by Francis Gardom The title of my talk is Targeting our Resources and in the course of it I shall be commuting between the two subjects of Resources and Targeting because for reasons that I hope will become apparent the two things are closely related. First then to say something about our Resources. Adapting Sir Christopher Wren’s epitaph let me put it his way: “If you would see our resources, look around you”. Our most immediate resource is People like yourselves. This morning we have around 40 people who represent wide areas of experience, knowledge and professional expertise. We have doctors, clergy, synodspeople, journalists and those who have had extensive experience of the publishing world. Now each one of us at a guess would be able to name twenty or more people who are equally concerned in one way or another with the subject we are considering today. Therefore without too much difficulty we could access some eight hundred other people upon whose help and support we should be able to count. Secondly, we have significant, if limited, financial resources which we have been able to call upon, for example to organise this conference itself, and Cost of Conscience is most grateful to Reform and Reform Southwark for their generous assistance. However, what we shall be able to do in the future will depend on the amount of financial involvement we are able to attract. You can rest assured that Facts Matter will continue its publishing work in the belief that "the Lord will provide" as He has over the past months; but beyond that it will depend entirely on what other monies individuals and organisations are able and willing to place at our disposal. Thirdly, and this must surely be our most important resource, we have Facts. Note that I call our resource Facts rather than the Truth. I do so advisedly because we know that those who are opposed to us include some who are sufficiently unscrupulous to take their example from jesting Pilate and ask “What is Truth” and, like him, not wait for an answer. Truth for such people is essentially a moving target a subjectively mobile goalpost which can change its meaning in the course of a single discussion, or alternatively mean no more “what I feel is true for me at this moment”, in which case its meaning can change from one moment to the next. But Facts are Facts are Facts, however anyone feels about them, and the Facts are our allies. The opposition knows in its heart that this is so, which is why they are always so keen to talk about almost anything else. Calling someone a "bigot" or a "homophobe" is childs-play compared with proving that he's got his facts wrong! This leads on to the matter of Targeting. Today's’ proceedings will be published in full and a copy sent to all those who have attended. We are committed and have the resources to do that. But the question of what we do next requires very careful consideration. There is a school of thought which would like to see the publication of an extensive book of essays challenging the whole Gay and Lesbian position. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that this would be a mistake at the present time. One of the problems about such “Grand Slam” publications is that they are nearly always out of date by the time they are published: medical research, political legislation, to say nothing of public perception are changing, for better or worse, the whole time; moreover it is only necessary for a book of Essays (for such it would be) to contain just one weak argument, or the opinions of one writer whose words or deeds may render him liable to be labelled a “fundamentalist” or “bigoted” for the whole collection of essays to be tarred with the same brush. That is why it is necessary, I believe, to be in a position to produce quickly and inexpensively quantities of smaller documents, either in the format of the Facts Matter publications or the very successful triptych-style Irenaeus Leaflets which served Cost of Conscience so well in the 1980s. It is pointless to complain that we are shooting at moving targets or flexible goalposts. That is the situation we find ourselves in and no amount of complaining will make one iota of difference. It is possible, I would remind you, to learn to do both these things with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but the way to achieve it is not by investing too many resources in any given salvo but to target a number of different areas with much smaller ammunition. The advantage of this strategy is that one can turn quickly to any new area which is being threatened and supply an effective counterblast. We are being assailed on a number of fronts: Politics, the Family, the Faith, Morality and the Law to name but five. We need to be able to turn our attention to whichever one is currently under attack. What I have just said applies to the matter of Publishing. It is even more relevant in the area of conferences. One of our assets, it appears, is the ability to organise conferences and meetings such as this one at relatively short notice. There is going to be a need in the immediate future for further meetings of this and other kinds. These can be organised without any difficulty, as our recent experiences have shown, by Cost of Conscience and Reform working in tandem; however, like the publications, the number and sophistication of these conferences will depend upon what resources we are able to put into them. Here again, the concept of targeting is important. Today’s conference, like the one at Bawtry from which it stemmed, is a targeted events in which participation was by invitation only. Even had it been desirable to hold a more general or “open” meeting (as this was originally conceived to be) the resources which we had readily available would have been overstretched. Today’s experience has, I believe, demonstrated once again the truth of the adage that “Small is Beautiful”, and whatever future events are planned we should bear this in mind. In a moment I am going to invite you contribute suggestions and discussion about Targeting our Resources. But there is one other thing that I must say. Everything that has happened so far in which I have been personally involved, including today's event, originated from the Day of Prayer and Fasting which Reform Southwark and Cost of Conscience organised to coincide with the Lesbian and Gay Festival in Southwark Cathedral last year. The Cathedral event, as you know, caused much distress and searching of heart, not least amongst Reform Southwark members, and there was a good deal of uncertainty being expressed amongst those who attend its meetings, including myself, as to what form, if any, our response to it should take. It was at that precise moment that I was inspired (and I can use no other word to describe it) to suggest a Day of Prayer and Fasting. From that Event sprang my involvement with the Bawtry Conference; from that my association with Roy Silver; and from that my visit to Dr Stalley and Maranatha in Manchester and the initiative of the Facts Matter literature and ultimately this Teaching Seminar today. So my final word this morning is to remind you that Prayer and Fasting and Almsgiving (the three Notable Duties) are a Scripturally-enjoined, well-tested, if recently neglected, combination of resources to which today and all that will, I am convinced, come out of it, are exclusively due.
