Study confirms racial differences in response to prostate cancer treatment

Enrolling a large number of Black men, Duke researchers found potential new paths for improved studies and treatments

DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Research News

 

DURHAM, N.C. - A study designed to enroll an equal number of Black and white men with advanced prostate cancer confirms key findings that have been evident in retrospective analyses and suggest potential new avenues for treating Black patients who disproportionately die of the disease.

Researchers at Duke Cancer Institute enrolled 50 Black and 50 white men with advanced prostate cancer to test whether there were outcome differences on treatment with the hormone therapy abiraterone acetate plus the steroid prednisone. In retrospective data reviews, the Duke researchers had previously found racial differences in PSA responses among advanced prostate cancer patients.

Publishing online in the journal Cancer, the researchers confirmed trends indicating that Black men's PSA levels dropped further and more frequently than those of white men undergoing the therapy. These PSA changes, however, did not result in differences in disease progression or overall survival times.

But the survival finding has an important subtlety, said lead author Daniel George, M.D., professor in the departments of Medicine and Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine. George noted that most drug studies among prostate cancer patients include a small fraction of Black men that is far lower than their numbers in the larger population.

Exclusions typically result because Black men with prostate cancer are more likely to have other illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which study leaders often fear could put them at higher risk for complications. Additionally, there are deep historic and cultural reasons that Black men tend to decline participation in clinical studies.

For their study, however, the Duke team -- including senior author Andrew Armstrong, M.D., professor in the departments of Medicine and Surgery -- found that Black men were eager to join the clinical trial.

They were able to enroll a much larger proportion of Black men than what most studies include, in part because the study was addressing a question pertaining to race. And they did not exclude men with co-existing conditions, asserting that since the treatment is FDA approved for this population, they should be inclusive of the patients they see in practice.

"When you look at the overall survival data for our study, they're equal between Black and white men," George said. "But given the prevalence of coexisting conditions in the Black men we enrolled, mortality should have actually been higher for them.

"Our finding that it was not higher is telling -- it suggests Black men with prostate cancer can fare just as well as whites, even with other health issues," George said. "And it signals that future studies should consider enrolling Black men despite these often-disqualifying conditions."

George said the researchers also identified a possible marker of ancestry-dependent treatment outcomes that could help explain why Black men respond more readily to hormone therapy, potentially pointing to new ways to address advanced prostate cancer in Black men.

"We need to understand how genetic ancestry might affect treatment outcomes -- especially disease responsiveness in prostate cancer -- because we are now using and studying these therapies earlier in the disease where we have the opportunity to cure patients," George said.

"If there is a subgroup of patients with an ancestry-based predisposition for potential better response, we need to understand that. But to do so, we will need greater genetic diversity in our future study populations, especially among those with African ancestry. We aren't going to fully understand this genetic complexity by solely enrolling men with European ancestry."

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In addition to George, study authors include Susan Halabi, Elisabeth Heath, A. Oliver Sartor, Guru Sonpavde, Devika Das, Rhonda L. Bitting, William Berry, Patrick Healy, Monika Anand, Carol Winters, Colleen Riggan, Julie Kephart, Rhonda Wilder, Kellie Shobe, Julia Rasmussen, Matthew Milowsky, Mark Fleming, James Bearden, Michael Goodman, Tian Zhang, Michael R. Harrison, Megan McNamara, Dadong Zhang, Bonnie L. LaCroix, Rick A. Kittles, Brendon M. Patierno, Alexander B. Sibley, Steven R. Patierno, Kouros Owzar, Terry Hyslop, Jennifer A. Freedman, Andrew J. Armstrong.

The study received funding support from Janssen Scientific Affairs, which markets abiraterone acetate; the Department of Defense (W81XWH-09-1-0152, W81XWH-14-2-0198); the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (1P20-CA202925-01A1); and a Prostate Cancer Foundation Movember Challenge Award.

Armstrong reports a paid consultancy with Janssen among other disclosures itemized in the study; George receives study support from the company via Duke.

Patient support program for painful conditions may reduce opioid use

Study in people taking a biologic drug for autoimmune diseases shows association of patient support program with reduced chance of starting opioid pain medicines or continuing on them

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

A program that provides ongoing support to patients with painful conditions and complex medication regimens may also help them avoid using potentially risky opioid pain medications, or reduce the amount they use, a new study finds.

The study looked at people with a wide range of autoimmune disorders, including arthritis and psoriasis, who were taking an injected biologic medication to treat their symptoms and prevent painful flare-ups. Such treatment involves frequent self-injections on a strict schedule, special disposal of used supplies and often high out-of-pocket costs - which is why drug companies have started patient support programs to keep patients on track and even reduce their costs.

Using anonymous data from autoimmune disorder patients with private non-Medicare insurance, the researchers looked at treatment adherence and opioid prescription fills for nearly 2,000 new biologic patients who took part in a PSP at least for a short time, and 728 who did not. None had received an opioid in the three months before they started on the biologic, and most were women in their 50s.

In addition to being much more likely to stick to their medication regimen, and stay on it longer, the patients in the PSP were 13% less likely to start taking opioid pain medications, and 26% less likely to fill two or more opioid prescriptions, than the others. Even so, 38% of the patients in the support program filled at least one opioid prescription, and 19% filled two or more. Opioids carry a risk of long-term dependence, as well as risky interactions with other medications and alcohol.

Among all patients who did fill at least one opioid prescription, those in a PSP were less likely to use them for an extended time. The differences persisted even after the researchers took into account income and checked for past cancer diagnosis; cancer-related pain is a CDC-recommended use for opioid pain medication, while autoimmune disorders are not.

When the researchers zeroed in on patients with specific types of conditions, the strongest evidence of difference between the PSP participants and non-participants was among the group that took the biologic for a digestive system autoimmune disorder such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

"This research demonstrates that the addition of a multi-faceted patient support program along with specialty medication led to better patient-centered outcomes when compared to the use of medication alone," says first author Mark Fendrick, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and director of the Center for Value Based Insurance Design. "As more and more Americans are prescribed complicated medication regimens, the availability of additional resources is likely to lead to higher rates of medication adherence, and healthier, more satisfied patients."

The study was funded by AbbVie, which makes the biologic medication that the patients in the study were taking and funds the PSP that they have access too.

Higher Medication Adherence and Lower Opioid Use Among Individuals with Autoimmune Disease Enrolled in an Adalimumab Patient Support Program in the United States, Rheumatology and Therapy, DOI: 10.1007/s40744-021-00309-9

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40744-021-00309-9

 

Better healthcare guidance needed for trans people

Current research insufficient to provide adequate care for individuals

ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Clinical practice guidelines for dealing with the physical and mental health of transgender people highlight the current lack of a solid research base which must be improved, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Open.

A team of researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and King's College London searched world literature for all international clinical practice guidelines on the healthcare needs of gender minority and trans people.

Results showed that higher quality guidelines tended to focus mainly on HIV, and most others were on transition-related interventions. There were noticeable gaps in the topics of guidelines, with none addressing primary care or more general health needs of gender minority and trans people. There was little information on mortality and quality of life, and there was no patient-facing material.

Sex hormones in trans people can affect susceptibility to some conditions, including various cancers. However, the authors found little research on how much these hormones affect rates and treatment regimens. There was also no advice on how these hormones affect rates, hospitalisations and mortality due to COVID-19.

Researchers concluded that gaps can be filled by better research, resulting in improved healthcare guidance for gender minority/trans people.

This was the first review of its kind to examine international clinical practice guidelines addressing gender minority/trans health.

Catherine Meads, Professor of Health at ARU and senior author of the paper, said: "We were pleased to find high quality guidelines on HIV from the World Health Organisation, but disappointed there was little else on the long term physical and mental health of trans people.

"There are clear gaps in clinical practice guidance related to gender minority and trans people, and as such clinicians should proceed with caution and explain any uncertainties to patients, who should also be engaged in the process of updating practice guidelines. More needs to be done to ensure that patient-facing material relevant to trans people is made available.

"We've presented the study at the main international specialist societies, who are due to update their guidance, and we hope this will encourage them to aim as high as the WHO."

Sara Dahlen, of King's College London, who co-ordinated the project, said: "We didn't know what we'd find until we looked. We hope future guidelines for trans and gender minority people will look to the examples of high-quality so they can improve healthcare."

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Fire and rehire: Britain's new labour battleground?



Issued on: 09/05/2021 

The practice of fire and rehire is increasingly being used by British employers Ben STANSALL AFP/File

London (AFP)

As coronavirus wreaks severe economic damage, some British employers stand accused of taking a highly controversial measure to stay afloat: fire and rehire.

The practice, which involves dismissing employees and re-engaging them on inferior terms, flared up in April, when British Gas dismissed almost 500 engineers after they refused to accept new contracts.

Last year, British Airways staff battled with the national airline's management over proposed fire-and-rehire schemes, while supermarket giant Asda faced a similar stand-off in 2019.

Bus drivers in Manchester, coffee workers at Jacobs Douwe Egberts and distribution centre employees for Tesco are now locked in disputes over new contracts which unions have denounced as fire-and-rehire tactics.

Fire and rehire is allowed in Britain but Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called it "unacceptable", and trade unions and the main opposition Labour party are demanding a ban.

Unite, the UK and Ireland's largest union, claimed fire and rehire is "ripping through workplaces like a disease".

A survey of 2,231 workers by the Trades Union Congress umbrella group found almost one in 10 were told to reapply for their jobs on worse terms or face dismissal, with young and ethnic-minority workers disproportionately affected.

Public industrial relations body the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) submitted a report on the practice in February but the government has yet to publish its findings.

- Better alternatives -

Chris Forde, co-director of the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds, said recruitment freezes, voluntary redundancies and furlough offer better alternatives to the "last resort" of fire and rehire.

The practice could "chip away further at the quite lightly regulated labour market in the UK", where zero-hour contracts and flexibility clauses are more prevalent than elsewhere, he told AFP.

Fire and rehire is banned in neighbouring Ireland, while other European countries require sector-level consultation with unions and social partners when employers seek to terminate contracts.

"I cannot see any circumstances in which this is a right way to go," said Forde.

"It is a basic assault on workers' rights and there are alternative means through which they (employers) might achieve the same outcomes."

Fire and rehire is virtually unknown in Germany thanks to legislation protecting workers on permanent contracts.

Employers can resort to a similar practice with workers on fixed-term contracts only in a limited set of circumstances.

In Canada, fire and rehire is legal and particularly affects non-unionised workers, who are powerless against employers resorting to it, according to labour law specialist Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau, at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

Workers governed by the labour laws of Quebec, Nova Scotia and the Canada Labour Code –- just 10 percent of the country's workforce –- enjoy some protection.

But employers can circumvent it by proving they are firing for economic rather than personal reasons, she told AFP.

There is little debate about the issue in the United States, where labour regulations are more lax.

- Opportunism? -

An investigation by Britain's Observer newspaper claimed that nine of 13 companies accused of firing and rehiring made profits or increased executive pay.

However, British Airways' parent company IAG recorded a first-quarter net loss of 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion, £956 million) for 2021, after suffering a record annual net loss last year of 6.9 billion euros amid a pandemic-induced crisis in the aviation sector.

And although British Gas made an £80 million ($111 million, 92 million euros), operating profit in its most recent update, parent company Centrica posted pre-tax losses of £577 million.

Centrica told AFP the changes were unrelated to the Covid crisis and aimed to protect 20,000 UK jobs, with 98 percent of employees accepting new contracts.

"While change is difficult, reversing our decline which has seen us lose over three million customers, cut over 15,000 jobs and seen profits halved over the last 10 years is necessary," a company statement read.

The Go-Ahead Group declined to respond to a request for comment.

Alexander Bryson, chair of quantitative social science at University College London, said firms may be using fire and rehire to implement restructuring plans that predated the pandemic.

Companies are also reconsidering the viability of jobs as government support schemes such as furlough wind down, he added.

"They may be over-zealous, over-estimate the financial problems they face and look to rehire accordingly," he said.

"It isn't clear that the pandemic has created circumstances in which this is widespread. But it could be employers acting in an opportunistic fashion to bring forward something they were hoping to do before."

© 2021 AFP

The Slav Epic - How Alphonse Mucha Celebrated Slavic Peoples

Artwork(s) In Focus, Art History

August 25, 2020
Elena Martinique


In a stunning series of twenty monumental canvases, the renowned Art Nouveau Czech artist Alphonse Mucha sought to depict the history of the Slav people and civilization. Titled The Slav Epic, the series was conceived as a monument for all the Slavonic peoples, to which the artist devoted the latter half of his artistic career.

The The Slav Epic series was conceived on a noble idea - Mucha wanted to unite all the Slavs through their common history and their mutual reverence for peace and learning, eventually inspiring them to work for humanity using their experience and virtue. The complete series of these immense paintings was officially presented to the City of Prague as a gift in 1928, coinciding with the 10th Anniversary of the nation's independence.

Alphonse Mucha - Slavs in their Original Homeland, 1912. Tempera and oil on canvas, 610 x 810 cm. Mucha Museum Prague


The Inception of the Series

Among the most famous Czech visual artists, Alphonse Mucha began his career by painting mostly theatrical scenery in his native Moravia, a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic. After successfully completing a commission by Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov to paint Hrusovany Emmahof Castle with sceneries, the Count sponsored the artist's training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Following his studies, the Czech moved to Paris and began producing advertising demonstrations and designs, for theatre sets, characterized by faded pastel colors and featuring sensual, graceful, and delicate young women in neoclassical robes, enclosed by profuse flowers. Initially called the Mucha style, it later became known as Art Nouveau, a movement that opened a new chapter in art. However, Mucha, who was a great patriot, would refer to his artistic style not as Art Nouveau, but as uniquely “Slavonic".

The artist first came to the idea for the Slav Epic while working on the design for the inside of the Pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina commissioned by the Austro-Hungarian government for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. During the preparations for the project, he travelled through the Balkans, getting acquainted with the region's history and customs. The artist recalled:


It was midnight, and there I was all alone in my studio in the rue du Val-de-Grâce among my pictures, posters and panels. I became very excited. I saw my work adorning the salons of the highest society or flattering people of the great world with smiling and ennobled portraits. [...] And in my spirit I saw myself sinfully misappropriating what belonged to my people. It was midnight and, as I stood there looking at all these things, I swore a solemn promise that the remainder of my life would be filled exclusively with work for the nation.

Inspired by this experience, Mucha deciding to illustrate the "joy and sorrows" of his own community and of all the other Slavs, going on to find a contributor who would support his project. After several trips to the United States, it wasn't until 1909 that he managed to obtain grants by an American philanthropist and keen admirer of the Slavic culture, Charles Richard Crane.

His preparation began with traveling through Russia, Poland and the Balkans and consulting historians regarding details of historical events he wanted to depict. Working from an apartment and a studio in Zbiroh Castle in Bohemia, it took another 18 years to complete the whole series.

Alphonse Mucha - The Celebration of Svantovit, 1912. Oil on canvas, 610 x 810 cm. Collection of Prague City Gallery


The Slav Epic Paintings

The Slav Epic depicts twenty major episodes from the Slavic past, old to new, ten episodes from Czech history and ten others on historical episodes from more Slavonic areas.

Mucha's first canvas in the The Slav Epic series was The Slavs in Their Original Homeland, completed in 1912, focusing on the trials of the Slav tribes in the sixth century, when the lands where they were settling were contested by Germanic tribes on the one hand, and the Byzantine empire. The final canvas, The Apotheosis of the Slavs celebrates the triumphant victory of all the Slavs whose homelands in 1918 finally became their very own.

In 1918, Mucha exhibited the first eleven canvases of The Slav Epic in the Prague's Clementinum. In his opening speech, he stated:


The mission of the Epic is not completed. Let it announce to foreign friends – and even to enemies – who we were, who we are, and what we hope for. May the strength of the Slav spirit command their respect, because from respect, love is born.

A collective representation of moments in the history of the Slavs, The Slav Epic conveys Pan-Slavic ideals in visual format, linking different Slavic nations by emphasizing their shared historical and cultural traits. Throughout the series, Mucha employed different compositions of color, symbols and figures to present ideas, hidden messages and various phenomena. While some aspects have clear links to particular historic events, some are down to the interpretation of the viewer solely. Breathtakingly large, some of the works measure up to six meters tall and eight meters wide. Each work has a title and a subtitle that explains the importance of the specific scene for Slavic history.

Putting much thought into his style as much as the subject, Mucha focused on conveying the emotions of the scenes through skillful drawings rather than previously established national styles. He combined a custom tempera paint for his large canvases, and oil paint for select details, achieving a luminous effect that he deemed necessary for the mythological tableaux he was creating.

Alphonse Mucha - The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy, 1912. Tempera on canvas, 610 x 810 cm. Mucha Museum Prague


The Controversies Around the Display of the Works

The complete Slav Epic series was first exhibited in 1928 in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague to great critical acclaim. The artist decided to donate the works to the City of Prague, provided that the city builds an exhibition pavilion for it. However, the pavilion hasn't been built to this day.

Before his death in 1939, Much was interrogated by the Gestapo as an important exponent of public life in Czechoslovakia, and as the war began raging, the The Slav Epic was wrapped and hidden away to prevent seizure by the Nazis.

After the war, the paintings were moved to the chateau at Moravský Krumlov by a group of local patriots, and the cycle went on display there in 1963. Much consideration has been given to relocating the series from Moravský Krumlov to Prague, resulting in a decade-long legal battle that intensified in early 2010. After being blocked by the Mucha Foundation to have the works for restoration, the City of Prague argued that not Alphonse Mucha but Charles R. Crane was the owner of the paintings and that he has donated the series to the city. On the other hand, John Mucha, who runs the Foundation, claimed that Prague never became the owner of the series because it did not meet the artist’s condition of building an exhibition hall for the works.

After years of negotiations, in 2019, the Prague City Council decided that The Slav Epic will be exhibited at Moravsky Krumlov chateau for at least five years until Prague will have a suitable venue for the monumental works of art.

[UPDATE January 25, 2021] According to a new report from the Art Newspaper, Slav Epic has finally found a home. It will be displayed in whole in a to-be-constructed development designed by Thomas Heatherwick located in Prague, and the facility will open in 2026.


Alphonse Mucha - The Oath of Omladina Under the Slavic Linden Tree, 1926. Egg tempera and oil on canvas, 390 x 590 cm. Prague City Gallery

Left: Alphonse Mucha - The Meeting at Křížky, 1916. Egg tempera and oil on canvas, 620 x 405 cm / Right: Alphonse Mucha - Jan Milíč Kroměříž, 1916. Oil on canvas, 620 x 405 cm. Prague City Gallery

Alphonse Mucha - The Coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan as East Roman Emperor, 1926. Oil on canvas, 480 x 405 cm. Prague City Gallery

Alphonse Mucha - Petr Chelčický at Vodňany, 1918. 

Oil on canvas, 480 x 620 cm. Prague City Gallery

 

Editors’ Tip: Alphonse Mucha: Masterworks

Though very much an individual and spiritual artist, Alfonse Mucha was a defining figure of the Art Nouveau era and is loved for his distinctive lush style and images of beautiful women in arabesque poses among the plethora of paintings, posters, advertisements and designs he produced. Admire a whole range of his work here in its full glory with succinct accompanying text.

Featured image: Alphonse Mucha's The Slav Epic in the National Gallery of Prague. All images Creative Commons.

Long-overlooked Black artists dominate New York spring sales

Issued on: 09/05/2021

Sotheby's is auctioning Robert Colescott's "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook" TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP

New York (AFP)

Black artists are represented like never before at New York's spring sales next week after years of being overlooked and underappreciated, with several expected to set new records for their works.

American-born Jean-Michel Basquiat, of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, becomes the first Black painter to headline both Christie's and Sotheby's main auctions, on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

The 1983 "In This Case," part of his trilogy of "skull" paintings, and his 1982 work "Versus Medici" are expected to fetch around $50 million each during the virtual auctions.

The late Robert Colescott, renowned for expressionist paintings that dealt with Black identity and history, is expected to increase his record tenfold, with his 1975 "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook" estimated at up to $12 million.

Works by Norman Lewis, Mark Bradford and Kerry James Marshall are all expected to top $1 million.

David Galperin, head of evening sales for contemporary art at Sotheby's in New York, said a "historical reevaluation" and growing visibility in galleries and museums is boosting the popularity of marginalized artists.

"There's a sense of increased market appreciation and demand that correlates with prices that we are seeing at auction," he told AFP.

For Sanford Biggers, a Black sculptor whose 25-foot-tall bronze "Oracle" statue has just been installed at the Rockefeller Center, the development is a long overdue "correction."

"For a long time the work was overlooked but the work has been actually fantastic for decades," he said.

The massive Black Lives Matter protests that swept the United States and the world last year following the police murder of George Floyd have contributed to a reassessment that was already underway, experts and artists say.

Sherman Edmiston, president of New York's Essie Green Gallery, which has been promoting Black artists since 1979, says the breakthrough has happened in recent years, in part thanks to the emergence of prominent Black collectors.

- Jay-Z, Kanye -

Rapper and producer Swizz Beatz is considered a pioneer, while Sean Combs, Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West are also recognized as major collectors.

"It's all about culture. Hip Hop was a cultural phenomenon and they were early adopters and tastemakers," he told AFP.

Another contributing factor was the shift in the 1990s from art being a collectors' market to an investors' market.

As the supply of works by traditional artists, almost all white, dried up, investors turned to minority artists at attractive prices to boost their portfolios.

"That's when Black art began to really take off," said Edmiston.

Artists such as Basquiat, Marshall and Jacob Lawrence have, in their own way, opened a window into an element of American life that was missing from mainstream art -- the experience of being Black in the United States.

"A lot of the art that we're seeing today could not have happened without a group of artists that kind of broke through and sort of changed the dialogue around art," said Ana Maria Celis, head of 21st century evening sales at Christie's.

She considers 32-year-old Jordan Casteel as among the heirs of this movement, which is "challenging existing notions of what art should say or how it should be made."

"The art that is being made today by these artists are reflective of the times. They want to push forward conversations that might have been uncomfortable," said Celis.

The push to buy works by Black artists, resulting in a steady stream of records over the past three years, has seen prices go way above their initial estimates, a rare phenomenon at top auctions.

"There's a tendency along the lines of, 'If it's Black it's great,'" said Edmiston, adding that he favors a distinction between artists and the quality of their work.

He even thinks the market might be overheating. "At the same time I realize I could be way off, and most likely, I am," he said, smiling.

© 2021 AFP

SUNDAY SERMON III
Remove or alter your slavery monuments, churches are told

The Church of England is to review thousands of monuments in churches and cathedrals across the country that contain historical references to slavery and colonialism, with some expected to be removed.

© Photograph: Bristol Cathedral/PA A dedication to 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston is being removed from a window in Bristol Cathedral to be replaced with plain glass.

Guidance to be issued this week encourages the C of E’s 12,500 parishes and 42 cathedrals to scrutinise buildings and grounds for evidence of contested heritage, and consult local communities on what action to take.

Although decisions will be made at a local level, the guidance stresses that ignoring contested heritage is not an option. Among actions that may be taken are the removal, relocation or alteration of plaques and monuments, and the addition of contextual information. In some cases, there may be no change.

The guidance comes after Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, called for a review of the C of E’s built heritage following the Black Lives Matter protests last summer and the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. “Some [statues and monuments] will have to come down,” Welby said at the time.

An anti-racism taskforce set up by the archbishops of Canterbury and York last month urged the C of E to take decisive steps to address the legacy of its involvement in the slave trade. It said: “We do not want to unconditionally celebrate or commemorate people who contributed to or benefited from the tragedy that was the slave trade.”

Action has already been taken in a number of places. Bristol Cathedral has removed a window dedication to Colston; St Margaret’s church in Rottingdean, Sussex, has removed two headstones in its graveyard which contained racial slurs; and St Peter’s in Dorchester has covered up a plaque commemorating a plantation owner’s role in suppressing a slave rebellion.

Becky Clark, the C of E’s director of churches and cathedrals, who produced the guidance, told the Observer: “Our church buildings and cathedrals are the most visible part of the C of E, a Christian presence in every community. The responsibility to ensure they include, welcome and provide safe spaces for all is a vitally important part of addressing the way historic racism and slavery still impacts people today.”

The guidance is likely to be controversial, both among those who call for all contested heritage to be removed, and those who say such heritage is an important part of the nation’s history.

But Clark said the guidance sought to “empower rather than shut down conversation”. Rather than being prescriptive, it was intended to steer parishes through the process of evaluating built heritage and determining what action to take.

“It doesn’t make political statements, except to say the history of racism and slavery is undeniable, as is the fact that racism and the legacy of slavery are still part of many people’s lives today. Responding to those in the right way is a Christian duty. Doing nothing is not an option. There has to be engagement with this.

“The job of local parishes is to figure out how this impacts our communities today. Are there people who feel this church is not for them because of the built heritage, and what can we do about it?”

As well as statues and monuments that “celebrate or valorise those involved in the slave trade”, there were also “simple memorials to somebody who was loved by their family”, she said.

At St Margaret’s Rottingdean, a Grade II listed 13th-century church on the Sussex coast, the gravestones of two music-hall singers who died in the 1960s have been removed following a consistory court judgment that their inscriptions contained words that were “deeply offensive”.

© Provided by The Guardian These gravestones have now been removed from the churchyard at St Margaret’s, Rottingdean, in East Sussex and will be recut to remove offensive language. Photograph: Jon Santa Cruz/Rex/Shutterstock

Although the flint-walled churchyard is the legal responsibility of the parish priest, the headstones are the property of the descendants of GH Elliott and Alice Banford, who wore blackface in their performances. A judgment in February by Mark Hill, chancellor of the diocese of Chichester, said the descendants had been traced and had agreed to the stones being recut to remove the “derogatory and racist” term.

© Provided by The Guardian The music hall singer GH Elliott who wore blackface and is buried in at St Margaret’s, Rottingdean. Photograph: John Pratt/Getty Images

Hill added: “Mindful of the public interest (and hostility in some parts) concerning this matter, it would be inappropriate to direct the immediate reinstatement of the headstones.” He suggested the work be completed within two years, although the time period could be extended.

At Bristol Cathedral, a dedication to the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston has been covered and will be eventually replaced with plain glass. Additional information about Colston, the slave trade and C of E’s links to slavers will be provided. The cathedral is also carrying out a comprehensive audit of monuments and plaques with slave or colonial references.

The window was created in the Victorian era to memorialise Colston’s philanthropic efforts, said Mandy Ford, the cathedral’s dean. “Bristol Cathedral was fundamentally enlarged by Victorian philanthropists in the 1860s. Many of those people made their money through trading to Africa or India, and we have a number of memorials to families who were plantation owners.”

Ford, who was appointed a year ago, said there had been “two or three false starts” in dealing with the complexities of contested heritage. “This can’t be another one. Let’s not be mistaken – this is one element of the issues we have to face around institutional racism, the failure of the C of E to be the church of the people. This is part of a bigger picture about diversity and inclusion, about who feels welcome. We want to be a place where everybody feels they can come.”

A Dorchester church has covered a plaque commemorating an 18th-century slave owner pending its removal. The inscription on the plaque at St Peter’s church celebrates the role played by John Gordon, a plantation owner, in “quelling” a slave rebellion in which hundreds were killed.

A notice placed over the plaque says the memorial “commemorates actions and uses language which are totally unacceptable to us today”. The plaque is to be offered to a museum.

SUNDAY SERMON II

The Space Adventures of Russian Orthodox Saints

By Elodie Phillips Posted May 7, 2021
In Analysis, Culture, Russia

Russian cosmonaut and practising Orthodox Christian Sergey Ryzhikov may have been born on Earth but currently, he resides among the stars, firmly in God’s territory, on the International Space Station (ISS). Earthly parishioners of St Vladimir’s Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas were treated to a glimpse at the cosmos when Rhzhikov teleconferenced worshippers from the ISS, answering questions about Russia’s scientific discovery of the heavens. This technological link between terrestrial and sky-dwelling Orthodox Christians speaks to a greater connection growing between the earthbound church hierarchy and those Russians exploring the realms above.

Since the shattering of Soviet state atheism, icons and relics have frequently passed between Earth and the cosmos as patterns of religious engagement changed in the new Russian Federation. As an extension of this, the expressed personal religious beliefs of the cosmonauts themselves have become entangled with earthly political agendas.

Noting how Russians in space have created a culture of religious observance on the ISS allows us to recognise patterns of interaction between the crew, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). In the post-Soviet era, the display of religious icons and relics is an increasingly common societal performance, which has become interwoven with meanings related to Russian identity and patriotism. These rediscovered religious practices on earth take on new significance when transported to outer space.

As the Cold War ended and a tentative, cooperative relationship began between the USA and the new Russian Federation, both states agreed to form the International Space Station. The ISS was initially created from a merger of the USA’s Freedom Station and the Russian Mir-2 designs. Russian cosmonauts living aboard the ISS have resided in the Zvezda space module since Expedition 1 arrived there in November 2000. The Zvezda living quarters comprise two sleeping areas, exercise equipment, a toilet and a galley which are used not only by Russians but all astronauts living on the ISS. Zvezda is therefore a hub for multiple forms of international activity on the ISS.

Orthodox practices in the Zvezda module create a distinct Russian culture in space and reflect changes in church-state relations on earth. It is especially significant that US-controlled modules ban the display of religious imagery. Although, since retiring the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA has relied on Russia’s Soyuz rockets and Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to launch transportation shuttles and as a result has willingly turned a blind eye to Russian religious displays onboard the ISS. The International Space Station Archeological Project notes that religious items have yet to be displayed in the US, European or Japanese modules (aside from those related to Christmas), meaning the practices on Zvezda are a uniquely Russian phenomenon.
Iconography in the cosmos

The importance of the display of icons in Russian public spaces did not disappear during the Soviet Union as images of Soviet leaders were replete in public life. Even in Soviet space stations, Salyut and Mir, images of Lenin and other important Communist figures were displayed on the aft wall of the module. Yet God was absent from the public Russian discovery of the cosmos. As Khrushchev once said: “I sent cosmonauts to space, but they didn’t see God”.

NO GOD

God entered the Russian experience of space by joining other national icons on the aft wall. This is a flat space in Zvezda’s living quarters often used as the backdrop of broadcasts back to earth. This area continues to be used for the display of images and symbols with special importance for the cosmonauts residing there such as on Mir. This personal practice reflects changes in post-Soviet religious engagement where private Russian domestic spaces are more likely to contain religious displays.

The aft wall is prominent in broadcasts to earth by all ISS crew members, not only the Russians. Moreover, there is an additional political significance to the icons chosen by both the cosmonauts and terrestrial organisations such as Roscosmos and the ROC. On the ISS, therefore, personal expressions of Orthodox Christianity coincide and interact with institutional and even state-sponsored ways of conveying faith.

The wall of the Zvezda module. Since the disintegration of the USSR, Orthodox saints have begun replacing old Soviet heroes / NASA

NASA posts publicly accessible photos of Zvezda’s interiors on Flickr and a close examination of 48 photos taken between 2000 and 2014, revealed variations in the icons adorning the aft wall mirrored developments in Russian religious and political life on earth. It can be concluded that alterations in the icons on display reflect the changing religious practices of Russians in the post-Soviet era as well as events occurring in Russian foreign and domestic politics.

Trends can be noted in how the display of icons is used to benefit the changing policies of the ROC and the Russian Federation. Through its closer relationship with the cosmos, the ROC connects itself to national institutions constituting part of “Greater Russia”, such as the space programme. In terms of the Russian Federation, changes in the conspicuousness of icons can be observed at times when the regime requires the consolidation of Russian patriotism at home.

Co-operation earthside

Prior to Zvezda, the ROC began collaborating with Roscosmos in ways that reversed the atheist rhetoric typically used by the state to describe Russian adventures in the cosmos. The patriarchate of Alexiy II (1990-2008), which began as the Soviet Union was collapsing, represents a key period in this varying relationship. At this time, the Orthodox Church resumed its central position in Russian society accompanied by a revival in Russian religious life. The institutional efforts of the ROC to establish a presence in space evoke a sense of missionary zeal.

The frequent transportation of icons and relics into space began under Alexiy II. In July 1995, the Patriarch blessed two print icons of Saint Anastasia (one Orthodox and one Roman Catholic), which were then sent on a “peace mission” to the Mir Station. Saint Anastasia was chosen as a symbol of peace as she is a saint common in both Eastern and Western Christianity as well as a protector against international warfare. Hence the project’s name: “Project Anastasia- The Hope of Peace”.

Seven months later, the icons returned to earth and embarked on a pilgrimage across Europe to all places associated with Saint Anastasia. The impact of this move by the Church hierarchy was significant to the Russian cosmonauts living on Mir. It empowered them to adorn their own personal space with icons. Consequently, photos between 1996 and 1998 demonstrate that icons were informally stuck to the walls of the Russian quarters.

Cosmonauts in Zvezda, 2014, with icons of Saint Sergius of Radonezh / NASA

The missionary enthusiasm of the Church also found a pathway to the cosmos through the thoughtful cultivation of personal relationships with key personnel in Russia’s space programme. For example, Head of Roscosmos Anatoliy Perminov enjoys a close, personal relationship with the ROC, established during the patriarchate of Alexiy II. Perminov met repeatedly with Patriarch Alexiy and continually expressed a desire for mutual cooperation with the Church. Indeed in 2008, Perminov gifted him with a GLONASS System Satellite navigator as a Christmas gift. The evidence of deeply personal relationships between ROC and Roscosmos is also noticeable in the friendships between Russian cosmonauts and Father Yov Talats, rector of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. This church is located in Star City where the Russian cosmonaut training facilities are located.

Father Yov is present when Russian cosmonaut teams are sent off from Baikonur, and meets them upon their return. In his public engagements, the clergyman often recounts his childhood dream of becoming a cosmonaut and, even after becoming a priest, took part in aspects of cosmonaut training. Yov works from the Trinity Laura of St. Sergius, an extremely significant centre for the ROC, where departing Russian ISS crew members are blessed before they leave for Baikonur. Recently, Father Yov has acted as a religious mentor for members of the Russian ISS crew and has arranged for holy relics to be sent into space in the care of his flock.
Heavenly journeys, earthly implications

The ROC under Alexiy II forged close ties with Roscosmos and oversaw the initial transportation of icons and relics into space. After “Project Anastasia”, a cult began to form around these icons that had travelled to space upon their return to earth. These icons took on a new power for Orthodox believers due to their exposure to space. Head of Roscosmos Perminov himself announced, “already the icons of Kazan Mother of God and the Archangel Michael, after many times orbiting our planet … will come to reflect the combination of traditional spiritual symbols and contemporary achievements in the field of space exploration”.

An example of this is the icon from the Valaam monastery, which orbited the earth over 1000 times in the company of Russian cosmonaut and ISS crew-member Sergey Krikalev in 2005. On its return to earth in 2006, Valaam monks and the cosmonauts who accompanied it home claimed that the icon was capable of miracles and had ensured a difficult landing was carried out safely.


Icon of Christ Pantocrator and gold cross floating in front of the front hatch of Zvezda / NASA

In this way, the transportation of religious icons and relics to the ISS is seen as a new form of the Orthodox krestnyy khod [Crucession or Cross Procession] The Crucession is a religious event that takes place on important dates in the liturgical calendar and involves large processions for the veneration and public conveying of icons or relics. As the abbot of the Valaam monastery himself stated, “the tradition of the religious procession is ancient,” yet also “these days, this tradition takes new forms and we encounter an icon that has completed an even more unusual religious procession”. Like the cosmonauts themselves, the icons take on a certain significance having endured the tribulations of space.

ROC Church officials deliberately referred to the transportation of relics of St. Serafim of Sarov to the ISS in 2016 as a krestnyy khod. The box containing the relics was strapped to the chest of the aforementioned Sergey Ryzhikov, parishioner of St Vladimir Orthodox Church and at that time the commander of the Soyuz rocket travelling to the ISS. Upon returning to Earth, the relics were given a place of honour at Father Yov’s church, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. Crucessions have historically been seen as displays of a national communal faith and therefore new manifestations of the practice have very real implications for creating a sense of national patriotism.

The krestnyy khod has appeared in contemporary Russian legend during times of national insecurity. In 2013, gossip circulated that Vladimir Putin had carried an icon in a helicopter over Volgograd after the suicide bombings in the city. This reflects similar rumours that spread as the Nazis were about to capture Moscow during the Second World War that Josef Stalin himself had flown over the city accompanied by an icon.
To infinity… and beyond?

It follows that displays of religiosity on the ISS differed from the peace-building sentiment behind “Project Anastasia”. Rather, icon displays were more connected with political life and religious revival on earth. Icons and relics from Russian Orthodox saints continue to travel to the celestial domain but their journeys speak more to terrestrial dynamics of power as Russia and its national church extend their influence into the cosmos.

Parishioners watching Sergey Ryzhikov from their pews in Houston must have felt him very far away as he floated among the stars, an awe-inspiring personification of Russia’s expansion into all realms of human activity. Yet the relationship between Russian cosmonauts and the earthly politics of religious engagement remains much closer than the yawning void of space between them would make it seem.

Featured image: Saints in Space / Amanda Sonesson

The Space Adventures of Russian Orthodox Saints | Lossi 36

 SUNDAY SERMON

The Land of the Green Man. A Journey Through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles, by Carolyne Larrington

This enchanting, immensely readable book can be read in several ways: it is a vastly entertaining thematic collection of folktales and fairy stories, perfect for autumn reading at a time of fallen leaves, dark evenings, mist and woodsmoke; a field guide to the supernatural creatures that inhabit a parallel world to ours; a literary guide to the supernatural tradition, up to the present day; and a travel guide to supernatural landscapes. It is light, witty and pacy, written for the general reader on a solid foundation of expertise and scholarship.

Carolyne Larrington is Professor of Medieval European Literature at Oxford University, and her works for the general reader (which I must now look out) link literature to legend through various themes. Her latest book is Winter Is Coming. The Medieval World of Game of Thrones. One of the things that most impressed me about The Land of the Green Man is her compelling case for seeing supernatural literature as a continuum, right up to present day and the works of Alan Garner, J K Rowling, Susan Cooper, A S Byatt, among many others, seen not as plundering the tradition, but continuing, developing and keeping it alive. One traditional strand that interests me is touched on only lightly, and that is the emergence of these themes in folksongs – though the Child Ballads are regularly mined as literary sources.

The chapters are thematic, covering landscape, love and lust, death, luck, humans and beasts, and changelings and transformation. The field guide element starts with a map of the supernatural locations in the book – not all remote, but some like Windsor Forest and Alderley Edge lapping the edges of great cities, others unpicturesque and workaday places, such as Burton on Trent with its walking dead, and Tolleshunt d’Arcy in Essex with its monster Black Shuck, a ghostly black dog that has terrorised an innocent cyclist in living memory. The first chapter lays the book’s foundation in the landscape, with tales of monsters and giants who created or formed natural features – who hurl rocks into the sea to form islands, or lie down on the earth to make hills. Giants toss unliftable stones in the air and they land as stone circles. These stones might dance when not observed, or refuse to be counted. Barrows have magical inhabitants and concealed treasure. Sluices are opened and wells carelessly uncapped, and the land is drowned. This is a great start to the book, and an introduction to its sweeping scale, embracing the oral tales clinging to these places, the early writings such as Beowulf, up to the works of Neil Gaiman and A S Byatt.

All the other thematic chapters are structured in the same way, elegantly interweaving oral folktales with collected and written-down sources, and reinterpretations by classic and contemporary writers. Carolyne Larrington lightly touches as she goes on the deep human concerns and preoccupations that might underpin these phenomena and beliefs – fear of death, of poverty, of famine, of losing children, joy of human love, of natural beauty and of plenty. All this is woven into the texture of a book written with a storyteller’s gift and a page-turning pace. A number of sub-themes struck me as a reader – the agency given to so many supernatural females – and human too – is one, and another is the moral framework of the supernatural world we inhabit. Some monsters and hybrid creatures just exist for no discernible reason, and visit meaningless and undeserved pain and terror; but many reward empathy and kindness, or bravery in overcoming disgust or fear (as in the trope of loathly ladies, or handsome young people turned into monsters and freed by a kiss on their foul lips).

The book starts with a promise, and deals a surprise at the end. On the cover and in the title is the Green Man – that powerful symbol of human and tree melded. The Green Man as always depicted emerges in the book only in the final chapter, Continuity and Change, and by the author’s account, it has no deep, hidden, ancient roots. There are no legends; some supernatural creations are green, such as Green Children or The Green Knight; the nearest equivalent woodland creature to interact with humans is my person favourite, the Wodewose, and though wild and forest bound, he is not green. The classic Green Man does not emerge to meet walkers in the woods. It does not steal things or people or give things or shapeshift. The roundel image is known from medieval iconography, mainly in churches, and also as I found to my delight, medieval embroidery. But what the Green Man has done, Carolyne Larrington says, is acquire huge meaning and power for 19th, 20th and 21st century humans, providing a vision of living in the natural world with harmony and mutual care. Which neatly rounds off her survey, telling us that though we can forget the supernatural world and ignore the supernatural landscape, it does not cease to exist and to exert a subtle influence on us.

Reading this book has been a sheer delight – the best book of fairy, ghost and horror stories I have read for a very long time, a thought-provoking study of the enduring power over the imagination of the supernatural, and a subtle study of its effect on our culture and psychological make-up. It is a rapid trip around the subject, leaving me wanting more. You may have a favourite legend that is not here, or only tangentially covered (I was looking for and and didn’t find my beloved Lady Maisery, the Machrel of the Sea, who refused to be changed back to a beautiful girl by her wicked stepmother because she didn’t want to be beholden to her). Sources are in endnotes, and there is a manageable reading list, plus many titles in the text of novels I have neglected to read, to go on my impossibly long reading list. There is a super back-catalogue of Carolyne Larrington’s work to catch up on, too. The only down-side? The realisation that at my age, it will be a life’s work to catch up with Game of Thrones from scratch.

Carolyne Larrington: The Land of the Green Man. A Journey Through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles. Pbk ed. New York, London: I B Tauris, 2017.
ISBN 9781784538484

The Land of the Green Man. A Journey Through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles, by Carolyne Larrington | Vulpes Libris (wordpress.com)

Colombian govt invites protest leaders to talks as mass demonstrations continue

Colombian govt invites protest leaders to talks as mass demonstrations continue
Demonstrators take part in a protest demanding government action to tackle poverty, police violence and inequalities in the health and education systems, in Bogota, Colombia, May 6, 2021. © Nathalia Angarita, Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Video by: Yena LEE

Colombia’s government on Thursday invited protest leaders to a dialogue in an attempt to calm tensions following more than a week of deadly demonstrations against President Ivan Duque.

At least 24 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces while hundreds more have been injured.

Thousands of Colombians including indigenous people, unions and students have taken to the streets to express anger over the government’s policies on health, education and inequality.

They have also denounced what they see as a heavy-handed and lethal response from security forces.

“We have to listen to all sectors of the country but the country also has to listen to the government,” presidential advisor Miguel Ceballos told Blu Radio. “That includes those marching but also those not marching.”


Ceballos said the government would meet protest leaders, including the National Strike Committee, on Monday.

“The government first wanted to invite those that organize the National Strike Committee although understanding that the mobilizations are not exclusive to this group,” said Ceballos.

The National Strike Committee represents various groups including indigenous people, unions, environmentalists and students.

Ceballos later wrote on Twitter that Duque and Vice President Lucia Ramirez would attend the meeting.

Protest leaders have said they would be prepared to have talks directly with Duque, but not with intermediaries.

“The dialogue needs to be those on the streets, which is young people,” said Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, one of the protesters’ main targets.

02:20

Duque has faced occasional mass protests against his rule since 2019 and the latest social movement began on April 28, initially against a tax reform that has since been withdrawn.


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Although the demonstrations have largely been peaceful, there have been violent clashes throughout the country.

The government blames the violence on armed groups including left-wing rebels and drug traffickers.

The United Nations, European Union, United States and NGOs have accused security forces of using excessive force.

Speaking to journalists in Washington on Thursday, Interior Minister Daniel Palacios said various government agencies were collaborating to determine who was responsible for the violence and “if there has been any use of excessive force for them to be held accountable.”

(AFP)