WHEN BOMBS NOT PRIESTS MARK CHRISTIAN FOREHEADS WITH ASH

 Priests ought not to burn Palm crosses this year grinding the ash into a paste for marking the faithful. There are no faithful. Just a world that finds us all complicit with the present distress and destruction. ‘All’ you complain, isn’t that a little harsh – not so. All of us, in minor or major ways, tolerate the rottenness that leads to carnage. In the apparently peaceful corridors of a church community, it may seem all smiles and sparkles, but look more deeply, and the rivalries, gossip, tensions, hatreds, interference, control, judgements, prejudices, indoctrination, authoritarianism, required social, cultural, and religious conformity make it just as much a toxic seed bed breeding division and conflict, as the bombing, invasion, and heartache that is rending God’s world. What brings peace, it seems, is not religion, but social order, fairness, equality, human rights, and economic stability. We rich Christians enjoy that peace, not as a fruit of our faith or moral choices, but as a consequence of our historical plundering, crimes and political gerrymandering, that gave us the resources to fast track the development of our nations at the expense of others. So, while we have ashes daubed sanctimoniously on our heads, the innocent are buried in the ash of the bombs that our complicity with the past and present, cause to be dropped. We have no excuse. We should keep our foreheads clean this Ash Wednesday, until all nations and all peoples have equal access to all the benefits we enjoy - statehood, security, home, clean water, food, health care, education, and human rights.

ARCHBISHOP JONATHAN BLAKE - MY LIFE - PART ONE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFpYhuH-n7Q

ARCHBISHOP JONATHAN BLAKE - MY LIFE - PART TWO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STVJxukhA3o

I AM PROUD OF MY WRITING, FOR JESUS’S SAKE, THAT HAS HAD ME FOUND INNOCENT IN HEAVEN, BUT TWICE A CRIMINAL ON THE EARTH. THE FIRST IN 1990 WHEN I WROTE A BIBLICAL TEXT ON THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN PEACEFUL PROTEST ABOUT THE BOMBING OF YOUNG IRAQI RECRUITS DURING THE FIRST GULF WAR. THE SECOND, IN 2016 WHEN I WROTE ON MY BLOG, TO ALERT THE PUBLIC ABOUT A PAEDOPHILE, AND WAS SUCCESSFUL IN FORCING THE AUTHORITIES TO STOP HIM HAVING ACCESS TO CHILDREN. THERE WAS ALMOST A THIRD! IN 1997, WHEN I WAS ARRESTED FOR NAILING MY PROPOSALS FOR REFORM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ON THE DOOR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. WORDS ARE POWERFUL MESSAGES THAT CHALLENGE  CORRUPTION, CONFRONT THE WICKED AND CREATE A BETTER WORLD. JESUS IS THE WORD OF GOD AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARE CALLED  TO COMMUNICATE HIS WORDS,  IRRESPECTIVE OF THE COST.

http://bishopjonathanblake.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/press-release-concerning-met-police.html

"You brave, courageous and wonderful man. To stand up for the truth

 in the face of suppression and oppression is truly an act of a pure heart."