Malvern is a small town that has had a wide reach! It is not only physical radar that has been developed here, but powerful spiritual influences too. Speaking as someone who was specifically led to organise many powerful prayer and worship conferences over a twenty-year period, including several in Malvern College, I was fascinated to discover a far-reaching conference that was held here nearly eighty-five years ago, early in 1941. It was led by William Temple, then the Archbishop of York, and brought together twenty bishops, 400 Anglicans and numerous lay intellectuals, writers and poets, including TS Eliot, Dorothy L Sayers, politicians like Sir Richard Acland, a prominent advocate of state socialism, and philosophers and theologians such as the Scottish D. M. MacKinnon.

Many of us may be familiar with William Temple primarily from his ‘Readings from John’s Gospel,’ but, as the William Temple Foundation explains, the aim of this conference was to discuss how Christian ethics should direct post-war economic, educational, and political rebuilding and reorganise society. Voicing deep concern at unfettered industrial capitalism, which argued that material wealth had become the primary end of human existence, this landmark conference served as the ideological precursor to William Temple’s influential book a year later Christianity and Social Order, which helped paved the way for the post-war welfare state to come into being.

It also came to the conclusion that ‘we must recover reverence for the earth and its resources, treating it no longer as a reservoir of potential wealth to be exploited, but as a storehouse of divine bounty on which we utterly depend.’ If only more had listened!

When William Temple subsequently described Christianity as ‘the most materialistic of all great religions’ – he was not in the least speaking of an inordinate emphasis on possessions, let alone encouraging worldly greed, but was rather placing a high value rather on the physical, tangible world in ways that certain aesthetic strains have long tended not to do. (Neither for that matter have many climate-change deniers in America, who are so preoccupied with the thought of getting to Heaven, that they feel little call to pay attention to being good stewards of the earth). Instead, Temple focused primarily on the Incarnation – the belief that God took physical human form in Jesus, and that it is this monumental truth that gives ultimate dignity to matter, our physical body and the everyday social order.

“Blessed and holy indeed are those who share in the first resurrection.” (Rev. 20:6)

Surprised by Hope

William Temple’s great focus was on the Incarnation – the belief that God took physical human form in Jesus, and that it is this monumental truth that gives ultimate dignity to matter, our physical body and the everyday social order. While on retreat this summer, I found it helpful to read Tom Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, where he explains that God’s ultimate aim is not that we should be thinking and aiming so much about Heaven in terms of spending eternity in a largely ‘ethereal’ Heaven – with its accompanying assumptions that we will do little more than worship, put our feet up and enjoy each other’s company there. Tom challenges this perspective robustly by reminding us that we are being trained to rule on earth when Jesus returns, and when God Himself makes His dwelling place on earth. (Rev. 21:2-4)

Tom’s theology stands in stark contrast to traditional dispensationalism— which is best known for being promoted in the 19th and 20th centuries by the Scofield Reference Bible and, more recently, the improbable but very dramatic ‘Left Behind’ series, whereby believers are snatched away from earth to heaven (raptured) to escape the coming tribulation, before subsequently returning with the Lord to rule and reign.

Dispensationalism, then, is basically all about rescue: God sees the material world as being corrupt beyond recourse, in which case God God act only to save a spiritual remnant, (much, one could argue, as he did in Noah’s day).

Tom prefers to see things more holistically, in terms of God’s overall redemption model: God never for one moment ceases to love His original creation, and sends first holy men of God, then Jesus and then the Holy Spirit to heal and restore, with a view to one day inhabiting Earth fully.

We know from Romans 8 that Earth groans for redemption: the question is, is it doomed for apocalyptic destruction or transformation? Surely it would be far more glorifying, and indeed logical, to believe that God intends to heal, transform and restore it, rather than to destroy it?

Whereas dispensationalists think in terms of distinct eras (“dispensations”) with separate plans for ethnic Israel and the Church, does it not feel more natural to follow Tom in thinking that God has one continuous, unfolding covenantal plan for the whole world?

Rather than the Kingdom of God being primarily a future, literal 1,000-year millennial reign on earth. God’s plan was fulfilled by Jesus’ death and resurrection, and by launching the Church. The Kingdom is active now, albeit it awaits the return of Jesus for it to be fully consummated at His return.

Tom objects to the Dispensational “Lifeboat belief system” in so far that it causes people to see Earth only as a “sinking ship” that is destined for destruction, in which case it the duty of the Church is to get as many people into the lifeboat (saved) as possible. Efforts to fix the ship through such things as environmental care, social justice, the arts, and overcoming widespread poverty) are ultimately seen as all but meaningless in comparison with the primary task of saving souls.

Tom’s view is rather that if the physical world is going to be resurrected and renewed, then what humans do with it in the here and is of eternal significance. He would therefore argue that so far from being “secular distractions,” working for justice, healing the sick, caring for the environment and creating beautiful things and places can very much be Kingdom matters, with every act of love being a foreshadowing of how things will be in the new Earth.

I particularly recommend the chapters towards the end called ‘Rethinking Salvation’ for those who would like to think these issues through further. If accepted, I can imagine that the implications of this “rethink” will invite a radical reappraisal of eternal priorities. Taken to extremes, of course, it could easily lead to a diminution of concern to reach people with the good news that Jesus is reaching out to each person, who must each make up their own minds as to whether or not to respond to Him. Wherever we lie on the dispensationalist versus redemptionist axis, (and there are many of both sides of the divide) nothing must but be allowed to take away from the core evangelical truths of the gospels.

God intended Planet Earth to be a holy place. It was precisely the awareness of the glories the Lord will do on this gem of a world that inspired me to draw for inspiration on passages in the Scriptures that speak of the ultimate redemption of Earth in many of the tracks on the first CD of Reawakenings. (Many of these are set to Francis Cummings’ stunning music).

This certainly moves the marker on from embracing the dubious concept of a rapture that snatches believers out of this world at the first whiff of danger (as if that had happened during the great persecutions by Roman Emperors, or Communists or ISIS!) The truth is rather that the Lord takes His people up to Heaven, in order that those who are counted worthy to do so may return with Him to Earth. Is not this what Jesus was speaking of In Luke 20:35-36 when He declared that “those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead . . . can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are sons of the resurrection.
See also: Will all believers rule and reign with Christ?

Our present duty

William Temple went on to declare that “The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it,” and that it is ‘the only organisation that exists solely for the benefit of non-members.’

Quoting RVC Bodley, Temple also pointed out that ‘It is a mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion.’ It is in no small measure with this in mind that I frequently feature matters in the Malvern Mashal that one would not necessarily normally think of as being religious, but which are actually vital for but which are actually vital for life on the planet that God made and sent his Son to die for, and will He will one day transform into something entirely new. Recent focus on the crucial need to be making plans for both the National Grid and our water supplies in the light of the whole way that AI is gobbling up resources, would be obvious examples of areas in considerable need of both prayer and action – as well as on praying to protect cyberspace and the world’s communication networks from rogue actions.

The Lord is indeed concerned and interested in far more than just ‘religious’ matters; the whole way we treat each other for instance – just as He was concerned at the way His people had been treated in Egypt, and where His concern led to Him taking direct action. (Exod. 2:23-25, 3:7-8)

God saw, was concerned, and took decisive action. How crucial these verses are to understanding God’s involvement with His world. As James insists, ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:26-27)

When he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in April, 1942, William Temple, (as the Church Times pointed out in its obituary of him), ‘laid stress on the materialism of a religion founded on the Incarnation of God. Jesus took on flesh and blood, and came and made Himself our neighbour. God becoming human is the ultimate in materialism!

Since God transformed Himself to come to Earth so that we can be restored and transformed, it is no great leap to believing that He desires also for society to be transformed into a heavenly likeness. Where businesses and culture prize profit making and promote particular cliques and cults, William Temple, who cared passionately about Britain’s spiritual health, wanted to see a nation that cherished a divine, generous justice that saw everyone receiving fair wages, living in decent homes and enjoying the good health that comes with those things. Since the Lord loves and sustains the whole world, it followed that He would care about its politics, economics and social policies. For if these desires are true for Him, then they should be true of His people too.

Building on Frank Weston’s legacy

William Temple wasn’t the first to seek such changes, of course. Some 17 years earlier, at a packed Anglo-Catholic conference in the Royal Albert Hall, my great uncle, Frank Weston, Bishop of Zanzibar, had made similar points, and drawn corresponding conclusions. In a speech that is still quoted to this day, he was admirably forthright:

Now mark this – if you are prepared to say that the Anglo-Catholic is at perfect liberty to rake in all the money he can get no matter what the wages are that are paid, no matter what the conditions are under which people work; if you say that the Anglo-Catholic has a right to hold his peace while his fellow citizens are living in hovels below the levels of the streets – this I say to you, that you do not yet know the Lord Jesus in his Sacrament.

It is folly, it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus on the Throne of glory, when you are sweating Him in the souls and bodies of His children. It cannot be done.

There, then, as I conceive it, is your present duty. You have got your Holy Communion, you have got your altar . . . Now go out into the highways and hedges where not even the Bishops will try to hinder you! Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see Him, gird yourselves with His towel and try to wash their feet.

Sidney Dark, the editor of the Church Times commented afterward that:

‘To those of us who are unhappy with the inequalities of modern life, this speech is an inspiring message. But it will have made uncomfortable reading for the self-satisfied, for the smug and for the well-to-do, who are content with an aesthetic religion but indifferent to the troubles of their neighbours in the slums round the corner.’

Frank was, at one and the same time, a passionate evangelist, a profound contemplative, and one who, like William Temple, passionately believed that each of us needs to play our part to the full in profound social involvement. Many of us look for social change but how to bring it about? Frank urged people, and especially church leaders, to be open to the Holy Spirit, rather than depending on human methods.

Pray for those who are seeking to reshape and reform the Welfare System today – and pray for those who are experiencing deep and savage injustice as the result of racial and segregationally inspired nationalistic policies overseas. May the Lord see and intervene on behalf of many who are suffering intensely.

The removing of permission for Haitians and Syrians to remain in America: A very dark spirit at work

There are days and decisions that truly demean, defile and destroy human lives. I mentioned recently the intense experience I had many years ago as the Lord showed me how deeply He feels to this day the destructive events of the Kristallnacht across Germany in 1938. Does He not also grieve at so much in the deeply flawed history of other nations too? The deeper I delve into American history, for example, the more I marvel the fundamental paradox that a nation built on liberty and democracy has long relied on systemic and brutal racial oppression to expand its power and wealth.

Exploring the history of Missouri this week, has made for grim reading. So far from being some mere historical aberration, so many of the profoundly unjust decisions taken to execute black people that I came across are precisely the sort of episodes that the Trump administration are keen to deride and eradicate from the nation’s awareness as he endeavours to rewrite history from a white perspective.

A particularly egregious example is happening at this very time, with more than 300,000 people from Haiti losing their TPS, Temporary Protected Status, which protected them from deportation and allowed them to work. The Supreme Court has upheld the Trump administration’s plan to end the policy for Haitians as well as for Syrians – with the result that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has drawn up plans to launch a deportation blitz focused on Haitian migrants as early as this week.

The Republican Governor of Ohio has spoken up bravely on behalf of these people, explaining how hard working they are, and how deeply rooted many of them have become in their communities, and how their lives would be in complete danger if they were to go back to Haiti, but the simple fact is that from now it will be illegal to employ them. This cruelty has nothing to do with ‘sensible’ economics; thousands of key jobs, not least in care homes, warehouse, manufacturing and service industry will be left unfilled in Ohio alone when these hard-working people are removed from the work force.

See Governor Wine’s interview with CBS News. (I saw him speaking along similar lines on another American channel).

Grieve, grieve for the arrogance and prejudice that lies behind this policy, in which JD Vance took a leading part when he declared, without evidence, that they ate cats for pets. Evidence from the Springfield Government’s own site reveals that, so far from being responsible for causing crimes, Haitians are far more likely to be the victims of it rather than the perpetrators. Clark County jail data revealed that of the inmates in the county jail last week, only two of them were Haitian: 1%.

Where are these people to go? At a time when similar pressures were being brought to bear in the nineteenth century, many went to Canada, even though the white community there were not exactly welcoming of them. May the Lord have mercy on them, and on all peoples who are being unfairly picked on. And on the whole way that racist prejudices and explicit or implicit overtones of white supremacy continue to exercise such a powerful hold on the thinking of so many believers in America and elsewhere.

Are we not in need of another conference like that which William Temple organised in Malvern 1941, to remind people everywhere of more of God’s heart and longing for His people to be one, so that He can do great wonders in our midst and draw many people closer to His heart, rather than on focusing too heavily on purely secular and nationalistic goals, and personal prosperity?

Photo by Wendy Morris on Unsplash