"Sometimes it's hard, being a prophet" - Sermon for Triity 6B, Proper

We have a tendency, I think to regard the saints, heroes and heroines in the faith, as people who've got things sorted.

They are the ones who've managed to keep all of the Commandments – even that pesky one about loving your neighbour.

People whose lives are so overwhelmingly full of the joy of the Lord that they float through their days in a kind of glorious golden haze, secure in faith and hope and chock full of love at all times.

Finished products, secure and serene – so focussed on the promises of heaven that earthly struggles pretty much pass them by unnoticed.

If that's your impression, you might just need to think again.

Saints are real people, forthright, outraged, not afraid to take God to task

Saints are people like Teresa of Avila, who exploded one day

“If this is the way you treat your friends, Lord – I'm not surprised you have so few of them”

Her words most definitely struck a chord with me as I looked at today's gospel

Jesus says of his cousin

“Among those born of woman there is none greater than John the Baptist” but despite this affirmation, things don't exactly turn out well for him...(any more, of course, than they do for Jesus)...The story of his death is one of the most gruesome and disturbing in the New Testament. No easy ride for him.

“If that's how you treat your friends...”

Actually, when you're called to be a prophet easy rides are almost unheard of.

Small wonder, then, that most of the great Old Testament prophets resisted their vocation with all that was in them.

“Me? speak truth to power? God, you have to be joking!”

Think of Jonah, bolting for Tarshish when told to take God's message to Nineveh

Or Jeremiah, insisting “How can I speak. I'm only a child...” or Moses, pleading that his stammer disqualified him

Or Amos

“I'm neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I'm a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees”

That sounds wonderfully bucolic and peaceful – but God is adamant

“Go prophesy......”

Background doesn't matter....John the Baptist's father was a priest in the Temple, dedicated to the rites and observances of Jewish tradition...nor was Amos's father a recognised spokesman for God......but God called both their sons and placed HIS words of radical challenge on their lips.

You see, God persists in calling unlikely people

Ordinary souls with no particular gifting, fearful souls who would much sooner stay at home, sceptical souls who aren't really sure that God is still active, truculent souls who fight him every step of the way.

People like you and me

God calls them.

God calls us

He calls, because there remains so much in our world that needs to be challenged, needs to be changed...

But don't panic if you don't see yourself as an orator, - for often prophetic action speaks louder than all the words in the world.

Yesterday morning, some of you came to help us raise money for the 5K feast, a month long fund-raising drive for Marah and the Stroud & District Foodbank.

Those who came may have thought they were simply buying a cake or supporting a raffle – but actually they were part of an act of prophetic challenge.

I have to admit, I do have some reservations about the foodbank – because only those with an official referral can be fed, because there are limits to the help that one individual or family can receive. If we set this prudent strategy against the reckless generosity of God – it seems to me that the food bank organisers are setting their sights a little too low. But for all that, they ARE doing something...their words and their actions proclaim them emphatically a sign of God's kingdom.

Motivated by their faith, they are affirming with every food parcel they give out that the hungry in our society matter to God...that it is not acceptable that men, women and children should be going to bed with empty stomachs while just down the road their neighbours spend money on diet foods and exercise classes.

Their presence is a reminder that something is badly broken in society – and, as Christians, we have a responsibility to challenge that brokenness by our actions and by our words.

Does that bother you?

Perhaps I'm sounding too political?

But faith and politics absolutely belong together, until the power structures of our society and all societies are fully reflective of Kingdom values.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he took as his mission statement those words of the prophet Isaiah

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor”

If you are poor and hungry, then good news will surely involve being fed...

If you are frightened of persecution, good news will involve finding a place of safety...

If you are helpless, dis-empowered, good news will arm you with the tools that you need to claim your own future.

Good news changes things

I know that many feel the church should stay out of politics – and perhaps it may be inappropriate to engage in PARTY politics...

But our God has never been content to sit, robed in majesty, untouched by the plight of his children

Our God chose to become incarnate – to join in the mess and muddle and heartbreak of human life, so that that same mess, muddle and heartbreak might be transformed and redeemed.

Our God CARES – and charges us to live as signs of that care.

“Preach the gospel...Use words if you must” said St Francis...

Today too many will be deaf to the gospel unless we show them what it really means for them.

The clamour of their own struggle, their own pain, deafens them to our cry of “good news” - unless they can see, experience and recognise it as good news for themselves.

So......we are called to live as prophets, signs of the Kingdom, to the elderly, selling their homes to fund social care, to the mum crying in the Co-op because there's not enough cash in her purse to buy the food her family needs, to the children sent to school without breakfast, the rough sleeper, the battered wife.

We are called to show that there IS a better way, to live as prophets...sometimes to speak but ALWAYS to act to bring about transformation and root out injustice

This is the agenda presented in the letter of James

“ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”

But to act will probably not win you many friends

To act AND to speak will undoubtedly win you enemies

The Brazilian Archbishop, Dom Helder Camara said

“When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry,they call me a Communist...”

and you can be sure that “Communist” was not intended as a compliment.

No, it's definitely not easy being a prophet...downright dangerous at times.

But safety can be over-rated.

Remember the Collect for today, with its invitation to shake the kaleidoscope and see the world in a different way...

Our current preoccupations with personal security, prosperity, popularity, become second-order concerns when set against those good things which pass our understanding...God's promises that exceed all we can desire

There IS a better way

There IS more on offer than we can imagine in our wildest dreams

So we CAN dare the risk of faith, we can speak and act as citizens of this world who know that our true home is the Kingdom of God...

Let's pray that Collect once again, as we thank God for all those who speak his Truth in our world and ask for courage and faith to do the same

Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

"Who cares about estates?"

was the title of yesterday's Estate Churches Network conference...and certainly in a predominantly rural and affluent diocese like this one, it's a question you might be forgiven for asking.

Happily the evidence at Carrs Lane Church yesterday is that rather alot of people care deeply, and that the church remains committed to loving and serving the areas  that other agencies treat as problems to be addressed. It was a good day, during which I learned a good deal.


Valley parish, you see, includes two estates, with very different atmospheres...One was built in the 1970s, pleasant houses for owner-occupiers, with lots of green spaces in between. The other is altogether greyer, older, mainly social housing (though some, of course, became owner/occupied under dear Mrs T's right to buy scheme 30 years ago).Between them, they qualify us as an "estate parish" and I'm very aware that on the whole we don't connect with those living on either estate - and that the whole estate culture is outside my own experience, so I was really hoping for insights and ways forward...


I was in no way disappointed. 

Lynsey Hanley spoke of "The Wall in the Head" and certainly broke down several walls in mine as she shared her experience of growing up on an outer city estate, and then moving far beyond it. High on her list of results was the sense that many estates dwellers have that certain things are only for others to enjoy...that the world outside cannot be trusted, so should be kept out at all costs. Education may be a route out of estates life, but it can also be seen almost as an act of betrayal of your origins...Wider horizons are dangerous, and few return to share the fruits of their education or experience (in contrast to the pattern on estates where the majority of the population is Asian; there an individual's academic or professional success is likely to be accepted as a community achievement, and estate "escapees" return to share what they have gained). Though the population as a whole enjoys ever wider experiences, broader horizons, on the estates life can become ever narrower, more constrained by poverty and depression.

Negative publicity (when did you last hear of a "pleasant" or "mellow" estate? to read the press, they are always and inevitably "tough") contributes to anxiety that you are to blame for your low social status as an estate dweller...
Immediate,cheap comfort via unhealthy options in diet, alcohol or substance abuse compounds the situation...(I heard someone say of the Co-op in my parish "It's full of overweight mothers buying unsuitable food to malnourish their children" a remark of such breathtaking judgementalism that I was left speechless).
In 21st century Britain, extremes of wealth and poverty are increasingly the norm...ours it the 3rd most unequal society in terms of wealth distribution (only the USA and Portugal outstrip us in this regard)...Whereas in Sweden the maximum income is about four times the average, in this country it is a hundred times, or more - so economic inequality is vast and perpetuated.



So - were we given any answers, any glimmers of hope?
Education may be part of the solution, but only if it is seen as the means to enrich life, and not simply to boost income...but the fundamental changes have to come in the hearts, minds and status of those who do NOT live on estates.
The problems that are manifested on the estates are problems that beset upper and middle classes too, -for institutional snobbery and inbuilt class distinction is responsible for many of the issues that bedevil estate life. This is not THEIR problem, created by THOSE people, out THERE.
It is, rather, OUR problem...created by our greed, our determination to safeguard status, to turn our backs on the assumption that we are all equal before God. 


Solutions in the past have mostly consisted of well intentioned attempts to impose a different way of being from outside...Funds are spent on project workers in problem areas, but little is done to address the fundamental causes of those problems.

The problem of miserable estates is a moral problem for all of us...a problem rooted in the sin that refuses to believe that there IS enough to go round, that in God's economy nobody need go short, that we need not protect our own at the expense of neighbours across the road, where life seems greyer and harsher.

Who cares about estates? God does, for sure.

Heaven shall not wait for the poor to lose their patience,
the scorned to smile,
the despised to find a friend:
Jesus is Lord; he has championed the unwanted;
in him injustice confronts its timely end.

Heaven shall not wait for the rich to share their fortunes,
the proud to fall, the elite to tend the least;
Jesus is Lord; he has shown the master's privilege -
to kneel and wash servants' feet before they feast.

Heaven shall not wait for the dawn of great ideas
thoughts of compassion divorced from cries of pain:
Jesus is Lord; he has married word and action;
his cross and company make his purpose plain.

Heaven shall not wait for triumphant Hallelujahs,
when earth has passed and we reach another shore
Jesus is Lord; in our present imperfection;
his power and love are for now and then for evermore.

John L. Bell and Graham Maule, from Heaven shall not wait, Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow

A new world

The complexities of time zones meant that when I went to bed last night it was still too early to have any sense of what today might bring, so for once I was grateful for the dawn call of the puppy which brought me down to the computer while it was still dark.
BBC newsonline and YES
The dream is coming true
I am old enough to remember the tears my mother shed when Martin Luther King was assassinated...Today I found myself crying too, in pure joy that the dream has so nearly come true.
(A friend commented elsewhere today that it won't have fully come true until a black American can be elected to the White House without any comments on their colour at all...but wow,this is a quantum leap forward)

It was my day to lead an assembly at the primary school. The theme for the week is "Remembrance" so I took in the Peace prayer, and some cards printed with the key words
War/Peace
Love/Hate
Hope/Despair
Life/Death
We talked about what those opposites might mean in terms of remembering our war dead...we talked about what they might mean in the light of this very special dawn...we talked about why this election matters so much to the world beyond America....we even talked about colour and to my delight the children proved again the opinion that the young are truly colour-blind.
Then, without prompting, one little girl said to me
"Kathryn, does the new President in America mean that we are moving from despair to hope?"
In a remarkable day, that was one of the most remarkable moments...though it was lovely, too, that the Wednesday Eucharist congregation were united in joy and in the urge to pray for the man from whom impossible things are expected the man who has become the vehicle for so very many dreams.

Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth,
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace,
Let peace fill our beings,
our world and our universe. Amen.

I found this in my in box just now

and it seems substantially more important than most other things I'm likely to engage with today.
Please do read it and take action if so moved...

Dear Kathryn,

Yesterday, the Financial Times declared: “G8 leaders ready to backtrack on Africa aid.”

It is inconceivable that the G8 could consider such a reversal, especially in a time when increasing food prices are making it ever more difficult for families to make ends meet. But the final decision hasn’t been made yet, and we have a critical opportunity to influence the outcome.

You—and nearly 40,000 other ONE members—have signed our petition to the G8 calling on them to deliver on their commitments to the world’s poorest people, but in light of this news, we need to redouble our efforts.

Please take urgent action by passing this email along to your friends and encouraging them to sign our petition to the G8:


This potential reversal comes at a time when we are seeing results from investments in development. For example, thanks to distribution of bed nets and increased access to antimalarial drugs, in Rwanda both deaths and cases of malaria have dropped by two-thirds since mid-2006.

As malaria still kills around one million people a year, it’s clear that we must replicate success stories like this. But it won’t happen if the G8 backtrack on their commitments.

Please tell the G8 leaders not to backtrack on aid: here's the site again

Oh dear

Yesterday was one of those afternoons that do little for your faith in humanity.
It began with a sad little funeral at the crem, funded by the Local Authority, for a man whose family were unable or unwilling to tell me anything about him at all.
I did my best, using John Donne's reminder that "no man is an island" to add some rightness to a situation in which as a stranger I found myself speaking about someone of whom I knew nothing but his name, his dates and that, of course, he matters to God more than we can ever grasp.
However, later on I made a start on collecting my Christian Aid envelopes and was startled by the way in which some people clearly feel absolutely no connection to people with loves, hopes and dreams just like their own, living in poverty across the world. There were, as always, those who claimed that they had never received an envelope (well, actually I delivered it myself...but that really doesn't matter) and those who said that they had already contributed to the disaster relief fund so had nothing to spare at all...but there was also the beautifully spoken man with the shiney cars in his drive who said
"I am my own charity" and another who, having asked what Christian Aid was about, said
"Why would I want to help people who are struggling to survive in another country?"
Ummmm...If you can't see that, I think we need more than a doorstep conversation.
Later I was chatting to a friend who reported a survey that claimed that (along with War on Want) Christian Aid was the country's most hated charity- perhaps because of a mistaken belief that it provides aid FOR Christians, rather than as an expression of Christian love.
Time for a rebrand perhaps?
But it's tricky...When we don't shout about church-led projects the claim is that "Christians are all talk but never do anything to make a difference".
If we proclaim that the work being done is part of our response to God's loving generosity, by giving it the label "Christian" we are presumed to be limiting our help to those who share the faith. Oh dear indeed - but The Man never said we'd be popular, did he?

My s-i-l forwarded this to me, and I think it deserves as much coverage as possible, hence including it here

I just signed an emergency petition trying to save the crucial climate change talks in Bali, Indonesia right now by telling the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking an agreement. You can sign it here:

Almost all countries have agreed to cut rich country carbon emissions by 2020--which scientists say is crucial to stop catastrophic global warming, and will also help bring China and the developing world onboard. But with just 2 days left in the conference, the US and its close allies Canada and Japan have rejected any mention of such cuts.

We can't let three governments hold the world hostage and block agreement on this desperate issue.

There's still 2 days left to turn this around - click below to sign the petition - it will be delivered direct to summit delegates, through stunts and in media advertisements, so our voices will actually be heard. But we need a lot of us, fast, to join in if we're going to make a difference. Just click on the link to add your name:

Thanks!

I have no idea if gathering names on a petition like this will actually change anything - cynicism says that it's unlikely - but it must surely be worth a go.
If you're unfamiliar with Avaaz, as I was, here's the info from the email I received after signing the petition

Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, New York, Paris, Washington DC, Geneva, and Rio de Janeiro."

Over to you, blogmates

and I'm thinking about my friends in Tamil Nadu who are part of the AIDS Awareness and Rehabilitation project that opened while we were out there a year ago. To fight the spread of AIDS with a few ancient Singer sewing machines seems laughably inadequate - but the issue of AIDS in India (as in so many other places) is the issue of poverty. It's very simple. Children are infected and dying because their mothers take the only route open to them to earn money for food. Nobody is going to produce anti retroviral drugs for them, because there simply isn't the money - and anyway, few around them care if they live or die. Out there, life is cheap. It's ironic, - the first AIDS funeral I went to was for D., a gay friend, a musician - and the celebration of his life and work was among the most beautiful I remember....The GBLT community and their friends gathered in force to support each other, to show their love in the face of death. Afterwards we drank pink champagne and wept and laughed and wept some more....and it was all so incredibly civilised. Now, as I pray on World AIDS day, I'm thinking about Anjali and her son...about Lili and Sushila and the other girls I met, whose lives are, on the whole, nasty, brutish and short. Who knows how things are for them now, - but not one of them is forgotten by the God to whom they cling.

O God of love whose mercy has always included those who are forgotten,
those who are isolated, those who suffer,
bless, we beseech you, all who are afflicted by HIV and AIDS.
Comfort them in their pain, sustain them in their hopelessness,
And receive them into the arms of your mercy in their dying.
Open our hearts to provide for their needs,
to take away their isolation,
to share in their journey of suffering and sorrow
and to be present with them so they need not die alone.
Bless those who mourn the death of friends and lovers;
may they not be overwhelmed by death
but receive comfrot and strength to meet the days ahead
with trust and hope in your goodness and mercy.

(A prayer from South Africa)

Nearly Christian Aid week....

And my mate Linda, who works at Christian Aid Head Office, has just sent me the link to their brilliant video. Even if I weren't a passionate supporter, I'd love this because it really is the India I visited - the place I'm still missing 6 months on.
Have a watch, but more important, UK readers please use the red envelope that should land on your mat next week. We do believe in life before death, don't we?

Set All Free!

To the Cathedral this evening for a service to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Act Abolishing the Slave Trade. It was a weird and wonderful mix of Anglican formality and Afro-Caribbean zest, enthusiasm and downright chaos. Gospel choir, lots of ladies in fantastic hats (the Dean said wryly that it wasn’t often that he felt under-dressedin his own Cathedral but this was clearly one of the times) and a small girl dancing in the aisle, just a few rows ahead of me, whether there was music playing or not.

The first person to grace the pulpit was very impressive – both in his words and in his person. I couldn’t stop thinking of how unimaginable it would have been 200 years ago that a black man should be speaking out from the pulpit of Gloucester Cathedral while the Bishop sat listening silently several feet below. He talked about the loss of self-hood that slavery imposed, and went on to talk about contemporary slave-masters that still shackle black British youths,- ignorance, disrespect and mediocrity.
A later speaker told of the chain that remains around an old cotton tree in Kingston, Jamaica…left in memory of the slaves that were flogged there, but being gradually hidden as the tree grew and increased in girth. Memories are long but in the end the effects of slavery may be forgotten, the distorting impact upon black and white cultures finally dissolved.

We thanked God for those whose eyes had been open to the evils of slavery, and who had worked to overcome it, repented of our part in injustice and committed ourselves for the future. An amazing woman sang a Spiritual with overwhelming passion, to a smokey jazz accompaniment and then FabBishop gave us his blessing. At this point the proceedings became high farce. A congregation that had been significantly less static than your standard Cathedral bunch were not going to hang around now that the show was over. Instead they rose and made to depart, leaving the official procession, in all its glory, to jostle its way through the crowd to reach the door. I wondered if the Crucifer had considered pole-vaulting, and it struck me that there might well be a few lessons in freedom that could usefully be learned. Priceless

Edit: For an account of transatlantic celebrations, go here

Quick Plug

FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT is running now - so do take the opportunity to buy any Fair Trade goods your local shops may have. The more encouragement the ordinary retailer has to stock FT products, the greater the impact.
The Dufflepud reports that FT yoghurt coated raisins are selling really well at school, where they have a Fair Trade promotion for the third year running...but what I'm really really excited about is the news that somewhere out there is the Fair Trade equivalent of "crunchie nuggets".
Clearly it's time for some serious research...the range of FT chocolate is truly staggering - and, of course, I've not given up anything for Lent this year!

Surprised at Synod!

There, that has a suitably unlikely ring to it, I feel!
But it truly does describe the process that took place at yesterday's diocesan gathering, where the theme for the Eucharist before we got down to "business" was Holocaust Memorial Day. To start with, there was the rite of penitence, which definitely hit the right (ie most uncomfortable) places for at least one of the congregation.

For sins which we ourselves have committed, and for sins of omission
For sins of our hands and sins of our hearts
For the hurt we have caused you and our neighbours through ignorance or indifference
O God of Abraham we ask your forgiveness.

For failure to see your image in someone is who different
O God of Sarah we ask your forgiveness

For putting our own welfare and social comfort above the basic needs of others
O God of Jacob we ask your forgiveness

For our reluctance to get involved
O God of Rachel we ask your forgiveness

For being grateful that we are in some way superior to another
O God of Leah we ask your forgiveness

For teaching that it is better to receive than give
O God of Sinai we ask your forgiveness

For the failure of your Church to be light in the darkness
O God of Calvary we ask your forgiveness.

Having recovered from that, there was another moment of unsettlement during the Offertory hymn...It is set to Rhuddlan, a comfortably familiar, four-square tune, and you're singing away cheerfully when suddenly caught of balance by the third line, which jolted me with an almost physical shock.

God of freedom, God of justice,
God whose love is strong as death,
God who saw the dark of prison,
God who knew the price of faith:
touch our world of sad oppression
with your Spirit's healing breath.

Rid the earth of torture's terror,
God whose hands were nailed to wood;
hear the cries of pain and protest,
God who shed the tears and blood;
move in us the power of pity,
restless for the common good.

Make in us a captive conscience
quick to hear, to act, to plead;
make us truly sisters, brothers,
of whatever race or creed:
teach us to be fully human,
open to each other's need.

I was not at all surprised to discover that it is by Shirley Erena Murray, who was responsible for my hymn of the year last year "For everyone born a place at the table". It seems to me that she has a real gift for that sort of holy disturbance that we all need to experience. For me, in a week of rather unpleasant self-absorption, this was just what I needed to move me on.
It's so horribly easy to become overwhelmed by one's own issues, so the reminder that I'm part of something so much bigger, both for good and ill, was timely.

Narcissism unbounded

According to Tony, we find ourselves in the midst of International Delurking Week. I've never ventured into this before, but having been in India during the equivalent RevGals fest last November, I guess it would be quite fun to know who, if anyone, is reading undetected.

For an inveterate chatterbox like me, blogging is a wonderous thing, protecting my nearests and dearests from a flood of verbiage that they couldn't possibly hope to attend to in full. It even allows me the illusion that I'm communicating with all sorts of unguessed at visitors,- so in one way I'm reluctant to shatter the dream by inviting delurking. On the other hand, if other bloggers are brave enough, who am I to demur? And unless I play, there's no way to use the image helpfully provided by Sheryl.
"So, " (deep breath) "If you have been, thanks for listening. Do sign the visitors' book by the door!"

Being silly

Following a link from Serena's blog this morn, I've been issued with some New Year resolutions generated just for meee...
These 3 were too good to remain in obscurity

Get back in contact with some old books

Buy new ancient churches

and, best of all,

Give some dogs to charity.

So there you have it, Dillon...It's only a matter of time (though if computer generated resolutions are anything like the Kathryn-generated variety, you may after all be quite safe).
I promise I'll try and switch my brain back on for some decent blogging before too long...unless I've sent it to the charity shop along with the bags of cast-offs, Jack Russells etc.

Sign of the times?

As Christmas preparations in church spiral into free-fall, I heard myself utter the following alternative verses during the canticle at Evening Prayer yesterday

"Mercy and truth are met together
Righteousness and Peace have killed each other"

Is this an indication of Advent overload, do you think?

Ouch

Just back from seeing Pipe Dreams, the play that Riding Lights are currently touring. Publicity described this as an "hilarious" whodunnit - and certainly there were some witty exchanges and good laughs to be had...so why did we come home silent, subdued?

In a week in which I feel I've wasted time to a huge and uncomfortable extent, it was hard to evade the question put into the mouth of a Tanzanian woman, whose daily life is one long search for water
"I wonder what people do with all those minutes in which they don't have to look for water".

Minutes I didn't even realise I was fortunate to enjoy.

No less shockingly, I'd thought of the need to use only bottled water for everything in India from my own viewpoint...a needful precaution to avoid illness but really rather a nuisance. Tonight, before ever I leave home, I was reminded of what the daily reality of impure water actually means for so many people.
Yes, I'll have to be careful for 4 weeks, but then I will come home to turn on the tap and drink my fill.
Pipe Dreams reawakened me to the scandalous unfairness of a world in which we (I) squander unthinkingly a resource that should be freely available to all. There must be more I can do...I suspect these guys would be a good starting point.

UK readers, please just go and see the show....believe me, it's worth it!