James Woodward

MOTHER MARY CLARE SLG (1906-1988) LIVING THROUGH THE DYING Any Christian whether living in the world or in the Religious Life, active or enclosed, is being called as was St Antony of old to go down into the most frightening places of world history. If we are really trying to live this life in Christ, we are called to go down into the work! situation of today, which is rapidly be­coming divorced from God. It is only in prayer that…

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  one day a day woke up and was sky, air, light and itself. Later, evening tapped my shoulder: a reminder, a privilege, a job to do. Record, it said the elegance of the day’s decline, and the perfect curves of all that is left of a tulip.   Denise Levertov

A Sermon preached at Emmanuel College, Cambridge Chapel 18 November 2012 Joy and Woe are woven fine A clothing for the soul divine Under every grief and pine Lies a joy with silken twine   It is right it should be so Man was made for joy and woe And when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go  (William Blake)   For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. (Philippians 1:21)   If someone was to…

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  Some of you may well remember that I spent a good deal of 2011 as part of a working group looking into the present law in this country regarding assisted suicide. The report, published at the beginning of this year, argued coherently (I think) that the present law is unsatisfactory and that, under certain restricted circumstances, should be changed to allow individuals the freedom of choice. I was the single dissenting voice to the report but supportive of the…

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‘Control’ in this context( of death)  has two distinct meanings, both equally crucial. In the first place, ‘control’, as you would expect, means priority and ability to manage, not to force, the compliance of others, to determine what others think or do. In the second, more elusive sense – a sense which, nevertheless, saves my life and which, once achieved, may induce the relinquishing of ‘control’ in the first sense — ‘control’ means that when something untoward happens, some trauma…

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  HERE IS SOME ADVANCE PUBLICITY ABOUT A CONFERENCE   A Cumberland Lodge residential conference Changing Expectations of Death     Friday 23rd November 17.00    Arrival, Registration and Tea 17.30    Welcome by Dr Alastair Niven, Principal, Cumberland Lodge 17.45    Changing Patterns of Death and Dying                                                                     Plenary 1 Dr George Leeson, Co-Director, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing             Professor Tom Kirkwood, Associate Dean for Ageing, Newcastle University   19.15    Reception in the Drawing Room followed by 19.30 Dinner…

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Sometimes life moves at such a busy pace that it’s easy to think of it as just one thing after another. I think we probably spend too little time processing things, though I was glad to be warned by a friend that too much self-introspection is not entirely healthy!   Last weekend I spent two nights in Zürich at either end of a very full public day of lectures on conversations about assisted suicide. It was the gathering of world…

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I think that some of you know that for much of last year I was involved in the Falconer Commission on assisted dying.Itwas a fascinating year and one  not without its measure of controversy.Much is made about my dissension from the main recommendations to change the law to allow  a very restricted group individuals in certain circumstances to seek assistance in ending their lives. I see from the editorial of today’s British medical Journal that there is a strong plea for…

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Following a conversation yesterday about the narratives of death and particularly our own relationship to death I turned to that extraordinary narrative by Gillian Rose that asks  us all whether  we have faced our mortality Gillian Rose  LOVES WORK Page 72 & 73 With a man in clerical orders, one may legiti­mately expect him to have faced eternity. The source of his authority will be this humility in relation to his own mortality. It should seal him from violence in love,…

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 The Commission on Assisted Dying published its report yesterday. It has concluded that it is possible to devise a legal framework that would set out strictly defined circumstances in which terminally ill people could be assisted to die. The work was funded by Sir Terry Pratchett and Bernard Lewis, both advocates of assisted dying.  I joined the Commission against the advice of fellow clerics. I had an undecided mind, but was sympathetic to the values of freedom of choice, and…

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Here ois a piece from BBC Radio wales ( starts 48 minutes 56 seconds in)   http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b018lc28/

‘Why I Rejected the Report Calling for Assisted Suicide in the UK One of the commissioners who worked on a report into assisted dying has rejected its conclusions. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth A report by the Commission on Assisted Dying which claimed there is a “strong case” for allowing assisted suicide was “not in the position to make sweeping suggestions for a change in the law”, claims the sole commissioner to reject the conclusions. “I started off with some sympathy for a…

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