Black Panther and getting real

by Feb 26, 2018Sermons

Mark 8:31-38

Deny Yourself, take up your cross and follow me

The easy way out is rarely the right answer. This week I went to the cinema to watch the new Marvel Film – Black Panther. Before it was released it was a significant film for the now vast Marvel film franchise (this being the 14th film in 8 or 9 years since they began) yet this is the first black superhero film they have produced. And it has been massively successful, In it’s first week it was something like the fifth highest grossing film of all time. In the film, alongside the superhero battles and the fantastical comic book style technology, the heroes of the film are trying to deal with the question of should and if so how a technologically advanced African country should respond to the poverty and structures of inequality in the world. I don’t want to give away the plot of the film for those who want to go and see it, but lets just say that they recognise in struggling with this question that shortcuts are not the solution.

The cinema is a nice way of escaping some of the deeply saddening stories that seems to be filing the news at the moment. The scandals that have arisen in recent weeks about the behaviour of Oxfam aid workers and of those is positions of authority at UNICEF and Save the Children, and others. Loosing the confidence of those who generously give their money and time to these organisations will lead to a significant loss for those who rely on the good work that Oxfam has done. Society understandably scrutinises where that aid and investment is going. But we also struggle to understand that good people can (and will) fail to live up to their goodness. Much like people who do really awful things are capable of doing good in some situations. People are too complicated to simply be categorised as good or bad. We all have the created potential to be good, and the worldly potential to do bad.

In Today’s Gospel Jesus is preparing the disciples for his eventual death and resurrection. One of the things our faith demands of us is that we get real. Jesus knew that his disciples needed to get real. He couldn’t carry on as he was, they couldn’t stick to their convictions,
and expect anything other than that Jesus would die a horrible and painful death. Jesus was too great a challenge to worldly powers,
a threat to religious authorities. But Peter wants to find another way. Perhaps we all do when we get into a sticky situation. Couldn’t we just go hide away, perhaps we could tone down the message, make it more palatable. Fundamentally Peter can’t imagine a messiah who would suffer and die – it looks too much like failure, but instead it is a different kind of victory. Jesus rebukes him harshly. I remember working in procurement for a few months and one of the jobs I had to do was go to a daily meeting where each of the people on the same team as me would be rebuked for our suppliers failure to deliver certain parts on time to an assembly line. They were a painful daily ritual.

Jesus rebukes him: ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ Essentially satan is the name of the one who is tempting Christ – as in our reading last week about Jesus in the dessert. Peter is tempting Jesus with an easy way out. But Jesus knows, however tempting that might be, it is not an option he has in front of him. Instead Jesus tells us that if we wish to follow him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross first.

As a child I remember this image of taking the road less travelled. That being Christian meant we need to take the more difficult route through life. In the church there are many who look to examples where the church is being ‘counter-cultural’ as evidence that the church is doing the right thing.  I would argue this is dangerous. Sometimes a road is less travelled simply because it doesn’t lead you where you are trying to go. Sometimes God is working in the world around us, because the church has been too slow to see where God is leading. Some have used this kind of flawed argument to justify the church’s historical failure to ordain women. Some have used this counter cultural justification to support the church’s inability to fully welcome our LGBT+ brothers and sisters into the church. What Jesus is calling on us to do as his disciples is put to the side our own personal wants and greed, and look to God’s desires for us and the world around us. Christ wants us to be honest with ourselves about the burden that following him can bring with it. The challenge of putting Christ first. The cost to us personally of putting others before ourselves. Jesus wants his disciples to own those sacrifices we have to make, accept them like he accepts the cross he carries up the hill to Calvary.

It would be great if we could snap our fingers and end poverty. But real change doesn’t happen like that. It would be great if we could make a difference to the world without sacrificing anything ourselves. But life isn’t like that. Christ calls on us to give of ourselves to change the world. To put others first, to put our love of God first, and in doing so we will receive more than we can ask or imagine.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams

Holy Week

You are warmly invited to the greatest story ever told here at your Parish Church All Saints’, Child’s Hill13th to the 20th April 2025Palm Sunday Sunday 13th April 2025 Jesus arrives in Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The crowds made a carpet for him of coats and...

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Privacy Notice – General

Your personal data – what is it?

“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, photographs, videos, email address, or address). Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and other legislation relating to personal data and rights such as the Human Rights Act 1998.

Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of All Saints’ Child’s Hill which is the data controller for your data.

The Church of England is made up of a number of different organisations and office-holders who work together to deliver the Church’s mission in each community. The PCC works together with:

  • the incumbent of the parish (that is, our priest-in-charge);
  • the bishops of the Diocese of London; and
  • the London Diocesan Fund, which is responsible for the financial and administrative
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As the Church is made up of all of these persons and organisations working together, we may need to share personal data we hold with them so that they can carry out their responsibilities to the Church and our community. The organisations referred to above are joint data controllers. This means we are all responsible to you for how we process your data.

Each of the data controllers have their own tasks within the Church and a description of what data is processed and for what purpose is set out in this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice is sent to you by the PCC on our own behalf and on behalf of each of these data controllers. In the rest of this Privacy Notice, we use the word “we” to refer to each data controller, as appropriate.

What data do the data controllers listed above process?

They will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform their tasks:

  • Names, titles, and aliases, photographs;
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  • Where they are relevant to our mission, or where you provide them to us, we may process
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How do we process your personal data?

The data controllers will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

  • To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations (which include maintaining and publishing our electoral roll in accordance with the Church Representation Rules);
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  • To minister to you and provide you with pastoral and spiritual care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform ecclesiastical services for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals;
  • To deliver the Church’s mission to our community, and to carry out any other voluntary or charitable activities for the benefit of the public as provided for in the constitution and statutory framework of each data controller;
  • To administer the parish, deanery, archdeaconry and diocesan membership records;
  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the Church and charity;
  • To maintain our own accounts and records;
  • To process a donation that you have made (including Gift Aid information);
  • To seek your views or comments;
  • To notify you of changes to our services, events and role holders;
  • To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities;
  • To process a grant or application for a role;
  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical
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  • Our processing also includes the use of automated systems when you visit our website including cookies to help improve your experience when browsing our website and personal identifiers from your browsing history to enable us to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website, further information about our use of cookies is available on our website (https://www.allsaintschildshill.com/cookie-policy/)
  • Our processing also includes the use of CCTV systems for the prevention and prosecution of crime.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). An example of this would be our safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk. We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.

Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.

We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. An example of this would be processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities.

Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.

Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

  • The appropriate bodies of the Church of England including the other data controllers;
  • Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to send out newsletters on our behalf, or to maintain our database software;
  • Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of London to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our area dean and archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy;
  • Other persons or organisations operating within the Diocese of London including, where relevant, the London Diocesan Board for Schools and Subsidiary Bodies;
  • On occasion, other churches with which we are carrying out joint events or activities.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

Your rights and your personal data

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

  1. The right to access information we hold on you
    • At any point you can contact us to request the information we hold on you as well as why we have that information, who has access to the information and where we obtained the
      information from. Once we have received your request we will respond within one month.
    • There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same data may be subject to an administrative fee .
  1. The right to correct and update the information we hold on you
    • If the data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and your data will be updated.
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    • If you feel that we should no longer be using your data or that we are illegally using your data, you can request that we erase the data we hold.
    • When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests or regulatory purpose(s)).
  1. The right to object to processing of your data
    • You have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Upon receiving the request we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate grounds to continue to process your data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we may continue to hold your data to comply with your other rights or to bring or defend legal claims.
  1. The right to data portability
    • You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request.
  1. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to which consent was sought.
    • You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details below).
  1. The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable.
  2. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the EU will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some personal data (for example in a newsletter) may be accessed from overseas.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:

The Data Controller,
All Saints’ Church
Church Walk, Child’s Hill
London, NW2 2TJ
Email: [email protected]

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.