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A Collective Conversion
I made the photograph above in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey, the oldest part of the Abbey, completed around 1255. Here, the monks would gather and read the Rule of St Benedict. It is also the place where the King’s Great Council first met in 1257, this later becoming what we now know as the British Parliament. It’s strange being in a place where the same faith I profess was being practised more than seven hundred and fifty years ago. It is the same faith, yet it is a different expression of that faith today. The essentials are unchanged, of course, but our understanding of the faith, what it…
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The What And The Why
Human beings tend to be rather inquisitive creatures – although, at the same time and to a similar degree, we are also myopic. We generally see only what is immediately in front of us and – worst of all – we are all too quick to make judgements based solely on this very limited perception. It can be a very unfortunate trait – and never more so than when it is exhibited in the words, actions and lives of people who should know better; such people profess of way of belief which is diametrically opposed to rash judgement or, indeed, judgement of any sort. And those people are called Christians.…
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From Humiliation To Humility
An article in The Sunday Times this morning reminded me that it is now ten full years since a major scandal erupted in the Catholic Church in Scotland, the shock-waves from which are still being felt keenly. It was, of course, the whole debacle surrounding the late Cardinal O’Brien, whose momentous fall from grace made newspaper headlines around the world. As has been noted on many occasions since then, the real scandal was perhaps not so much about the Cardinal’s sexual behaviour in itself but about the blatant hypocrisy which was used to cover that behaviour; and it was very much about the abuse of power which facilitated those behaviours,…
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Judge and Complain
I’ve spent a long while looking very carefully through the Scriptures, particularly the four Gospels, for the place where it tells us without equivocation that as Christians, we are to judge, complain and condemn. Alas, I was not able to find what I was looking for. I did find rather a lot of passages which counselled a meek and humble approach toward others, one filled with loving compassion, so that we are better able to reflect something of the Lord in whose Name we profess to act. Of course, that cannot possibly be what we are actually being asked to do – it’s just too, well, Christian. This surely has…
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Losing The Way
One week ago, the Pope created a new clutch of Cardinals. He was at pains to point out that their elevation is to be seen in terms of service to the Church and to the Holy Father. And yet despite this, words such as ‘creation’ and ‘elevation’ very strongly suggest something else, as does the imposition of a gold ring and luxuriant scarlet vestments, all given during a special service at the Vatican. All of this says ‘power’. And it proclaims that power very clearly indeed. If you doubt this, wait and watch as numerous accolades and honorary degrees and titles and courtesies are extended to these ‘Eminences’ over the…
