In training

For the first time today I managed to get to an event organised as part of the the Diocesan Continual Ministerial Education Scheme - what we used to call in-service training - INSET for teachers. Such events span the middle of the day, a time when I have a lunchtime Eucharist, and that means I can have problems freeing myself to attend.

Getting a priest to cover me, rather than cancel is one thing. Ensuring that both the church, chancel and sacristy are accessible is another, involving an extra set of keys. (Vicar's rule, never part with your own. Even if they come back safely soon, guaranteed you'll need them desperately just when you don't have them) You need someone to hold them, someone to collecte, use and return them. Sounds complicated? Churches used employ people just for things like that. No longer. We rely on volunteers and they are great are turning out when asked, if they can manage it. There's no guarantee you'll be certain to find one out of half a dozen or more keyholders available at the exact moment of need.

To add into the equation today, the team of builders and painters working on the church outer aisles have nearly finished the south and about to start sealing off the north aisles, to start work stripping off old paint, patching and applying a fresh coat of real limewash (ancient superior technology, a breathing skin for the plaster to replace a not-so-smart sixties coat of paint). So, they had started to dismantle and transfer scaffolding across the nave, a Health and Safety nightmare. So, access had to be arranged to the chancel via the sacristy with diversionary notices put up, and a phone call to brief Gwyn, who serves for me on Thursdays. This entailed an early visit to church to make the arrangements, and then a bus trip out to St Michael's College in Llandaff for the course. Mercifully, for once I was punctual. Thank you Cardiff Bus.

Oh yes, the course? On conflict resolution and the disciplines of peacemaking and mediation in church practice. It was given by CME organiser Canon Adrian Berry, and based on material produced by the Mennonite church for eleven of us. It was first-class - thought provoking and enjoyable - the sort of learning process which many people in leadership, inside and outside the church, professional and lay would benefit from. It made me reflect upon the situations of conflict to which I've been exposed, and probably contributed to unwittingly or otherwise during my ministry. It rang true to my experience. Thank you Adrian.

Inspirational leadership

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BBC Radio Four's programme 'The Choice' this morning interviewed Laurence Anthony, the South African Game Reserve director who took himself to Baghdad in the wake of the US invasion force in a quest to do what he could to rescue and animals in the zoo. He recalled the loss of the entire zoo population in Kuwait when it was invaded, as also happened in Berlin when it fell in 1945, and Dresden (presumably in the dreadful firestorm, a few months earlier). No provision for animal welfare was included in the Iraq invasion plan, needless to say. Of 650 animals in the Baghdad zoo, some three dozen of the larger animals had survived barely a week without food and water, imprisoned by their cages. The zoo also suffered from stray bombs. The condition of the creatures was so pitiful that he was ready to shoot them and put them out of their misery. However, the chief animal keeper turned up and wept with gratitude that someone had come with money and veterinary first aid resources in the nick of time. Some else cared. That was enough.

Together with a handful of assistant keepers, they worked to save the remaining animals, and were completely successful. Within weeks they had set about rebuilding damaged enclosures with US military help. Volunteers started to appear, including off-duty US soldiers, fighting by day, shovelling manure by night, alongside them Republican Guard deserters, and ordinary citizens. The US military governor fortunately understood the value of rebuilding the zoo and keeping it open as an amenity for all to appreciate and benefit from, so at least in one corner of that strife torn city, a peace project was born, around caring for animals.

It's a striking story of determination and courageous leadership by one man prepared to risk himself for the stricken animals in a situation where nobody else had really considered they were anything other than expendable 'collateral damage' caused by war - like so many poor people who also end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. The interviewer pushed him on the question of justifying his action when there was also so much human suffering crying out for attention in the same conditions. He had no answer, apart from saying quite unsentimentally: "I just did what I felt I had to do."

As a game park warden his entire existence revolves around wild animal husbandry. He even admitted to hating zoos, yet he gave everything he could to rescue a zoo from destruction, for the sake of the animals there. As he spoke, I couldn't help thinking how wars, for whatever purpose they are fought, have no regard for life of any kind. The destruction they cause shows how the fates of humans, animals and the environment sustaining us all are all inextricably linked with each other.

As soon as fighting paused in Southern Iraq, Marsh Arab community members returned to areas drained of water by Saddam's ecocidal policy directed at this group of political opponents, and breached the dykes allowing water to return to where it had been the source of life and economy for an entire culture for several millennia. Much had been destroyed but in a few areas marshland is recovering and its bio-diversity slowly returning. How much the healing of the wounds of war relies upon the vision and brave leadership of a few, who are willing to set the tone for renewal even before the guns have been silenced.