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Washing of Feet

23/4/2019

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Easter weekend and, in the interfaith world, the two great religions of Judaism and Christianity have been celebrating their foundational festivals. Both festivals tell stories of liberation and remember the values and beliefs on which their religion is founded. For Judaism the celebrations take place at home and are focussed on the ritual meal eaten on the first of the eight days of Pesach. The story is about how God intervened in their history to free them from slavery and set them on the way to becoming a people. The refrain throughout the story is “on this night…..” because the memory of this saving act is an eternally present reality.

The Christian celebration of Easter takes place in community – in Churches – and over three days enacts the last days in the life of Jesus, from his last supper with his disciples, to his death as  a common criminal and his resurrection on the third day. It too is a festival of remembrance which makes ever present the possibility of liberation from the slavery of selfishness to a life of love and service.      

Because Christianity grew out of Judaism it recalls the liberation of the People of Israel and celebrates God’s presence both in creation and in history.  It goes just that little bit further in that it also celebrates God’s presence in our very humanity and in our very human struggle to live a good and wholesome life. Like Pesach it is a festival of movement and journey from despair to hope, death to life, selfishness to love.  For Christians the story of Jesus’ passage through death to resurrection contains the truth of the continuing power and presence of Jesus and the possibility of new life that’s always a possibility.    

Easter isn’t a story about the past but an insight into a truth about the present. Who can doubt that we live in a world that’s in need of redemption?  Surely it’s obvious from the mess we’re making of the environment, from the violence that so characterises our race, from the growth of isolationist politics, from our growing xenophobia etc. etc. The bombings in Sri Lanka, coming at this particular time, bear witness to that fact. But the Easter story tells us that death and destruction don’t have the last word, that things can change, that peace is possible, that new life can come out of old if we pray for it, are open to it, welcome it and work for it. Northern Ireland is an example of that and there are examples in other parts of the world and in our own individual lives if we look for them. This can give us hope.      
                                             
One of the most moving moments during the Christian celebrations of the last days of Jesus is the washing of the feet. On Holy Thursday the priest presiding at the service washes the feet of 12 members of the congregation to re-enact the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus as they took their last supper together. It was an unusual gesture. Feet were washed on entering a house but never during a meal nor carried out by the master of the household. Peter protested and was told by Jesus that he could have no part with him unless he had his feet washed. It was for Jesus a sign of friendship. Then Jesus said ‘If I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example,  that you should do as I have done to you”.  In this action Jesus changes the order of things – the master has become the servant. There’s a way through the desire to dominate or the fear of being dominated, a way through competition for resources that leaves some overly wealthy and others impoverished, a way through the xenophobia that divides the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’. And that way is service.

Washing someone’s feet is a very sensual and intimate action. I’ve had my feet washed once during the Easter season and I’ve never forgotten it – because the person doing it did so with such love and tenderness. It creates a bond. This Easter a local school enacted out the last days in the life of Jesus and the young boy taking the role of Jesus washed the feet of  friends but also teachers, parents and parish priest – a change in the order of things. I’m sure he will never forget it.     
When Pope Francis carries out this annual ritual he tenderly kisses the feet of the person whose feet he’s just washed. In many traditions to touch or caress the feet of someone considered inferior is taboo but for Francis no-one is his inferior, all are his brothers and sisters, made in the image and likeness of God, to be reverenced no matter their position in life. Who will forget the moment recently when, having pleaded with his brothers and sisters for peace in Sth. Sudan, he kissed the feet of the opposing elements in the government?  Will it bring about peace? Who knows?  But it certainly is a sign that humility, respect, reverence and service are the way to redemption and not that of domination and violence.    
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A Pearl of Great Price?

9/4/2019

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 I was in the town of St Andrews this weekend. It’s a small town dominated by famous golf courses and the University. In fact it’s Scotland’s only university town with medieval colleges giving it an air of history and students giving it an air of youthful energy. While there I was privileged to take part in a rather special event.
 
The Jewish community were welcoming Torah Scrolls that had come from the Synagogue in Dundee which sadly has now closed. A cupboard in the University Chaplaincy had been adapted to house the scrolls and Sunday was the day in which the new Ark was consecrated. It was such a joyous occasion. First of all we sang Yiddish songs and then were reminded of how precious and sacred are the Torah Scrolls in Judaism. The Scrolls were then brought out, read from, passed round and danced with as happens each year at the festival of Simchat Torah. It was a mixed gathering of orthodox and reform Jews and I was privileged to be handed the Scrolls and pass them on – something orthodox women would not be allowed to do. One orthodox woman told me she couldn’t do it as it would be too awesome a happening for her.
  
The Torah is at the centre of Jewish religious life and the Scrolls are seen as a symbol and even sacrament of the Living Torah and the Presence of God. They are not just scripture. While I might have known this in my head it was the delight and love with which the Scrolls were received that helped me experience and gain a deeper insight into their meaning for Jews. I suspect that attendance at synagogue services will not be quite the same for me in the future as I bring this amazing experience into my appreciation of what is going on.

The reason I was in St Andrews was an invitation to preach at the morning service in the University Chapel, a beautiful medieval building that was small, warm and inviting.  The passage from the Bible that I preached on was the story of the Woman Taken in Adultery – a story in which a woman caught, we are told, in the very act of committing adultery, is brought before Jesus by the religious authorities to test his response and hopefully catch him out. Will he forgive this woman and so break the Law of Moses which required death by stoning or will he uphold the Law and so flout the authority of the Romans who forbade the Jews to inflict the death penalty?  They have him in a bind – or so they think.

Jesus response has the touch of genius I think because he doesn’t enter into their games, he refuses to debate the niceties of religious or civil law, he doesn’t argue but waits and disarms them with the suggestion that the one among them who is without sin should be the first to throw a stone. The group disperses – perhaps rather sheepishly.
 Often the title given to stories conditions how we see them.  The story of the woman taken in adultery is about a woman who is shown mercy and forgiveness, something that is at the heart of Jesus’ message, though it’s a mercy and forgiveness that is challenging for the woman is told not to sin again.  And while the woman is central, it seems to me that the spotlight is much more on the men – self-righteous men, presenting themselves as the experts, feeling entitled to question and intimidate people, willing to support a punishment meted out to only one partner in the act.

 It wasn’t possible for me as a Catholic and a woman to read this story and not be aware of the terrible scandals that have hit the Catholic Church in recent times. Now it’s Bishops and priests and Cardinals, who have been exposed as wanting. They have shamed the Church and scandalised believers. Men  who seem to have been addicted to the trappings of authority and power,  who used people for their own satisfaction,  who preached a gospel that they did not live up to, who castigated people for being gay while they themselves were living a gay lifestyle.

It has rocked the Church and led many people, especially young people, to wonder why they stay. What has shocked people is the hypocrisy of it all, the culture of secrecy that allowed it to continue, the ability to point the finger at others while being immune to their own sinfulness.  Of course we are all, to some extent hypocrites, and we mustn’t do to these men what the religious authorities did to the woman in our gospel reading today.
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But the abuse of a power that often demanded obedience and compliance is staggering.  This is an example of the very worst kind of religion and the danger of putting too much trust in institutions.  All religions have their institutional aspects and centres of authority. They are there to protect and hand on the core beliefs of the faith but often they obscure rather than reveal those beliefs which in their essence are about meaning, love and service.  There is at the heart of religion, I believe, a pearl of great price that is worth seeking. But the search is within our own hearts, within our own history. It is a search which leads us to be open to wisdom and truth wherever it reveals itself to us. Then we will be able to recognise the good in religion and distinguish it from the bad.  
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Standing Together for Peace

24/3/2019

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I haven’t long returned from a peace vigil in Glasgow. It was organised by the Muslim Council of Scotland and was one of a number taking place in major Scottish cities. It was a call for peace and solidarity in working against racism in the light of last week’s Christchurch massacre. There were a good number of people there and a number of speakers, most of them involved in politics and strong in their condemnation of terrorism, islamophobia, anti-Semitism and all kinds of hate crimes and racist incidents. They spoke with passion and conviction, advising us to name the evil that racism and terrorism is and encouraging us to take opportunities to establish neighbourly friendships and contacts. All good stuff! I had been asked to read out a statement from Interfaith Scotland which included a statement from Scotland’s chief Rabbi in which he said how shocked and horrified he was at the terrible attacks on the Muslim community in New Zealand,
 
“This is an attack not just on the Moslem community but on every human being wanting to live in peace and harmony.  This morning we said special prayers for the members of the Mosques, for those killed and those hurt, and for their families.  I feel deeply proud to tell my community how closely I work together with the Moslem community and other faith and non-faith communities. I hope that with our close working relationship and the friendships that have developed we will bring hope to our terrified Moslem communities and ultimately bring hope and peace to a broken world.  We must never underestimate our work for peace and harmony and its impact in the wider world. May God wipe away tears from all faces and may we witness the day when hate is vanquished and love rules”.
 
This is such a beautiful expression of what interfaith relations are all about – a sense of solidarity and friendship between faiths and people of faith, a friendship that’s a sign of hope and a witness to the fact that another way is possible.  A few years ago, when Pope Francis met the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, he said something that I’ve never forgotten and find encouraging. He said ‘The meeting is the message’, which says to me that even to meet and establish friendships, to engage in dialogue has a message for a world in which many people see faiths as being at logger heads with one another.
 
However, interfaith relations cannot just remain at that level. It also needs a deeper dialogue about faith and values, about the differences in our religions while accepting our common humanity.  But our common humanity does not make us the same and we have different perspectives on life and faith, including how we view the world and our place in it. Many in the Muslim community see themselves as a minority in society and attacks such as that in New Zealand bring out feelings of vulnerability and insecurity so that many tell of their fears going to Mosques, of being recognised as Muslim and therefore the subject of attacks, either physical or verbal.
 
Perhaps this is the reason that attacks on Synagogues and Mosques engender more energy and protests than attacks on Churches. Already this year there have been attacks on Churches in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and bombs found in a Cathedral in Egypt. Churches in Pakistan have been put on high alert in the light of the New Zealand attacks – because Christianity is associated with white colonial powers and therefore white supremacism?   Somehow the media doesn’t seem to take attacks outside developed countries as seriously as attacks on countries with a white majority population.  Could it be that attacks in these countries bring terrorism too close to home for comfort. But Christians here in the West also seem to be more accepting of these attacks. We do pray for the victims and remember them during Church services.  What we don’t hear are public statements decrying the atrocities and don’t often, if ever, organise public vigils to which we invite public figures to speak out against the atrocities and assure Christians that they are a valued part of society and not to fear discrimination. This, I think, is because we’ve been in the majority and don't feel the need to assert ourselves. Though there is a secular anti-religious agenda current in society today, I doubt if any Christian feels that an attack on Churches elsewhere will put them in danger.  As a majority community we feel more secure of our place in society though terrorist attacks against society in general can make many people feel vulnerable and insecure, religious or not.  
 
Terrorism, violence and religious hatred have to be named and denounced. We cannot stand by and say nothing but we also need to talk about it and to try to understand it, share our responses to it. Violence, terrorism doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Why do people hate?  Is it a protest against a system that doesn’t listen, that doesn’t allow for equal participation, that is based on privilege and wealth rather than equality of opportunity, that is unjust in its structures, that builds up frustration and powerlessness, that speaks of peace while selling arms for profit – the list is endless.  Whatever the answer, however, it’s important to remember that just as we carry the victims of violence in our hearts, so too we must carry the perpetrators and remember always the heroism, love, and compassion that is also part of the human story. 
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A Christian Fast

10/3/2019

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 Lent has started, often spoken of as a time of prayer and fasting but for us Christians it’s a pale reflection of the kind of fasting that Muslims do during Ramadan. Like the Muslims the Baha’is also fast and their fast is much more like that of Islam – not surprising as their founder was a Muslim and lived in a Muslim country. Like Muslims the Baha’is fast during daylight hours from both food and drink but it always takes place on the first weeks of March in preparation for the celebration of their new year feast at the equinox on March 21st. It’s a stringent fast but, taking place as it does at this time of year, the hours of light and darkness are of almost equal duration so it seems more manageable than Ramadan. When Ramadan takes place in summer the hours of daylight in countries like Scotland can last for almost 24 hours. We Scots look on with admiration as Muslims keep to their fast though fasting during the winter when daylight hours are short is easier.
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Each year Lent overlaps with the Baha’i fast and it’s good to think of us going through these days in solidarity with one another. In the past the Christian fast would have been much more exacting and though lent is described as a time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving, fasting is much more of a discipline and abstinence from a craving, a habit, an inclination that limits our freedom. When I was young it was always staying off sweets though any given to us were collected in a tin until Easter. Coming from an Irish background, however, we were allowed to eat some on the feast of St Patrick! Lent was seen as a solemn, penitential time and I know some people who think that life is penitential enough (and it certainly is for some) to have to give up something in a spirit of penance. However some do still observe lent by more positive action like decluttering an article a day for the forty days of the season (something that’s become popular recently) or even disciplining themselves to develop a new talent. I’ve done that and like the sense that I’ve accomplished something by the time of Easter – a kind of resurrection in its own way. Friends are often intrigued to know what I’m doing for Lent. The important thing, I think, is that Lent helps us do something, no matter how small, that challenges the greed that resides within all of us and today seems to rule the world. It helps us look at ourselves more honestly, be aware of our shortcomings and the place of God and others in our lives - and in this sense the spirit of lent is very much in keeping with that of the Muslim and Baha’i fast.  
  
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, a day on which some denominations of Christians, ceremoniously receive ashes with the words ‘Remember that you are dust and into dust you shall return’. Recently there has been an option to replace this with ‘repent and believe the good news’, one that on the whole people prefer, It’s generally thought to be a bit more positive.  But I like the original verse and think it’s very pertinent for today. It comes from the Book of Genesis in the context of Adam and Eve’s punishment for sin and expulsion from Paradise. Because of this it became associated with sin and a sense of worthlessness and, as a teacher said to me this lent, ‘how could you tell young children that they are nothing but dust’. There is, however, another way of understanding this text which is in keeping with changes in theology and our understanding of the universe in which our world rests.

To remind us that we are dust is to speak a word of fact and not punishment. It’s to remind us how connected we are to the fabric of the earth. We contain within ourselves the whole history of evolution; we share DNA with animals and even insects; we are interconnected with all things; we are part of nature, not above it. To be human is to be part of the earth and to be in a relationship with all that grows and lives. It’s important in this age of global warming and the destruction of so many species that we learn to live in peace with the earth, to love it and to care for it. We need to recapture this sense of being ‘earthlings’ if we are to move from domination and destruction to participation and creation. And we need to repent of what we, sometimes in our ignorance, have done. No doubt the invention of plastic was thought to be something great and yet now we see its destructive effects in our throw away culture. But sometimes too we intentionally destroy nature by cutting down rain forests, killing protected species, polluting the atmosphere, knowing that this endangers our very future. Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, has expressed this so eloquently when he says in his poem ‘To a Mouse’ 
            I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
            Has broken Nature’s social union
            An’ justifies that ill opinion
            Which makes thee startle
            At me, thy poor earth-born companion
            An’ fellow mortal!
 
What a great and glorious thing it would be if we Christians took to heart the fact that we are dust and of the earth, reminded ourselves of it each day during lent and made the Lenten journey to Easter caring for our planet and walking responsibly on an earth which is sacred and fragile. We couldn’t have a better Lenten discipline than that.  
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A Religious Jamboree

24/2/2019

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For the past 48 days Hindus have been flocking to Allahabad in Northern India.  It’s the time of the Kumbh Mela Festival, the largest gathering of people in the world. It takes place in Allahabad and lasts for 55 days. It began on 15th January and will end on 4th March and takes place only every 12 years. During the 55 days of the festival 120 million people are expected to come and bathe at the point where the sacred rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Sarasvati merge.
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The Sangam (the point of confluence of the three rivers) is a particularly holy spot associated with one of the many myths of the Hindu faith. The story comes from the Vedic scriptures and tells of the time when angels and demons churned up the ocean, seeking the nectar of immortality. Not surprising conflict ensued and a deadly poison began to emerge from the water, which was swallowed by the god Shiva before it could destroy the world.  Many gifts were then given to the world including the nectar of immortality (amrit) contained in a large jar called a Kumbh. There was the possibility of the demons taking possession of it until one of the devas, transformed into a large bird known as  Jayanta, took the pitcher up to paradise and on his way he stopped in four places where a drop of nectar fell into the river. Each of these places has become a holy place of pilgrimage and a Kumbh Mela takes place in each of them on a rotational basis. But every 12 years the Kumbh  Mela takes place in Allahabad, considered to the be the most sacred of the four pilgrimage locations. And every 144 years a Great Kumbh Mela takes place. At the last one in 2013, 120 million people attended and it’s estimated that as many as that will attend the present one.  
 
The organisation for such an event is immense. A city of tents has been set up, spread over 12 square miles; hundreds of new roads have been laid and 120,000 toilets erected.  15 lost-and-found camps have also been set up. And the pilgrims will come in their millions. The first to bathe in the sacred rivers are members of religious orders and the holy men, the sadhus, who have abandoned their former life to commit themselves totally to prayer and asceticism. The sadhus are often completely naked with ash-smeared bodies and they come from all over India to join in a great procession in which some are riding on elephants, camels and horses, there are brass bands and drummers, religious leaders on several vehicles throwing marigolds to thousands of devotees and impromptu entertainment along the way.  It is a jamboree and until 6 years ago was limited to men but now women ascetics are allowed to bathe on the auspicious first day. It’s only after these holy men and women have rushed into the sacred river and been cleansed that ordinary pilgrims are allowed to bathe, believing that they can somehow participate in the holiness of the saintly who have bathed in the waters before them.

The whole atmosphere at the Kumbh Mela is that of a medieval faith but for the individual pilgrim it’s a religious experience. I haven’t been to a Kumbh Mela but I have been to Allahabad. It was a long time ago, in 1986, and while the Kumbh Mela had taken place in Hardwar that year there had been a Magh  Mela, a much smaller annual pilgrimage in Allahabad. My memory is that there was a sense of the emptiness about the pilgrimage area, of the night after the party, a presence more palpable in its absence than anything else, a spirit of a party that had been, the ghostly lingering of an  energy now gone. And there were pilgrims there though not in their thousands.

 I was with two Hindu friends, a husband and a wife who was anxious to bathe at the Sangam. We hired a boat and were rowed out to the point where the rivers merged. Unbelievable as it seems, there is a point where the rivers Ganges and Yamuna meet and you can actually see the different colours of the two rivers. The third river, the Saraswati, is underground and mythical but there is a sense of sacredness about the spot, I can recall, though, will all things religious, there is also the opposite. As we reached the sacred spot a boat came alongside ours containing an ornate shrine attended by a priest who performed a puja to the goddess Saraswati. My friends were encouraged to make a donation for a coconut that was then offered to the river. I was the observer in this act of devotion so the only one that saw another boat collect the coconuts, no doubt to sell them on to other pilgrims. I can’t remember if I was a bit shocked at this but I would now be much more tolerant and even amused at religious idiosyncrasies such as this. What I do remember, however, and it has had a lasting effect on me, was my friend bathing at that sacred spot and her emotion as she experienced the joy of believing her sins had been forgiven and that she had touched even for a moment the liberation of that nectar of immortality.
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It’s this that’s at the heart of the Kumbh Mela and reveals its true meaning. As with all religions it’s important to look beyond the razzmatazz and externals to see the beauty of the truth hidden deep within them. I’m grateful I had such an experience at Allhahabad.  
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The Ark of Fraternity

9/2/2019

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Last week, Pope Francis made a historic visit to Abu Dhabi, the first Pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula and by all accounts the visit seems to have been a success. At the Interreligious Gathering the Pope acknowledged that he was following in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi who had met the Sultan al-Malik al Kamil 800 years ago during the Fifth Crusade, a meeting during which each recognised the other as men who knew and loved God. It’s said that for twenty days they conversed with one another about the ways of God.  Like his namesake, Pope Francis came to Abu Dhabi as a pilgrim of peace, stating “I have welcomed the opportunity to come here as a believer thirsting for peace, as a brother seeking peace with the brethren. We are here to desire peace, to promote peace, to be instruments of peace”.  He called those present at the Interreligious Gathering at which he spoke to a new way of being together, “we too in the name of God, in order to safeguard peace, need to enter together as one family into an ark which can sail the stormy seas of the world: the ark of fraternity”
 
What a wonderful image - the ark of fraternity! So often the ark has been used as a bulwark against those who are different, protecting communities from the enemy, the only place that is secure and safe in a troubling world. Noah’s ark, to which the Pope refers, saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the rest of the population who were living a sinful life. The ark  was a place of  justice and goodness and only within it was one safe. This image was transferred to Christianity where Jesus was seen as the Ark of Salvation. Only within the confines of a relationship with Jesus could people be saved and protected from the forces of evil that raged not just in the world but in other faiths too. For the Catholic Church this ark came to be associated with the Catholic Church so that membership of that Church alone could guarantee salvation. Thank God this attitude has changed though many religions are still suspicious and fearful of religious proselytization and conversion which reflects a little of that mind-set.
 
Now we have the image of the ark extended and expanded to include all those who desire peace and recognise the common humanity of all.  We are quite literally in the same boat, members of the same species, interconnected with one another, facing the same hopes and joys, concerned about and vulnerable to the future of our planet and our world. As the Pope said, echoing his two predecessors, “There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future.”   
 
In his speech the Pope set out a full agenda for humanity if we are to establish this ark of fraternity and truly recognise one another as brothers and sisters. This includes an appreciation of plurality and recognition of difference, a sense of our own identity, while respecting the identity of others, a protection of the rights and freedoms of others especially religious freedom. What the Pope wants for all of us is an open identity that doesn’t in any way compromise who we are or closes itself off from others but is enriched by our relationships.

Dialogue of course plays a part in all of this. Religions, the Pope says, “cannot renounce the urgent task of building bridges between peoples and cultures. The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretence, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace”.   And something not often mentioned in interreligious dialogue, but mentioned by the Pope, is prayer “as for the future of interreligious dialogue, the first thing we have to do is pray, and pray for one another: we are brothers and sisters!”  
 
During his stay in Abu Dhabi the Pope signed a document with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb. Its title is: On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. It’s easy to dismiss these kind of initiatives. Often documents and statements are assigned to the bookshelf if not history and readily forgotten but the fact that two very prominent leaders from Christianity and Islam have signed such a document is significant and it’s always on hand to be used as reference for the best intentions of the two faiths, even if we, their members, don’t always live up to the ideal. So what do we do with it? Hopefully we Christians and Muslims, with others, will dialogue about it. Hopefully, we will take it seriously and begin to think in terms of an ark of fraternity and, as the document suggests, the document itself will become the object of research and reflection in all schools, universities and institutes of formation". Now wouldn’t that be something?
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Holocaust Memorial Day

28/1/2019

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January is a time for remembering. Like the god Janus that the month’s named after there’s a looking back and a looking forward. We’re aware of it as the New Year dawns but also at the end of the month. Here in Scotland we remember our national poet Robert Burns on 25th January and applaud his poetry which was and is deeply human. One of his poems that’s used often – at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, for example, is “A man’s a man for a ‘that”. It speaks of our common humanity in spite of superficial differences like wealth and rank. It ends with the lines “That man to man the world o’er, shall brothers be for a’ that”. What a wonderful vision. We sing the words with great conviction and hope in our hearts but how badly we humans live up to that ideal.
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This is certainly obvious when two days later, on 27th January, we remember the Holocaust which so contradicts Burns’ sentiments.This year it’s 40 years since the Cambodian genocide and 25 years since Rwanda.  And the on-going conflict in Darfur still continues as well as the systematic killing and expulsion of people in many parts of the world. Why do we never learn? Why can’t we see that we are all brothers and sisters, sharing a common humanity? Why do we need to categorise people, stressing our differences and relegating one another to a pecking order which sees some as inferior and others as superior. And we all do it in subtle if not overt ways. Holocaust Memorial Day faces us with the horrible reality that if one human being can perpetrate such atrocities then we all can. This is a hateful and painful reality that we must face up to and feel the pain of it in our very being – not to wallow in it but to liberate ourselves from it and commit to inclusion and friendship with all.

Nothing brings you up against the horrors of genocide as a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau which I made fifteen years ago but have never forgotten.  I was part of a study visit to Jewish sites in Poland, a land on whose soil three millions Jews were murdered. The group was mostly made up of Christians though we were fortunate in having with us someone from the Jewish community whose family had come from Poland. This personalised many of the issues that we studied and didn’t allow us to forget the pain inflicted on the Jewish community by anti-semitism, a pain still felt by many Jews today. It was a learning and challenging experience.
 
During our trip we learned about the thriving Jewish life that had existed in Poland since the 9th century; of the anti-semitism and pre-conceptions of Jews as Christ-killers and therefore cursed; of the separate lives lived by both communities who never saw one another as neighbours.  But it was the visit to Auschwitz – Birkenau that exposed the reality of the evil of the holocaust.  The empty barracks, the ovens, the so called shower rooms, the piles of shoes, hair, the luggage on display revealed the systematic degradation and humiliation of the Jewish community and the absolute squalor of what life was like. Some of our group spent the visit in floods of tears. I was stunned and felt quite dead inside. I had expected a sense of evil but what we saw was beyond evil. The question that kept recurring for me was how could people’s spirit rest after such a violent end?  To have human beings reduced to ash that was then used for paving roads would have been unthinkable and yet here we were face to face with its reality. The murder of the Jewish community was perpetrated by the Nazis but many Poles were indifferent to it and in one place, Jedwabne, ordinary Poles were responsible for the slaughter of 1600 Jews.  Of course even in darkness there is light and while some Poles betrayed their neighbours, others hid and helped them and for this are included within the ranks of Righteous Gentiles. There are stories of heroism within the camps and a generosity of spirit and courage that showed that even in the midst of evil, the human spirit can soar and triumph.  

There were many challenges in that trip to Poland – challenges that are still pertinent today. For example the role of religion in nation building processes. What is the role of religions in a secular society?  How do we allow people to be different, to look different and yet respect our common civic identity and work together for the common good?  There was also the question of identity. Ethnicity is an invention and a consequence of education and conditioning. It’s based on an imagined common ancestor. It’s the way we perceive our origins. If we recognise it as a perception we have a good basis for cooperation.  If, however, we see it as a consequence of genetic codes we have a basis for racist ideology. And what do we Christians do with the recognition of a history of anti-Semitism that the Catholic Church accepts was the context and seedbed in which Nazi anti-Semitism flourished? How do we keep alive the memory of the Holocaust while healing memories and moving on?  The Council of Christians and Jews tries to do just that and this weekend, talking about Holocaust Memorial Day, Pope Francis exhorted us to "continue to work tirelessly to cultivate justice, increase harmony and sustain integration, to be instruments of peace and builders of a better world." There couldn’t be a better memorial to those who died than that. 
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A One - sided View

13/1/2019

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I came home last evening to find that a friend had sent me an article from a local newspaper.  She had sent it because of a headline and story that, with the rise of anti-Semitism, suggested that many Jews felt so uncomfortable and unsafe in Scotland that they were thinking of leaving for safer places. It so happens that we’d had a conversation about this at a meeting of the executive committee of the Council of Christians and Jews earlier in the week. Then a member of the Jewish community had mentioned the article and thought it was unfortunate as it only helped spread unrest among the community. This I can understand. I grew up in a context where anti-Catholicism was very overt and such a public suggestion that Catholics were leaving because they felt unsafe would have unnerved me. 

The comments had been made by a prominent member of the Jewish community when he had spoken to the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief but were only now being picked up by the newspaper with the publication of the minutes of that meeting.  It’s true that anti-Semitism seems to be on the rise. The article quotes a recent report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights which found that almost 90% of respondents across European countries believed instances of anti-Semitism had increased over the past five years. Some of this will be due to the high profile killings in France, Belgium and America but in Britain the Community Security Trust reported that there were more anti – Semitic incidents in 2018 than in any previous year. Whether there have actually been more incidents or people are now more likely to report incidents is unclear.

The difficulty with anti-Semitism is that it’s often associated with the Israel – Palestinian conflict. Those who are concerned about the plight of the Palestinians and therefore critical of the State of Israel are sometimes accused of anti-Semitism while they would disassociate themselves from that, distinguishing between Israelis and Jews. Jews conscious of their history, aware of some Middle East countries’ aim to be rid of Israel and still mindful of the hatred that resulted in the Holocaust are anxious for anything that undermines the State of Israel – the only place in the world where they feel safe. As in all conflicts there are two sides to the story and our interpretation of events and understanding of the situation depends where we stand.  Both viewpoints are valid and legitimate but one-sided, limited and partial. Often I hear members of the Jewish community say that to be pro-Israel is not to be anti-Palestine. But it’s also true that to be pro – Palestine is not to be anti –Israel.  The secret is when talking from our own particular viewpoint to remember there is another viewpoint and when listening to one side to remember that there is another side – and both sides will have truth in them. I think it would be helpful very often if these somewhat conflicting truths could be acknowledged.  Some people have suggested that the Israel – Palestine conflict is the elephant in the room when it comes to talking about anti –Semitism and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and discussing how the conflict is to be talked about without a polarisation that renders the participants deaf and unable to hear the other side. We’ve never come up with an answer.

 Anti –Semitism, like Islamophobia and other forms of racism, is wrong. It’s recognised as a sin in the Catholic Church.  But it would seem from the media that things are getting worse. Here in Britain, as we face Brexit, we have also polarised politically and blame immigration for a societal structure that is breaking down and changing. We have become inhospitable to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and the voices that want to restrict ‘strangers’ from coming to our country are loud and clear. What is it that makes us so distrusting of the other members of our race, people whom many of our religions tell us are made in the image and likeness of God and are out brothers and sisters.  We seem to be incapable of appreciating diversity.  We seem to be driven by fear, suspicion, hate even; to be content to live in our own fortress-like communities, to set up defences against the stranger.

And much of this is unconscious. It so happens that this evening, having started this blog, I went to a Christian service in Glasgow Cathedral to celebrate St Mungo, the Patron Saint of Glasgow. It was a rather wonderful service – good singing, sincere prayers for our city and its people, a talk about hospitality and openness to refugees and asylum seekers. The Christian Churches, educational establishments and civic bodies were well represented. What was missing was representation from any faith tradition other than Christianity. I felt its miss but I don’t suppose too many others even noticed. People of all faiths and none are citizens of Glasgow. Hopefully they will be happy to acknowledge and recognise Glasgow’s Christian origins.It would be good therefore if events such as today’s service could acknowledge the multi-faith nature of our society and the religious and human values that bind us together. To devise a service that did this while honouring our founding saint would take a lot of work, time and even dialogue. But it would be a step in witnessing to the fact that people of all faiths and none are equal citizens and have a common home in our city. Could this be a small assurance for those who experience a prejudice that suggests they do not belong?
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Irrepressibility

30/12/2018

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​A remarkable woman died over Christmas. She had lived as a hermit for over fifty years but had become a bit of a celebrity when she was discovered by the BBC. I understand this was accidental.  The story goes that she had been taken to a medical appointment by a friend who took her to visit an art gallery.  She was overheard telling her friend about the paintings they were viewing by someone who worked for the BBC. He was so impressed by her insight that he invited her to present a number of art appreciation programmes.  No doubt the idea of a fully habited nun, who spoke with a slight lisp, and who professed to living a life of solitude and silence, was an intriguing and unusual presenter for an arts programme - and likely to be appealing to the public.  And appealing it was. She proved to be very popular. She had an amazing intellect, having got a congratulatory first at Oxford University, but she had a simplicity of expression and language which not only showed her unique insights but spoke to the public and taught them how to read a picture.  She was also respected by the art world so she did know what she was talking about. But not only did she make several series of arts programmes in the 1990s which took her to some of the most important art galleries in the world but she was interviewed by Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs and had a television programme made about her life.  She even had a musical written about her called ‘Postcards from God’. Her death has been reported on television and radio and many newspapers have carried an obituary.  This was a woman whose death became national news.
 
I’m intrigued by this because Sister Wendy began her religious life as a member of my community, the Sisters of Notre Dame. I’ve always known about her, about her struggles to find her true vocation which did not seem to be in teaching, her attempts to find a place where she could live out her desire for prayer and contemplation and her final settling to live in a caravan in the grounds of Quidenham Carmel in Norfolk. We have all sorts of stories about her. As a young sister I visited Quidenham with some friends for evening prayer. We hoped Sr Wendy would be there and notice us, maybe even talk to us, but she came and went without a sideways glance.
 
 In a way we sisters have always felt she belonged to us. We’ve always been interested in her and marvelled at how she fulfilled her teaching vocation in an unusual way. She struggled with teaching until her health broke down but her abandoning the classroom hasn’t meant abandoning teaching which she continues to do through her programmes that are now available on youtube and her books, written because she needed an income. However, I think of her as irrepressible. Her desire for silence, prayer and contemplation was true no doubt and she spent hours, days, months and years in this pursuit.  But some people just cannot avoid coming to the attention of the public. It’s as though their spirit cannot be dampened and needs a conduit to express itself.  
 
Thomas Merton was like this. He entered a Trappist Monastery, a monastery of strict silence and prayer but this wasn’t enough for him and he got permission to stay in a hermitage a mile removed from the main monastery buildings.  He wrote about silence and obedience but struggled with them. He wrote prodigiously, entertained visitors and got involved in the peace movement as well as interfaith dialogue.  He died fifty years ago this December and many commentators wonder about what his future would have been if he had not died so young.  Would he have left and got involved actively in social justice issues, particularly non- violent peace making? Would he have become Buddhist?  He died in Bangkok and on the way there he stopped off at Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka, with its large rock carved statues of the Buddha. He is reported as saying he was knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures.  He wrote in his journal “I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean of the habitual, half – tied vision of things, and an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the robes themselves, became evident and obvious”. Thomas Merton lives on through his writings and talks. There was no dampening of his spirit, no stopping him communicating and speaking to the world in spite of his great desire for a hidden and silent life.
 
In Assisi I was amused that the casket containing the remains of St Francis was bound by chains and padlocks as though the spirit of Francis was bursting to escape. No doubt the casket’s chained because people tried to steal the remains but it did give the impression of wanting to contain Francis whose spirit is everywhere in Assisi. It’s easy to imagine coming across him wherever you turn.  The spirit of Francis is very much alive and seen in the present Pope who took Francis as his name, explaining to journalists that he chose the name because Francis of Assisi was “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who lives and protects creation, all themes of his pontificate.  Please God the irrepressibility of this spirit will lead the world into a better space in the coming year.
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A Season of Contradictions?

22/12/2018

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Christmas is full of contradictions.  It’s a time for families, yet there are many people who are homeless, alone or bereaved for whom all the talk about families and festive meals can add to their pain and sense of loneliness. It’s a Christian festival and yet consumerism seems to have taken over and it’s become a winter festival rather than a religious one. In many places scenes of the birth of Jesus remind people of its religious origins but this year some places have decided not to have one, suggesting that in this secular society such scenes are quite irrelevant. And not all Christian denominations celebrate it. Some strict Christian groups such as the Free Church of Scotland withdraw from the festivities altogether, seeing them as reflecting a pagan observance of the winter festival and mistakenly suggesting that Jesus was actually born on 25th December which he obviously wasn’t.   Nor do all Christians celebrate Christmas on the same day. For some Eastern Orthodox churches the birth of Jesus is celebrated on 7th January and not on 25th December.
 
We don’t know when Jesus was born. It was Pope Julius 1, in the 4th century CE, who ordained that 25th December was to be the date when Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus. The date was possibly chosen because it was around the winter solstice and the feast of Saturnalia when pagans were celebrating the return of the “unconquered sun”. Gift giving, festivities and greenery were associated with the feast. What the Pope did was Christianise it, giving it added meaning by showing that Jesus was the Son of God and the true light of the world. Pagan converts could enjoy the festival, keep some of its traditions while understanding it in a new way. Christianity didn’t forbid these celebrations but gave them a deeper meaning and significance by associating them with the birth of Jesus.
 
 It’s not unusual for a religion to somehow incorporate the beliefs of another into its own system. For example Hinduism incorporated the Buddha into its belief system by seeing the Buddha as the ninth incarnation of the God Vishnu. This is especially true when the beliefs are associated with indigenous nature religions, rather than well – established systems of belief.  All religions have their places of pilgrimage, holy mountains, holy wells, which often pre-date the founding of the religion. Religions have traditionally built on pagan foundations but this doesn’t in any way invalidate their particular perspective or belief.
 
Celebrating the birth of its founder is also common in religion. Often there is an element of the miraculous about their conception and birth. The point of these stories is not to tell us what actually happened   to show the significance of the founder as one with a special message and gift for the world. Sometimes their birth and death are celebrated on the same day. Wesak, for example, celebrates the birth, death and enlightenment of the Buddha, giving a symbolic completeness to his life.  While the nativity stories of Jesus’ birth, as described in the Christian scriptures, focus on Jesus as a baby there are indications that this child will be a controversial figure and a suggestion of what is to come. The story of the slaying of the innocents by Herod may be a reflection on the slaying of the first born by the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus, but it foreshadows the rejection of Jesus which culminated in his death. Similarly the gifts that the three wise men bring include myrrh, embalming oil which is symbolic of death.
 
These stories are found in the gospel of Matthew. Matthew is not writing a historical or factual account of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus but is in fact writing theology. He is reminding us of the completeness of Jesus life by prefiguring his end.  As TS Elliot said” in my beginning is my end" Those of us who have experienced the death of someone whose birth we remember know that our recollection of the birth and life of that person takes on a special significance in the light of their death.
 
The gospel accounts of the birth and life of Jesus are written in the light of his death and resurrection so they are stories which convey a meaning. Like all religious scriptures it’s not what they say that counts but what they mean. To read sacred texts we need to look beyond the words to discern the truth they contain - truths about God, about ourselves, about human relationships. For Christians the stories of the birth of Jesus are not about a cuddly baby but about the belief that in Jesus God, the source of Life and Love, entered the human condition, that this God is present in the midst of life and that to struggle to live well is to  touch God. For as it says in the letter of John, God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God.
 
For Christians the birth of Jesus lets them see life in a new light and this includes the secular, for  the secular is not in opposition to the sacred but is a vehicle for it. Thousands of people will celebrate this winter festival with no nod to religion but they will enjoy their families and lovingly give gifts to one another.  In this sense they are in touch with what Christians would see is the true meaning of Christmas.
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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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