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Widespread unrest unsettles Britain

14 Aug 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The welcoming of outsiders figures prominently in next Sunday’s lectionary readings, but ethnic and social tensions have taken center stage in Britain after rioting that began in the diverse, working-class Tottenham neighborhood in north London spread to other parts of the country. British Prime Minister David Cameron will face pressure to soften his austerity plans, toughen up policing, and do more to help inner-city communities after days of riots and looting laid bare deep social tensions amid a depressed British economy. With the public seething over the looting of anything from sweets to televisions, Cameron has so far dismissed the rioters as nothing more than opportunistic criminals and denied the unrest was linked to the effects of deep spending cuts. But community leaders say social inequities, reductions to public services, and high youth unemployment are also probably to blame for some of the worst violence Britain has seen in decades. There’s never been a good time to be an outsider, says Alice Camille in her Prepare The Word scripture commentary on this Sunday’s gospel, and that seemed to be the case for an Afro-Caribbean man in north London whose death from a gunshot wound after an incident involving armed police set off the current trouble. In Birmingham police launched a murder inquiry after three Muslim men died after being run over by a car during the mayhem there. A friend of the men told BBC radio they had been part of a group of British Asians protecting their area from looters after attending Ramadan prayers at a mosque. The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the violence and called on its community to remain calm and support the authorities. It also urged them to help clean up the streets. Many small shops and businesses in England are run by Muslims of south Asian heritage. The violence has appalled many Britons who have been transfixed by televised images of rioters attacking individuals and raiding family-owned stores as well as targeting international businesses. Sources: Articles by Matt Falloon, Stefano Ambrogi, and Angus MacSwan for Reuters

england riots david cameron unrest muslim council of britain tottenham rioting london

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Paralyzed woman fights good fight, finishes race

13 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Cornelius fell to his feet upon meeting Peter, the reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us, but finding that inappropriate, Peter quickly raised him up. Claire Lomas could not stand for five years after an accident paralyzed her from the chest down, but last January she started walking thanks to a bionic suit, and this Tuesday, after 16 days of painstaking effort, she finished the London Marathon in the shadow of Buckingham Palace, to the screams of thousands of fans who came out to support her."It's a moment I'm going to treasure for the rest of my life," she said in a nationally televised live interview after she crossed the finish line. Through sponsorships for her marathon effort, Lomas also raised nearly $150,000 for spinal cord research.Lomas said she was "over the moon" as she completed the 26.2-mile (55,000-step) course in her bionic ReWalk suit, which mimics the response that the wearer's joints would make if they were not paralyzed. It hasn’t, however, been easy. When she started she could take only 30 steps a day. Every moment was a chore, and because she couldn't feel where she standing she always feared falling over.But that didn't stop her. "After my accident, for a few days, you think, why, why has this happened? But it has. And that's that. You just need to find new things to do," she said while on her way to a party in her honor. "Of course I have bad days and difficult times. But I just get through them, and gradually, things get better."And that is, perhaps, the most extraordinary part of the story. In the last three years Lomas has gotten married and given birth to a healthy baby girl. Mazie is 15 months old and was right there as Lomas crossed the finish line. Sources: Articles by Nick Shifrin for ABC News and Agence France Presse

claire lomas bionic london marathon paralysis rewalk suit

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The Olympic spirit, then and now

05 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“We will declare to the generation to come the glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength,” the psalmist promises this Sunday. With deeds of strength, speed, and agility on display at the Olympic Games, athletics rightly takes center stage, but religion also has a role to play; in fact, the quadrennial festivities are steeped in religious traditions.A 200-yard footrace was the only athletic event at the first Olympics, a festival held in 776 B.C. and dedicated to Zeus, the chief Greek god. For the next millennium, warring Greek city-states laid down their arms every four years in Olympia to honor Zeus through sports, sacrifices, and hymns.It was the emphasis on worship of Zeus that led Roman Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, to ban the Olympics in 393 A.D. It wasn’t until 1896 that Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in Athens after excavations at Olympia renewed public interest in the athletics and pageantry of the Olympics.While the festival began in honor a single deity, organizers of the modern Olympics must navigate dozens of sacred fasts, religious rituals, and holy days. The London Olympics is accommodating religious athletes with 193 chaplains, a prayer room in every venue, and a multifaith center in the Olympic Village."I was very moved last week when the Christian chaplains on the team helped their Muslim colleagues prepare a large hall for the Friday prayers of Ramadan,” said Anglican canon Duncan Green, who in a radio address at the outset of the games called on people everywhere to live together in peace and harmony in the spirit of the Olympic Games.“A young Muslim man hugged me for providing such a facility. This week, I've witnessed young men and women from all over the world living side by side, greeting one another, making new friends, laughing, and sharing their love of sport. I pray that the world will watch and learn to live in harmony," Green said. Sources: Articles by Chris Lisee for Religion News Service and Ecumenical News International

olympics sports london olympics 2012 zeus theodosius i duncan green

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