Unseasonable flowers

At last a fine sunny day after weeks of rain and dismal gloom! I went out to look around the very sodden garden, which is a mess because I have not been out to mow or tidy. I was surprised to find so many flowers unseasonably blooming and picked this bunch.

Here we see penstemon, primrose, tobacco, rambling rose Dorothy Perkins, lavatera, dog daisy, erigeron, hebe

And here we also see fuchsia, a David Austin rose and a South African diasy whose name for the present escapes me.

And if I had taken the long-arm with me I could have had Spanish broom and other rambling roses Veilchen blau, American Pillar and an unidentified giant shrub rose with tiny pink flowers.

We have survived the floods here, being on good high ground, though the road has been wrecked by the torrents of water that ran down them. Susanna drove into a pothole and her tyre went flat. The Shannon has risen far higher than ever known before. In this picture you can see the Lough Derg Yacht Club clubhouse with water lapping at its feet. The boathouses and jetties are all flooded, and you can see the angle made by the floating jetties in the background, beside the RNLI inshore lifeboat.

We have had it so much better than other poor souls in Cork, Galway, Clare and Kildare. It is heartening how the Irish people and agencies like St Vincent de Paul and the Irish Red Cross have rallied round to help their neighbours whose homes, farms and businesses have been wrecked, though the Government was rather slower, distracted no doubt by framing a swingeing budget.

People are wondering whether this is a sign of climate change. I don't think anyone can say so for certain, because climate change is a statistical thing. But climate scientists are saying we can expect higher winter rainfall in the West of Ireland, and more extreme weather events. I think it would be wise to take these floods as a wake-up call to start responding to climate change, by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, as well as adapting to the difficult future we all face.

Budget blues

View from the Pew is a regular column I write for Newslink, the magazine for the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe - this article appeared in the December/January 2009/10 issue.

Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan

Can you visualize €1,000,000,000?
Ireland is in an economic mess – commentators, politicians and interest groups all keep telling us so. The Government promises us a harsh budget, and says that if we take the nasty medicine now we will all be better for it. Figures of billions of Euro in budget cuts and/or higher taxes are bandied about – on top of billions to recapitalise the banks, and yet more billions for NAMA. It is all quite bemusing, isn’t it?

€1 billion = €1,000,000,000

One billion 1 Euro coins placed end to end stretch 23,250 km

That’s more than 100 times the distance from Limerick to Dublin

€4 billion would fill one carriageway of the Limerick to Dublin motorway with 1 Euro coins

The hole we are in
As a citizen of this Republic, I feel I should try to understand our situation. So I have just been reading the November 2009 Pre-budget Outlook published by the Department of Finance – you can download it free from http://www.finance.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=6087. It summarises the context in which Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan will frame his budget for 2010. To my surprise it is quite easy to read, and at just 30 pages a good way to get an overview of our economic woes, even if it is rather depressing. For me, the key facts are these:

• National output (GDP) has fallen by around 7.5% this year and is expected to fall by another 1.5% in 2010. Unemployment has soared; pay rates have fallen (in the public if not the private sector); prices are falling; consumption is falling; savings are up; investment is minimal.


• The government deficit – the difference between what is raised in taxes and what is spent – has ballooned to around €20 billion in 2009, largely because tax revenues have collapsed and social welfare payments to the unemployed have surged.

We are faced with a classic deflationary spiral, like the great depression in the 1930s. Keynes’ remedy then was increased public borrowing and spending, to put people back to work and stimulate demand, leading to renewed confidence and a return to investment and growth. This is what other countries are doing now with stimulus packages, and it is what our government has been doing too, by increasing the government deficit.

But the Government says this can’t go on, because even if financial markets would keep lending to us, paying them back would cost too much. Last April they declared they would reduce borrowing by €4 billion in 2010 and another €4 billion in 2011, in order to get borrowing down to 3% of GDP by 2013. Most economists and politicians seem to agree that this scale of adjustment is necessary, though the trades unions argue that the adjustment should be over a longer period. I for one am persuaded a €4 billion adjustment in 2010 is appropriate.

How to reduce borrowing by €4 billion?
But the big question is how to do it. I believe our Christian faith demands social justice – a ‘preferential option for the poor’, in the phrase used by liberation theologians. Can there be any doubt that Jesus calls us in solidarity to protect the poor and the vulnerable?

I am therefore dismayed by the media chorus, on the one hand urging cuts in social welfare for the poor and vulnerable because consumer prices are falling, while on the other asserting that the well off cannot afford to pay more in taxes. Both arguments are nonsense, I think.

First, basic living costs for those on social welfare have not dropped as they have for other groups. Most of the fall in the price index is due to lower mortgage interest rates, but few on social welfare have mortgages, so cuts in line with the index would cause real hardship for those already struggling. St Vincent de Paul points out that the planned removal of the Christmas bonus already represents a 2% cut, at a time of year when poor families need to spend more on basics such as heat, light, food and clothing. A new carbon tax is expected in the budget. This will promote the transition to a low carbon society which we must make to avoid climate change catastrophe, and I am in favour of it. But the poor spend more of their income proportionately on high carbon fuels. Without compensating measures a carbon tax will increase fuel poverty. Social justice requires benefits to be raised, not cut.

Second, those who are well off are well able to pay more in taxes to help out their less fortunate fellow citizens struggling to live on social welfare. Most of those who profited from the bubble economy remain very rich. Sean Quinn, for example, has been able to pass €200 million to his four children this year, despite his losses in the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank. Salaries for Irish professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, business managers and government ministers, remain very high by international norms. Such people will suffer no hardship if asked to pay more. Those who suggest they would skip the country to avoid tax are arguing that we should give in to blackmail, as well as impugning their patriotism.

But more than this, income tax rates for those of us lucky enough to still have good incomes are very low by international standards, as Garrett Fitzgerald has been arguing. Most Irish taxpayers pay tax on income at rates between a quarter and a half of the rates in other western European countries and the USA. Even at higher income levels our rates are still a quarter lower than these other countries. These low rates of tax on incomes are a result of grossly irresponsible government decisions during the boom to fund cuts in income tax from stamp duties and capital gains tax arising from the housing bubble. If we want to enjoy decent health and education services and an acceptable social welfare safety net, we must all be prepared to pay more in tax. And ways must be found to relieve the interest burden on ordinary families who were persuaded to take out mortgages to pay absurd stamp duty on over-priced homes.

Back in April Brian Lenihan appeared to accept this, saying he would raise €2.5 billion in increased taxes in 2010, with a more manageable €1.5 billion in expenditure cuts. More recently he has been saying the whole €4 billion must come in cuts. Is he really preparing to throw social justice to the winds in budget 2010?

And what about overseas aid?
Social justice must not end at home. It should also apply to the poorest of the poor in the developing world. My own key test of Budget 2010, as it was last year, is what happens to development aid.

Ireland has a proud record for overseas development aid. Like all rich countries we promised to increase development aid to 0.7% of GNP to achieve the UN’s Millennium Goals, which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. By 2008 we were the sixth highest per capita donor, giving 0.58% of GNP, on track to meet our commitment to achieve 0.7% by 2012. I awarded Brian Lenihan a cheer in October 2008 for protecting the overseas development budget for 2009.

But what has happened since then? The overseas aid budget has been cut by 24% since February - three times higher than the fall in GNP. This year, for the first time, 1 billion people are going hungry. This shames us all – our government has shamed us! To their credit, 30 TDs and Senators from all parties wrote to the editor of the Irish Times on 14th November earnestly calling on the Government not to cut overseas aid any further. I pray that Brian Lenihan will listen to them, and even restore this year’s cuts.

Nenagh church bells to ring for climate change prayer vigil

Churches Together in Nenagh will mark the eve of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen with a prayer vigil on Sunday 6th December in St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Church Rd, Nenagh, between 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm. All are invited to join the vigil for a few minutes or longer, whatever their faith or denomination.

The Copenhagen summit will be a critical test for world leaders. Two years ago in Bali they agreed to negotiate a comprehensive legally binding treaty this year to avert the catastrophe of run away global warming. Recent reports suggest that a political agreement is more likely at Copenhagen, paving the way for a treaty next year. But substantial delay would be disastrous for people everywhere, our children, and the planet - the recent floods are a wake-up call. Firm commitments are needed now to take action which is both effective and just.

The cross-denomination organising team explain why they believe the vigil is important. ‘World leaders know the eyes of the world are on them and they surely feel the weight of responsibility they bear’, says Sr Patricia Greene of Nenagh Catholic parish. ‘They need our prayers.’ Church of Ireland lay reader Joc Sanders says, ‘Care for God’s planet is a Christian duty. Our prayers should encourage the Irish delegation including Environment Minister John Gormley and Taoiseach Brian Cowen to step up to the mark in Copenhagen’. Cloughjordan Methodist James Armitage adds, ‘We in Nenagh will pray alongside millions of others around the world. God is faithful and we can be sure that He will respond in the way that is best for all creation’.

The team are arranging for the bells of all the churches in Nenagh to be rung from 4 pm. Catholic lay woman Liz Callery urges, ‘Listen for the bells. When you hear them, please make time to stop, reflect and pray for a good result in Copenhagen, even if you cannot join us.’

Nnenagh Churches Together Prayer Vigil - 6th December

If you are anywhere near Nenagh on Sunday 6th December, the Eve of the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, why not come to join us?

Or perhaps you might like to organise something similar in your own community!

Rain and birds

Strawberry-like fruit of Cornus capitata

What amazing rain we've had over the last 10 days or so - and more is promised for the weekend! On Tuesday I emptied nearly a foot out of the wheelbarrow, which I wanted to use to pick up clippings from the Evergreen Oak hedge. And today there is another 2 or 3 inches. Of course the mouth of the barrow is bigger than its base, but that is still a lot of water.

Susanna has started to feed the birds again: the birdtable is out by the kitchen window, and the peanot holders are on the espalier wires. The tits found them straight away, as if they had just been waiting, just like the rats, who have been climbing up to the table. There are few finches as yet, although I see the usual winter gangs in the hedges - I suppose there are still plenty of berries for them. Blackbirds and thrushes have been testing the cotneaster berries I can see from my study, but they are not yet ripe enough I think, or they would have been stripped in 10 minutes. Somebody has been at the large strawberry-like fruit of Cornus capitata, but I haven't detected who yet - probably the thrushes. We have half a dozen of them, grown from seed by Susanna, all now flowering and fruiting.

A bird has nibbled the Cornus capitata fruit

The Cryptomeria japonica given us by Grania has really taken off this year. It is a form that retains its juvenile foliage, which turns copper in winter- you would almost think it has died, but it will come back to life again in the Spring.

Grania's Cryptomeria japonica

View from the pew - The mustard seed in Leipzig

View from the Pew is a regular column I write for Newslink, the magazine for the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe - this article appeared in the November 2009 issue.

Leipzig
Last year my wife Marty and I visited Leipzig, not far from our companion Lutheran diocese of Anhalt. Within the inner ring road, built over the medieval city walls, the compact historic centre is being lovingly restored after decades of neglect in the former East Germany. One of its jewels is the Nikolaikirche – St Nicholas’ Church - where Johann Sebastian Bach’s Johannes Passion was first performed on Good Friday of 1724. There we first learned of the amazing role this beautiful 12th century church played in the events of 20 years ago, leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Derek Scally wrote a fine article about it in the Irish Times on 7th October (you can find it by googling ‘Derek Scally Leipzig’).

Pastor Christian Führer

Pastor Christian Führer, now retired

The long road to 1989 began in 1981 with peace prayer evenings organised by Nikolaikirche’s pastor Christian Führer in 1981 in response to the Cold War arms race. Five years on, the Monday night gatherings were attracting just four people. Pastor Christian recalls, “I was ready to give up but one of the people attending said, ‘If we give up, then there is no hope any more’. Then I remembered the parable of the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds that can still grow to provide shelter for many.” He carried on with the prayer evenings.

By 1988 the era of perestroika had come to the Soviet Union, and in East Berlin, the elderly Politburo was in denial about the need for reforms. In Leipzig, Pastor Christian could sense the longing for change. “The people had been silenced, by fear and the secret police, we provided a space for them to discuss taboo topics,” he says. Attendance at his Monday prayer meetings grew – from eight to 80, and then 100. On September 4th a group of young people emerged from the Monday meeting to hold up a banner reading: “For an open life with free people.” A Stasi agent ran forward to snatch the banner, filmed by a West German TV crew, with the footage seen in East as well as West Germany. A week later, the Nikolaikirche was full. Pastor Christian was jubilant but nervous: would the meetings remain calm as the pressure continued to build? “I reminded people of the Sermon on the Mount – love your enemy – and hoped they would take this message of non-violence with them from the church.”

The critical turning point came in October 1989. As East Germany approached its fortieth anniversary on October 6th, the regime was becoming more and more anxious to calm a situation which was out of control. Thousands of its citizens were escaping across the Czech border to Hungary, which had opened its borders to the West, and attempts to stop this resulted in more angry protests and police using water cannons and batons to drive back the crowds.

9th October 1989
The mood in Leipzig before the next Monday prayers on 9th October was increasingly tense. Pastor Christian urged three other inner-city churches to open their doors for prayers, so that as many people as possible would be inside, protected from the police. Local dignitaries, including the director of the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra and the area bishop, appealed for non-violence. Thousands of ordinary people left their homes, said goodbye to children and partners, and converged upon the city centre. Eye-witnesses tell of the turmoil of emotions they felt: terror, as they wondered if they would return home, mixed with determination, arising out of the despair of knowing that if they stayed at home nothing would ever change. The church was filled, with many Stasi agents as well as protestors.

Pastor Christian describes what happened as the service ended, “More than 2,000 people leaving the church were welcomed by tens of thousands waiting outside with candles in their hands. I will never forget this moment. A person needs two hands to carry a candle: one to hold it and the other to protect the flame – so you can’t carry sticks or stones at the same time. The miracle happened. Jesus’ spirit of non-violence seized the masses and transformed them into a real and peaceful, powerful presence. Troops and police officers were drawn in and became engaged in conversations. The crowds chanted ‘Keine Gewalt!’ – ‘No violence!’ - and the police withdrew.”

Monday Demonstration in Leipzig

With an extraordinary 70,000 people behind him, the nervous pastor led the march around the Leipzig inner ring road to the chant, ‘Wir sind das Volk!’ – ‘We are the people!’. To their amazement, they completed a circuit and returned, unhindered, to the Nikolaikirche. The next week, on 16 October 1989, 120,000 demonstrated in Leipzig after the Monday prayers, and the following week the number more than doubled to 320,000. The Monday demonstrations spread throughout East Germany, including Anhalt, proving that the majority of the population opposed the regime. This pressure led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, and the collapse of the East German regime, without a shot being fired.

In giving me permission to quote from his article, Derek Scally has this to say, “It was a huge honour to talk to the people from the Nikolaikirche. Many of them told me they still remembered clearly their anxiety from the evening, that they were walking into a second Tiananmen Square. Too little is known of the key role of the religious in the 1989 events.”

Prayer is action
This is a remarkable story that can truly inspire us. It shows that prayer can be powerful action. Out of a tiny mustard seed of prayer, a peaceful revolution was born. Some were in Nikolaikirche to spy, some half-listening, some cynical, some committed, some believers, many unsure. But prayer and action became one as they came together. Prayer is like a pebble in the pond, sending ripples far and wide – or like the steady drip which gradually wears away the stone. We too can plant a mustard seed!

The mission is a bucket of well-rotted compost!

What a strange season we are having. Today is Halloween, and we have not had a frost yet. I am still harvesting green climbing beans and romanesco broccoli, the Salvias and Dahlias continue in flower, many of the roses are having another go, and mauve Primula vulgaris sibthorpii, which normally flowers in Spring, is blooming its socks off.

Yesterday was rather wet and gloomy until late afternoon, when the cloud cleared to the North East and the sun broke through. As the last drops fell from the trailing edge of the cloud, a full double rainbow burst forth against the slate grey retreating cloud. A simply amazing spectacle, a reminder of God's promise after the Flood. If I had had my wits about me, like Daniel Owen I should have rushed for my camera. Instead I went out to pick the last of the tomatoes in the poly-tunnel, which need to be cleared out to make room for the tender Salvias and Dahlias. Susanna has taken the green tomatoes to cousin Lygia, who will make them into her renowned chutney, made to a recipe from her Indian childhood.

The Bishop has bidden everyone from all the parishes in the Diocese to come to St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick on Mission Sunday, November 15th, for a great celebration of mission. We are to choose and bring with us a symbol of mission from each parish. People in ours have been writing suggestions on a flip-chart in Church, such as Salt, or Bread. But the symbol I should like to see is a bucket of well-rotted compost! Surely as Christians our mission is to maintain the fertility of this beautiful garden of Eden on which God has been pleased to place human kind and so many other creatures, and to improve the texture of the soil in which God's kingdom is continuously taking root.