25th February 2011

Amazing night last night in Castle Carrock in the re-furbished Duke of Cumberland.

Music by Billy Johnstone and Hadrians Union. Hadrians Union is a combination of Stew Simpson on Guitar and Vocals, Stew writes the material, great songs and playing which were enhanced by Danny Harts fiddle playing. A great night which went by the name of Music in the Hat and as there was no cover charge the Hat was passed around and we were invited to pay what we thought the music was worth. I tried to be generous.

But it was as a friend commented, a real hand to mouth existence.

During the interval I got into conversation with another friend, who like me, had been a vicar before moving into a 'day job'. He commented that as a vicar he had a number of community activities which he has continued to do as a volunteer.

Certainly when I was a Vicar, I found that it was almost impossible to untangle, what was part of my 'job' and what was 'voluntary' work on my part. As a vicar I was appointed to a 'living' and given a 'stipend' and simply got on with doing what needed doing and doing what was needed.

It made me reflect a little on the meaning of the word 'stipend'. When I was first ordained an older priest told me that a 'stipend' set you free from the need to make a living. It was I came to realise, one of the privileges of being a Vicar, that you could undertake to offer time and attention to work that that needed doing, you had time for people, time for conversations, time for reading and thinking, as my friend commented, you were even 'paid' to make a retreat.

Some of the same privilege exists now in that, whilst I no longer have a stipend, I have a pension which in some ways is the same thing or at least has the same effect, I have an income which means that I don't have to earn my living and am free to undertake what is needed both to keep me involved and occupied, but also to return some of the social indebtedness that I have accumulated over the years.

For young musicians, passing the hat around to make ends meet and to continue to allow them to make music and express themselves creatively a 'stipend' would make an enormous difference.

And why not?

Today's news announces a huge increase in the number of young people not in Education or Training. As a society, as manufacturing continues to remain stagnant, as unemployment increases, as job opportunities disappear with the cuts announced by the absentee Chancellor what could possibly be wrong with offering people a 'stipend' rather than unemployment benefit thereby releasing people of all ages to become more creative and to be more creatively enagaged in the communities, (Big Society?)without the implicit judgement that they are somehow workshy or malingering. After all how many young artists and writers, how many first novels have been written whilst the young author existed by signing on?

Such an approach could release an amazing explosion of creative energy and demonstrate how much imagination and creativity has been repressed or ignored. It could even stimulate the economy through the creative industries. A stipend could set a person free to be a musician, a writer,an artist a volunteer worker, to give time for socially useful activity,to travel, to further their education or just to be, to thrive, to deepen friendships and grow as people.

Could it be afforded? well if we can give one individual £9.5M as a reward for work in that mysterious avocation known as 'financial services' why not afford £95 a week as a stipend to release people into creative freedom and enterprise.

Watching my friends perform last evening I was struck by how much creativity, talent, work, energy, investment of personal resources had gone into making the peformance happen I only hope that what went in the hat was an offering worthy of the music and all that it represneted.

In the conversation another friend, now retired, asked how my retirement was going, difficult at first I ventured, not for me he said, I realised within days that I was born for it.

In my first parish I was talking to an elderly lady about a person who had recently died, he was a gentlemen she said, I asked what he did? Did? she replied, he didn't do anything, he was a gentleman!

The obsession with work, and the distinction between employment and unemployment is a fairly recent one. During the churches most creative and evangelical period, the clergy were not 'employed' they were 'office holders', they did not have a job, they had a 'living', they were not paid a wage, they enjoyed a 'stipend' which set them free from the need to earn a living.

Perhaps in a wealthy, post industrial economy in the 21st Century some of these 19th Century ideas could be re-applied to ensure that society can develop in a spirit of fairness, equality, emancipation and openess to the possibilities of creative enterprise.

Perhaps we just need more gentle persons?