Simply Responsible BY MATTHEW BENTHAM

Community Service Volunteers, CSV Environment, is one of the placements of Birmingham volunteer Matthew Bentham. Matthew is engaged in a range of activities taking the role of a teaching assistant involved in outdoor education with school pupils of all ages. His work can include teaching, arts and crafts, bushcraft skills, and gardening.

Below Matthew offers his recent reflections on our responsibilities to the wider environment.

The profound moments of my day-to-day life occur most often when I am outdoors. The natural environment is my spiritual haven. As such working for CSV Environment I live out some of my lifestyle aspirations and those of JVC.

The outdoor educational work with young people at CSV aims to improve access to local green spaces and to encourage a greater respect towards the wider natural environment.

Many of the young people I work with are from deprived areas of Birmingham and often their local parks are unclean and unsafe. This is a social injustice because any child who cannot freely and safely access the outdoors has a poor quality of life.

When passing polluted streams and canals in the city I reflect on our current culture and lifestyles. Lifestyles that are materialistic, that put the individual first, and are driven by greed to instant gratification by means of mass consumption. Consumption in which the worst consequences are so removed from us, both in temporal and spatial scales, that we never truly realize the damage we cause. Damage that affects the poor the most as they are the least able to cope and the least able to speak up for themselves, spreading more social injustice.

When the negative impacts of our lifestyles extend to a global scale should not our responsibilities also extend to a global scale?

The simple lifestyle provides an answer. The simple lifestyle rejects the material to focus on the spiritual and to have solidarity with the poor. However it also benefits those unseen peoples, flora and fauna suffering the consequences of excessive consumption.

Widening our sense of responsibility to such a degree is difficult. However within the environmental movement such a change was spurred by the first images of the earth from space. Images that expose our fragility and insignificance, but also our unity. When being mindful of our wider responsibilities to the world’s environment, all peoples and all life it is helpful to remember that we are all of the same community, united in our insignificance, vulnerability and rarity.

In the creation myth all life made prior to man was deemed “Good” independent of any services it could offer to man. Past interpretations of our responsibilities to the wider environment being only of domination, conquest and superiority should be challenged.

To deny our wider responsibility to the wider environment is to deny that we are all interconnected and interdependent on each other as well as those natural systems, flora and fauna, around us. To deny any responsibility to the environment is to acknowledge that it exists only to serve us. To believe that is to submit willingly to greed.

If in working with young people they connect with their natural environment on a deeper level, acknowledging an intrinsic value of nature independent of the services provided to mankind, then maybe we can circumvent that greed and all its consequences.

Recipes by MANCHESTER & BIRMINGHAM

Tom’s Banana Pancakes

1 cup rice flour*
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, etc

1 cup soya milk*
1 tbsp oil
1 ripe banana

Mix the dry ingredients; mix the wet ingredients; combine the two mixtures, stir and leave to stand for five minutes. Fry as thick American pancakes and eat in a stack with a topping of your choice.

*The recipe hasn’t been tried with wheat flour or cow’s milk, but in theory they should make quite good substitutions.

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Sarah’s Sour Chickpeas

350g dried chickpeas: picked over, washed and drained
1 ¾ l water
275-300g onion: peeled and very finely chopped
2 ½ tsp salt
1 fresh green chilli: finely chopped
1 tbsp very finely grated (peeled) ginger
4 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp vegetable oil
225g finely chopped tomatoes (tinned tomatoes are fine)
1 tbsp ground coriander seed
1 tbsp ground cumin seed
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Soak the chickpeas in 3 pints of water for 20 hours. Put the chickpeas and their soaking liquid into a large pot and bring to the boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 ½ hours until the chickpeas are tender. Strain the chickpeas and save the cooking liquid.

Put 2 tablespoons of chopped onions, ½ tsp salt, green chilli, ginger and lemon juice in a teacup. Mix well and set aside.

Heat the oil in a heavy, wide casserole-type pot over a medium-high flame. When hot, fry for 8-10 minutes or until the onion bits develop reddish brown spots. Add the tomatoes. Continue to stir and fry for another 5-6 minutes, mashing the tomato pieces with the back of a slotted spoon. Put in the coriander, cumin and turmeric. Stir and cook for about 30 seconds. Now add the drained chickpeas, 400 ml of the cooking liquid, 2 tsp salt, the garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Stir a few times during this period.

Add the mixture in the teacup, stir to mix and serve hot or lukewarm.

Traditionally this dish is a snack, but it makes a delicious meal (serves 4) when served with rice or chippatis, pitta bread, etc.

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Birmingham Biscuits

(Adapted from that culinary classic, The Usborne First Cookbook)

Ingredients:
250g rice flour
125g margarine
125g brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2 teaspoons mixed spice
pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190oC (375oF; Gas mark 5). Grease two baking trays.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until they are fluffy. Then beat in the egg, a little at a time.

3. Add the rice flour, salt and mixed spice. Mix everything well to make a ball of firm dough which should hopefully stick together.

4. Sprinkle some flour on the table and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about ½cm think.

5. Cut shapes out of the dough with biscuit cutters or a knife. Decorate them with raisins or bits of peel if you like. To use them as fortune cookies, we made a hole in the middle of each one.

6. Put the biscuits onto the greased trays. Bake them near the top of the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are light brown.

7. If you’re feeling very primary-school, the recipe suggests icing them and then decorating them with smarties, silver balls, or anything else you like.

A Reflection On Two Daily Works by SANDRA POVEDA & PAULINA RUBIO

Considering the meaning of life in community and of ‘simple lifestyle’ and what that means for us has not been an easy task. Because each person’s experience and each community involves different aspects that make them unique. Each one of us, with our different personalities, cultures, interests, feelings and ways of perceiving the world, enrich the experience of community and individual reflection whilst all trying to live a simple lifestyle. We have tried to overcome the difficult discussions in attempting to find an answer and in the end have found that we in community all have a common purpose – to foment by love and respect for one other – and we find it is one of the most important works in our daily life. We are going to say something about starting life in community, what values need to be shared by the people in it and about some of those values we share, including that of living ‘simply’.

Starting with Yourself
In order to have a good relationship with the other members of the community it is important that you are happy and at peace with yourself. This is because if you are not comfortable with yourself, you will not be able to give the best or even a little part of you. So begin by understanding how it is or what you need to feel these things. There may be a danger, you might think, of starting life in community concentrating too much on yourself when the focus should be on others, or that it may lead to becoming a selfish person. But give real importance to these things first and think how they will change and how you will cope with the changes and what you really need or can live without. A large aspect of a comfortable environment in your community is each member of the community having their own time and space. In this way we can feel free and not obliged to be ‘in’ the community every hour of every day and because of this, we value our time together.

Shared Values
The respect, responsibility, honesty, dignity, independence and effort of every member is basic to starting to have a good relationship with the community. Maybe your community can become a second family, but if it does not have one of these values shared between its individuals, it’s going to be tricky for the people to become close until a common value is found. We know that we live in a world of deep inequalities and social injustices, where poverty, social exclusion, war and environmental deterioration affect the lives of thousands of peoples. There are men and women of different nationalities, ages, races and religions who have been caught in economic marginalisation and who have suffered the costs of war and the subsequent economic alienation.

As young people we keep the hope of living in a more human and more fraternal world for all. We have hope of living in a more human and more fraternal world. We have hope that wars will no longer be made against the poor but against poverty and the conditions of life of those displaced refugees, poor and homeless who need decent homes. We have hope that people place more value on your ideas than your skin colour, your nationality, your religion or your social condition and affirm that humanity is a single family and that we inhabit a single country called earth and when humanity suffers we all suffer for each one of our siblings, parents, friends and relatives.

Motivations Toward Simplicity
Living a Simple Lifestyle was a voluntary choice, motivated by spiritual, ecological and health reasons. When we hear “Simple Lifestyle” we always think that it’s about our money or material things, but it is not always that. It also applies to the way of being of each one of us and, in other words, we are also talking about Humility. But… do we know what humility means? The meaning depends on each person, but for us it is very simple. It means rejecting as much as possible whatever creates division between you, me, us, and everyone. If we are people living by humility we will be more able to be a real family without caring about material things. Our experience as volunteers and living a simple lifestyle as one of the principal values of our community has enabled us to value more our lives in general, starting from small and simple things like the daily exercise simple living entails to being two important instruments for reflection, helping us to take conscience on as our lifestyle as it impacts on our social environment (and that includes all people in all places).

Because the value of human life and human dignity is paramount and equal, the hope and the love we have experienced in our communities aspires toward all in the world and it is all our responsibility to promote this.
Sandra and Paulina were JVC volunteers 2006-. Sandra worked with Refugees, Paulina in a school and with visitors to Manchester Prison

Simple Lifestyle and Spirituality by ISABELLE KOTCHY

Hinduism’s Simple lifestyle is taught through non-attachment or what may be called psychological Simple Lifestyle. It is a way of considering events in our life with some distance. As for Buddhism, non-attachment brings us peace of mind. Simple Lifestyle is above all simple mind. Most of the time, the acquisition of this virtue goes along with the practise of asceticism within a spiritual community. We also learn to be in harmony with the opposite forces we meet. A simple state of awareness in the present time is essential. Whereas Hinduism and Buddhism have a more intellectual approach on Simple Style, Taoism tends to suggest concrete daily acts. A Simpler Lifestyle would imply: walking, earning less money, wearing simple clothes. For Taoism, the fact of “possessing” is not an authentic source of happiness. As human nature is intrinsically in demand for more than what we may possess, it is worthless to accumulate wealth.

Now, what is the Biblical viewpoint about Simple Lifestyle? The Bible teaches us how to make a fair balance between wealth and poverty, not to fall into extreme asceticism nor blind materialism. First of all, the Bible does not condemn wealth or poverty. On the contrary, wealth can be seen as a sign of God’s blessing (Jer 9:23; Deut 8 ). However, wealth obtained through immoral and illegal means is blamed (Amos 5:11). Christians should be careful to the seductive effects wealth can have on them; notably that they derive resources from the right path. For all things and all creations must be directed to God. As for poverty, the Bible offers interpretations that it can be an affect of God’s test (Job 1:12-19), punishment (Isa 47:9) or simply the result of cultural, economic environment (Prov 10:15). The latter may be the cause of cultural laziness yet moreover is due to lack of education or even inappropriate government policies. The Bible also offers another explanation of poverty: That oppression and exploitation of vulnerable people is the most wide spread source of impoverishment around the world (Prov.28:15). Obviously, Christianity stands against this injustice. Generally, a handful of the population benefits from the wealth and the majority is forced to live in misery. Living a Simple Lifestyle has nothing to do with it. Biblically, voluntary poverty might be helpful to feel freer from our material world and more attentive to spiritual ways. What Christians propose is a sedate and rationale living based on one’s freedom. Just let us remember that when Jesus called his disciples to follow Him, it was absolutely up to each of them to go or to stay. As Christ showed the way, Christians attempted to make a reasonable usage of material means and target our life to God.

It is not easy and we may sometimes be tempted to be in vogue and share the values of this world. It is hard and challenging to be different. But Christians have to be aware of what their choices lead them to. Let us remember that Jesus recommended that we should give back to Caesar what belongs to him and to God what is to Him! Saying so, Christ drew our attention to discern between what is essential – namely our relationship with God – from what is superficial and ephemeral, the pleasuring of the senses. When Jesus was on earth, He owned next to nothing. He lived as a carpenter’s son, close to the poor and we – Christians – have to follow his tracks. That means we should live a Simple Lifestyle, owning what is necessary for our well-being. It may resemble living like the poor; but it is not adopting a life of abject need, fighting for life and subjecting oneself to chronically substandard living environments. This is what we fight and renounce wealth to change for others. A Simple Lifestyle should be seen as Christians’ solidarity with the marginalised in our society; a kind of message of Hope, for the Bible said that those who suffer here will be blessed and consoled in Heaven. We should not be afraid of Simple Living. Jesus survived it, why not us? In God, we can only find consolation and in struggles and times of low feeling this is how we view the Christians’ experience.

I dare not say that our community has the best Simple Lifestyle. We just try to stick to our basic needs. We go shopping at Tesco Metro, which is cheaper to Tesco Express (by the way, sorry for the advertisement). We have only been to cinema once since we arrived in Birmingham. Most of the time, our main entertainment is a chat in the dining room, with some music. Sometimes, one of us shares their artistic talent, playing some musical instrument .We do each other’s hair and do not go to the barber or hair dresser. We are also committed in ecology, especially in recycling plastics, papers and glasses. We do not do something extraordinary. We are just trying to experiment with Simple Lifestyle, together, at least once in our lives. So, the Christian view, the ideal Simple Lifestyle is the one Jesus practised. It may demand some sobriety (a basic needs sustainable life). Nonetheless, wealth is not fundamentally questioned as far as Christian’s treasure is centred to God. For the Bible reminds us that: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6)

Isabelle was a JVC volunteer 2006-. She volunteered at Brushstrokes and the British Red Cross working with asylum seekers and refugees