Day off today, so Les and I decided to see what was happening in our wonderful city. First to the new Central Library. (You really must go! - http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/find-a-library/central-library/) We had coffee and cake, only disappointed by the fact they don't serve decaff, which Les prefers. We spoke to a manager about this, so next time we go...? Then another tour of the Library, including the fantastic roof terrace, and the discovery they have meeting rooms up there. I wonder whether it could be a venue for church meetings sometime? They seem very well equipped, and with such marvellous facilities all around it would be great. We enquired, and found they are not yet in use. We need to check it out again sometime in the future.
We enjoyed the new auto-booking facility and took some books out, more for the fun of it than anything else! I also found out how to auto-book a book (Samuel Pepys Diary, in fact). Guess where it was - Allerton Library! So we were able to pick it up on the way home. Wonderful!
From the Library to the Walker Art Gallery next door, where there is an amazing exhibition of photos by Rankin entitled 'ALIVE in the Face of Death': http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/events/displayevent.aspx?eventID=13609. In stunning, sometimes almost macabre but always thought-provoking images Rankin invites us to consider human responses to death and mortality. There are stories with the pictures of people who have escaped death, people who are living with dying, and in one case of a woman, age 42, who died of her illness just 3 days after the exhibition opened. Each subject was invited to suggest ways in which they might be photographed, to reflect their character or attitude to death and life.There are also pictures of people whose business is associated with death e.g. a funeral director, grave digger and professional mourners. Each story is an inspiration, and if there's one word that summed it up for me, it's courage.
One thing was missing, though, as far as I could see, and that was any suggestion of life beyond death, of hope beyond the grave. It reminded of something I read only yesterday*: Today many Christians are influenced by the secular non-Christian view that death is a catastrophic end to be delayed as long as possible and to be resented as a destruction of the one thing that really matters to us, that is, physical life. There is a sense in which this view comes through in the exhibition, whereas Christians believe (the writer continues) that life in this world is integrally related to life in the next. Indeed, the Gospel of John and Paul's epistles assume that heavenly life has already begun on earth...
From the exhibition to a little shopping in Liverpool One, a quick visit to see Jude in her place of work - rightly denied entry because of the confidential nature of her work - and lunch. After a good deal of dithering we ended up at Wagamama, specialising in Japanese food. Well it was different, is about all I can say. I should have noticed the chilli in the sauce before I poured it over my sticky rice! Blew my socks off!
So much for our culture. I could put off the gardening no longer. But in the back of my mind all day, and sometimes at the front, was a very different cultural experience: that of C, a member of one of our churches, who was only confirmed less than a fortnight ago. C is a young Nigerian woman, who has lived in the UK for 11 years and has been seeking asylum here. We always knew her stay here could be limited, but we did not expect the decision to come so suddenly. When she reported to the Border Agency office on Tuesday, she was detained and imprisoned near Manchester Airport. I and a friend from church went to see her the next day, and were shocked at the security conditions. A huge, windowless building, looking more like a warehouse than a place of human habitation. We had to provide ID, were searched, and had just 1/2 hour with C in a small room. She was very distressed and fearful: after so long away from her original (I won't say 'home') country, she has noone to return to. No family, no friends. Since then I have been in touch with her legal representative and her MP to try and stay her deportation, but it looks pretty hopeless. I am simultaneously in touch with a mission partner in Nigeria to see if there is at least someone who can look out for her.
This is a kind of underside of our culture, something most of us rarely see. Immigration is a huge issue politically and economically and in a situation like C's it's hard to know what to feel. You know that technically the law is not on her side. She is here illegally - but only because as a naive 16-year old she was trafficked into the country (her grandmother being complicit in the transaction), seeking a better life. Since then, escaping from a life of slavery, she has lived on her wits, gained some education, learned to speak excellent English and, I guess, would make a very good citizen. But there are many others like her, and each has their own story to tell. I guess my role, like many others who aid asylum seekers frequently, is just to do the best we can for the people we come across - wanting the best for them as fellow human beings, in God's image.
I spoke to someone at Asylum Link this week (a charity which provides for asylum seekers in Liverpool). He told me to remember that, when they hear sometimes months or even years later from refugees who have returned home, they thank him not for food, clothing or shelter, but just for being there, being a friend. I guess that's the kind of cultural experience we would want to receive ourselves in the same circumstances.
*Bearers of the Spirit - Spiritual Fatherhood in Romanian Orthodoxy, by Nicholas Stebbing CR.
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