There's sensitivity and there's cultural suicide

From the (almost local) Bristol Post:

"The flag of St George will not be flying over Radstock any time soon after town councillors decided it was inappropriate because of its links with campaigns against Islam hundreds of years ago...."Read it all here

Well, if that 's the case, then we should consider a complete ban on the crescent symbol of Islam, if only because of its 'links' with the Muslim campaign to subjugate Western Europe in the eighth century. It puts the (in comparison)  rather feeble later attempts to recapture and then defend the Christian holy places in Palestine into perspective.   
Emir Abd er Rahman's  campaign was only halted by the victory of Charles Martel's Frankish army near the city of Poitiers (actually closer to Tours) in 732 - not that far from Radstock, when one thinks of the distance already covered by the advancing Arabs.
If there is anything worse than a politically correct fool, it's one without any knowledge of history. Given the existence of local elections, I suppose the people of Radstock get what they deserve...

Appropriate sensitivity to the faith of religious minorities is simply part of a charitable Christian concern for their welfare, and of a duty to maintain and defend the essentially tolerant civilisation of the West - something has been learned from the mistakes of the past; however, self-hatred born of ignorance leading to cultural suicide is another matter altogether.

The statue of Charles Martel in the Palace of Versailles

Robert Herrick: Litany to the Holy Spirit

Litany to the Holy Spirit
  
IN the hour of my distress,  
When temptations me oppress,  
And when I my sins confess,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When I lie within my bed,          
Sick in heart and sick in head,  
And with doubts discomforted,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the house doth sigh and weep,  
And the world is drown'd in sleep,   
Yet mine eyes the watch do keep,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the passing bell doth toll,  
And the Furies in a shoal  
Come to fright a parting soul,   
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the tapers now burn blue,  
And the comforters are few,  
And that number more than true,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!   

When the priest his last hath pray'd,  
And I nod to what is said,  
'Cause my speech is now decay'd,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When, God knows, I'm toss'd about   
Either with despair or doubt;  
Yet before the glass be out,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the tempter me pursu'th  
With the sins of all my youth,   
And half damns me with untruth,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the flames and hellish cries  
Fright mine ears and fright mine eyes,  
And all terrors me surprise,   
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!  

When the Judgment is reveal'd,  
And that open'd which was seal'd,  
When to Thee I have appeal'd,  
      Sweet Spirit, comfort me!   

Robert Herrick (1571 - 1674)


Peter Hurford's setting of Herrick's poem (the first three verses) sung here by the Boys Choir of Southwark Cathedral:




So Eastertide ends ...

'Modernisers' - by definition, those who don't know when to leave things alone...

My apologies for a very slow blogging week; the parish has been busy, not least with two funerals, the last being a packed funeral mass for a retired priest and friend. It's been an emotionally draining few days, one way or another. Are we, as clergy, allowed to admit to that...?

But, today, I couldn't resist linking to this article by Tom Chivers in The Telegraph, illustrative of  the cultural cringe which has become an obligatory reaction from almost every established institution in Britain.

"....I know, it’s startling. But this week a small group of downtrodden aristocracy wrote to The Daily Telegraph, describing the system as “outdated and manifestly unfair”. The laws of succession were recently changed to allow Royal daughters to take the throne ahead of their younger brothers, and, they say, it is time to spread equality of the sexes to the country’s hereditary titles. At the moment, daughters are excluded from inheriting most titles and estates......"
".....Now, it might be odd to claim you’re on the wrong end of the inequality seesaw when you own a decent fraction of Britain solely because your great-great-something-great grandfather killed more Danes in defence of sixth-century Wessex than yours did. The feudal system, after all, was not noted for its concern for gender politics. If you got your job because a divinely appointed monarch tapped your ancestor on the shoulder with a sword, you’re not operating under the same employment laws as the rest of us......"
".....But we shouldn’t mock. There’s something lovely about it, about the great and fantastically ancient institutions of Britain slowly turning, like liveried, velvet-bedecked oil tankers, towards modernity, while trying to keep their ancient character. The Royal family has a Twitter account. The House of Lords has started putting its debates up on YouTube. Even the Telegraph has a website these days, I gather.
Is equality for aristocrats a bridge too far? Perhaps. After all, if you take the “outdated and manifestly unfair” stuff out of nobility, it’s not clear much is left. But too late: the noble revolution has begun. To the barricades, my aristocratic sisters! Liberté, égalité, hérédité!"
The full post is here

This is the just the latest, if most bizarre, example of a trend which has been gathering pace for years - a Church which has bowdlerised its liturgy, jettisoning the numinous, sacral language of the past and sitting lightly to 'outdated' credal formularies and moral theology alike; more recently, a 'Conservative Party' which favours gay marriage and other manifestations of the equality agenda oblivious to the consequences for freedom of speech and belief; and now hereditary peers and 'feudal aristocrats' who seem, somewhat counter-intuitively, determined to 'turn towards modernity' and do away with male primogeniture.

'We shouldn't mock,' Tom Chivers argues. No, actually I think we really should.....

General Synod Elections and beyond

The Conservative Evangelical, The Revd John Richardson has this to say on the subject of the General Synod elections in the dioceses of the Church of England:

"..Certainly, however, it bears out the prognosis of many (and a statement made to me by a leading Anglican theologian) that there has been an agenda: defeat the Anglican Covenant, get women bishops, get LGBT inclusion...." [The full post is here]

That the one should inexorably move on from the other should not be a huge surprise to anyone (as I'm sure it's not for John Richardson himself)  .......  but for goodness' sake, surely by now ......
Is there anyone who still adheres to that myopic view that what happens in the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. has no relevance on this side of the Atlantic? As they say over there, get real!
Are there still those out there who deny the existence of a liberal agenda? Conspiracy theories on one side, there may not always have been in existence a fully organised liberal agenda (although there certainly is now)  but theological liberalism itself certainly does have a definite agenda to promote. The distinction in terms of the consequences for the life of the Church is ... academic.

The long-term question - and the most interesting one - is what a triumphant 'liberal agenda' will look like when it has completely captured the ecclesial institution and can no longer act as a parasite on the theological orthodoxy of the past... or blame it for present realities. 
Time will tell, and I suspect we will all live to see it. 

.......................

Someone asked a question with regard to yesterday's post (related to the post above in so many ways ...)  concerning the absence of our ecclesiastical leaders when it comes to defending the Christian heritage of the West: no, I certainly hadn't overlooked the prophetic witness of Pope Benedict XVI. 

His address to the assembled worthies in Westminster Hall during his visit to England and Scotland in 2010 bears repeated reading, in that he appears to understand British history far better than our elected representatives and contemporary cultural elite.

The tragedy is that on British soil, all too often in recent years any defence of the Judeo-Christian heritage, and those who adhere to it, has been left to the Chief Rabbi.  He has done a sterling job, but couldn't  someone wearing a mitre give him a hand sometimes?
Today is the Feast of St Matthias...

What does this say about the state of our political culture?

In an interview (reported here in The Telegraph) Sarah Teather, a former education minister in the Coalition Government, speaks of the difficulties of being a Christian in the Liberal Democrats:

“There are an awful lot of people in my party with a strong religious faith, but there is also an aggressively secular strand amongst our activists, typical of any centre-Left party,” the MP tells the Catholic Herald.
“I sometimes describe myself to people as a liberal Catholic and a Catholic liberal. Both can be hard places to inhabit.”

Most worryingly, then,  these are difficulties experienced not by a conservative religious believer or any kind of 'traditionalist' but by someone who is a self-described 'liberal Catholic.' 

If even liberal Roman Catholics are now finding it hard to survive in British politics, in the party once headed by the High Church (Tractarian) Anglican, W.E. Gladstone, what does this say about the direction in which the culture of our public life is heading? 
It is now quite conceivable that in the not-too-distant future no Christian (at least one who is in any way concerned by or uncomfortable with contemporary trends over the increasingly aggressive promotion of abortion, assisted suicide, the State's redefinition of marriage and the attempted marginalisation and exclusion of those who dissent - in other words anyone who adheres to traditional Christian moral theology) will be able in good conscience to serve in any of our (current) major political parties, whether of the left or, due to Mr Cameron's bouleversement, the right. 
As for the LibDems,  trading the moral principles of Mr Gladstone for those of Dr Evan Harris seems a step in the direction of an evident intellectual and moral decline, if not of an utter degeneracy - something which should in itself invite oblivion at the ballot box (which, for other reasons, is a not impossible prospect.)

Again, we are back to the essential problem that the modern 'left' (even, it seems, the centre-left - if that is actually where the LibDems can now be said to reside) has forsaken the imperative of giving priority to policies which aim to improve the social and living conditions of the poorest in society, for the politically far easier, yet much more culturally destructive, option of pursuing the 'social Marxist' politics of sexuality and equality, increasingly the metaphorical day-glo badge of respectability for the affluent politically-aware middle classes. The right, taking its cue from Barack Obama's victory over Mitt Romney in the U.S.A., rather than on any matter of conviction, has evidently decided that the worst of all prospects is to be seen by the Twitterati as being 'on the wrong side of history,' whatever that nebulous phrase happens to mean - it was used in the 1930s to somewhat different effect.

However, one also has to ask, where has the voice of the Church been while this situation has been developing over the last couple of generations? Christians who are prepared to be open about their faith, and serious in their practice of it, are in clear danger, if current trends continue as expected, of being excluded completely from the public square in Britain - and the silence of our leaders, of all traditions, * is deafening .... 
Perhaps one now has to resign  or retire to speak about such things.

[*There are one or two honourable exceptions]

'Liturgical' introductions & all that jazz...

The parish put on a fundraiser last night in the form of a (very enjoyable) jazz concert given by the Paul Sawtell Quintet.
It's interesting  how human beings in virtually any situation need, gravitate towards and, if necessary, come to invent structure, routine, ritualised form and order (even in the relatively - if deceptively - 'free' medium of jazz )  - promoters of informality in worship, clergy who suffer from raging 'game-show host syndrome' and, of course, all budding liturgists, please note
.
One of the well-established  traditions of jazz is the introduction of the performers.
I hope they forgive me, but, I'm afraid I couldn't resist this example (spot the prophetic 'Private Eye' reference to David Cameron) :




And an example of the real thing, a piece by Dave Brubeck, who died at the end of last year, called Forty Days - as recommended by a friend: 
'“Forty Days” was originally composed as a part of Dave Brubeck’s oratorio, though it received its premiere by Brubeck’s quartet on the Columbia LP Time In. Initially recorded as a brisk, extended instrumental, the pianist brings to mind the wandering of Jesus Christ in the desert alone for 40 days...'

Sing We of the Blessed Mother

Sing we of the blessed Mother 
Who received the angel’s word,
And obedient to his summons 
Bore in love the infant Lord;
Sing we of the joys of Mary 
At whose breast that child was fed
Who is Son of God eternal 
And the everlasting Bread.

Sing we, too, of Mary’s sorrows, 
Of the sword that pierced her through,
When beneath the cross of Jesus 
She his weight of suffering knew,
Looked upon her Son and Saviour 
Reigning high on Calvary's tree,
Saw the price of man's redemption 
Paid to set the sinner free.

Sing again the joys of Mary 
When she saw the risen Lord,
And in prayer with Christ’s apostles, 
Waited on his promised word;
From on high the blazing glory 
Of the Spirit’s presence came,
Heavenly breath of God’s own being, 
Manifest through wind and flame.

Sing the chiefest joy of Mary 
When on earth her work was done,
And the Lord of all creation 
Brought her to his heavenly home;
Virgin Mother, Mary blessed, 
Raised on high and crowned with grace,
May your Son, the world’s redeemer, 
Grant us all to see his face.

George B. Timms 1910 - 1997

O Mary,
recall the solemn moment when Jesus,
your divine Son, dying on the Cross,
confided us to your maternal care.

You are our Mother;
we desire ever to remain your devout children.
Let us therefore feel the effects of your powerful intercession with Jesus Christ.
Make your name again glorious in Walsingham,
once renowned throughout our land by your visits,
favours, and many miracles.

Pray, Holy Mother of God,
for the conversion of England,
restoration of the sick,
consolation for the afflicted,
repentance of sinners,
peace to the departed.

O Blessed Mary, Mother of God,
Our Lady of Walsingham,
intercede for us.  Amen.

Almighty Father, giver of life and health: 
Look mercifully, we beseech thee, on the sick and suffering, 
especially those for whom our prayers are desired, 
that by thy blessing upon them and upon those who minister to them, 
they may speedily be restored to health, if it be thy gracious will, 
and give thanks to thee in thy holy Church;
 through Christ our Lord. Amen

After The Third Collect (Eric Milner-White)

The rudeness of trolls

"Is it .... dead? No, I don't think so - just knocked out ..."
from Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone



Live by the sword and die by it, I suppose, but the rudeness of some internet trolls, particularly the anonymous or pseudonymous kind, can sometimes be hard to take, even if we pride ourselves in having developed the hide of a rhinoceros. 
Actually libellous examples of the art of 'trolling' - you know who you are - are, of course, routinely deleted, but it's always up to now been the policy here to allow most anonymous comments simply because there can be occasions when people have a very good reason for not wanting to declare their identities. 
I suppose what I really mean is we should - all - try to be more polite to one another, however sorely provoked we may consider ourselves to be ....  or however indignant we may feel in defence of others. The modern tendency towards vicarious victimhood isn't a sin, as such, but it's incredibly tiresome and leads us only into festering resentments.

There's a passage from Cardinal Seán O'Malley's recent homily after the Boston bombings which should resonate with us all... 

"...Like Christ our Good Shepherd, we who aspire to be Jesus’ disciples and to follow His way of life, we too must work to gather the scattered, to draw people into Christ’s community. It is in His Gospel that we find the answers to the questions of life and the challenging ideals that are part of discipleship; mercy, forgiveness, self sacrifice, service, justice and truth. ..."

If we can't try to build a civilisation of life and love, who else will...?  We can begin that even by the manner in which we - honestly and robustly - disagree

One of 'the best jobs in the country?'

From Country Life [here].... A profound bow, if not a genuflection, in the direction of my famous colleague!
We look forward to reading more about this at All Gas and Gaiters...

Crisis in the Diocese of Llandaff?

The Dean of Llandaff, the Very Revd  Janet Henderson, has resigned after only two months in the post.  
Wales Online reports [here] on the alleged opposition among 'some clergy' to a female dean - one can take that with a certain (very large) pinch of salt, disinformation being the order of the day in some circles, given the regrettable but inevitable politicisation of such appointments in the contemporary Church in Wales, a province increasingly driven by a radical revisionist agenda.

It's not easy to ascertain exactly what has been happening in the Diocese of Llandaff - different people  will tell you different stories -  but it's always far more complicated than anyone is prepared to say ..... after all, there are agendas to be promoted here... and scapegoats to be found...
For instance, what does this extremely naive and at the same time politically loaded journalistic comment imply: "We have seen a blog posting by a clergyman in Wales taking issue with Dean Henderson’s appointment at the time it was announced"?

[Update: as Ancient Briton has pointed out, any attempt to link Dean Henderson's resignation to opposition to a woman holding such a post is undermined by the administrative arrangements set in motion following her resignation. 
Moreover,  as can be seen from this post, at the time of her appointment  traditionalists in Wales (not generally in positions of much influence these days) were far more concerned about the then Archdeacon Henderson's reported attitude towards provision for traditionalists in the continuing women bishops debate than in anything else.]

Whatever our theological point of view may be, this development is extremely sad on a personal level, and we should feel and, far more importantly, pray, for the Archbishop and all those most closely involved, most particularly for the former Dean herself, who - reading between the lines of  the newspaper report above - and other less public comments - has clearly been the recipient of an almost impossible legacy, one which has little or nothing  to do with the fact that she is a woman:

"The Archbishop of Wales has, with enormous sadness, accepted the resignation with immediate effect of the Very Rev’d Janet Henderson as Dean of Llandaff.  He has, in the meantime, asked the Archdeacon of Llandaff, the Venerable Peggy Jackson, as the senior member of the Chapter, to have necessary oversight of the Cathedral on his behalf, until a new Dean is appointed." [here]

New statistics, old narratives

Some news stories following the Bank Holiday weekend.....

Latest Church of England worshipping figures [here]  a 'curate's egg' if ever there was one.  Not wholly negative but, of course, people do like going to church at Christmas - it forms part of that seasonal experience...

"Eastern imperialism" - how the new great power on the block tries to extend it's influence - it's the "economy, stupid!" [here]

From Scotland on Sunday [here] former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, urges  evangelicals in the Church of Scotland not to walk away over the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals to the Kirk's ministry. Is there a Gaelic word for indaba?  Anyway, keep the frog talking until the water boils; it may not always be the intention, but the end result is the same....

Miranda Thelfall-Holmes ties herself in knots over the question of the two-thirds majority requirement for final synodical legislation [here] Horror of horrors, the Anglican Covenant, that doomed experiment in trying to fit brakes to a runaway vehicle, might have succeeded  ....
What about a more radical suggestion?  - Suspend synodical government altogether. To adapt the old BT commercial, it's not always good to talk ... (and its lethal to vote....)

And an interesting exchange about 'modern' traditionalism and (in the pre-reformation sense) 'conciliar Catholicism'  [here] Of appeal to those of us who are essentially  - and desperately unfashionably these days  - 'mass and office' Anglo-Catholics.

Fr Alexander Schmemann on women and the priesthood.

The Russian Orthodox priest and theologian writing as long ago as 1982:

".....Three essential points, it seems to me, constitute the foundation of this answer. In the first place is the affirmation, common to all Orthodox theologians, of the impossibility of isolating the problem of women’s ordination from the totality of the Church’s Tradition, from the faith in the triune God, in the creation, fall and redemption, in the Church and the mystery of her "theandric" life. Once more the question of tradition stands at the very center and challenges us with essential questions. What is it? Is it the living memory and consciousness of the Church, the essential term of reference or criterion by which we discern the essential unbrokenness of the Church’s life and identity during her pilgrimage through history? Or is it itself a product, or a sequence of products, of history, in the light of which it is to be reevaluated, judged or rejected?
In the second place, Orthodox theology is unanimous, I am sure, in affirming that the question of women’s ordination must be seen and discussed within the scriptural doctrine of man and woman, i.e., of Christian scriptural and doctrinal anthropology, and not within the perspective of "human rights," "equality," etc. – categories whose ability to adequately express the Christian understanding of man and woman is, to say the least, questionable.
And this takes us to the third essential context: that of ecclesiology, of the understanding of the Church and the mystery of salvation. As presented today, it is the result of too many reductions. For if its root is surrender to culture, its pattern of development is shaped by clericalism. Clericalism is, on the one hand, the reduction of the Church to a power structure; and on the other hand, her reduction of that power structure to clergy. Thus, the alleged inferiority of women within secular society corresponds to their inferiority within the ecclesiastical power structure, their exclusion from the "clergy." And therefore, their liberation in secular society must correspond their liberation in the Church, i.e., their admission to the priesthood, etc.
The Church simply cannot be reduced to these categories. As long as we try to measure the ineffable mystery of her life by concepts and ideas a priori alien to her very essence, we mutilate her and her real power, glory and beauty. Her real life simply escapes us...."[here]

What is so troubling to many of us that over the intervening years since these words were written, in the headlong rush to "surrender to culture" - to embrace it, certainly, in the cause of relevance -  none of these points has ever been satisfactorily addressed by supporters of change - dismissed, yes, but seriously considered, no. 
The claims of post-modern liberalism are now regarded as such self-evident truths that to seek to question any one of their basic suppositions is, for too many in our midst, an unpardonable heresy - perhaps the only one. To surrender to culture is to refuse to think outside the narrow and, paradoxically, insular constraints of the prevailing ideology of historical progress. 

The limitations of aligning ourselves so closely with contemporary western culture  are becoming more apparent as each year passes, remembering that for us to surrender to it is to pass all control over the direction of our ecclesial life to the zeitgeist - and to jettison the insistence that the present be constantly interrogated by the true freedom represented by Holy Scripture and apostolic tradition.  Our surrender should be to  Christ alone; those who would speak to us now of 'prophetic' change in the life of the Church and who work so aggressively to promote it are perilously close to making an exclusive identification of the mind of Christ with the 'progressive' culture of the passing hour. 

"As long as we try to measure the ineffable mystery of her life by concepts and ideas a priori alien to her very essence, we mutilate her and her real power, glory and beauty. Her real life simply escapes us...."

This is worth listening to

As they say, discuss......

The Orthodox Easter

Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе! Воистину воскресе! 

Agni Parthene - Seeking unity in and through Mary, the Mother of God

Agni Parthene Despina, (Αγνή Παρθένε Δέσποινα) a hymn to the Mother of God, written by St. Nectarios of Aegina (translation here) and sung by Divna Ljubojević:




On a day whose feast (in whichever calendar we celebrate it, or from whatever ecclesial perspective) causes us to reflect both on the heroic witness of those who suffered for their faith and obedience, and the sad divisions which still stand in the  way of the unity which is the will of Christ for his Church, this is an excerpt from the 2005 Agreed Statement, Mary. Grace and Hope in Christ: 

"....Among all the saints, Mary takes her place as Theotókos: alive in Christ, she abides with the one she bore, still ‘highly favoured’ in the communion of grace and hope, the exemplar of redeemed humanity, an icon of the Church. Consequently she is believed to exercise a distinctive ministry of assisting others through her active prayer. Many Christians reading the Cana account continue to hear Mary instruct them, “Do whatever he tells you”, and are confident that she draws the attention of her son to their needs: “they have no wine” (John 2:1-12). Many experience a sense of empathy and solidarity with Mary, especially at key points when the account of her life echoes theirs, for example the acceptance of vocation, the scandal of her pregnancy, the improvised surroundings of her labour, giving birth, and fleeing as a refugee. Portrayals of Mary standing at the foot of the cross, and the traditional portrayal of her receiving the crucified body of Jesus (the Pietà), evoke the particular suffering of a mother at the death of her child. Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike are drawn to the mother of Christ, as a figure of tenderness and compassion.
72 The motherly role of Mary, first affirmed in the Gospel accounts of her relationship to Jesus, has been developed in a variety of ways. Christian believers acknowledge Mary to be the mother of God incarnate. As they ponder our Saviour’s dying word to the beloved disciple, “behold your mother” (John 19:27) they may hear an invitation to hold Mary dear as ‘mother of the faithful’: she will care for them as she cared for her son in his hour of need. Hearing Eve called “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20), they may come to see Mary as mother of the new humanity, active in her ministry of pointing all people to Christ, seeking the welfare of all the living. We are agreed that, while caution is needed in the use of such imagery, it is fitting to apply it to Mary, as a way of honouring her distinctive relationship to her son, and the efficacy in her of his redeeming work...."

Much of the earlier groundwork which made this agreed statement a possibility was done by the Catholic Anglican theologian, John Macquarrie:

"...In the glimpses of Mary that we have in the gospels, her standing beside her Son, and her prayers and intercessions with the apostles, are particularly striking ways in which Mary shared and supported the work of Christ - and even these are ways in which the Church as a whole can have a share in co-redemption.  But it is Mary who has come to symbolize that perfect harmony between the divine will and the human response, so that it is she who gives meaning to the expression, Corredemptrix.  But secondly there is the further context of the incarnation of the Word.  In this context, the language of co-redemption is also appropriate, but in a different way, for in this regard her contribution was unique and by its very nature could not be literally shared with anyone else.  We are thinking of her now not just as representative or pre-eminent member of the Church, but as Theotokos or Mother of God.  Mary’s willing acceptance of her indispensable role in that chain of events which constituted the incarnation and the redemption which it brought about, was necessary for the nurture of the Lord and for the creation of the Church itself.."
(John MacQuarrie, Mary For All Christians,1990)

But as so often,  perhaps it is in the essential agreement (despite some significant differences in theological language and ecclesial culture) between the great churches of East and West, of Rome and Orthodoxy, something which sheds light on all our purely western divisions, which will show us the way forward to a recovery of unity for the whole Church. The key to the healing of all our divisions is the longed-for reconciliation between East and West, that time when the Church will  begin to breathe once again 'with both lungs.' 

"...If I can unite in myself the thought and the devotion of Eastern and Western Christendom, the Greek and the Latin Fathers, the Russians with the Spanish mystics, I can prepare in myself the reunion of divided Christians. From that secret and unspoken unity in myself can eventually come a visible and manifest unity of all Christians. If we want to bring together what is divided, we can not do so by imposing the one division upon the other or absorbing one division into the other . But id we do this the union is not Christian. It is political and doomed to further conflict. We must contain all divided worlds in ourselves and transcend them in Christ. ...  from Thomas Merton: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1965)

Holy Mother of God, pray for us your scattered children...

Some nostalgic patrimony: The Annunciation from a book I remember very fondly from my childhood: Enid Chadwick's My Book of the Church's Year, published by Mowbrays in the early 1960s

[Correction: that's the edition I have; the book was, in fact, first published in 1948]

In the midst of life...

'In the midst of life we are in death,' says Cranmers's Anglican funeral liturgy and those burial rites deriving from it ; some days, it seems to us, more than others ...

I've always considered the following piece, from a novel of Alice Thomas Ellis, to be more than a little melodramatic; now I'm not sure: I think this is what Cranmer's hauntingly literal  translation really expresses... 'Media vita in morte sumus. Quem quærimus adjutorem nisi te, Domine? Qui pro peccatis nostris juste irasceris.'

"...They think that death is waiting at the end of the ride, that life is like the lane and that death waits at the end. Listen. That is death on the other side of the side of the hedgerow. And that swift shadow that is gone, before you turn, from the corner of your eye – that is death. And the whisper you scarcely hear through the sounds of the birds calling and the wind in the leaves – that is death. Not waiting, but there beside you within reach, within earshot, so close that if you should look you would see your breath cloud on his presence. There he is, just out of sight behind the wild rose and the blackthorn, not behind you, nor before you, but beside you…"

from Unexplained Laughter

A few random thoughts about provision for 'traditionalists'

What follows is  a very tentative suggestion and I expect it to be shot down by all sides.

The blog Catholicity & Covenant (from an essentially 'Affirming Catholic' standpoint) has a new post about the revival in an Episcopal diocese in the U.S.A. of  'canons regular.' [here]
Without wishing to accept the self-described "post-modern" nature of the existing American model, would not this kind of 'secular' community in outline offer at least a partial solution to the vexed question of how to 'embed' acceptable provision for traditionalist Anglicans within existing structures whilst both protecting their theological integrity and ensuring active involvement in the life of the wider Church? The question of episcopal sacramental and pastoral oversight could be dealt with by the appointment of a priestly 'superior' and a traditionalist 'episcopal visitor.' I cannot stress the irony enough: this would be, in effect, a kind of 'ordinariate' model but within Anglican dioceses and provinces.
There is one particular problem (there are clearly many others, but in attempting a 'constructive' proposal, let's not go there at the moment...): the creation of such a group / community would be very close indeed to the 'Society' model already rejected by the Church of England's General Synod which has proved hostile to any kind of provision which would imply (or be interpreted as implying)  the existence of a sacramental and administrative 'no-go area' for women bishops... that is, hostile to any real provision at all.

But what about in Wales? No previous synodical rejection lies dead on the table to haunt us and prevent further exploration. If those pressing for the ordination of women bishops in the Church in Wales are indeed serious about wanting an agreed solution and avoiding further division or the unchurching of traditionalists (and I remain highly sceptical about that, but nonetheless willing to be convinced) could this not be a possible way forward? 

There is nothing really new here, but it would be interesting to be able to  evaluate just how real the reported willingness to talk constructively actually is and, most importantly, to establish a basis for anything further....

Versus de Cuculo: for May Morning

Today - at last - it's warm and sunny and, on my early morning walk across the fields with the dog, heard the cuckoo in the nearby woods. 

Thereby making my posting of the following verses somewhat redundant:

from Versus de Cuculo 

Plangite nunc cuculum, cuculum nunc plangite cuncti, 

ille reccssit ovans, flens redit ille, puto. 

opto tamcn, flentcm cuculum habeamus ut ilium, 

ct nos plangamus cum cuculo pariter. 

plange tuos casus lacrimis, puer inclite, plangc, 

et casus plangunt viscera tota tuos. 

si non dura silex genuit tc, plange, precamur, 

te memorans ipsum plangere forte potes. 

dulcis amor nati cogit deflcre parentem, 

natus ab amplexu dum rapitur subito. 

dum frater firatrem gennanum perdit amatum, 

quid nisi idem faciat, semper et ipse fleat. 

tres olim fuimus, iunxit quos spiritus unus, 

vix duo nunc pariter, tertius ille iugit. 

heu fugiet, fugict, planctus quapropter amarus 

nunc nobis rcstat, cams abit cuculus. 

carmina post ilium mittamus, carmina luctus, 

carmina deducunt forte, reor, cuculum. 

sis semper felix utinam, quocunque recedas, 

sis memor et nostri, semper ubique vale. 

Alcuin (c. 735 – 804)

The following translation by Helen Waddell is from her Mediaeval Latin Lyrics:

Wail for the cuckoo, everywhere bewail him, 

Joyous he left us : shall he grieving come? 

Let him come grieving, if he will but come again, 

Yea, we shall weep with him, moan for his moan. 

Unless a rock begat thee, thou wilt weep with us. 

How canst thou not, thyself remembering? 

Shall not the father weep the son he lost him, 

Brother for brother still be sorrowing? 

Once were we three, with but one heart among us. 

Scarce are we two, now that the third is fled. 

Fled is he, fled is he, but the grief remaineth ; 

Bitter the weeping, for so dear a head. 

Send a song after him, send a song of sorrow, 

Songs bring the cuckoo home, or so they tell. 

Yet be thou happy, wheresoe'er thou wanderest. 

Sometimes remember us. Love, fare you well. 

Benjamin Britten's 'Cuckoo!' sung by the Choir Of Downside School, Purley with Viola Tunnard - and Britten himself.

Some posts I've missed over the last few days:

Fr Z rightly takes exception to retired Bishop of New Hampshire, Vicky Gene Robinson's  "ecumenical" views in the latter's latest tour of the television studios [here]

From The Sun in its Orb a surprising and alarming rumour about Archbishop Piero Marini [here]

Bishop David Chislett shares a memorable passage from C.S. Lewis [here]

Catholicity and Covenant [here] reports on 'ARCIC III' and the somewhat ambiguous concept of 'receptive ecumenism.'  
Of course, any authentic expression of collegiality implies a high degree of theological agreement. Surely the whole purpose of the Petrine ministry, as 'a gift to be shared,' is one of constant encouragement in the building up the people of God to full maturity, and in the Pope's strengthening of his brethren in the episcopate to proclaim the faith freed from doctrinal and disciplinary error.  
Rome's ecumenical raison d'être (theologically and historically) is to be apostolically orthodox and conservative in its exercise of the gift of authority...

And from The Spectator [here] an interesting but not wholly convincing analysis of the social and political crisis in France following the Socialist administration's decision to press ahead with gay marriage legislation. Revolution? I may be wrong, but French institutions have had a habit of proving surprisingly resilient (even through the turmoil of '68) since de Gaulle's refashioning of the Republic's constitution in 1958...

Abdicating monarchs?

In Holland [here] Queen Beatrix hands over to her son.
That's what they do in the Netherlands.

We can only hope that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth will not even consider the idea.
As a general rule, those who are so fond of demystifying and demythologising ancient institutions [a Guardian poll here] are not among their most ardent defenders...