Learning to live in the unforced rhythms of grace
Digital technology has developed phenomenally over the past decade, both in terms of the available hardware (with smartphones rendering internet access and mobile communication available almost anywhere and anytime) and software, including the widespread adoption of social networking sites and apps. All this is having a profound impact upon how we communicate and socialise, on our leisure and learning, and in how we are provided with and receive services. With these new opportunities, though, come novel problems: the dark web, revenge porn, sexting and trolling, to name but a few.
In light of this, our latest special issue of Child Abuse Review focuses on the role of digital technology in child protection, with a freely accessible editorial by our guest editor, Bernard Gallagher, a selection of original research and review papers, and a couple of training reviews.
The Role of Digital Technology in Child Protection: Still Helping and Harming? Bernard Gallagher
Technology-Related Sexual Solicitation of Adolescents: A Review of Prevention Efforts Sandy K. Wurtele and Maureen C. Kenny
The Buffering Effect of Parental Mediation in the Relationship between Adolescents’ Cyberbullying Victimisation and Adjustment Difficulties Michelle F. Wright
New Challenges in Family Support: The Use of Digital Technology in Supporting Parents Lauren Lamberton, John Devaney and Lisa Bunting
The Maintenance of Traditional and Technological Forms of Post-Adoption Contact Sarah Greenhow, Simon Hackett, Christine Jones and Elizabeth Meins
The Role of Technology in Managing People Who Have Been Convicted of Internet Child Abuse Image Offences Claire M. Lilley
Keeping Children Safe Online: An Online Learning Course for Anyone Working with Children, NSPCC and CEOP, London, 2014. Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova
Staff E-safety INSET Presentation by Childnet International, London, 2016. Emma Bond
It was about this time long ago that three who have been called wise journeyed to a small, insignificant town … “ and suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight.” (Matthew 2.9-10)
Just a week ago, I was out on a starry night listening for kiwis – the bush was pitch black and the sky breath-taking…. all shining with stars. We were filled with delight.
The sight of the stars never fails to be an epiphany, an experience of the Divine, right in the midst of daily life. On the threshold as the old year slips behind and the new one comes to life, an epiphany awaits us too.
What were some of the ‘epiphanies’ of the past year – discoveries of the Holy One in the midst of things? How did I grow because of them?
Which stars was I following last year? Where did they lead me?
Those long-ago-wise-ones left both hope and suffering in their wake: how did my experience of the past year affect the world in which I live?
Where is the sky of my life all shining with stars? Which stars are calling me?
With my Christmas-eyes alert and searching, what star do I notice rising? Where is it leading me?
What gifts do I bring with me into the year ahead?
What is at the heart of my new year prayer?
by Macrina Wiederkehr
Creator of the Stars
God of Epiphanies
You are a Great Star
You have packed my path with light
You have filled my sky with stars
naming each star
guiding it
until it shines into my heart
awakening me to deeper seeing
new revelations
and brighter epiphanies.
O Infinite Star Giver
I now ask for wisdom and courage
to follow these stars
for their names are many
and my heart is fearful.
They shine on me wherever I go:
the Star of Hope
the Star of Mercy and Compassion
the Star of Justice and Peace
the Star of Tenderness and Love
the Star of Suffering
the Star of Joy
And every time I feel the shine
I am called
to follow it
to sing it
to live it
all the way to the cross
and beyond.
O Creator of the Stars
May you become within me
An unending epiphany.
***
As I read this starry meditation on a grey, drizzly new year morning, my epiphany is that a Star of Hope is shining, that a Star of Suffering is shining on me. The darkness of yesteryear held, for me, stars of both hope and suffering: is this next year to be the same?
Can I embrace these starry opportunities – with delight.
Or will I turn away – desolate, convinced that being a star of hope or a star of suffering is beyond me.
What might it mean, as the year unfolds, to be filled with delight at the sight of a star?
O star of wonder, star of light,
star with royal beauty bright.
Westward leading still proceeding,
guide me to thy perfect light.
May the gentleness and strength of God,
the delight and vulnerability of the Christ,
and the graceful mystery of the Holy Spirit,
be with us now and always.
AMEN
Happy New Year to all our friends, family, colleagues, and those whom we haven’t had the privilege to know.
May your year ahead be filled with hope, joy, peace and love.
Whatever darknesses surround, may you be filled with light.
For all the hurts and struggles, may you find healing and wholeness.
May you find inspiration, fun and laughter, unexpected joys, and shining stars to guide you.
And may you, being blessed, become a blessing and a gift to others.
~ Peter and Lois
Rogue One
Earlier this week I went to see Rogue One, the new Star Wars movie, with two of Lois’ grandchildren. It is a great movie and fills in one of the crucial gaps in the whole Star Wars nonet (although perhaps it should now be a decet?)
How did the Rebel Alliance get hold of the plans for the death star in the first place?
The audacity of hope
The overriding theme of the movie is one of hope: Rebellions are built on hope. It is hope that keeps the rebels fighting for what they know to be right. In spite of the seeming futility of their task; In spite of the overwhelming odds of failure that the droid K2-SO keeps reminding them of – they keep striving to overcome.
Hope is audacious.
And yet, the characters in the movie cling to that hope, ultimately sacrificing themselves for it.
A crucial turn in the narrative occurs when the Council of the Rebel Alliance votes on the course of action they must take. The options before them seem bleak: they can rally arms against their invincible foe, using violence to combat violence; or they can submit to the Empire’s dominion, each person looking out for themselves and hoping to stay under the radar enough for some sort of oppressed existence.
A third way
Or they can trust the audacious testimony of one young woman, Jyn Erso, who claims to have been given a message of hope. That third way will inevitably lead to sacrifice with no guarantee of success.
In the end, the Council rejects Jyn’s third way and each chooses to go their own way: to fight or to submit.
Except for a small group of rebels who have the audacity to hope.
Hope in a post-2016 world
I wonder whether – in our post-2016 world – we, too, have similar choices ahead of us. The violence and greed that has seemed to dominate our global culture threatens to overwhelm us all. Democracy seems to have failed and our politicians have let us down. Fundamentalist beliefs continue to rise, exacerbating the terror, injustice and oppression.
In the face of all that we can respond with yet more violence and greed: individuals protecting their own; nations responding with an escalation of violence, a renewed arms race that promises yet more destruction. Or we can accept the status quo, believe the myth that there is nothing we can do, and live within the prevailing culture, each one of us making sure that we are ok, and never minding everyone else.
A non-violent rebellion built on hope
But as we go into 2017, perhaps there is a third way: the way of rebellion built on hope.
And maybe that is what the Christmas story brings: the unbelievable testimony of a young woman who had a vision; of insignificant shepherds who heard an angel’s message of peace and goodwill; of a vulnerable baby who became a vulnerable man, proclaiming a message of non-violent resistance – neither submitting to the oppressive culture of his day, nor responding to it with yet more violence, but bringing instead a gift of hope.
This third way is a way of sacrifice, of going against the status quo, but I believe it is the only way of hope.
It is the way of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
It is a non-violent rebellion built on hope.
As I write this, sitting on the deck of my cousin’s bach[1] looking out over Matheson Bay, as the gannets glide on the easy breeze and dive for fish in the gentle surf, it is easy to feel a sense of peace and goodwill.
The sense of goodwill, at least, has marked this holiday: paddling with the grandchildren in a kayak; playing family games; strolling through rain forest or along coastal walks; or enjoying a glass or two of Matakana wines with Lois. The peace is a bit more intermittent – being generally confined to when the children are bathed and in bed, or sitting reading quietly rather than charging round like elephants in boisterous games, or fighting over who should light the advent candle.
There is an incredible beauty around us, with towering kauri trees, bright red pohutukawas, and thick green bush all round. And we feel wonderfully blessed to be here.
At the same time, though, we long for others also to be able to share this blessing – for the peace and goodwill truly to be, as the angels promised, for all. For our friends who have suffered the horrible loss of bereavement this year. For those who have struggled with illness, family turmoil, children’s behaviour. For those who have been hurt by the very people who are supposed to offer safety, care and love. For families we have come to know who will probably never have an opportunity like this.
So we will hold on to the angels’ promise, we will enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, and we will ponder what we can do to share even a little bit of the peace and goodwill with which we have been blessed.
[1] New Zealand term for a holiday home
Last week I read again the Beatitudes – Jesus’ famous pronouncements of blessings in his Sermon on the Mount. I’m not sure why I had failed to see it before, but this time it was staring me in the face: The Beatitudes fall into two very disparate groups.
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5: 1-10)
The smaller group (Beatitudes 1, 2 and 8) offers a promise of hope to those who are victims – of suffering, violence and greed. The other five present, instead, a challenge to all of us to take on attitudes that counter our dominant cultures of violence and greed and to become part of the solution rather than the problem.
Seeing the Beatitudes in this light seems to me to address one of the fundamental problems thrown up by these sayings – that they just don’t seem to be true. The reality is that those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are persecuted just aren’t blessed in any of the usual senses of the word. And even those who are meek, merciful, pure in heart, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (justice), and the peacemakers far too often seem to be trampled on or taken advantage of rather than blessed.
But if we see the Beatitudes as holding out a very real promise of hope for victims, and a very pragmatic challenge for the rest of us, they start to carry a very different meaning.
In speaking to those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are persecuted, Jesus seems to be speaking directly to those who are the victims of suffering, violence and greed:
And, in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Jesus seems to go even more directly to the point, pronouncing blessings on those who are the victims of inequity, exploitation and injustice:
And to all of these, Jesus seems to proclaim the promise of a future hope: that their present lot is not the last word: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; they will be comforted; they will be filled; they will laugh. Jesus offers the hope of something far better to come – of a time when there truly will be ‘no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Revelation 21: 4)
Which brings us then to the second group of blessings – those which challenge us to a new way of living, the praxis of hope – in which we adopt attitudes of non-violence, sacrifice and humility, attitudes which counter the suffering, violence and greed of our world.
And so Jesus challenges us to be meek – to stand up, non-violently for truth; to hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness, to speak out on behalf of the oppressed, to challenge the injustices of our society; to be merciful not judgemental; to be pure in heart, not hypocritical or duplicitous; and to be peacemakers.
By creating and maintaining our cultures of individualism, consumerism, fear and blame, we all (me included) carry responsibility for those who are harmed by or cannot cope with the inequalities and pressures they create.
None of that is easy – I know that I am so bound up in our culture that I too contribute to the ongoing injustices of our world and exploitation of the earth’s resources, that I enjoy the blessings and privileges of education, wealth and power, while others go hungry, are displaced and exploited. But the alternatives seem to be either that I continue to buy in to our individualistic, consumerist mentality, and remain a part of the problem, or I strive, continually to live Jesus’ way of non-violence (Satyagraha) and become a blessing to others – part of the solution, the praxis of hope.
It may be a hard path to take, but it is the only way that we can see the kingdom of heaven, that we can be filled, to see God in other people and in our world, to receive mercy and for all of us to become children of God.
In our 2009-11 biennial review of Serious Case Reviews, Marian Brandon and I highlighted the crucial importance of an understanding of child development to effective safeguarding of children. This is not a new perspective however, and the relevance of such understanding spans a range of areas, including:
These are all themes that have been explored within Child Abuse Review over the years. 
We have now published a new virtual issue which picks up on some of the themes through a selection of some of the most important papers on the theme, particularly from recent years.
The virtual issue with a full editorial and seven papers is freely available for download from the Child Abuse Review Website
Virtual Issue on Child Development and Safeguarding
Contents
Why Have We Made Neglect So Complicated? Taking a Fresh Look at Noticing and Helping the Neglected Child
(Volume 24, Issue 2, 2015)
Brigid Daniel
Health, Developmental and Support Needs of Vulnerable Children – Comparing Children in Foster Care and Children in Need
(Volume 23, Issue 6, 2014)
Shanti Raman and Sharmishta Sahu
Out-of-Home Care versus In-home Care for Children Who Have Been Maltreated: A Systematic Review of Health and Wellbeing Outcomes
(Volume 25, Issue 4, 2016)
Miriam J. Maclean, Scott Sims, Melissa O’Donnell and Ruth Gilbert
Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and Improvements in Child Development
(Volume 18, Issue 1, 2009)
Mogens Nygaard Christoffersen and Diane DePanfilis
Child Abuse, Child Protection and Disabled Children: A Review of Recent Research
(Volume 21, Issue 1, 2012)
Kirsten Stalker and Katherine McArthur
The Connections between Disability and Child Abuse: A Review of the Research Evidence
(Volume 1, Issue 3, 1992)
Liz Kelly
