February 12, 2009Bishop of London says that redundancy is good for the soul
President Obama is among those who cannot live without their BlackBerrys. He
said recently that persuading his security services to let him keep his
smartphone had been one of the toughest diplomatic battles of his life.
The Right Rev Richard Chartres said that his diocese had been working hard to
respond to the prospect of 150,000 unemployed in London's financial sector.
"The clergy of the City of London have been in the front line of pastoral
care," he said. This was particularly true of Fiona Stewart Darling,
Bishop’s Chaplain at Canary Wharf, where the parish population is about
100,000 during the day.
At least one church in the City has had a poor take-up for its redundancy
counselling sessions, however. An evangelical church has had almost no
attendees at its lunchtime workshops on the recession. A lay member at the
church speculated that this was because redundancy carries a stigma, and
that in any case those who had been sacked were back at home with their
wives and families in the stockbroker belt.
