Majestas

In this issue

• Press for Service
• Vicar's Letter
• News
  • Parish Quiet Day
  • Friends of the Earth
  • Open Day
  • Cambridge Views
  • Councillors
  • Music News
• Something To Think About
• Songs of Praise
• Afraid of Good News
• Paying the Piper
• Warming to the Web
• Diary
• Who's Who
• Publication
  • Submissions for the next editions of Majestas

Press for Service

When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.'' John B. Bogart is quoted in Story of the Sun in 1918 and Bob Satchwell, editor of the Cambridge Evening News, agrees: ``The crucial definition of news is that it has to be unusual. Murder, mayhem on the roads and crime are very rare, but they are meat and drink to newspapers and the television because it's unusual.'' The television presenter Martyn Lewis has commented on the amount of bad news in programmes and its effect on viewers, and Bob said: ``I do understand the problem about it. If you look at our paper I would say that more than 50% of it is actually good news --- it is about people who are doing things for the community, young people who are achieving, and we are celebrating success wherever possible. I think that's a very important balance, not just because it is ethically right to strike that balance but because commercially it is right for us. If we produce a newspaper which is totally out of touch with people's real experiences, they then start saying, `If I don't believe it, why should I buy it?'''

Bob Satchwell has been editor of the News for almost fourteen years and he said of the paper: ``We are just about to celebrate 110 years. It was published for the first time on May 28th 1888, when it was four pages for a halfpenny (a quarter of today's penny) --- with advertisements on the front. There was one edition published at 6 o'clock in the evening and delivered to gentlemen's houses. We now have between forty and sixty pages every night at 31 pence (a relatively small amount). It contains 50,000 words a night (the equivalent of a small novel) and we have a minimum of a hundred local news stories every night. We also carry a minimum of thirty-five national and international news stories and forty to fifty sports stories a night which cover about twelve sports. If you bear in mind that the BBC 9 o'clock news probably carries twelve or fourteen stories, we've got about twice as many national stories, even though our main thrust is local news.'' There are just over 80 staff journalists and a number of contributors and freelance journalists. The paper is produced six days a week, together with ten weekly papers, and the total staff of printers, advertising staff, van drivers and journalists is about 400. Bob explained: ``I have complete responsibility for the content of the paper and I delegate probably 98% of it, so that means I have to have confidence in everyone who is working around me and in all the teams that make up the newspaper.''

News is now available from so many sources, including radio, terrestrial, satellite and cable television channels, Internet sites and teletext, that newspapers need to have some special appeal: ``Our unique appeal is clearly local and regional and we are very much community-based. I pinched a maxim from John F. Kennedy, who said, `Fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' I think it's a very good maxim because it applies to your work, your involvement with sports and events, to personal relationships. It is very good for a regional newspaper as well, because the more we can put into the community the more we will get out of it --- the more people buy us the more we put back into the community.'' Bob is pleased that the News has maintained its circulation, defying the national trend for regional newspapers. In addition to reporting local events, the News has been proactive in the community: ``We actively go out to support the community, to encourage community activity and community spirit.'' The paper has helped to raise money for a raft of local charities and organisations and introduced its Community Challenge Award and Sports Award schemes. Bob sees these as a catalyst to encourage people across the whole of the circulation area to do something for the community: ``It helps to engender a sense of pride in the community and a pride in the environment. It helps to deal with issues such as crime and vandalism if you build up that pride in the community.'' He also sees the paper as a catalyst in bringing together local government, business and the two universities as partners in a range of local concerns.

Bob is fond of maxims, and he quoted Henry Louis Mencken, the American journalist, satirist and literary critic: ``A maxim I've always worked from in terms of journalism is that journalism is about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. He's believed to have said it, or at least Gene Kelly, who played him in the film of his life story, said it. You fight for the downtrodden, the individuals, the small people, against the rich, the famous and the big. That's a dynamic maxim.''

Bob is currently president of the Guild of Editors, which represents editors of local, regional and national papers and colleagues in broadcasting. He said that the last two years have been busy, with continuing discussion about privacy, human rights and data protection. He is a members of the Editors' Code of Practice Committee, and in the aftermath of the Princess of Wales' death the code was revised: ``We had a strong code already but we made it stronger, particularly on the issue of privacy. We recognise that everyone has an undeniable right to privacy. The difficulty is that it has to be balanced with an individual's right to know what is being done in his or her name.'' Bob will be retiring as editor of the News on 1st January and, at 49, will be available for consultancy work connected with the media and plans to pursue other interests. He said: ``It's been an adventure and a wonderful privilege to edit a great newspaper serving a great city.'' We wish him continued success.

Vicar's Letter

The letter `M' on the railings around Great St Mary's is a reminder to passers-by that the church is dedicated to St Mary. Also to be seen are Madonna lilies, and fleurs-de-lys representing the link with Trinity College, GSM's patron.

A shelf in my room in Great St Mary's is dedicated to the languages I do not speak. There are books about Arabic, Greek --- both ancient and modern, Italian, Russian and several others. I started to study each of them in moments of sublime confidence that, with a bit of time and practice, and hopefully with a trip to the country concerned, I would rapidly master the language and with it the literature and culture of the country concerned. Just sometimes it almost works and I can speak bits of some languages, but usually I give up after a few weeks. The Teach Yourself book, with its well-thumbed opening pages and the rest untouched, joins the others on the top shelf.

Learning a new language is a way of understanding and approaching many experiences. We are surrounded by people and places which are strange to us. Often the more we find out about things, the more strange and mysterious they become. Our world is rich and varied, and we are constantly surprised and puzzled by things which happen. A visit to a foreign country where the customs are strange and the language unknown may be an extreme example, and we do not always feel so lost and confused. But this experience can remind us that all people and places need to be treated with respect, and we need to take time to learn and try to understand. It's easy to assume we know more than we do, and this leads to misunderstanding and distrust. So communication is a task and a struggle. The example of learning a foreign language can be applied to many situations which face us in all aspects of our living. If you set out to study a new subject, there are books to read, ways of thinking to understand, technical terms to master. If you meet somebody for the first time, there are things to talk about, shared interests to discover, a personality to get to know. If you want to grow in the Christian faith, there are Scriptures to study, words like `salvation', `sin' and `eucharist' to learn, the method of communicating through prayer to explore. Of course we may not succeed in these, especially in the case of faith. Along with my abandoned attempts to learn Arabic, I have to face up to the more serious failure to pray.

In the Bible, Jesus is called the Word of God. In this life, God shows himself to us, speaking and acting through the words and gestures of Christ. This great act of communication opens for us a new relationship with God and with each other.

This issue of Majestas is about communication. It is meant to help us reflect on different ways of communicating and is a reminder that all these can lead us closer to each other and to God.

News

Parish Quiet Day

This year's Quiet Day is taking place once again at Little Gidding, on Saturday 6th June. The day will involve addresses, a shared meal, and time for personal prayer and reflection Further details, and a list to sign if you would like to come, or need transport, are available at the back of Great St Mary's.

Friends of the Earth

On Saturday 25th April, Cambridge Friends of the Earth (who have an office in St Michael's) took part in a nation-wide day of action to draw attention to the plight of our wildlife areas.

Known as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), these areas are specially designated to be areas of our finest biological diversity. The habitats of rare species, such as the great crested newt and the lizard orchid, as well as those of the most humble insects and grasses are under threat. In Cambridgeshire we have about 30 of these SSSIs: well-known sites such as Grafham Water and the Ouse Washes are designated as SSSIs as are smaller ones such as Fulbourn Fen and Orton Pit.

At present their survival often depends on voluntary agreements made with the landowners. Sadly these agreements just do not provide adequate protection. Friends of the Earth together with many other organisations like the RSPB are trying to change the law in order to provide proper legal protection for these sites.

On 25th April we had a stand outside the Guildhall where we invited the public to sign cardboard daisies to show their support for a change in the law. We had a really encouraging response --- 140 daisies were signed in under two hours. The plan is to ask Anne Campbell to receive these daisies and to provide us with a photo opportunity.

Christina Marshall, Cambridge Friends of the Earth

Open Day

Article missing at the moment.

Cambridge Views

Can you discover the location of this object in Cambridge? Bring or send the answer, and your name and address, to Majestas, Great St Mary's, Cambridge CB2 3PQ, by 30th June. The first correct answer drawn out will win a book token for £10 donated by Heffers Booksellers.

The image in the May edition can be found on the door of the Guildhall in the Market Square.

Councillors

Congratulations to Catherine Smart (left) elected to the City Council as Councillor for the Romsey ward, and to Joye Rosenstiel (right) re-elected as Councillor for the Market ward. Ian Nimmo-Smith was also re-elected to the West Chesterton ward.

Music News

A new Assistant Organist has been appointed to succeed Sarah MacDonald, who is leaving in September to be Organ Scholar at Chelmsford Cathedral and Music Teacher at Felstead School. Julian Wilkins, who was Organ Scholar at St Catharine's and is currently a music teacher in Cambridge, will be taking up the post in September.

The Market Music free concert, on Saturday 13th June at 12 noon, is an organ recital by Andrew Reid, who is Assistant Organist at Westminster Cathedral.

On 17th April, the Parish Choir held its Annual Dinner, at Corpus Christi College (picture below). Before the meal, Evensong was sung in the College Chapel.

Something To Think About

``The acceptable face of Christianity!'' A compliment or an insult? The ``acceptable face of Christianity'' to that young avowed atheist was Something To Think About (STTA) on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, and it convinced me beyond any doubt that we are not just preaching to the converted, but are reaching beyond the church community to `the parts that others cannot reach'.

Broadcasting has been called ``the biggest shared experience in society today''; it informs, educates and entertains us; we pepper conversations with ``Did you see...?'', ``They said...'', ``It was on...''. We listen to about 20 hours of radio a week and watch about 23 hours of television; we are comfortable with broadcasting, it is undemanding and non-threatening --- we can always turn it off.

When Christian Research surveyed people's listening and viewing habits in Britain, they found that every week about eleven million people hear a religious programme on BBC Radio, almost as many watch one on BBC TV and nearly as many watch one on ITV. Even being very cautious and allowing for overlap, those figures suggest a weekly audience for religious programmes of at least twenty million. Another Christian Research census to determine the number of people in church on an average Sunday came up with a total of 3.7 million. Admittedly those figures are now several years old, but there is no evidence to suggest a significant change. Assuming that the 3.7 million church-goers are part of the twenty million, that still leaves well over sixteen million people every week listening to or watching a religious programme, but not going to church. Some may go occasionally or for special festivals, but the majority have left the church or have never been; to them church is irrelevant or inaccessible. But the spiritual awareness, hunger, curiosity --- call it what we will --- is there, as are the ultimate questions about life and death and the meaning of things, and people are seeking the fulfilment of those needs and answers to those questions through the broadcast media; they are `the great church of the unchurched'. The latest BBC review BBC Local Radio --- 2000 states that ``religious broadcasting on Sunday mornings is a big audience-winner, capturing the biggest share of breakfast listening to BBC Local Radio across the week''.

I once had the daunting task of addressing a sixth-form RE class in a local boys' school on religious broadcasting and my role as a producer. Inevitably there was `the back row', a few boys determined to be unimpressed. It was almost time for the bell and we were well into question time, when a hand on the back row shot up. The boy admitted to sometimes hearing part of STTA whilst waiting for what followed (which at that time was John Peel) and with a tone which implied ``This will squash her!'', he pronounced judgement on the programme with: ``and it's far too entertaining to be religious!''. Brilliant, just what we hope to be!

But what did he mean by `entertaining'? We are certainly not flippant, or even light-weight; much of our material is very serious, although we do occasionally indulge in frivolities. What I think he meant was that as a team on the programme we actually enjoy what we are doing, working together, making and broadcasting a Christian programme, sharing and communicating God; and that sense of enjoyment is caught, I think, by our listeners.

The team comprises two Roman Catholics, an Anglican and a Baptist, with others involved occasionally. None of us are trained broadcasters or journalists; we have learnt on the job and by making mistakes. The interaction of our differing traditions is enriching and a joy. We are all totally committed to the importance and opportunity of religious broadcasting, and we count it a privilege to hear other people's stories of faith, of what God has done and is doing in their lives, and in effect saying to our audience ``Listen to this! If God can do it for them, he can do it for you.''

For Christians we are a channel to share ideas and information, to be challenged, encouraged and stimulated, to get to know one another better. We aim to `take the walls off the church', let people know what is going on, what people are doing and thinking and why, and to be local, about places and people and events that are known or close to home. But it is the story of a person's journey of faith and finding God which is the most powerful and, one even dares say, entertaining. My dictionary defines `entertain' as `to engage the attention and occupy it agreeably'. When we do that we can communicate God.

Songs of Praise

That bright, chilly Easter weekend when I looked into the Songs of Praise camera for the very first time and said ``Hello'' --- could that really be more than ten years ago? Being part of the Songs of Praise team is so much a part of me now that it would be hard to imagine life without it.

Songs of Praise has been on our television screens for 36 years, and you have to wonder what it is about any television programme that gives it the staying power to make it a favourite for all those years. When the battle for viewing figures is so fierce and there are so many other ways to spend their time, what is it about Songs of Praise that keeps around six million viewers tuning in every week? There is not one, straightforward answer to that. There are a great many factors that govern what we choose to watch, but my own theory is that the real strength of Songs of Praise is that it's about ordinary people who share their experiences and their faith with the most extraordinary frankness and generosity. They feel that, by talking about what's happened to them in a positive and personal way, other people will find insight and encouragement for themselves. They never know who their words will touch --- but I know, from the many letters I receive, that viewers who see them are often moved and inspired by what they hear. Just think about the subjects we regularly cover in this peak-time programme. Among other things, our interviewees talk about fear, failure, loss, grief, bereavement, mortality --- and faith.

Mind you, the hymns are wonderful, too, especially now that the words are up on the screen. Every kind of worship song can be found on Songs of Praise and that is, without doubt, the strength of the programme. There's something for everyone to enjoy --- hymns from schooldays, hymns that are traditional at particular Christian festivals like Harvest or Pentecost, hymns that evoke memories of celebration or sadness, hymns that you can march to, clap to, pray to, hug each other and cry to. The music is as varied as the styles of worship we feature, going from world-famous orchestras in concert halls to brass bands on street corners, rock groups in small house-churches to booming organs in ancient cathedrals, steel bands on sandy beaches to circles of harpists in Scottish kirks.

One of the greatest pleasures of working on Songs of Praise is the variety of locations I get to visit. Our singing comes from the grandest cathedrals to the prettiest of country churches and from bustling cities to mining towns and seaside villages. I especially love the outdoor programmes that we make during the summer weeks, when we all stand on a quayside or seashore and sing our hearts out so that even the seagulls join in.

Nowadays Songs of Praise can be seen on fifty-two weeks of the year, which means that throughout those twelve months the programme marks all the great festivals of the Christian calendar. The task of our production team is to come up with fresh, imaginative and meaningful ways of looking at the traditional themes of each special festival. The programme is also in a unique position to draw together the whole nation when a situation arises for which shared thought and prayer are needed. The most recent example of that was, of course, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales. At the time of Dunblane the whole country was shocked and appalled by what happened there. The news teams had already reported every detail, expression and reaction it was possible to find. Everyone watched in horror and was filled with pity and compassion. In these circumstances, Songs of Praise is perhaps the only television programme that can put those feelings into the context of fellowship and prayer. That programme was presented with great sensitivity by Sally Magnusson, who is a Scot and a mum herself. I watched at home with my children and, like every other viewer, was grateful for a chance to join in with the collective support and prayer of that live transmission. Similarly, there have been several national occasions that Songs of Praise has marked from a Christian perspective, and one that I enjoyed immensely was the 40th Anniversary of the Queen's Coronation.

There are so many editions of Songs of Praise that bring back memories of people and places for me, and, although it will not be televised, I hope you enjoy your own Songs of Praise at the Great St Mary's Open Day on 20th June at 5pm.

Afraid of Good News

The Revd Dr Tom Ambrose is Ely Diocesan Communications Officer and Vicar of Witchford near Ely.

The church correspondent of a national newspaper wrote: ``I typed the words The Church of England and fell immediately into a deep, refreshing sleep.''

Yes, the church has a communication problem, and I see it in the church itself.

On being confirmed I took up my `right' to go to 8 o'clock Communion. The unchanging words were mumbled by a priest with his back to us who seemed oblivious of his congregation. There was neither sermon nor hymn to illuminate what was happening. On occasions I was the only communicant.

Few of the thousands confirmed into that austere regime of minimalist communication have continued as church members today. Amongst those rare spirits who survived, there grew up a feeling that perhaps ordinary communication didn't matter anyway.

I discussed the issue with the head of communications of the Roman Catholic Church. He added: ``The survivors of this non-communication are the people who are now in positions of influence in the Church. That's our communication problem.''

In this information age we are afraid of news, and afraid to spread the Good News. People campaign to preserve 16th-century English rather than trying to discover the language which speaks to today's world. We complain about `dumbing down', but the church is simply dumb.

People imagine church communications means keeping scandalous stories out of the news. For me it's mission --- promoting the church and sharing good news. It means being provocative, as Jesus was, and unafraid of controversy.

Perhaps all of this is best illustrated by the church's approach to advertising. Nationally most churches, like the Church of England, spend nothing on it. I am a member of the ecumenical Churches Advertising Network. It is made up entirely of enthusiasts with no budget, backed by incredibly talented Christian volunteers from the advertising industry. They are the best in the business. In 1996 I launched our Christmas campaign. It made the front page of The Times in colour. It took pride of place in a book of best adverts worldwide. It was fun, funny, and provided endless opportunities to talk about the message of Christmas in the kind of radio and TV programmes that attract a young audience.

But churches were afraid to use Bad hair day?! Were they just too boring, or too bald, to appreciate the joke? Had they not realised that humour is one of the best ways to make people take notice?

Any organisation would have given its right arm for such innovative publicity. It was created by Christians who knew that Jesus' entire ministry was spent in making people look, think, take notice. Significantly, it was after this that the Salvation Army and Church Army became full active members of the advertising network. But the media people of the Church of England quietly pulled out.

If the church is to communicate, it will require a major change in the culture. It will need to affect our worship, our prayer and our preaching. It will require us to speak boldly and engage in the debates in the media. We shall have to imitate Jesus, rather than the lukewarm church of Laodicea.

Paying the Piper

In 1994 the Communications Unit of the General Synod published its report Paying the Piper: Advertising and the Church, following the Broadcasting Act of 1990 which, for the first time, allowed religious organisations to advertise on television and independent radio.

The report asks theological and ethical questions about the church's use of regional and national advertising; ``Is it right, for example, for a church whose founder communicated most effectively when he seemed powerless on a cross to use one of the powerful means of mass communication? And, if the church uses television advertising, will it not be endorsing materialism and underlying society's urge to keep up with the Joneses?''

Most of the objections Christians raise are noted and discussed, including those about the influence of advertising on young people. The church's basic need to develop an effective communications strategy at the national level towards those outside the church is emphasised, as is also the need for ecumenical cooperation between denominations, so that resources are not wasted or conflicting messages presented.

The report aims to be seminal rather than comprehensive. Its recommendations are carefully balanced, but their thrust is unequivocal: ``We believe that the church gives far too low a priority to its thinking and budgeting on reaching those who do not hear its message. We recommend advertising be considered as one medium which may reach a broad spectrum of society.''

Paying the Piper can be borrowed from GSM's library.

Warming to the Web

Dr John Sturdy works for Harlequin Ltd in Barrington, as a software engineer. He is a bell-ringer at GSM, a member of the Cambridge Deanery Synod, and a member of Ely Diocesan Internet Group.

Although the Internet appears as a recent invention, it must not be seen in isolation, but as a tool of the society which created it. The ideas of a society in which information flows with a freedom not previously envisaged go back to the writings of the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote of the potential of the noosphere --- the sphere of knowledge --- as an expanding part of our social environment just as the world of machinery from the Industrial Revolution had been previously. But, when it comes to human nature, there is, as an earlier writer remarked, nothing new under the sun.

Before the invention of the Web (which made it possible to display files with easily-followed links to other files), the church's use of the computer networks had been largely confined to discussion lists, but, as more and more organisations started to make information available on the web, churches started to take notice, and consider whether they should get involved.

A group of Anglican computer scientists registered the `domain' name anglican.org (.org indicates an international non-commercial organisation) on behalf of the Anglican Communion, and one of the first bodies to register a name within this domain was the Diocese of Ely, whose web site (http://www.ely.anglican.org/) has from the start been, and still is, one of the most extensive church Internet sites.

In the following few years, many Christian resources were made available on-line by the increasing number of Christian network users, many of them computer scientists by profession but grass-roots volunteers in their churches, while the Church of England, as an organisation, took little official interest in the new technology. (It is now beginning to set up a site under the name http://www.church-of-england.org/, having not understood that anglican.org was registered on its behalf rather than by a rogue group.) In the UK, the organisation Christians on the Internet (COIN) (http://www.coin.org.uk/) was formed as interested people banded together, providing a way to find expertise and to share information. Discussion lists were started, and written resources, including a large amount of liturgical material, made available; and COIN also became a lobbying organisation, encouraging the churches to give official help and approval to these efforts.

It is now possible to download liturgical texts for private use or for the preparation of service sheets, including the entire text of the Book of Common Prayer (http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/), and some of the experimental new liturgies. There is an Anglican on-line hymnal, and a large collection of Christian writings that have gone out of copyright, from the Desert Fathers to Wesley's sermons, and continuing to some writings this century, are available as the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/.

The Internet is not only a means to access reference material such as this, but also an environment within which a community lives, with members participating in discussions, sharing needs and concerns; and this community life includes a prayer life, helped by such daily prayer services as Oremus (http://www.oremus.org/) --- a web page with readings, hymns, prayers and commemorations which change daily. (The Internet, like any thriving community, is ever-changing, and liturgical resources are beginning to gather on the Oremus server, from various other systems.)

A while after the creation of ely.anglican.org, we became involved, and put together some web pages for Great St Mary's, drawing largely on material already published on paper by the parish, including term cards, leaflets and notices. Since then, our web site, http://www.ely.anglican.org/parishes/camgsm/, has grown to become one of the largest parish sites and is continuing to grow. Records provided by the Ely Internet server suggest that people probably come in to look for specific information, and the pages about music and the bells have proved particularly popular. Each edition of Majestas is made available through it, and Lynne Broughton's series of articles about the history of the fabric of the church are becoming a guided tour of the building, which can be followed in series or reached from a clickable map of the building. We have an email list of our own for announcements and possibly discussion, details of the Cambridge chimes, bell sounds and more. In the future, we hope to publish sermons on the web site as well as on paper, to make a `place for quiet prayer' on the net echoing our St Andrew's Chapel, and to construct a `virtual reality' model of the church, which can be explored from anywhere on the Internet. The hope is to draw people into our stated aim of helping people with their own discovery of faith and, as we continue to explore this new aspect of our world, to play our part in ensuring that cyberspace is not without a spiritual dimension.

Diary

All events take place in Great St Mary's unless otherwise advertised.

Who's Who

Since this is the same from issue to issue, we have included a single copy of it on the site, as our Who's who at GSM page.

Publication

Majestas is edited by Robert Avery, Sheila Cameron, David Hollier, Philip Oswald (proofs) and John Sturdy (HTML) and published by: Great St Mary's The University Church, Cambridge CB2 3PQ, Tel (01223) 350914, Fax (01223) 426555.

Please contact the editors at the above address.

Submissions for the next editions of Majestas

The deadline for the July edition of Majestas is ?th June. Please submit copy to the Church Office.

The Parish

For further details of the parish, including the regular service times, please see the GSM home page.