On 18 July 2015, Nelson Mandela’s birthday, a container of 50,000 books left from City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow to be delivered to school and public libraries in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.   The container was organised by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), the successor organisation to the Anti-Apartheid Movement.   ACTSA, along with its partner, Community HEART, a British-based charity supporting the development of South Africa, has now sent over 3,000,000 books to South Africa.   The container sent from Glasgow helped us to achieve that figure.

The books will go to schools like the one in Elliotdale that I visited when I was in South Africa last year.   The local community in Bomvanaland decided to build a secondary school at Elliotdale in 1997, three years after the end of apartheid.   They raised the money and they built the school.   It now has a library, but there is a problem.   They have shelves, desks and chairs, but they do not have any books. There are schools like this all over South Africa.

The first time that I went to South Africa was in 1993, and I visited a school in Soweto.   The head teacher, when she learned that I was a librarian, asked if I would like to see there library.   I agreed and she brought out a box, which only contained a Latin Bible.   This was used to show the children what a book looked like.   That is a good example of what library provision was like for black children under apartheid.

Since 1994, and the end of apartheid, there has been a huge investment in schools in South Africa, but there was no magic wand to be waived so that all the facilities required could be supplied, and not just in education, but housing, health, employment, transport, electricity, clean water etc.   So some things required international solidarity.

My friend, Kader Asmal, who was Minister of Education in Mandela’s government, spoke to my friend, Denis Goldberg, who was gaoled at the same time as Nelson Mandela, and they agreed that they should ask people in the UK to send 1,000,000 books, and so the book appeal began.   ACTSA Scotland, in particular, rose to the challenge and has been sending containers of books on a regular basis since we began collecting books in 1996.

When we were in Cape Town in 2000, Denis and I reported to Kader that the UK had sent a million books, and his reply was “Can you make it 3,000,000?”   Sadly, Kader is no longer with us, but I can hear him asking “Can you make it 5,000,000?” now that we have achieved the 3,000,000 target.   The need is still there.   I saw that for myself last year in South Africa.

So, what has this got to do with the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway in particular?   Well, recently, Bishop Gregor convened a meeting to discuss how the Diocese should approach international issues.   It was decided that to launch this approach, we needed something that would be a quick hit, and the ACTSA Scotland Book Appeal fitted the bill.   The container was already booked for 18^th July, and we had to make sure that it was full.   So Bishop Gregor wrote to the 66 churches in the Diocese and asked them to send their contributions to Hillhead Library.   We had no trouble in filling the container.   [In fact, a fair proportion of the next container has now been filled.]   The generosity of the donors was extraordinary.

On the day, about 50 volunteers assembled at Hillhead Library at 10.00am to start loading the container.   Trolleys were used to get the boxes of books to the foot of the basement stairs in Hillhead Library.   The boxes of books were then passed hand to hand up the stairs, into the car park and then onto the container.   This took three and a half hours.   The volunteers then headed to City Chambers for the official send off at 2.00pm.   Meanwhile the jazz band had arrived at City Chambers to set up for the reception.   Peter Wakeford organised this.   The container and the guests arrived at City Chambers more or less simultaneously.   The guest of honour was Obed Mlaba, the South African High Commissioner to the UK.   Bishop Idris was there to represent the Diocese, the Depute Lord Provost represented the City Council and their Deputy General Secretary represented the STUC.   The event ended with a 17-year old Icelandic baritone, Magnus Walker, singing the South African National Anthem.

This was the first event in which the Scottish Episcopal Church participated following Bishop Gregor’s initiative.   The second, the “Glasgow Sees Syria” concert at St. Mary’s Cathedral, has already taken place.   There will be more.

Little by little, action by action, we will change the world.

Run Riko Run!!!!!

3000 kilometres in 365 days. To most of us who run a little, or have done so in the past, it’s very easy to do the simple maths and think, “Hmmm, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?”. Well think again, but this time be honest. Most of you will know that Riko Kumagai, a regular at St Mary’s Cathedral and member of our choir, committed herself at the start of 2015 to do just this; to run 3000km in one year. So let’s blow the numbers apart a little and get a sense of what this really means.

Running 3000km would take Riko from Glasgow to Berlin and back (and not as the crow flies!). To many people, taking part in a marathon or even a 10k run is a huge achievement. Riko would have to take part in three hundred 10k events, or participate in nearly 72 marathons to cover this 3000km distance in one year. That’s more than one marathon a week, every week. The magazine ‘Runners’ World’ suggests that those training for a marathon cover 30-50 miles a week, and Riko is currently on track with this target. Sounds achievable until you factor in the recommended six weeks recovery time after each marathon. Pretty hard to do when you’re trying to run more than one marathon a week!

So how and why does she do it? Running has always been a part of life for Riko. When asked how old she was when she started running, she simply laughs and says, “You learn to walk, then you learn to run. Then you just keep going….why stop walking or running?”. Competing in athletics meets at school as a teenager in Japan, Riko’s talents lay in hurdling and sprinting. As you grow older, she says, the sprinting becomes harder and many women turn to longer distances, particularly after having children. Riko didn’t run her first marathon till after daughter Eilidh was born. Although able to drive, Riko chooses not to for environmental reasons, so running also fulfils a practical purpose.

Fitting her running into a busy life, working around family commitments and the unpredictable Scottish weather is a real challenge for Riko. Rain doesn’t bother her, however, in fact she says that running in different weathers makes you appreciate things that most people often miss. Regular barefoot runs of 5km keep her feet strong, and mixing in hills and sprints breaks up the routine of the weekly training. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and keeping ourselves free of the unavoidable aches and pains is hard enough for most of us. To maintain her running schedule Riko needs to stay injury free, eat a healthy but calorific diet, get plenty of sleep and stay away from all temptations such as alcohol. Doing this day in, day out is tough, but thankfully Riko is already nearly two thirds of the way through the year without any major issues. To ensure that she clocks up the miles sufficiently each week, Riko will regularly run from her home in Newton Mearns to the cathedral for choir practice, or to a service on Sunday. Riko’s son Leo has been improving his cooking skills in order to help out with mealtimes while Mum is out running. Running, the desire to run and now the need to run, is built into every part of Riko’s life.

When asked why raise money for the St Mary’s Cathedral Music Endowment Fund, for Riko the answer is simple; to give back a little of what she and her family have received from worship and making music there. Riko was a member of Hillhead Baptist Church (where she still has strong connections) when her partner Paul heard about our Treble Choir. Frikki was musical director with the Bearsden Choir and was encouraging anyone with children interested in singing to come along.     Leo has been in the choir now for nearly eight years, and also takes regular organ lessons with Frikki where he is showing real talent. When Riko’s daughter Eilidh was old enough to join the treble section, Riko decided, with two children now able to sing in the choir, she might as well join them! St Mary’s Cathedral, and its choir, have become a big part of Riko’s life, and to her raising money to support this cause seemed only natural.

So far, Riko has raised nearly £2,300 towards the Music Endowment Fund. Her target at the start of the year was £10,000, so there is still quite a way to go with a third of the distance left to run. For every kilometre Riko runs, she needs to raise £3.33, which again isn’t much when you do the maths and have three thousand donations! Many of you will already have donated either to the cathedral, or directly to Riko to support her run. There will also be many who know that the deadline for handing in your donation is the end of this year, and aren’t in too much of a rush to get this done. Whatever your position, spread the news and let’s have a real push to get Riko as close as we can to her target figure. Riko needs no motivation, but it can’t be denied that seeing the fund-raising total rise will be a big boost!

You can donate through Riko’s web-page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Riko (don’t forget to add Gift Aid if you are eligible). Alternatively cash or cheques made payable to St Mary’s Cathedral, with ‘Riko’s Run’ clearly written on the back can be handed to any of the stewards on duty.

Please also follow and support Riko’s progress on Facebook by searching for ‘3000km in 2015’. Rikos next big run is the Loch Ness Marathon on 27^th September.

Trade not Aid? Can it be that simple?

This is one of those phrases which sounds good on first hearing and yet runs the risk of making life a little too simple.

What’s good and not so good about it?

Well, clearly, it’s always better to help someone achieve economic independence, than to have them rely on hand-outs. If someone can get to the point where they can command a market at a good price for what they produce/offer, that has to be good. But, of course, as any trader will know, there’s nothing guaranteed about a market for your goods or services and plenty of people around the global market place who may be all too ready to exploit others. So trade is good but it needs to be stable and just.

And trade is not just good for the individual trader, it’s also essential for the welfare of his community and nation. If nations don’t trade, then they won’t have anything with which to buy those things they can’t produce. Think what a problem it is in this modern world if you don’t produce fuel for transport. But tariffs and tolls can make trading very difficult. So the international conditions of trade need to be right.

And some developments in trade can be positively bad. Large plantations which displace farmers from their land and pay low wages, use heavy machinery and large applications of fertilisers can create poverty and adversely affect the environment. So trade needs to help smallholder farmers (70+% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa) improve their livelihoods, not push them further into poverty.

And, pretty obviously, not everything can be dealt with, at least in the medium term, on a purely commercial basis. An outbreak of ebola needs immediate intervention; many countries will need help to enable them to deal with the consequences of HIV/AIDS, which can have a debilitating effect on the work force, making it even less easy for a low income country to afford the necessary drugs and personnel. So trade will not fix everything, particularly not in the short to medium term

Some practical examples.

Zampi Village

At St Mary’s we have been supporting a village in the Chin Hills in Burma (Myanmar). It’s a community of some 600, way up in the hills, 35 km from the nearest town, a few kilometers off the road which leads down into India. Over the last 20 years they have achieved a lot under extraordinarily testing conditions. They have built a school, have established a farm with a successful herd of cattle, are trialing new crops which may have a market in India and have just, with help from the Scottish Episcopal Church, set up a pharmacy and consulting rooms for a midwife.   None of this could have happened without outside funding. But it has been driven by the local Baptist church with its remarkable Secretary General, Dr. Gin Khan Khual, who studied at Glasgow University. His vision is to work for self-sufficiency. That means taking control of education and health, working to empower women. It also means developing a form of sustainable agriculture which can be followed by the local smallholder farmers.

The school at Zampi Village

Agriculture is not easy. Most people are smallholder farmers growing rice, maize, some vegetables, keeping pigs and cattle. We talked, when I visited in December, to the leader of another Baptist church who had worked in this field and had tried apples, peaches, lemons all with only limited success. The herd at Zampi, some 85 cattle, was impressive and provides an income for the work of the Sophia Mission. The crops they are trialing, wild yams, some local beans, agar wood for perfume, are not yet mature enough to market. If they could sell into India (Manipur), that would be a break-through.  So: aid and trade.

Malawi rice farmers

We have been selling Kilombero rice from northern Malawi at our fair trade stall in St. Mary’s for the last 6 years. T he farmers have visited us a number of times. This wonderful rice is grown largely as a cash crop, enabling them to improve their housing, buy clothing, farm inputs and implements, transport (bicycles) and to pay for secondary schooling for their children. The farmers agree a fair price for the rice with their national association, who sell to supermarkets in Malawi and to Just Trading Scotland (JTS). Farmers who have been working with the association for some years have already benefitted significantly, building up their resources: housing, farming knowledge and implements, helping produce the next generation of better educated citizens. Trade works!

Traditional methods of threshing are laborious and wasteful. New pedal driven threshing machines can significantly improve performance

JTS have also been working with KASFA to improve the quality of the seed they use and to provide better equipment: tarpaulins for drying the rice, pedal-driven threshing machines, ox-carts, rotavators to speed up preparations of the fields for sowing. This has been generously funded by the Scottish Government, and the investments should prove sustainable. Development funding to create sustainable agriculture is of vital importance.

There’s an important part here too for people in this country. Schools, churches, fair trade groups have been selling 90 kg of rice, because this is the amount a farmer needs to sell to be able to send one child to secondary school for a year. Knowing there is a market for Kilombero rice here in Scotland really motivates farmers in Malawi to make the improvements and changes necessary. The local association has grown from 2,500 to 9,000 in the last 5 years.    The fair trade movement is helping to create the right conditions for trade.

Getting a fair price for your rice is crucial.

But, of course, that doesn’t deal with everything short-term. When Howard Msukwa was visiting recently he met the international officer at Glasgow City Council. They now regularly dispatch much needed supplies to the hospital in Karonga. Currently they are looking for an x-ray machine to replace the one they have which has been out of action for a number of years. JTS is collecting mobile phones to help improve communications. So again: trade and aid.

During the summer period, Rosemary Hannah and Sophie Agrell have been leading a special programme for the Young Church at St Mary’s. When asked about what it was like on their final Sunday, Rosemary said, “It’s been a blast”. In this article she explains why.

The most memorable moment during the summer holiday session of Young Church came when our youngest participant, not yet a year old, took water play to a new level and pulled the plug on the baby bath. Sophie Agrell, who was sitting on the floor beside it – well, you can fill in the rest from your imagination.

Sophie and I are the ‘holiday team’ at Young Church and the reason for the baby bath was that the children were exploring the power of water for themselves, using poured water to power toys. The baby bath was merely there to try and confine the water a bit.

Many, indeed most, of the Young Churchers are preschoolers, and they learn best through hands-on play-experience of the world. It is only helpful to tell them that water is a powerful thing if they can also experience that power for themselves. So they were pouring and scooping water as a way of getting ready to understand that the water to be poured at baptism the next week was also a very powerful thing. On the week of the baptism we did not have much time, so our talk about wind and Spirit (and how the words are the same in all the languages Jesus knew) was only briefly backed up by using breath to move bubbles and golf balls around the Synod Hall.

That was the only week we did not have two activities running at the same time, one overseen by Sophie and one by me. Our usual pattern was for the children to gather in one group while I told a story and then two different activities ran at the same time.

For example, during the week that we talked about growing wheat, the story was about how Jesus and his disciples ‘broke the law’ by rubbing corn in their hands on a Sabbath, so that they could eat in the corn field. That let us talk about when it is sensible to keep rules, and when one might need to challenge them – something which both Jesus and the grown-ups at St Mary’s often do. How would one decide? This gave the eight year olds something to think about but of course it went way over the heads of our youngest members.

One of the challenges of Young Church is catering for a very age-diverse group. There are between ten and thirteen children at most sessions, with perhaps twenty who attend at different times. Their ages range from eight or nine down to children under a year, often there with a slightly older sibling. Each week, every child needs to learn in a way appropriate to their stage of development, so what is on offer needs to be very diverse.

There was always an art activity of some kind, and a practical activity. The children moved from one group to the other as they chose, so that there was always an activity they could enjoy. We found that art worked best if it was something Young Church could engage with at different levels. After we had talked about Jesus in the wheat field, the practical task was grinding wheat in a coffee grinder, and talking about that process, feeling the grain as it broke down into flour (developing fine motor skills) and taking turns to hold down the switch.

The art activity was drawing with glue on coloured paper, then sprinkling on flour to create a picture. Here the older ones produced exquisite patterns, and the younger ones worked on mastering a paintbrush. Art activities over the summer included potato printing (one especially fine bunch of grapes is pinned up in the Synod Hall), water colour painting, and collage.

Our focus this summer was the Eucharist and baptism. We explored wheat from the seed, through its growth (members took home wheat to grow in a clear cup lined with wet kitchen roll) to its being made into bread. We made the bread together and everybody took home a roll to bake and eat. What we hoped was that children taking the bread at the Eucharist would have a much deeper understanding of both some of the Bible stories about wheat and bread, and of what bread is. When Jesus speaks of the bread that is his body, he already had in his mind the stories he had told about wheat and bread.

The older children carefully counted an hundred seeds and glued them into a stylised head as we reflected on his image of the response to his preaching (and what a lot of wheat that many seeds are). Always somewhere in his mind was the every-day task of the grinding up of the flour, and how, magically, the yeast expands that flour. All these lie behind that taking and breaking of bread. Jesus and his disciples were not as divorced from a sprouting seed turning into baked bread as we so often are today.

We crushed grapes in big jugs using little bottles of water as pestles and drank the juice as we began to come to terms with wine at the Eucharist. There is something brutal about crushing grapes, and we stopped to consider just how shocking Jesus’ words ‘This is my blood’ really were. The juice was delicious – we had to ration it very carefully. Now admit it – you all really wish you could be in Young Church, don’t you? Especially to see that plug come out of that baby bath.