My Lord, what a morning! 2

A million people vote for fascism, and what is the Church doing? Arguing about the furniture. Well, it is here, at least. The nave altar again. Where to put it, when to move it, what occasions to use, when not to use it. The big change - eastward facing altar of sacrifice to westward facing table of fellowship - has already been achieved, without too much bloodshed, thirty years ago. Same table, you see, and only a few feet either way. But a different table, some thirty feet away... it's a step too far. Most of you haven't a clue what I'm on about, have you? And I do wonder myself.

Some years ago the BNP threatened to march through the city where I worked. i was the Chair of the local Racial Equality Council. We organised to oppose the march. Some, not all, of the churches joined us. The march was called off.

One morning I got a phone call from a bored-sounding policeman.

- Don't want to alarm you, sir, he said.
-I'm already alarmed, I replied.
-Might be a good idea to check under your car in the morning. And don't open suspicious packages. Just as a precaution, you understand.
- Sure, I said.

I had got myself onto a white supremacist death list, apparently. Nothing came of it, of course. I'm still here.

I used to work in a sector ministry, which the Church of England, in its genteel way, called "social responsibility" The Catholics, more direct, called their guys "justice and peace workers". Anyway, one time I was booked to speak to a deanery group in a town in the north west of England. There had been riots, racially motivated, for several days; cars burned, barricades, that sort of thing. The day of the meeting the rural dean rang me and told me that I was not required to attend, that the meeting had been cancelled. Nothing on the agenda.