
the rules himself and it does not seem to have occurred to you to ask anyone
other than the prime minister (one of the medical officers, for example) for a
ruling. I find myself recalling Stanley Baldwin’s quip about the exercise of “power
without responsibility.” Of course a parent may decide that his family must
take priority but when he or she holds a position of responsibility should
there not be a penalty for so acting, particularly when so many have lost
spouses and parents in tragic circumstances and even been denied the
opportunity to be present at their deathbeds? Are not officials who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">give</i> advice honour bound to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">follow</i> it or is collective
responsibility dead? I note that your mother has recently attributed your visit
in part to the death of a beloved uncle, but, again, many have been denied the
opportunity to mourn as families. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At your press conference, you seemed inclined to treat all
criticism of your actions as propounded by those who resented your stance on
Brexit (or your opinions in general). I suspect that there are many who voted
Leave (myself included) who also find your arrogance in this matter infuriating.
I can’t help but wonder what the ex-Labour voters who swung Bishop Auckland,
Northwest Durham and Sedgefield to the Tories for the first time in more than
eighty years feel about this situation. So much for the populist rhetoric of
recent years! It would truly seem to be the case that, in the words of George
Orwell, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost thirty years ago I first became acquainted with the career
of Jack Lawson, later a Labour MP for Chester-Le-Street. Early in his career
Lawson was offered the opportunity to study for an Oxford degree (which would
have opened doors to a white collar or professional career):</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
I was grateful but refused. Mr. Hurd pressed me, but I told
him I was going back to the picks and the pit, in pursuance of my ideal . . . I
did not want a professional career. I was of the pits, and would spend my life
there, demonstrating, in fact, that a manual worker might be an educated man,
and that education would end his life of low standards in return for grinding
work. So we thanked those great-hearted considerate people who had designed
this thing and went our way.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=35274730#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That, to me, is what self-sacrifice is about and from a
County Durham man, no less.</div>
<br clear="all" />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=35274730#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Jack Lawson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Man’s Life</i> (London:
Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, 1949), 106.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-23369020838254956132020-04-09T13:18:00.000+01:002020-04-09T13:18:33.373+01:00A Different TriduumWe are entering the Sacred Triduum, the three-day observance of Christ's Passion that opens with the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, passes through the darkness of Good Friday and culminates in the triumph of the Easter Resurrection. One has only to recall the Sri Lanka bombings of Easter Sunday just one year ago to recognise that even Easter itself does not preclude human suffering and death. In the suffering of the Cross, Our Lord participated - and continues to participate - in the most profound of human tragedies, even, one might argue in that sense of abandonment and separation that at times overwhelms even those of deepest faith.<br />
<br />
So much of the liturgy of the Triduum involves acts that are communal in nature but the reality of the present time demands of many that they cease from such intimate contact. An obvious exception concerns those in the medical profession. Their actions today and over the weeks and months ahead - whether performed as avowed followers of Christ or not - embody the New Commandment.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="text John-13-12" id="en-RSV-26625">When he had washed
their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to
them, “Do you know what I have done to you? </span><span class="text John-13-13" id="en-RSV-26626">You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. </span><span class="text John-13-14" id="en-RSV-26627">If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. </span><span class="text John-13-15" id="en-RSV-26628">For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. </span><span class="text John-13-16" id="en-RSV-26629">Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. </span><span class="text John-13-31">If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them . . . Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; </span><span class="text John-13-32" id="en-RSV-26645">if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. </span><span class="text John-13-33" id="en-RSV-26646"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Little
children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I
said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot
come.’ </span><span class="text John-13-34" id="en-RSV-26647">A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. </span><span class="text John-13-35" id="en-RSV-26648">By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (<i>John</i> 12: 12-17, 31-35)</span></div>
</blockquote>
It seems likely that the coronavirus peak will occur during Easter Week. For those suffering the loss of loved ones it will be hard to bear. May our prayers for them prove to be peculiarly efficacious. Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-44877596434089202722020-03-31T15:21:00.002+01:002020-05-07T10:28:41.745+01:00Mortality in a postmodern age<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To view
the swelling tallies of mortality across Europe - most notably in Italy and
Spain - cannot fail to impress even the most detached. It is rather
telling that we are all too often less affected by similar phenomena in Africa
or Asia; tragedies closer to home tend to have greater impact. It is also the
case that the present situation places unprecedented limits on the consolations
traditionally attending the moment of death, most notably the presence of loved
ones at a bedside and shared funeral rites.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The full
impact of the coronavirus pandemic has yet to be felt in Great Britain, so no
enduring conclusions can yet be drawn from overall deaths registered at this date.
However (and I here acknowledge the observations recently made by M.D. in <i>Private Eye</i>) a
consideration of <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/monthlyfiguresondeathsregisteredbyareaofusualresidence" target="_blank">monthly deaths registered</a> by the Office for National
Statistics for January and February going back five years reveals the
following.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 0cm; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 256px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 48.0pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 48.0pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 48.0pt;" width="64"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Jan</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 48.0pt;" width="64"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Feb</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2015</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">60,891</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">46,721</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2016</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">47,457</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">46,021</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2017</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">57,368</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">47,766</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2018</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: red; font-size: 12.0pt;">64,154</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: red; font-size: 12.0pt;">49,177</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2019</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">53,910</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: aqua; font-size: 12.0pt;">45,796</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2020</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">56,706</span></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 12.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">43,653</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Deaths
for the month of January were lower in 2020 than for the
same period in 2015, 2017 and 2018, while they were the lowest in six years for
the month of February. The figures for Week 12 (the third week of March) <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales" target="_blank">have just been released</a>, and reveal that in the course of three weeks, there were
32,560 deaths (the monthly average for the same three weeks over the past five
years was 33,264, with more deaths being recorded in 2015 and 2018 than in 2020). Clearly
the figures for the week ending March 27 will be much more indicative of
whether there is a coronavirus-inspired increase in deaths. What is striking is
that it is 2018 rather than 2020 that has thus far been the outlier in terms of winter
deaths. There were 7,448 more deaths in January and 5,524 more deaths in February
in 2018 than in the current year, while there were 5,138 additional deaths in
Weeks 10-12 of 2018. This means that, using a very crude measure, there were
something in the order of 18,000 additional deaths in the UK alone in the first
three months of 2018 (<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">or almost half
the total of global deaths currently ascribed to coronavirus</b>). </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">While these
observations are in no way intended to downplay the significance of greatly increased
death rates in such epicentres as Lombardy, it does demonstrate how unaware the
general public (amongst whom I count myself) can be of disease burdens that do
not impinge directly upon them. It is the combination of the unknown
quality of the coronavirus, the absence of a vaccine, the enhanced transmissibility
evident in the infections sustained by many world leaders and – most notably –
the anticipated inability of many health systems to handle exponential growth
in cases that has brought us to the present moment.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Update April 3</u></b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The following table is appended to Nick Triggle's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654" target="_blank">article</a> of April 1.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><img alt="Chances of dying from coronavirus vs normal risk" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" height="281" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/E96A/production/_111545795_optimised-mortality_rates-nc.png" width="400" /></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This model would seem to suggest that except for those under 25 (where the death rate is appreciably lower than the norm, overall death rates are largely unchanged with the presence of coronavirus. The figures for hospital deaths with coronavirus present were 582 for the week of March 21-March 27 and 2,846 for the week of March 28-April 3, but this assumes that the presence of coronavirus precipitated death. A comparison of deaths in early 2018 and 2019, reveals the <i>weekly</i> excess to have been 2,313 in January, 845 in February, and 1,644 in March. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Update April 7</u></b></span></span></span></u></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Week 13 figures have just been released, showing deaths to be 11,141, the highest in six years. Those attributed to all respiratory diseases are 1,534, more than 2017 and 2019, but less than 2015, 2016 and 2018. For weeks 10-13 (covering most of March in 2020), the total number of deaths was 43,974, the second-highest in five years, but still 3,665 less than 2018. This means that, in the first quarter of the year there were still 16,500 <i>fewer</i> deaths in 2020 than in 2018. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From
March 28 to to April 3 there have been about 2,800 further deaths
attributed to coronavirus. Averaging all deaths over the past five years
suggests one might expect to see around 10,800 deaths for this period
(though possibly as high as 11,500). The extent to which the reported
figure exceeds 12,000 may well be the best guide. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Update April 14</u></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
Week 14 figures report deaths as 16,387, of which 3,475 mention the
presence of Covid-19 (21.2 percent). This weekly figure is appreciably
higher than any over the past five years (in Week 2 of January 2018
there were 15,050 deaths). The weekly excess for Week 14 alone is 5,500
deaths, although two-fifths of that are not attributed to coronavirus
(unless these reflect undiagnosed at-home deaths). There have now been
four successive days of declining numbers of deaths but it has been the
Easter Weekend, so today's release of figures will likely indicate
whether it is yet a trend. Hospital admissions thankfully appear to have
plateaued. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Update April 22</u></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Entering Week 15 we find deaths to have reached 18,516, of which 6,213 mention the
presence of Covid-19 (33.5 percent). This weekly figure is the highest for the twenty-first century. The weekly excess for Week 15 alone is 8,000
deaths, although a quarter of these are not attributed to coronavirus. In just two weeks, we have reached 80 percent of the excess deaths in the first three months of 2018. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Update May 7</u></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over the course of Weeks 16 and 17, overall deaths rose to 22,351 before falling back slightly to 21,997, reflecting a two-weekly excess of 23,393. Deaths attributed to coronavirus were 8,758 in Week 16 and 8,237 in Week 17, with ONS figures finally reflecting the beginning of a decline in deaths. However, around 6,000 deaths over these two weeks do not appear to be attributable to Covid-19, perhaps collateral damage from the decreased use of the NHS for other health conditions. Over a five-week period there appears to have been around 38,000 excess deaths, of which around 27,000 have a Covid-19 connection. This compares with 5,000 fewer deaths compared to the five-year average in the first twelve weeks of the year. All-cause mortality for the five week period went from 9,675 a week to 18,078 a week. </span></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 256px;"><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;" width="64"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-27449934031504945862020-03-30T20:51:00.003+01:002020-04-09T13:19:11.112+01:00After a week of LockdownWho would have thought just a few short weeks ago that one would be contemplating the almost total cessation of normal everyday activities? Durham is no metropolis, but as a university town its thoroughfares are usually bustling with students at this time but an eerie silence now hangs over the city, although from my study one can still hear the occasional train still rumble across the viaduct and the Cathedral chimes still mark the passing of the hours though, like other houses of worship, it is denuded both of congregation and visitors. On the night of Friday March 20th we listened to a service involving clergy and choir alone held to observe the feast day of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne at which the Dean made pointed reference to the storms and vicissitudes to which the Cathedral had been witness over almost one thousand years. "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger," declares the author of <i>Lamentations</i>, but in truth there have been sorrows to equal - and exceed - any that we may be currently experiencing.<br />
<span class="p"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="p">What is perhaps most uplifting in this time of uncertainty has been the effect of the pandemic on neighbourhood relationships. Here on Western Hill (just west of the railway station) a community has been revitalized. People who had lived in close proximity to one another but had done no more than exchange the time of day - if that - are suddenly connected and households cut off from the wider world by the need to self-isolate have the assurance that healthier neighbours can collect food and medication. Many are for the first time aware of such local initatives as the <a href="https://refusedurham.org.uk/" target="_blank">REfUSE Cafe</a> in Chester-le-Street (in which two local residents are involved), which is currently devoting itself to the provision of food boxes and cooked meals to the most needy in the region. A small but dedicated prayer group is meeting online three times a week to pray for the needs of the community and the wider world. Only this evening, a single rose was left on doorsteps on our road as a gesture of fellowship. Such acknowledgments of our common humanity are perhaps of little consolation to those losing loved ones before their time ("dying suddenly and unprepared" as the Great Litany of the <i>Book of Common Prayer</i> puts it) but they are things to celebrate. What I sincerely pray is that these are not simply fruits of the present hour, but enduring practices that serve to transcend so much of the recent pettiness found not only in politics but in how so many of our institutions - our universities included - operate. Recently one of my prayer partners reflecting on 1 <i>Corinthians</i> 27-28, remarked how the sentiment that </span><span class="p"><span class="text 1Cor-1-27" id="en-RSV-28368">God chooses "what is foolish in the world to shame the wise [and] what is weak in the world to shame the strong" reflects our present-day dependence on those professions (cleaning, for example) that receive little commendation in more 'normal' times. Upon such workers - and, of course, on medical personnel - the burden rests heavily and gratitude not only now but in the years ahead would seem to be a fitting response. </span><span class="text 1Cor-1-28" id="en-RSV-28369"> </span> </span> Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-39900417263015327892020-02-26T09:23:00.000+00:002020-02-26T09:23:24.702+00:00Godliness with Contentment is Great Gain (one of the assigned lessons for Ash Wednesday)<span class="text 1Tim-6-6" id="en-KJV-29795"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>But godliness with contentment is great gain.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-7" id="en-KJV-29796"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-8" id="en-KJV-29797"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-9" id="en-KJV-29798"><sup class="versenum">9 </sup>But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-10" id="en-KJV-29799"><sup class="versenum">10 </sup>For
the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted
after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-11" id="en-KJV-29800"><sup class="versenum">11 </sup>But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-12" id="en-KJV-29801"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>Fight
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art
also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-12" id="en-KJV-29801"> <i>1 Timothy</i> 6-12</span><br />
<span class="text 1Tim-6-13" id="en-KJV-29802"></span>Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-6002489242485939812019-12-12T09:14:00.000+00:002019-12-12T09:14:35.624+00:00The Prophet Isaiah and the General Election<span class="text Isa-32-3" id="en-RSV-18262"><b>From the appointed lesson for Morning Prayer (<i>Isaiah</i> 32:3-8) </b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="text Isa-32-3" id="en-RSV-18262">Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-3">and the ears of those who hear will hearken.</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-4" id="en-RSV-18263">The mind of the rash will have good judgment,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-4">and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-5" id="en-RSV-18264">The fool will no more be called noble,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-5">nor the knave said to be honorable.</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-6" id="en-RSV-18265">For the fool speaks folly,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-6">and his mind plots iniquity:</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-6">to practice ungodliness,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-6">to utter error concerning the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-6">to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-6">and to deprive the thirsty of drink.</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-7" id="en-RSV-18266">The knaveries of the knave are evil;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-7">he devises wicked devices</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-7">to ruin the poor with lying words,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-7">even when the plea of the needy is right.</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-32-8" id="en-RSV-18267">But he who is noble devises noble things,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Isa-32-8">and by noble things he stands.</span></span></div>
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-23895839944456278752019-02-15T14:52:00.000+00:002019-02-16T21:15:20.535+00:00More Church StatisticsWith the Anglican Church in North America poised to enter its second decade it seemed opportune to <a href="https://community.dur.ac.uk/cranmer.hall/Staff/the-revd-dr-david-goodhew/" target="_blank">David Goodhew</a> of Cranmer Hall and myself to look at such data as currently exists and provide an overview of where the denomination may be going. Thanks to the Covenant website, you can read our preliminary findings <a href="https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2019/02/15/the-growth-of-the-anglican-church-in-north-america/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
There is much more to be researched and written regarding the most recent expression of the Anglican tradition and it is our hope that this will be realised in the not too distant future. Certainly there is ample scope for a goodly number of doctoral dissertations.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">UPDATE, February 16.</span><br />
<br />
For those who wonder about cross-denominational comparisons, comprehensive data on church growth can be found in the <a href="http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/u/rcms2010_99_us_adh_2000_ON.asp" target="_blank">ARDA reports for 2000-2010</a>. Below are listed Christian denominations that gained more than 5,000 adherents in this period (Pentecostal churches in red, Holiness churches in green and Eastern Orthodox churches in purple).<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Latter-day Saints gained just under 2 million (+45.5%), while the <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">Assemblies of God</span> (+14.9%),
Seventh-Day Adventists <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(+29.5%)and <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">Church of God (Cleveland)</span> (+13.9%) gained
between 100,000 and 350,000. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 50,000-100,000 range were the <span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;">Christian and Missionary Alliance</span>(+29.5%), Evangelical
Covenant Church (+49.1%), Evangelical Free Church of America (+25.0%) and <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">Vineyard USA</span> (+42.4%).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 25,000-50,000 range were the Evangelical-Presbyterian
Church (+61.6%), <span style="background: fuchsia; mso-highlight: fuchsia;">the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America</span> (+11.5%), the <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">International Pentecostal Holiness
Church</span> (+19.7%), the Presbyterian Church in America (+8.3%), and
(unusually) the Unitarian Universalists (+15.8%). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 10,000-25,000 range were the Community of Christ
(+24.6%), the <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">Pentecostal Church
of God</span> (+22.7%), the Baptist General Conference (+8.9%), the Southern
Baptist Convention (+0.1%), the <span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;">Missionary Church</span> (+28.8%), Christian Churches and Churches of
Christ (+1.0%), the Mennonite Brethren (+49.0%), the <span style="background: fuchsia; mso-highlight: fuchsia;">Serbian Orthodox Church in North America</span> (+23.2%),
and <span style="background: lime; mso-highlight: lime;">the Free Methodist Church
of North America</span> (+11.5%).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two other churches gained more than 5,000, the <span style="background: fuchsia; mso-highlight: fuchsia;">Orthodox Church in America</span>
(+10.1%) and the <span style="background: red; mso-highlight: red;">Church of God of
Prophecy</span> (+8.0%).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>ACNA's recent gains would appear to track those of the Orthodox Church in America pretty closely, with a projected gain of 6,500 in the course of a decade, or a roughly 6% decennial increase (a rate comparable with the </b><b>Orthodox Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in America and greater than the Southern Baptist Convention)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-14718124814932601562019-02-06T21:21:00.001+00:002019-02-06T21:22:32.523+00:00A New Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XmKNs2Hk9kA/XFtPruNl9tI/AAAAAAAAAPM/TGl264MJ0Uc49AAcpicUqM474EEZhxGPACLcBGAs/s1600/Costly%2BCommunion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XmKNs2Hk9kA/XFtPruNl9tI/AAAAAAAAAPM/TGl264MJ0Uc49AAcpicUqM474EEZhxGPACLcBGAs/s320/Costly%2BCommunion.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Almost eight years ago I first broached with Grant LeMarquand at Trinity School for Ministry the possibility of a book centred on the Kikuyu Conference of 1913 and the theological debate that erupted in the Church of England as a result.<br />
<br />
This project has gone through many twists and turns in the years that followed and the <a href="https://brill.com/abstract/title/35837" target="_blank">final result</a>, released tomorrow as part of Brill's <a href="https://brill.com/view/serial/AETH" target="_blank">Anglican-Episcopal History and Theology series</a>, is very different from what was originally envisaged. I would nevertheless argue that the topics under consideration, covering a period from the twilight of the British Empire to the political and cultural upheaval of the early twenty-first century, serve to illuminate the ecclesial conundrum that is contemporary Anglicanism. <br />
<br />
To my fellow contributors, and especially to my co-editor, Mark Chapman, I extend a profound expression of thanks for the patience and good humour with which they have greeted the numerous delays on our journey. May all our readers be informed and encouraged by the lessons of the past. Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-27440900881588225682018-11-21T13:43:00.000+00:002018-11-21T13:43:38.063+00:00Is the Sky Falling?I had the interesting experience recently of being interviewed by Fr Colin Chapman for <a href="http://www.priestpulse.org/" target="_blank">Priest Pulse</a>, which he hosts with Fr. Benjamin Gildas, regarding my contribution to the volume <i>Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion, 1980 to the Present</i>. You can find a record of our discussion <a href="http://www.priestpulse.org/priest-pulse/2018/11/14/is-the-sky-falling-s4-e3-feat-dr-jeremy-bonner" target="_blank">here</a>.Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-67597376631753372162018-10-28T09:10:00.002+00:002018-10-28T09:47:03.336+00:00From dying suddenly and unprepared, Good Lord, deliver us<br />
<img alt="Image result for tree of life synagogue pittsburgh" class="irc_mi" height="355" src="https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/1068/ixCD10681832.jpg" style="margin-top: 8px;" width="400" />
<br />
<br />
<br />
We are overly accustomed these days to news of violent death, not merely in Kabul and Damascus but in Chicago and London, yet when it strikes a community with which one has great familiarity it takes on a peculiar resonance. Yesterday, in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighbourhood, eleven people died in a shooting at Tree of Life synagogue, past which I often walked between 2004 and 2011.<br />
<br />
It is sobering how even places of worship can no longer be assured that their sanctuaries are inviolate (something with which Christians - and those of other faiths - in Africa and Asia have long been familiar). "Am I my brother's keeper," demands Cain of his heavenly Father when confronted with the murder of his brother Abel, already knowing the answer. Today we weep with those weep, but we are also called in the weeks and months ahead to strive to redeem that which has fallen so short in our common life. This tragedy further serves to remind us of the fallen and sinful nature of our humanity.<br />
<br />
I append the English text of the Mourner's Kaddish, the acknowledgment of the gathering in of souls by the One who first provided them. <br />
<div class="copy-paste-block">
</div>
<div class="copy-paste-block">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Glorified and sanctified be God's great
name throughout the world which He has created according to His will.
May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and
within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and
say, Amen. </i><br />
<br />
<i>May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all
the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken
in the world; and say, Amen.</i><br />
<br />
<i>May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.</i><br />
<br />
<i>He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.</i></blockquote>
</div>
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-581602332830755712018-05-27T20:00:00.000+01:002018-05-27T20:06:14.137+01:00The Tragedy of "Repeal the Eighth"My political views are such a curious blend (by contemporary standards) of moderate liberalism on matters economic and solid conservatism on matters cultural (and had I had a vote to cast in the 2016 US presidential election, it would <i>not</i> have been for the current incumbent) that I rather doubt they are comprehensible outside the <a href="https://medium.com/migration-issues/where-is-the-rust-belt-d1dd280cf8a8" target="_blank">Rust Belt</a> (and by no means all of those in it).<br />
<br />
Ireland's recent abortion referendum, however, disturbs me, though not so much the result (which was generally expected) as the manner in which it has been treated by the winning side. While a consistently pro-life stance (on capital punishment, euthanasia <i>and</i> abortion) is certainly a minority position in much of the developed world, it is still saddening to see so many treating this result as something akin to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. What the vote signals is that a majority of the population believe that the unborn child has an inferior status relative to the mother and treat this as a "progressive" development. I could better understand someone who declared this to be the least worst option (and doubtless some supporters of repeal fall into that category) but this is far from the story that the news media promote.<br />
<br />
It is noteworthy, too, how many British politicians are now speaking in terms of bringing Northern Ireland 'into line' with the Irish Republic. Few seem interested in a referendum (which they might lose) but rather in taking advantage of the power vacuum to impose "choice." I note the presence of Sir Vince Cable in their ranks, clearly demonstrating that Tim Farron was wise to give up the leadership. Gone are the days when the Liberal Party could encompass David Steel (the author of the 1967 Abortion Act) and David Alton (the battling pro-life Liberal from Liverpool). Today to be a Liberal Democrat seems to involve going with the cultural status quo.<br />
<br />
The irony of the contemporary world is that we are willing to spend untold sums on premature baby units to save the 'wanted', but also willing to condemn the 'unwanted' healthy unborn to death. Even as absurd (to me at least) sums are spent on IVF and surrogacy for gay couples, so many children remain in council care desperately awaiting fostering or adoption. There is much wrong with contemporary culture, some of it is the product of actions by so-called conservative politicians, but those who consider themselves part of the liberal mainstream should take a hard look at what that mainstream has wrought.<br />
<br />
Repeal the Eighth is no part of the solution; it's part of the problem!Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35274730.post-26071157520303171592018-02-28T11:12:00.001+00:002018-02-28T11:12:38.558+00:00The First Pheasant of Winter . . . in our Garden!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lWNYG6NRLbk/WpaONuJkKKI/AAAAAAAAAOc/nzkHhNSNxWs55vJXZZroOesEIkd4qaf8ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lWNYG6NRLbk/WpaONuJkKKI/AAAAAAAAAOc/nzkHhNSNxWs55vJXZZroOesEIkd4qaf8ACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0082.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Jeremy Bonnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16915767119353670952noreply@blogger.com0