11 October 2023 A Candle in the Window Peter Millar
Words to encourage us in these times.
Awaken me, O Lord, from false understanding. Keep the limits of my knowing ever before me, that I might not defame You or claim too much for myself. Show me true justice and right mercy, that I may live humbly and simply in accordance with the order You ordained for the flourishing of life.
Carla A. Grosch-Miller based on Psalm 89
*Many of you may remember these words by Donna Ashworth and circulated by Amnesty International during lockdown. I think we need to read them from time to time, not just to be reminded of the past but to be inspired to live lovingly in the present. Peter
History will remember when the world stopped
and the flights stayed on the ground
and the cars parked in the street
and the trains didn’t run.
History will remember when the schools closed
and the children stayed indoors
and the medical staff walked towards the fire
and they didn’t run.
History will remember when the people sang
on their balconies, in isolation
but so very much together
in courage and song.
History will remember when the virus left
and the houses opened
and the people came out
and hugged and kissed
and started again.
Kinder than before.
Faith is attraction to the Divine. For too long faith has been presented as a weak form of knowledge. Yet while faith seems feeble in the realm of evidence and proof, beauty always attracts us. It shapes our sensibility in a way that makes us respond. Our response to beauty is unlaboured. Even in unknown ways our lives are charged with attraction towards Divine beauty. The infinity of the beauty, which is God, is a feast for the soul. The beauty of God increases and deepens our own beauty.
John O’Donohue from his book ‘Divine beauty’
A beacon of hope from Ecuador:
History was made on 20 August 2023. The people of Ecuador voted to become the first country to limit fossil fuel extraction through direct democracy – making them a global trail-blazer. With a margin of almost 20%, more than 5.2 million people voted in favour compared 3.6 million against. This means that the development of all new oil wells in the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon, one of the most bio-diverse regions on the planet, will be halted.
This is of particular significance given that Ecuador’s economy relies heavily on oil exports. Indeed, it is part of the interstate conflict surrounding the just transition. Who, globally, should be halting oil and fossil fuel extraction first? Who will be expected to face the consequences of continuing destructive practices on one hand, and stopping on the other, at the risk of economic lost? Conversely, who is profiting from the choices we make and who is asked to make sacrifices?
The conflict here was on two levels: that of the state, and that of class. Oil-rich countries that developed their oil resources became rich – while oil executive who are also in government became extremely wealthy and, to some extent, were able to give their citizens a higher standard of living. Ecuador could have also aspired to, and followed this model. Campaigners in Ecuador have shown they want another way. They recognise that it will only be transnational corporations and local elites who will get richer if oil extraction continues – at the great expense of campesino and Indigenous populations who would have continued to be driven off their lands and communities.
However, the battle is not over in Ecuador. The current Ecuadorian government has stated that it is not willing to respect the result of the democratic vote. Ecuadorian climate and environmental justice movements will continue the battle to see the result respected and implemented in a way that is fair and just for Ecuador. This piece is by Dorothy Guerrero and Ivonne Yanez.
Jalied Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel peace prize:
The hugely courageous Narges Mohammadi, who has been in prison for many years, is the most prominent of Iran’s jailed women’s rights advocates. Narges has vowed to stay in the country and continue her activism after winning the 2023 Nobel peace prize. On hearing of the award she said “I will never stop striving for the realisation of democracy, freedom and equality. Surely the Nobel peace prize will make me more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic on this path, and it will accelerate my pace”. As a leading rights activist in Iran she has campaigned for women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty and an improvement of prison conditions inside Iran. Narges is serving multiple sentences in Tehran’s Evin prison amounting to about twelve years’ imprisonment, according to the rights organisation Front Line Defenders. Charges against her include spreading propaganda against the state. In prison she has been active, warning of nationwide protests by publishing letters about the state of prisons and detention centres as well as violence against prisoners. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British Iranian national, who shared a prison cell with Narges in Evin, said “I am so pleased for her it makes me cry. She did so much for all of us in Evin. She is an inspiration to the women in the female ward in Evin for her fearless fight against violation of women’s rights, use of solitary confinement and execution in the judicial system in Iran. This award belongs to every single Iranian woman, who one way or another, has been and remain victims of injustice in Iran”. The award will also be viewed as a tribute to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran that rocked the clerical establishment last year but has been suppressed, with many activists either killed or in jail. And as we celebrate this brave campaigner we also remember all those women and men who share her suffering in prison.
*Edited from an article in the UK The Guardian by Patrick Wintour.
*The Nobel peace prize now worth approximately £ 800,000 will be presented in Oslo on 10 December 2023, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who founded the award in his 1895 will.
Remembering Rachel Heller (1973-2023) -- a popular UK artist whose vivid works ranged from quick, deft still lives to dense figure studies..... - Just before I completed this Candle in the Window I read Rachel’s long obituary and was so moved by it I felt it would be good to include some parts of it - ...What makes Rachel’s success over many years the more extraordinary is that she has been born with Down’s syndrome. As many of us interested in painters know well, sometimes artists with Down’s syndrome have tended to be consigned to that catch-all group known as ‘outsider artists’, a term invented to include such variously disadvantaged subgroups such as the psychotic, self-taught, imprisoned, naive and visionary. Perhaps less so today. Born in London, Rachel showed signs of talent from an early age. Sent to a special needs primary school, she quickly began to draw – animated, stick-figure people merrily dancing and playing football. Her enthusiasm for drawing grew, and at 16 she enrolled in a special needs art course. Later she went on to do a foundation course at the Byam Shaw School of Art. This was followed by courses at the Slate school of Fine Art and two years at the Royal Drawing School. Like many people with Down’s syndrome, Rachel speech was limited. Her father felt that her drawings stood in for words; it was how she communicated, he said, not least with him. Her dad was also insistent that his daughter should not be defined by her condition, seeing her instead as ‘simply, a very amiable and slightly eccentric person’.
O God, to those who are hungry, give bread
and – to those who have bread – give a hunger for justice.
From the Iona Abbey Cookbook, by Anja Jardine, Wild Goose Publications, 2023. www.ionabooks.com
