| Dear friends, In the customary way that months have designations these days, October is paired by some with the rhyming word ‘sober’. Go Sober in October. We are challenged to use the month to raise money for charities – such as MacMillan Cancer Support – or to address our health and wellbeing needs. Personally speaking, going sober isn’t a challenge for me as I’ve never liked the taste of alcohol. Apart from a brief period of experimentation at university, every month is a dry one. Indeed, I ‘joke’ that I was born to become a Methodist! If you’re wondering what that means – and it’s not as obvious as it used to be – it’s because of the historical connections between Methodists and the Temperance Movement through the latter half of the Nineteenth and first half of the Twentieth Centuries. Methodists were popularly seen as abstaining from alcohol and to this day our churches use non-alcoholic communion wine and prohibit the drinking of alcohol on church premises. Where did this stem from? Way back then it wasn’t about raising money or addressing personal issues. It was about standing up to something that was having a devastating social effect. Alcohol was cheap which led to the public drunkenness and disorder that we still see on some of our streets today but there was also a huge domestic aspect. Wage earners – mostly men – would drink away a large part of their pay leading to widespread poverty and domestic abuse. For many who went teetotal a chief motivation was to stand alongside those who suffered as a result. These days we live in different times. The Methodist Church doesn’t advocate teetotalism for its members but moderation in our drinking. I hope that ‘moderation’ describes your approach but, if not, you might want to consider going sober for the rest of October to enable some reflection. There is a wider question, though. How can we emulate those who sought to stand alongside those who were suffering? I’m glad we still have a church ban on alcohol because that enables us to offer a safe space for recovering alcoholics but it’s not just about alcohol. Pause for a moment to reflect. Who are the victimised, the powerless, the suffering in our communities today? How might God be calling us to stand alongside them? What might God be calling our churches to do? With love Steve |