Philip Young's Messages

Contents

17/01/2012: Where is the one who is wise? [External Link]
26/12/2011: Norwich vicar says we need good news now [External Link]
11/11/2011: The world is ripe for a revolution of love [External Link]
11/09/2011: Love and leadership will solve our problems [External Link]
24/08/2011: Moral revolution needed to heal communities [External Link]
27/05/2011: War without end or fighting evil with good [External Link]
29/04/2011: Royal wedding a chance to share the love [External Link]
23/04/2011: Norwich vicar runs marathon for Water Aid [External Link]
14/04/2011: Help send abroad a message of love this Easter
02/03/2011: Marathon means life and death for Norwich Rev
31/12/2010: The Big Society and the Kingdom of God
11/11/2010: Norwich vicar sees red and white over poppies [External Link]
02/10/2010: One World - Let's Have A Party
26/08/2010: Should church challenge government agenda? [External Link]
04/05/2010: Start a revolution of love by voting in the General Election
18/04/2010: Politics and Eternity
06/04/2010: Easter and the Election
23/01/2010: Natural Disasters and Our Human Response
29/12/2009: Our Hopes for the New Decade
03/07/2009: Arson-hit Norwich vicar's message of peace [External Link].

14/04/2011: Help send abroad a message of love this Easter

Vicar with tap on his head has raised £5,493 for Water Aid so far.

Will you help him reach his dream target of £100,000?

To raise £100,000 for Water Aid by running the London Marathon for Water Aid is the ambitious dream of Norwich Vicar The Reverend Philip Young of St. Thomas’ Heigham. Will you help him to realise his dream?

Philip Young writes, ‘In John’s Gospel Jesus is reported as talking about the living water that he gives us. When people drink this water then they will never be thirsty again. The water will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. (John Chapter 4).

The picture here is of a God at the centre of the universe and of our lives who is creative, loving generous and kind and wants us to have life in all its fullness. A God whose nature overflows with life and goodness.

My dream and vision is of the people of God tapping into that overflowing generous loving God and pouring out that goodness into the world.

The need for good clean physical water and the need for living water that gives eternal life is linked. When people do not have good clean physical water then they get sick and die. A child dies every twenty seconds in our world of a water related disease. Without good clean physical water people cannot even begin to live. They cannot be well and if they are not well then they cannot access education and all the other things that make life worth living. They will find it very difficult to appreciate the living water that God gives, unless they have their physical needs met by good clean healthy water. They need to be physically healthy as a basic requirement, and then they may fully appreciate the spiritual living water that God offers them.

Jesus says in as much as you give clean water to one of those poor people, then you are giving it unto me. £100,000 is really a drop in the ocean compared to the huge problem of contaminated water in our poor communities worldwide. However it is not an insignificant drop as Water Aid will be able to help a lot of people.

At the centre of the universe is our wonderful loving God. He invites us to be generous and to send messages of love and peace to those in need. Wouldn’t it be great to send £100,000 to Water Aid as a sign that the God of love is active in Norfolk and Norwich and that we care for those who don’t have clean physical water?

To receive the living water is open to those who take up the cross and follow the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is to think of others first and to love them to death – even death on a cross. If we, like him, serve the needs of others, above our own needs, then we shall find that living water that never leaves us thirsting for more.’

To help send a message of love to those in need of fresh water you can sponsor the Reverend Philip Young by going to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/reverendphilip or send a Cheque made payable to ‘Water Aid’ to the Philip at the Vicarage.

The Water Aid website is www.wateraid.org.

To go to Philip's sponsorship page click here.

31/12/2010: The Big Society and the Kingdom of God

I’m very glad that politicians are talking about the Big Society.

A low point in political thinking came when Maggie Thatcher declared that there was no such thing as society. There seemed to follow a period when looking after number one took centre stage and the selfish pursuit of wealth seemed to dominate. Selfishness is still with us, as the bankers’ bonuses only highlight too clearly, but there seems to be an opportunity for society to change, as we are all challenged to think about the Big Society.

What worries me is that this is just a political game, and that, in the short term, nothing much will change. If society remains good for the few who are able to afford it and bad for those in poverty, then we will not be building the Big Society, but just maintaining the unequal society. A society should not be based on the charity of the rich helping to relieve the worst effects of poverty, but on redistributing wealth on a much more radical scale.

The Big Society that Cameron is promoting is to give more power to local communities and local organisations, so that they can provide some of the services that have previously been provided by the state. This sounds very good in theory, but I think the shift is happening too fast. Services are being cut, which are inevitably effecting the disabled, poor and vulnerable more than those who have their own wealth to protect them. The new provisions will take time to emerge and I wonder whether all the needs can be met by new social enterprises. We must monitor the needs of the vulnerable and hold the government to account if people are left without the support they need. After cutting too much, too quickly, the government may have to rethink and re-introduce some state or local government provision. It is the needs of the vulnerable which should drive the provision, and the last thing we need now is cuts in essential services. Let caring for one another be the dominant theme that drives the move to a Big Society.

So what is the relationship between the Big Society and the Kingdom of God? The Church’s purpose right from its foundation, with the coming of Jesus, is to bring about the kingdom of God. The prayer that Jesus taught us has, at its heart, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

So the Kingdom of God, that the Church is interested in bringing about, will have certain characteristics that can help us to answer what kind of Big Society it is that we wish to work towards.

Firstly, it is a Society based on love. God is love and he wants us to be loving. So I personally think that any Big Society, which is not based on loving and caring for each other, is not worth working for. Love is inclusive, and if there is one single person in our society who is excluded and unloved, then this is a challenge to all of us.

Secondly, it is a society where leadership is based on serving one another. Jesus shows us that the to be a leader is the serve others. He gave us the example of washing the disciples feet and said that the greatest amongst us is the least. So the Big Society needs leaders who are willing to love and to serve. We don’t want politicians or rich people to be selfish and greedy, and to Lord it over others, but to be loving, gentle and kind.

Thirdly, the Big Society needs to be an equal society. The prayer of Mary, mother of Jesus, is a very radical prayer – ‘He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly’. Whenever the kingdom of heaven comes then there is the breaking into the world of peace and justice.

We cannot have peace without justice and the coming of the kingdom of heaven is sometimes very disturbing, because injustice needs to be challenged and overturned. The Big Society needs to be based on justice for it will never be a Good Society if it is rife with inequality. For the Big Society to work it must be Good Society and the only Good Society is that which is based on the principles of the Kingdom of God.

May I wish peace and justice to all in 2011 as we work towards the Big Society and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Philip Young, Vicar of Heigham, St. Thomas, 29th December 2010.

02/10/2010: One World - Let's Have A Party

We are all part of One World.

What divides us as human beings is much less important than what unites us. It is all too easy to focus on what divides us. We can be divided by race, by culture, by gender, by sexuality, by politics, by religion, by age, by geography, by history, by wealth or lack of it, and by a hundred and one other things.

If we concentrate on our divisions and isolate ourselves into closed groups, fearful and suspicious of one another, then our future is bleak. The alternative is to realise that we are all part of one another and to come together to celebrate our diversity and our unity.

October 24th is United Nations Day and One World Week runs from October 17th to 24th. We this in mind our One World Group is inviting you to a party in the Church Hall on Saturday 23rd October from 5pm until 11pm. All are invited.

We belong to a world family and it is good to celebrate the fact that we are all brothers and sisters and that we belong to one huge family. Whatever divides us is worth overcoming in order that we can all enjoy friendship and peace.

We want St. Thomas’ Hall to be a focus for One World and so please come along and make that vision a reality. The invite is open to everyone. The idea is to celebrate being One World by bringing together as many cultures as possible. So bring along some food and drink to share that represents a particular country, (may be your own, but not necessarily, please label the food so that others know what it is). Also it would be good to celebrate the musical talent in our community, as music is a wonderful universal language. Come with your own instrument or play our piano. We’ll have some world music to play as well and we have a good dance floor!!

It would be good to raise some money at the same time and so why don’t we buy a numbered ticket on entry for £5 in aid of Water Aid and all of us donate one prize. Children can be free. When we draw the ticket numbers later then every family should receive a prize or two.

We will have the ability to show DVDs in the Mabel Perry room and so if you have a relevant DVD on the theme of One World or World Peace you are welcome to bring it along. Come ready to chat and to make new friends, as it would be good to make it an opportunity to share our hopes and visions for One World. But above all just turn up with an open mind and an open heart and with the intention of having a celebration of what unites us rather than what might keep us apart from each other.

Peace and friendship to all, Philip Young, Vicar of St. Thomas’ Heigham.

04/05/2010: Start a revolution of love by voting in the General Election

It’s vitally important for everyone to vote at the General Election. Your vote can be the beginning of a revolution of love. Christians pray every day, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

The church is the first fruits of all that is to come, and what is here amongst us already, namely the Kingdom of God. The political parties and governments come and go and wax and wane according to how we vote. How we vote can either advance the Kingdom of God or hold it back. Prayer and political activity can make a difference, as God wants us to be his agents on earth.

So firstly, God’s Kingdom is a peaceful kingdom, where swords are beaten into ploughshares. We must vote for peace. Study the parties and decide who is moving away from war and towards peace. Jesus teaches us to be peacemakers. Where are the peacemakers? Seek them out and support them.

Secondly, God’s Kingdom is where all are loved and cared for. Who are the politicians who are talking about a more caring and fairer world? If you think a politician will make the divide between rich and poor even greater, then beware of them. If you think they care about ordinary people and will bring healing and understanding between people, who are divided, then support them.

Thirdly, God’s Kingdom is a place of beauty and creativity. Seek out those politicians who will care for and love the natural world. If they care more about making money than caring for the environment, then beware of them. God’s created world is under severe threat from human activity, based usually around greed. We must seek out those politicians who are passionate about looking after what God has given us. Who are faithful stewards of the created order?

The first disciples turned the world upside down by their love and through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we are called to do the same. We believe that ‘God is love’, as shown by Jesus. We believe in the power of the resurrection and that all things are renewed through his love and his power. Jesus gave up self-interest and lived for others. We need our politicians to be servants, not looking to their own self-interest, but to the interests of others.

Ask yourself, who are the politicians who are willing to put the interests of the people first? Who are those called to be peacemakers and those called to care for God’s world? At a General Election the people can make a huge difference by voting in the best men and women.

We pray for a revolution of love in our nation and in our world.
We pray that the god of economics can be dethroned and the God of Love enthroned.
We pray, ‘thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’.

Philip Young, 4th May 2010.
St. Thomas’ Church, Heigham, Norwich.

18/04/2010: Politics and Eternity

We are sometimes so caught up in our present time that we fail to see that we are just passing through a phase in our long history.

As I write the skies have fallen silent as the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull has grounded all fights in the UK and most of Europe. To most of us we had accepted as normal the many flights and easy access to all international destinations. Suddenly when it is taken away, we realise that it is anything but normal, in the light of the long history of our planet, and from the perspective of God’s eternity.

I feel that it is significant for our country that this has all happened during the time of our General Election. It is time to step back and question how our country is led and what is important in the light of eternity.

In the end we can survive without aeroplanes and the age of many flights every day is probably going to reach a peak sometime soon in historical terms. What is certain is that our planet cannot sustain such high-energy consumption for much longer and that we all need to think of imaginative and creative ways of adjusting our lifestyles.

So we can live without aeroplanes, but what is it that we cannot live without? Can we live without money? Yes! Many societies have done so. So why are our politics so dominated by economics? In the end money is just a tool in our hands and a very blunt instrument if what it creates is a very unequal society with relatively few rich people and many in poverty.

We need an economics as if people mattered. The very things we cannot live without are water, food, shelter and love. So we really need a politics, which is dominated by meeting our basic needs, the greatest of which is love. Love is also the eternal good, which goes on when everything else comes to an end.

In the light of eternity we need politicians who are willing to be dominated not by economics, but by love. So we could say, ‘Vote for Love’.

Our mini-manifesto could be:
‘Make love not war’,
‘More equality – distribute the wealth and care for the poor’
‘Love the planet – work with nature, don’t destroy it’.

Maybe the silent skies could give us time to think, meditate, and pray that the eternal value of Love comes to dominate our politics. Jesus and other prophets have already shown us the way. We just need to hear the call of eternal love.

Philip Young, 18th April 2010.
St. Thomas’ Church, Heigham, Norwich.

06/04/2010: Easter and the Election

What relevance has the Easter message to the forthcoming election in our country? We are sometimes warned not to mix politics and religion. We are told that religion should keep itself to itself and that politicians should avoid being openly religious. Thirty years ago Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered for speaking out for the cause of the poor in El Salvador. I believe he was right to speak out. If our faith has nothing to do with how we live our lives in our communities then it is an irrelevant faith.

Many of us are realising that we need a new politics in this country and politicians who are willing to serve the people and who are not in it for their own selfish gain. This is where the Christian model of serving others becomes particularly relevant.

Jesus teaches us that to be great you must be the servant of all. Paul writes in Philippians that Jesus ‘did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.’ (Philippians 2.6-8)

Thus Jesus sets the example of greatness as being someone who serves others. ‘Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others’ (Philippians 2.4). Christian societies have been influenced by this teaching, as is reflected in the phrase, ‘public service’. It is now time to challenge our politicians and bring them back to the high ideal of being servants of the people. We do not want politicians who lord it over us and are lining their own pockets and protecting the interests of a rich and powerful elite.

The Holy Week and Easter message centres round the death and resurrection of Jesus and this is highly relevant to political life and indeed to all life. We need the death of old selfish politics and the renewal of our political and social life. Change is coming at this election as more MPs are standing down than for a long time. We need the new MPs to take on the agenda of the people. We need them to be our servants.

The renewal of our national life, of course, involves all of us, but we often take our lead from those who are in positions of leadership. If we see that our politicians are seeking to serve the people and to help the poor, then this will renew the whole of our national life. We are too dominated by selfishness and greed and ‘I couldn’t give a damn’ attitude.

At this time of Easter and of the Election we need to put to death the selfishness that we find in ourselves and we need the resurrection refreshment of living our lives looking to the needs of others. It may sound simple, but our national life will be miraculously renewed if we follow Jesus’ new commandment to love one another and to look after each other. Looking after No.1 was never going to bring us anything but grief and trouble. A revolution of love brings renewal and hope both personally and politically.

Happy resurrection!

Philip Young.
Holy Week and Easter 2010.
St. Thomas’ Church, Heigham, Norwich.

23/01/2010: Natural Disasters and Our Human Response

I am writing this less than two weeks after the terrible earthquake, which shattered the lives of many people in Haiti. We have all been horrified at the suffering, which we have seen on our televisions.

I find it is very encouraging that so many people and governments have been moved to give money and help. It seems that we have learned, after the experience of the Boxing Day Tsunami, to be better co-ordinated in our efforts to bring aid, which are never fast enough when people are suffering, but the will is there even if it is not possible to easily overcome the difficulties of distributing aid to all areas.

It is also heartening to see the armed forces of the United States using their military power for good purposes and it gives me hope that one day the swords will permanently be turned into ploughshares.

Allow me to dream a dream of a time when the peoples of the earth stop the silly wars and start making it a priority to help the poor of the world.

Poverty is a disaster that is lived out in our world day by day and the people of Haiti needed our help before the earthquake and there are many people in the world who have not got clean water or sufficient food or shelter and who need our help right now.

Could it be that we can begin to turn our compassion to helping one another on a permanent basis or are we so insensitive to other people suffering that we don’t care?

The answer, from our response to the natural disasters, is that we do care. The necessity is that we enlarge that caring to include those who are poor throughout the world. We need a poor campaign.

It interests me greatly that Martin Luther King towards the end of his life was turning more of his attention to the Poor Campaign and that his attitude was that as long as one person was suffering in the world then it affected us all and we all should be suffering alongside that person. ‘No man is an island’ as John Donne so famously wrote.

So I am encouraged that people care about what is going on in Haiti and it shows that when we act together for good then much can be achieved.

Let good people continue to act and to push out the boundaries of our caring so that all mankind can be a loving family.

Philip Young, The Vicarage.

29/12/2009: Our Hopes for the New Decade

The Noughties was a decade when the world continued to get smaller and we came to the realisation that the future of all of us is linked together.

The World Wide Web means that we are all in touch with each other at the touch of a button and communications between previously distant lands is now instant. News and life is 365/24/7 and we are all constantly pulled into this global village that never sleeps or stops.

So how do we approach the challenges and opportunities of the new decade, and how do we avoid the dangers of the world being torn apart?

The challenges are great. How can we learn to live together in peace as nations and as individuals? I would like to become an expert in conflict resolution between individuals and then, once I have mastered that one, to apply it between nations. I challenge you to join me on this journey.

Truth and reconciliation is what we need to seek and we need to become skilful in this area. Human beings are not good at it. I am just a beginner but I am determined to learn more and to become wiser. If we are out of our depth in this area we need to admit it and to seek help and training. If we cannot bring peace between individuals then what hope is there to bring peace to a wider world?

You know that I want peace and the end of all war by 2018, a hundred years after the war to end all wars. Will you join me on this journey? It is a journey close to the teaching of Jesus, who taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us. After hundreds of years of war it will not be easy to bring it to an end in less than ten years, but if we do not learn to live together very soon then we may well all perish together.

The threats to continued human existence on a fragile planet are very real and the failure, as I write, to make binding agreements at the Copenhagen Summit is very worrying. We have to come together, as human beings, at this time, more than ever before in our history of life on earth. If we fail to look after the planet and to be faithful stewards of God’s creation then we shall fail ourselves, and the coming generations.

The challenge is to live as One World and to live as brothers and sisters. We have to create circles of peace and we need to make this our priority in the coming decade.

The journey is exciting and challenging.

Shall we join together on this journey and rise to the challenge?

Let us ask that God will make us wise and bless us as we seek to bless each other and the earth.

Philip Young, St.Thomas’ Vicarage.
Written at the end of the Noughties.