I was remembering today (so many events, so many things to catalogue, I wish I had started writing a blog fifty years ago). I have cooked for and entertained two Bishops in my home. Now not many people can say that! One was in London, circa, 1986 the other in Brighton, circa 2004. Bishop John Richards and Bishop Elizabeth Stuart. And its funny because I asked John about the women/Bishop issue and he replied (I can still see him in my small but snug dining room - I had one in those days - in Dulwich, South London, the evening before the Synod, now I just have a kitchen) - Its too soon, he said. I am sympathetic but the time is not right. He was one of the first two "flying bishops" appointed in the wake of the General Synod's decision that year, that women might become priests. Its been 2000 years I said, at the time. Nothing, nothing at all, for a historian, he replied. Fast forward, I wrote The Storykeepers film idea, became a University Professor and friends with Professor Elizabeth Stuart, don't see her much these days after she became a Bishop (I may be wrong but of the Open Episcopal Church). The point of this story is one was open and humorous the other institutional and closed. They knew each other (John died young - 70) and as far as I know they liked and respected each other - as I do/did them. They knew each other and talking is what they both do/did best. Now where am I going with this. Well Israel and Palestine! Nothing is going to happen for the good unless the real people talk. Men, Women, Jew, Muslim... we fantasise truths for the oddest reasons but surely speaking to each other is better than the alternative. Talking, people on the streets, mothers and fathers, people affected, because religious extremism (which both bishops would eschew) needs to be addressed better. I have been racially abused many times in my life. You might not think it, but living down south in England, being a 'jock', a 'scot', 'could peel an orange in his pocket, tight-fisted...' has been directed to me, even at my own University. But the worst, though, was in Birmingham. Abbi was playing a huge tournament, had gone to bed and I slipped out of the cheap hotel room to have a pint and watch the football. I was crossing the road and then an ASDA van pulled up so I jumped back. There were three guys inside laughing, the driver shouted, 'Want to taste me van, white man...' I wasn't a jock then, but a white man (in Birmingham)... there you go. I love Christian iconography like the picture of this bible (above). I might like the same with other religions, but my mother was Catholic and I grew up with it. I have written 15 films and tons of books as a textual intervention of the Christian story too... I think a bishop or two might approve, and I am working on a new piece, based on the Moses story... watch the space. This song taught me I could combine writing with saying something, I am working towards that, even now. I was 14 when I first heard this, I can still play it and the words are always in my head, its one of those songs for me - but Joan too:
