Here's a brief excerpt:
"“The Lord is here,” intones the vicar at thousands of services of Holy Communion week after week. Except He’s not: His Spirit might be brooding in the chocolate-box parishes of England, but the Lord is actually in Calais; walking the streets with the homeless, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the destitute and dying.
If the Lord were to visit the Vatican, He’d tear down the papal portraits and smash the marble statues, barking something about idols and dens of thieves. If He were to enter Westminster Abbey, He’d refuse point blank to pay a £20.00 admission fee, daring to remonstrate with the Dean about the righteousness of royal peculiars and the hollowness of the dead curating the dead. He’d attend no banquet at Lambeth Palace, nor feast on a state dinner at Windsor Castle. He’d decline invitations from princes to chat about the need for benevolence; and from prime ministers to pore over political policy.
He’d prefer instead ..."
PS On the other hand, if you are not moved by Jesus being in Calais, then I have some exciting Anglican liturgical news for you.
PS On the other hand, if you are not moved by Jesus being in Calais, then I have some exciting Anglican liturgical news for you.
3 comments:
I must confess to being somewhar surprised that the C. of E. clergyman who deigns to exalt (?) his blog with the venerable title of 'Archbishop Cranmer (who knew a think or two about Liiturgy) should move into the fraught area of simple human rights issues. However, he is treading on hot and holy ground, in an area important to us all.
Regarding the subject of your afterthought -that of the Faith & Order meeting on reconciliation; it would seem that not many - if any - of the militant Gafconites were listed as being present in Canada. Could that be that their presence could have threatened Canadian national security? I was glad to note that ACANZP was represented.
I do not envy the role France and England will have in deciding how to deal with the issue at hand. It is easy to judge from a distance.
No one, however, can not but have extreme compassion for those living in the 'Jungle' and what they have already lived through. To hear someone say of jumping on a train, 'If I die, I die it is still not as bad as living in my own country', and 'I am afraid if I get Asylum (in France) people will not see me as human.' Perhaps it is time for all countries through the UN to offer to help out with the repatriation of these asylum seekers?
But such controversy, over publicising a church service?
Ron - 'Archbishop Cranmer' is not written by a clergyman. See http://archbishopcranmer.com/about/
Tim Chesterton
Post a Comment