Standing among you all, I feel like the youngest, the put upon and the most inexperienced lion in Daniel's den of lions!
According to recent statistics, the increasing number of people who use the internet for obtaining their news means that the last newspaper will be published sometime between 2034 - 2043. There are similar statistics which claim that the decline in church going over recent years means that at around about the same time we will be holding our last service in the Church of England.On the basis of those statistics can I say how very pleased I am to be with you here today given that statistically speaking in about 40 years time you won't be here to celebrate your achievements and I won't be here to congratulate you upon them.
Such doomsday statistics as I believe they are, highlight that tendency to extrapolate the worst case scenario from the most celebratory of times. Just as it seems unlikely to me that there is no future for the Church when I experience the vibrancy of faith amongst the young people in our churches so it seems ridiculous to contemplate a world without newspapers as we come together to celebrate the achievements of those who have demonstrated excellence in their chosen field of the media.
Even in P.D. James' The Children of Men, the birth of a child, baptised in tears of joy, thereby overcomes years of sterility and infertility and gives real hope to the dawning of a bright future.
In his book, My Trade, Andrew Marr noted that one of the first Northcliffe Editors, Kennedy Jones, said his perfect newspaper could be contained in four words: "crime, love, money and food." If this were to be the case then the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper would certainly qualify - the crime of betrayal, the thirty pieces of silver, the bread and the wine and Christ's love for his disciples, would be not only the stuff of sermons but also that of editorials.
But Andrew Marr adds two more ingredients to Jones' recipe, that of "power" and "disaster".
Which leads me naturally to the story of a jumbo-jet that developed serious engine trouble in mid Atlantic. The captain told the passengers and asked them permission to open the hold and dump all their luggage in the ocean. "Yes, yes, yes", they all cried. It was done.
Thirty minutes later the captain said, "We are still losing altitude. We must get rid of all your hand luggage. The cabin crew will collect them and when we have dropped to a safer height they will throw them out." "But of course", the cries went out. And it was done.
