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An Interfaith Champion

15/11/2022

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The interfaith community in Scotland has lost a friend and champion in the death of Archbishop Mario Conti on 8th November. Archbishop Mario had an open ecumenical outlook from his early years and for decades was involved in the ecumenical movement which, in 1990, gave rise to a new ecumenical instrument called Action of Churches Together in Scotland.

He came later to the work of interfaith relations when in 2006 the Bishops’ Conference set up a committee for interreligious dialogue and he became both President and chair. At first, he was cautious, asking for advice and help in how to address people of other faiths, what was appropriate dress, what was expected when visiting places of worship etc. but he embraced the whole interfaith adventure as he had done the ecumenical one and soon felt at ease in his relationship with people of other faiths. This was because of his innate charm, friendliness, and out-going manner which drew people to him and made them feel at ease in his presence. He was loved within the interfaith world and many of our sisters and brothers in faith have phoned, texted or emailed to express their deep sorrow at his death and to pass on their condolences to the catholic community.  All of them mentioned his charm, friendliness, wisdom, and clarity of thought.

Hospitality was a hallmark of Archbishop Mario and for many years, indeed until Covid stopped it, he hosted a reception for faith communities which was not only well attended but was considered an important event in the interfaith calendar. He was often advised at these gatherings not to let them go. Archbishop Mario was quick to accept invitations to visit places of worship, to meet with faith communities, to talk at important events such as the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Bah’a’ullah, to meet visiting dignitaries and to engage in dialogues such as the current one the committee for interreligious dialogue has with Ahl Al Bait Scotland, a Shiah Muslim group. Together we have studied the document on Human Fraternity for Peace in Our World and never did Archbishop Mario come to a meeting of that group unprepared. He was supportive of all the work of the committee and contributed to our annual colloquium which was intended to educate the Catholic community in the faith of others as well as interfaith issues. As well as this he participated in national interfaith events such as Holocaust Memorial Day, the twice annual meetings of the Scottish religious leaders Forum and the First Minister’s Annual Interfaith Symposium. His contribution was greatly respected, especially if he spoke his mind and was not limited by a government agenda.

Archbishop Mario was a good friend to me, both as an individual and as the secretary for interreligious dialogue for the Scottish Bishops. He supported me in good times and was always there to lend a listening ear and offer advice in difficult times - and there were some of those. We attended many events together and never did he fail to thank me or fail to show his appreciation for my work and contribution to interfaith relations in Scotland. We had good conversations, not always agreeing but respecting one another and his sense of humour made him very easy to be with.  He has now entered the realm of the ancestors and has joined a small body of people who have gone before us in Scotland and continue to give those of us involved in interfaith relations the confidence to continue in their footsteps.
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May his memory be a blessing to us all and an inspiration for the future of interfaith work within the Scottish Catholic Church and this nation. 
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What's the Point?

31/10/2022

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I was recently privileged to hear a talk on Forgiveness in Judaism given by Dr Yakir Englander. It was part of a programme organised by the Sisters of Sion whose mission is to develop an understanding and appreciation of Judaism and to witness to ‘God’s enduring love for the Jewish people’. It was an interesting, informative, and challenging talk given by someone who is obviously a man of love and compassion, committed to non-violent social change and, as the director of Kids4Peace in Israel and Palestine, he is a committed peacebuilder. It was quite a surprise to hear him say at the beginning of his talk and repeat it during the talk that he did not believe in interfaith dialogue. Immediately he clarified that statement saying that he didn’t believe in dialogue for dialogue’s sake but believed in it as a means for action. This is not an unusual stance and it’s one I’ve often heard put forward by other people, especially it so happens from the Jewish community including the late Lord Jonathan Sack. But it’s not one I can agree with.
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For me dialogue can be an action for peace, especially if the dialogue is between groups who have been suspicious of one another or even rejecting of one another. I was brought up in a Scotland that was highly sectarian. I grew up as a catholic, thinking everyone who wasn’t catholic was protestant and, as the only catholic family in our street with no one else going to church, I thought protestants never took their faith seriously. I even thought that protestants, having separated from the true church were destined for eternal damnation. Those days are over because of Christians from different denominations meeting one another, learning about one another, visiting one another’s churches. We recognise that together we are Christians before being catholic or protestant and are in a familial relationship with one another.
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If this is true within one religion, it is even more true for people from different faiths. There’s no need, I think, to rehearse the sense of fear and suspicion many people have of Islam, seeing it as a religion of violence, spread by the sword; the belief among Christians that Jews had crucified Jesus and therefore had been rejected by God; the understanding of Hinduism as polytheistic. And many more misunderstandings which over the centuries has led to violence and destruction. And how do we overcome these misunderstandings which lead to prejudice and even hatred of one another? I once heard someone say there is enough religion in the world for hate but not enough for love. Dialogue, friendship, sharing stories so that we no longer think in terms of Judaism but in terms of my friend Adam who is Jewish, my friend Azzam who is Muslim is surely a way to transform past toxic relationships into relationships of friendship. This is to realise that we belong to a great family of faith, in which we are all united in our humanity with different paths in our common search for value, meaning and purpose in life.
 
I was privileged to begin my journey into interreligious dialogue at a time when I was en gaged in religious education. This was in the 1970s when the RE curriculum was changing to include world religions. This meant I had to teach other faiths, read their scriptures, visit places of worship with students. I had invitations to events such as weddings and other rites of passage. John Dunne, a catholic theologian, has described this as passing over into the world of another and returning home to fine oneself changed. This is not an unusual experience for those of us who have lived in or travelled to another culture. We often learn more about our own culture as a result of that experience. For me this passing over will not happen simply by working together, important as that is. My interest in world religions has led me to experience in a limited way but a real way, I think, the the spirituality of others and this has deepened my own spirituality. I have come to see my own Christian a and catholic faith in a new way. I have come to see what is essential to that faith and what is a cultural expression of it. I have learned not to ask of any faith, is this true but what is the truth in this. I have been helped by the beauty of the Hindu Upanishads, inspired by the Jewish belief in Tikkun Olam, encouraged by the Islamic belief in surrender, changed by opportunities to make retreats with great Buddhist masters such as Tich Nhat Hanh – and much more.

I feel interfaith relations have opened up my vision of what it is to be a believer in our world today and I feel freer because of that. This of course has also involved me in working together with others and something that binds many of us who have now become friends is our desire for peace and harmony in our world. I hope and believe that the friendships, understanding and respect that has been developed between people of different faiths in pockets all over the world is a witness to what is possible in a world and society where differences still divide rather than unite.

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An Interfaith Pioneer

10/10/2022

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There was a real sense of celebration last Sunday, 2nd October, when the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art held its first interfaith event since the closure of the museum during the Covid pandemic. Glasgow City Council had suggested that it might not open the museum again but rather it would seek ways of finding another promoter such as Historic/Environment Scotland to take it over. There was an outcry from all those who appreciated the importance of the Museum, particularly the faith communities who for decades had found it a safe space for dialogue. The campaign, spearheaded by Interfaith Glasgow, led eventually to its opening which in itself was a cause for celebration. This first event, focussing on the life of Stella Reekie and the work of the International Flat, brought together 69 people, many who had worked with Stella in Glasgow, some who had worked with her in Pakistan and some who knew very little or nothing of her life and work. There was a lot of buzz, chatter, laughter as people renewed friendships and shared memories. The event captured the spirit of The Flat, even to the extent that we had to buy more cake for tea.

The reason for the focus on Stella Reekie was that this year, 2002, was the 100th anniversary of her birth and the 40th anniversary of her death and it seemed an appropriate moment to remember and celebrate her. Stella was born on 29th July 1922, the youngest of eight children in Gravesend, Kent and died in Glasgow on 28th September 1982. Her life had been one of service. As a young woman she had joined the Red Cross so that she could work with refugees in Europe. It was this that led to her being present at the liberation of Bergen – Belsen, something she never talked about, but the horror of that experience must have seared her soul. That and the experience of working with refugee children caused her to reflect on the inhumanity of life without Christ and, as she herself admitted, it was this that led her to sail from Liverpool in 1951 to join the Church of West Pakistan.

There are many stories about her work in Pakistan – her popularity and readiness to help with all sorts of problems, her wonderful capacity for communication even when her understanding and knowledge of Urdu was rather shaky, her work with women and children, her indefatigable visiting of homes and villages and something that seems to have characterised her all her life – her ability to exist on little sleep. There were two colleagues from Pakistan present at our celebration in St Mungo’s. One had been a Pakistani pastor with whom Stella worked closely and the other a Scottish missionary also in Pakistan at that time. She told a story of how she would visit Stella in Gujerat, and Stella would always drive her to the bus for her journey home. The only flaw in that plan was that Stella was always late because she was busy about many things but insisted on the lift. This then meant Stella driving at breakneck speed after the bus until she had overtaken it, causing it to halt so that her friend could then board it.

After seventeen years as a missionary Stella returned to Scotland and was eventually employed by the Home Board of the Church of Scotland as a community worker, working with the large number of immigrants who had come to Scotland in the 1950’s and 60s, mostly from India and Pakistan. It was at this point she became a deaconess, working in community relations from her own home in Belmont St. Glasgow. In 1972 she went to live in 20 Glasgow St. which had been bought by the Church of Scotland as a centre for her work. This then became the International Flat, a centre for immigrants, especially women who at that time had little opportunity for life outside the family. She organised English classes, cookery and sewing classes, meals for the wives of overseas students, summer play schemes for children in the area. She helped the new Scots cope with the bureaucracy involved in finding accommodation, employment etc. She welcomed everyone to the Flat which became a centre of hospitality and developed friendships which, as our celebration showed, have stood the test of time.

Most of the people present at St Mungo’s on 2nd October had known Stella through the International Flat and her work in establishing the first interfaith group in Scotland. Stella was convinced that new citizens would only be accepted and integrated into the wider community if that community knew something of their faith. So, the Glasgow Sharing of Faiths held monthly meetings when a member of a major world faith would give a talk on their faith, answer questions, provide food and give time for small group discussions. Each year there was a Presentation of Faiths in a prestigious public building for three full days which allowed school children to visit and learn and adults to be entertained by groups such as the Jewish Male Voice Choir. This was a time when the teaching of world religions was being introduced into the religious education syllabus, with very few published resources so the meetings and events of the Sharing of Faiths became a focus for teachers trying to come to terms with world faiths and make contact with places of worship.

Three people, Canon David Lawson, Mrs Brij Gandhi and Mr George Ballentyne, all members of that first Sharing of Faiths committee shared their memories of Stella and her interfaith work. David recalled how he lived very near the International Flat and often, especially after meetings, Stella would phone and invite him round for coffee. Sometimes this was to reflect on a meeting they had both been at and which had reached a decision which was not quite what Stella would have wanted. How were they to put it right? These conversations and coffees lasted into the wee small hours which never disturbed Stella who could exist on very little sleep.

 Brij had got to know Stella through her parents when she visited them from Kenya and was even encouraged by Stella to do some voluntary work in the Flat during those visits. When Brij and her family moved to Glasgow, Brij became a member of the Sharing of Faiths and worked with Stella at the Flat. She remembered how much Stella asked of her even when she reminded Stella that she had a husband and young children to look after.  It was part of Stella’s genius/ charism (?) that she was able to involve people beyond what they were prepared to give and believed possible. As Maxwell Craig, the chair of the Sharing of Faiths said in the booklet published after her death,” That she did so successfully time and time again was part of the miracle”.  

George had become involved in the work of the Flat when he was asked to represent the Glasgow Bahá’ís on the Sharing of Faiths committee. He recalls his first meeting when, as a naïve Baha’i he thought people would respond to his involvement by becoming Baha’is, he found himself siting with someone who had been in the concentration camps; someone who had lived through the Partition of India; others who had endured pestilence, famine, and war – whose faith had been, literally, a matter of life and death for them. While interested in interfaith George expressed his gratitude to Stella who had shown him how to live it. It was her model, her example that set the tone and direction for most of his adult life, right down to the kind of jobs he had done.

This sense of gratitude was echoed by many at the celebration, especially David and Brij as well as Sr Isabel who had chaired this time of remembering. Interfaith had become a spiritual adventure for all of them and they had all been involved in it in some way or other ever since those early days of the Sharing of Faiths. They saw their work as part of   legacy of Stella who forty years after her death was remembered with affection and thankfulness. When Stella died in 1982 the Glasgow Sharing of Faiths was the only inter faith group in Scotland. Now there are 20 local groups, including Interfaith Glasgow, and a national body, Interfaith Scotland, which carry on the work begun by her over fifty years ago. The seeds that Stella sowed then have borne fruit in a way that she probably would not have dreamed of. And for those of us who are reaping the benefits of those fruits and sowing our own seeds of understanding and cooperation, Stella still remains a source of inspiration and encouragement. Her life and influence are a good reminder that many of the seeds which we now sow can bear fruit in a way that we cannot imagine.
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What If ?

25/9/2022

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 There are some events in life that are of such significance that we can’t help asking ‘what if that had not happened?’ How differently would things have turned out. Such an event was a 20-minute meeting that a Jewish historian, Jules Isaac, had with Pope John XXIII in June 1959 that changed forever the relationship of the Catholic Church to the Jewish community. This changing relationship is a story of hope and transformation spelled out last week for the Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious Dialogue at their annual seminar, entitled ‘A Tale of Two Sisters: Church and Synagogue’ which was led by Sister Maureen Cusick, a Sister of Our Lady of Sion, a religious congregation that is committed to witnessing to God’s continued and faithful love for the Jewish people through education and dialogue.  

We began by reflecting on a series of illustrations of statues found in many medieval cathedrals around Europe, sometimes carved standing side by side, sometimes standing on either side of the entrance They depict two women. One is weak and drooping, blindfolded and carrying a broken lance with Torah scrolls that are often seen slipping from her hand. The other is strong, often wearing a crown and looking to the future with confidence and open eyes.  The blind woman represents the Synagogue, blind to the truth and now lost to salvation because the Jews rejected and crucified Jesus. The confident woman represents the Christian Church upon whom God has bestowed the promises God originally made to Israel so that Christians now possess the truth of salvation and have become God’s chosen ones, the new People of God.  One particularly horrendous statue is found in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris where the blindfold over the ‘Synagoga’ statue is in fact a snake with the implications that has for Judaism being under the sway of the devil.
 
These statues reflect the attitude of the Christian Church to Jews in medieval Europe and are indicative of a theological approach called supersessionism or replacement theology which is a belief that God has rejected the Jews because they rejected and crucified Jesus. God has now bestowed the promises he made to Israel on the Church that now becomes the New People of God. This theology is very influential. It can affect the way the Christian scriptures are interpreted. For example, in stories such as the wise virgins – the ones who are alert to the coming of the bridegroom are taken as representative of Christianity and the ones who slept and missed his coming taken as representative of Judaism. It influenced the prayer in Catholic churches on Good Friday which prayed for the conversion of the perfidious Jews. It influenced the tradition in the Sisters of Sion who daily prayed that God would forgive the Jews for the death of Jesus for they knew not what they did. It influenced the various pogroms and sermons forced on the Jews over the ages. It influenced the whole history of Christian antisemitism which the Vatican acknowledged was the seed bed in which the hatred that resulted in the Holocaust was able to flourish. It influenced the belief of some Christians that the State of Israel doesn’t have the right to exist. It is, I suspect, something that is deep in the psyche of both Christians and Jews and influences some of our interactions and maybe needs to be addressed at some point. Is there perhaps an incipient suspicion of Christianity on the part of Jews and an incipient superiority on the part of Christians?

Thank God that this attitude to Judaism and this theological approach has been acknowledged, dismissed and disowned by the Catholic Church in the Vatican II document on the Churches Relationship with People of Other Faiths. And it all came about because of that 20-minute interview that Jules Isaac had with Pope John XXIII.  Jules Isaac was a historian and educationalist who sought to understand the roots of antisemitism when he experienced the Nazi occupation of his native France. He wrote a book on Jesus and Israel as well as one on The Teaching of Contempt in which he showed that antisemitic interpretations of the scripture were a wrong understanding of the Gospel. It was the meeting with Pope John XXIII that led the Pope to put the Churches relationship to Judaism on the agenda of the Vatican Council and eventually led to Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Churches Attitude to Non-Christian Religions which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in October 1965, two years after the death of Jules Isaac. Section 4 of the document which declares,” in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone” brought about a profound change in the Church’s relations with Judaism. Indeed, Rabbi David Rosen says he knows of nothing else in history that has brought about such a profound change.  

And that brings us back to our original question. What if Jules Isaac had not visited Pope John XXIII? Would we still be promoting a replacement theology? What if Jules Isaac had not been for a walk when his wife and two children were taken by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz? Would the Church have reflected on its teaching of contempt and still be antisemitic? Who knows. But we can be sure that Jules Isaac’s escape from the Nazis and his visit to the Pope were of such significance that they have changed the history  of Catholic – Jewish relations, hopefully forever. 
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A Life Well Lived

11/9/2022

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Britain is caught up in mourning for the death of Queen Elizabeth and has almost forgotten that there could be news elsewhere in the world. The media is sated with news and reflections on both the life of the Queen and the future of the monarchy as King Charles III takes on the role for which he has waited a long, long time. The nation is in a state of shock, partly, I think, because of the suddenness of it. Last weekend the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was with the Queen in Balmoral and on Tuesday the Queen appointed her fifteenth prime minister. She was frail but still working so no thought of her death as imminent. Her death, in a sense, has added to the sense of insecurity that is around with war in Ukraine, global climate, economic recessions. What will the future hold?
 
I was a child when Elizabeth became Queen. I remember coronation day because the street where I lived went on a trip to the seaside to celebrate. I remember too seeing her when she did a tour of Britain after her coronation, and I have met her a couple of times. For 70 years she has been Head of State and for some people she was a constant and a symbol of unity. Not everyone agreed with monarchy though.  Scotland has often had a mixed relationship with the monarchy even when there is a public appreciation of her personal commitment and devotion to duty. This is not helped by the fact that in all the news bulletins and statements of condolences from public bodies and charities have spoken of Queen Elizabeth II. But she was only Queen Elizabeth II of England. She is the first Queen in Scotland to be called Elizabeth and the first in the United Kingdom. She has been called Queen Elizabeth II of the nation, but Britain is made up of 3 nations and the United Kingdom of 4.
 
However, no-one can doubt the Queen’s personal faith which she professed openly; her great sense and devotion to duty; her fidelity to her vocation. To be Queen was hers to do and she embraced it and was faithful to it. Mary Oliver has a poem When Death Comes and she ends it by saying:
                When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
                 if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
                 I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
                 or full of argument. 
                                                        I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
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Could all of us not echo those words? Death is inevitable and all of us must face it. Do we not want to do so having lived life to the full, having embraced the good and the bad, the joyful and the sorrowful, having grown in human kindness and compassion, having contributed to the future good of humanity?   
 
Queen Elizabeth lived her life well in the glare of publicity, but many people live their life well within their own sphere of influence. It so happened that this summer four great women whom I have had the privilege to know also died. All of them were women of faith, committed to the work of justice and peace. Sally Beaumont was involved in racial justice and gave accommodation to over 20 refugees in her own home. Maureen Reid served young women in the Guide movement and was a Chief Commissioner for the movement in Scotland. She was a Street Pastor, going out on patrol in Glasgow’s West End from 10.00 pm to 2am on Friday and Saturday nights to help and support young people and anyone in difficulty. Cathy McCormick was a campaigner for justice particularly against the dampness in Glasgow’s housing stock which was causing her son to become ill. She talked at demonstrations and campaigned for solar-powered housing. She was invited to the Houses of Parliament to discuss the link between poor housing and health as well as the United Nations. The fourth great woman was Sr Ellen Gielty, a member of my own religious community. Ellen worked in Nigeria before her long years in teacher training in Glasgow. She was also the Superior General of my community which meant travelling the world, caring for the sisters, helping our community face the challenges of a changing world in  the countries in which we all lived.
 
All these great women, including Queen Elizabeth, were conditioned, and limited by the circumstances into which they were born. Within those constraints they lived well and did what was theirs to do. They responded to the opportunities to do the good that came their way with fidelity and dedication.  Who know what happens after death? But one thing, I think, we can be sure of is that, like ripples on a pond, their influence will live on. Their very act of living and being has made the world a better place and can be a source of comfort and strength to those of us who have not yet passed through death’s door. May they rest in peace and their memory be a blessing for us all.
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The Story of the Universe

30/8/2022

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It’s back to auld clothes and porridge for me after the holidays and my recent retreat (see previous blog) which turned out to be all that I expected. The retreat was organised by the Dominican Sisters who run An Tairseach, an ecological centre in Wicklow that explores spirituality in the context of an evolving universe and an endangered earth. Because of travel difficulties I had opted to link in with this through zoom while living by myself in a self-catering flat in a nearby Carmelite monastery. This gave me plenty of time for prayer and reflection with the opportunity to walk by the river Clyde and savour the beauties of nature.
 
At the outset we were introduced to and invited to reflect on the amazing journey of this universe that we inhabit. For those in An Tairseach there was the opportunity to do this physically in the form of a cosmic walk set into the ground in the shape of a large spiral with hand painted stones representing some events, arbitrarily chosen but designed to give a sense of the universe’s unfolding process.  Unlike a labyrinth the cosmic spiral begins at the centre from a point that represents the Flaring Forth of life and takes the pilgrim through significant moments in evolution, giving a sense of the unfolding universe story to the last and outer stone which brings him or her to the present day. Luckily, I had been able to experience this cosmic walk in an earlier visit to An Tairseach but on this retreat had to be content with reflecting on each of the stages set out for us in the cosmic walk booklet.

 This didn’t feel like a second-hand experience because if gave me time to reflect on each stage and stay with any one for as long as I wanted. The universe story is amazing and wondrous. Even more wondrous is that it is also the story of each one of us and is part of us.  At that moment of the flaring forth of light and energy when the universe came into being 13.7 billion years ago it held the potential for everything that would come to be, including me and you, the reader. The hydrogen and helium set forth at that moment is still with us, the universe is still expanding, evolution continues its journey. From that moment of flaring forth stars, galaxies and planets have been formed, our own planet earth forming an atmosphere that sustained life. From the formation of simple cells, the earth has developed in many diverse and complex ways resulting at this moment in time in conscious human beings who have been described as the universe conscious of itself.

Two moments in this journey have stayed with me.  One happened 3.9 billion years ago - the process of photosynthesis when the earth learned to take nourishment from the sun, when plants and simple celled organisms learned to capture solar energy, convert it into chemical energy and store it for further use. This is a process that powers the planet’s living systems, this is what gives us the oxygen that sustains us, that set out the pattern for all future life forms where each receives and gives nourishment from and to the other. Giving and receiving is intrinsic to how we do live and should live in our daily interactions. What if it hadn’t happened? There would be no life as we know it, a refrain that could accompany each stage of evolution.  The second significant moment that has stayed with me is 1 billion years ago when life was drawn towards union and simple-celled organisms began to reproduce sexually, a process that meant they relinquished their immortality to facilitate the growth of multi-celled organisms. What if that hadn’t happened? Well sex but also death might not have become a condition for the creation of future life. For me this makes death meaningful. We cannot live forever even though some artificial intelligent experts talk as though it is one of the last barriers to be overcome. There would only then be stagnation. For life to continue and develop we must die, we must learn to let go when it is time for new and younger generation to contribute.  

Thomas Berry has said we, and he’s talking to Christians, need to know and live by the story of the universe. I also think we need a spiritual practice to help us realise that we are indeed children of the universe, part of this great evolutionary journey, interconnected with all life. One of Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness gathas could  help with this. The one I like is, “I have arrived, I am home in the here, in the now”. Often, I begin by reminding myself that I am a child of the universe, become aware of my family and religious ancestors, pray they may be well, may be happy, may be free from suffering.  Then as I breathe into ‘I have arrived I am home’, I am aware of how I hold that evolutionary journey and those ancestors within me to arrive at this present moment, aware of where I am both physically and mentally. As I breathe into ‘in the here and the now’ I am aware that the here and now in the world in which I live is both a loving and painful one with wars, conflicts, violence, greed, pollution, climate change etc and I pray for all sentient beings, our wounded planet, and its warring nations that they may be well, may be happy and free from suffering. This is a practice that works for me. It links me into the universe story, connects me with the rest of life and hopefully awakens my compassion and desire for the well-being of future generations. Perhaps it would work for others too. 
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For the love of Gaia

16/8/2022

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 It has been rather a busy summer for me with the opportunity to visit friends and family and have a holiday in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland.  This has been the first since the Covid restrictions came in two years ago.  Now I am about to go on retreat for six days. The retreat is being organised by the An Tairseach Ecology Centre in Wicklow which is run by a community of Dominican Sisters who practise sustainable living and are committed to educating people of the importance of care for creation and the link between ecology and spirituality, something which is growing in importance within religious and non-religious circles. Unfortunately travel arrangements became difficult so I’ve had to opt for the zoom version but the use of a flat in a local Carmelite monastery will give me the silence and separation from phone calls etc that I need. The retreat is entitled ‘Everything Ablaze, Encountering God’s Generative Love and Abiding Presence Within and Around Us’ and is advertised as reflecting on the work of people like Thomas Berry, Teilhard de Chardin and the poet of creation, Mary Oliver.
 
Central to it will be the universe story, recognising this great universe of ours, including our planet, as a self-organising system which has its own wisdom and laws from which we have evolved and whose future we now hold within our hands. In the light of climate change and the loss of biodiversity can we humans change our attitude from seeing the resources of our planet as infinite and there for our comfort to recognising our interdependence with all living things and that our future and way of life is intimately bound up with its future. It’s only with this change of perspective will we come to love the world we inhabit and act in ways that will sustain its life.
 
The idea of the universe as a single self-regulating system was developed by James Lovelock, a scientist and inventor who died on 26th July this year, on his 103rd birthday. It was his friend, the author William Golding who suggested using the metaphor Gaia for this hypothesis as a more imaginative way of describing it. In Greek mythology Gaia is the goddess of the earth and mother of all life and thinking of the universe in this more personal way helps us to see it as a living organism which regulates its environment to create the best conditions for the advancement of life.  It is to recognise that there is no distinct, separate identity for all are interrelated and depend on one another for life. So, we breathe in the oxygen expelled by trees who breathe in the carbon dioxide expelled by us. We need one another for survival. But so often human beings seem to forget this and the statistics for the destruction of rain forests that are the lungs of our planet are frightening. Surely Gaia must weep over the control some of us humans exert on the natural world and long for us to recover our rightful place in it so that we might work together for its well being and advancement. The welfare of our planet is in our hands.
 
The Gaia theory was ridiculed when James Lovelock first proposed it but it is now recognised by many as the foundation of much of climate science and movements such as The Work that Reconnects, established by Joanna Macey and the  Deep Transformation Network set up by Jeremy Lent as well as centres like An Tairseach. To link into these is to feel part of a movement which recognises the dire critical state of our planet but gives hope and a motivation for action. There are many people out there reflecting on our connectedness and interrelatedness with nature and trying to steer us away from greed, desire, and the belief that the resources of nature are inexhaustible and there for our benefit and comfort.
 
 I was privileged to be able to link into a conversation organised by the Deep Transformation Network between Ursula Goodenough and Andreas Weber. Both of them are lovers of life and nature, who see reality as oriented towards and yearning to give life. To be alive said Weber is to generate life and this desire comes from the inside of nature not from without. Individual subjects are driven by something within which craves for more existence, something the theologian Karl Rahner called ‘supernatural existentialism’ but related it to a christian understanding of salvation. Life itself is a miracle and, I suspect for Weber, needs no Creator who planned and set the whole process in motion – something I have some sympathy for.  This is not to reject a religious perspective, but it is to reinterpret it in the light of what we now know of the universe story – something that will be well reflected on during this week’s retreat. It is also to recognise that we humans must listen to that drive towards life and respond accordingly for, says Weber, “humans will be run over in the search for life” but what will bring about our salvation is love which he describes as “the impulse to establish connections, to intermingle, to weave our existence poetically together with that of other beings. The fact that we disregard this principle lies at the core of a global crisis of meaning that plays out in the avalanche of species loss and in our belief that the world is a dead mechanism controlled through economic efficiency”.
 
What better foundation for a retreat could there be than this. 
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The Lord's Prayer

9/7/2022

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 Recently I was asked to do a short podcast on the Lord’s Prayer. The Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that identifies the followers of Jesus, yet there is nothing Christian about it. There is no mention of Jesus, the Church, the sacraments or creeds and yet it is universally recognised as the distinctive Christian prayer.
This is not surprising because Jesus was a Jew, he lived as a Jew, he worshipped as a Jew, he prayed as a Jew so any prayer that he would have left to his disciples would have been a prayer that came from the heart of his faith, the Jewish faith but also expressed his own understanding of that faith.
The prayer is divided into 2 parts. The first part addresses God and honours His name
  • Our Father who art in heaven
  • hallowed be thy name thy name
  • thy kingdom come
  • thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
The second part is a prayer of petition
  • give us this day our daily bread
  • forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others
  • lead us not into temptation but
  • deliver us from evil
The two phrases I reflected on are in the first half of the prayer
Our Father who art in heaven and Thy kingdom come.

As 21st century Christians we understand this prayer differently from Jesus who was a 1st century Jew. For Jesus the world would be seen as a 3-tiered universe with heaven above, hell below and earth in between. We now know from modern cosmology that in fact we live in a vast universe made up of billions of galaxies which has evolved over time. So where is the  heaven where God dwells. It’s reported that in 1961 when the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin—the first human launched into space—returned to Earth he had a simple, Soviet-style message: “I looked and looked and looked, but I didn’t see God.” I don’t know if this story is true but if it is Yuri Gagarin was looking in the wrong place.

The catechism, that many of us were brought up on tells us where God is – everywhere. In the Acts of the Apostles St Paul in a debate with Greek philosophers tells us that “God is the reality in which we live and move and have our very being” and in the gospels Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God, the dwelling place of God is within and among us.
So, when we say Our Father who art in heaven, we are not suggesting that God is in some distant place but rather recognising God’s mystery and otherness, the source of life of all of us, the bond that unites us with one another, here amongst us.

 This is a prayer we that we never say as an isolated individual. For some people the ‘our’ represents the Christian community but if our God is the God and Source of all life then the ‘our’ applies to all beings. And today we know so much more about our interconnectedness and interdependency with the natural world so that the ‘our’ in fact includes all sentient beings, all of creation including the stars and the planets.  

From this prayer we know that for Jesus ‘Father’ was a favourite image of God. But it is only an image and shouldn’t be taken too literally. An image is like a finger pointing at the moon; if you look only at the finger, you will miss the moon. So too with the image of father. If we take it literally, it can obscure the mystery and greatness, the otherness and closeness of a God who does not reside in heaven but amongst us and within us.

Addressing God as father does not mean God is a big man, certainly not with a white beard, and yet that is a dominant image of God.  I only learned recently, when I went to see the Sistine Chapel exhibition, that Michelangelo’s depiction of God in the creation of Adam and Eve was the first time that the human form was used and, as in the depiction of the creation of Eve, the first time and perhaps the only time that God has been depicted  standing on the earth. But this male human image has come to dominate our imagination.

And so, we come to the second phrase, Thy Kingdom come. For me this is the heart of Jesus message. According to the Gospel of Mark Jesus begins his ministry with the words, repent, believe the good news for the Kingdom of God is among you. Scholars have debated what Mark meant by these words. Is he suggesting that the Kingdom has come in Jesus or with Jesus? Whatever, this kingdom is not to be found in another dimension such as heaven but amongst us. I once heard someone say that Christians should be Kingdom spotters; then cooperate wherever they find the Kingdom. Today we live in a world where everything seems to be falling apart and unravelling - climate change, wars, a global pandemic, the rising cost of living. How easy it is to be depressed.

But this is not the whole picture. There are many people working for justice and peace, struggling to live a good and honest life, desiring, praying for and working to make our world a better place for our children and succeeding generations, spreading goodness around them in all sorts of ways. The kingdom of God is all around us - if we have eyes to see it. And sometimes, it’s to be found in the most unexpected places - outside the church, outside religion. 

There's more to be said and perhaps there will be a later blog on that but this reflection shows that there are many ways of understanding the Lord's Prayer and further study on a familiar prayer could be a good thing. 
 
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First Seelisberg Prize

26/6/2022

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Today, 26th June, Professor Amy-Jill Levine will be awarded the first ever Seelisberg Prize set up by the International Council of Christians and Jews and the Centre for Intercultural Theology and the Study of Religion at the University of Salzburg. It is to be given annually to “a person who has contributed to Jewish-Christian understanding through their academic excellence and the outstanding communication of their research and insights to a wide audience.” The establishment of the prize marks the 75th anniversary of a conference that took place in the small Swiss village of Seelisberg in 1947 to consider the roots of an antisemitism that had led to the Holocaust but still survived in Europe. The conference faced the 1900 years of Christian antisemitism, and its famous 10 points laid the foundation for future Christian – Jewish relations and saw the beginning of the International Council of Christians and Jews.

The ten points of Seelisberg were in fact a distillation of eighteen points put forward by the Jewish historian Jules Isaac whose conversation with Pope John XXIII fifteen years or so led eventually to the Vatican II document ‘Nostra Aetate’ which while focussed on the church’s relations with non- Christians had begun its life as a statement on the Church’s relationship with the Jews. The ten statements stress that it is the same God that speaks in the Old and New Testaments; that Jesus, his mother and the first disciples as well as the first martyrs and members of the Church were all Jews; that the fundamental command to love God and neighbour, found in the Old Testament and confirmed by Jesus, is binding on all Christians and Jews;  that Jews are not responsible for the death of Jesus and the Passion of Jesus should not be presented as though they were; that language which  uses the word Jews in an exclusive sense of the enemies of Jesus or any suggestion that the Jewish people are reprobate or accursed should be avoided. These are elements that eventually did find their way in to Nostra Aetate and further catholic teaching such as the document based on Rom. 11: 28 – 30:  They are beloved for the fathers' sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Professor Amy-Jill Levine is a worthy recipient of the prize. She is Jewish and a recognised scholar of the Christian New Testament. Her CV is impressive. She is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Graduate Department of Religion, and Department of Jewish Studies; she is also Affiliated Professor, Woolf Institute, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge UK. In 2019 she was the first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute. Her list of publications is also impressive including the co-editorship of The Jewish Annotated New Testament, the editorship of the 13-volume Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings. She is also the New Testament editor of the new Oxford Biblical Commentary Series and sits on the editorial board of the Encyclopaedia of Christian-Jewish Relations.

 I have read some of her books and been privileged to hear her speak on several occasions, all made possible because of zoom. I have learned such a lot about the Jewishness of Jesus, how the Gospels could be seen as a kind of midrash, that is a reflection in the light of the early disciples’ experience of Jesus on traditional Jewish teaching and stories.  I have learned that Jesus lived as a faithful Jew. He kept the law, he ate kosher food, he was circumcised like all Jewish boys, he went to the Temple in Jerusalem, he attended the synagogue, he read the Jewish scriptures and would have prayed and even sung the psalms. He would have prayed three times a day wearing phylacteries, he would have worn fringes on his outer cloak. He kept the Sabbath. And like other Jews of his time, he would have debated what it meant to be a good Jew. In fact, if Jesus set out any guidance it was how to be a good Jew, rather than a good Christian.

Professor Levi loves the New Testament and is fascinated by it. She also loves Jesus. I have heard her say this often while admitting that she doesn’t have faith in him in the way Christians do. For Professor Levine Jesus is a faithful Jew and nothing in the New Testament would contradict this. And she wants both Christians and Jews to recognise it. Speaking of Prof. Levine’s nomination for the prize Prof. Gregor Maria Hoff of the University of Salzburg said, “Her astonishing productivity stems from her lifelong commitment to bringing the fruits of her scholarship to the general public and to promoting positive interactions between Jews and Christians.”
​
As she receives the first Seelisberg prize at a ceremony in Frankfurt today Prof. Levine will deliver an address entitled, “Learning about Jews by Reading the New Testament,” reflecting her conviction that in studying the New Testament she enriched her own Jewish identity. I look forward to reading it.
here to edit.
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Law and Spirit

7/6/2022

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Seven weeks ago, the Jewish and Christian faiths celebrated Passover and Easter and so fifty days later they have celebrated the festivals of Shavuot and Pentecost.  Originally a harvest festival, Shavuot focuses on the Torah and remembers the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. Religious Jews will spend the night studying Torah, the synagogue will be decorated with flowers and there might even be a marriage canopy built around the Bimah as a symbol of the marriage between God and the People that took place when they accepted to live in a covenantal relationship with God. For Jews the Torah and the Torah Scrolls are the symbol of God’s presence among them, the most sacred object of their faith and to live according to the Torah is to keep alive God’s presence among them.

The Christian festival of Pentecost also celebrates God’s presence among His people. This time the gift is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, that same Spirit which animated Jesus. It was the gift given to the disciples of Jesus after his death and resurrection. It gave them the courage to continue his mission and live according to his way.  It turned fearful men and women into courageous witnesses to the life and message of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was the continuing presence of Jesus in his community, not in a physical way but in a spiritual way. And to live according to the Spirit is to keep alive God’s presence and influence in the world today – in a sense to do for Christianity what the Torah does for Judaism. 

The two festivals are connected but it’s possible to understand the difference as one faith being focussed on the Law with the other on Spirit, giving rise to the anti-Jewish tropes which suggest that Judaism is legalistic as is the God of the Old Testament while the God of the New Testament is loving and merciful. This is to misunderstand the Old Testament which has some of the most beautiful and moving passages on the love of God in the whole of the Christian bible. It is also to misunderstand the Law which for the Jews is more like a contract within the context of a covenantal relationship in which both sides bind themselves to one another to live together in a loving relationship. 
 
I was able to witness just how much the physical representation of the Law in the Torah Scrolls is a symbol of the loving and joyful presence of God amongst his people a few years ago. I so happened to be in the town of St Andrews and the Scrolls of the Law were being transferred from a synagogue in Dundee to a specially designed Ark or resting place in the university chaplaincy. The joy and delight with which the Scrolls were received, passed from one to the other in an atmosphere of song and dance showed how significant the law is to the Jewish community. Within the Orthodox community the Scrolls are only held and passed on by the men of the community though in the Reform community both men and women can handle them. Because it was a mixed congregation, I was handed the Scrolls and able to embrace and dance with them. It was a sacred moment for me, and I felt very privileged to share these moments of intimacy. The sacredness of the moment was brought home to me when a woman from the Orthodox community told me that it was like sacrilege for her to touch and carry the Scrolls. She wouldn’t presume to do so because they were so  sacred. I wonder if she was shocked that I had had the temerity to carry them and whether in any way that seemed to devalue them.
 
This awe and wonder inspired by the Torah is something we Christians must learn and appreciate. Only then will they have an insight into the heart and beauty of Judaism. But many Christians see Judaism as narrowly legalistic. This is to forget that Jesus lived by the Law, never suggested doing away with. Rather he saw himself as fulfilling it. It is to forget that the gift of the Spirit was given to Jesus’ followers as they gathered to celebrate Shavuot.  In the recent newsletter of the Christians and Jews Prof. John Barton, emeritus professor at Oxford University is quoted:
 
'The 'law' that some Christians since Paul have opposed is not the Torah as Jews affirm it. It is a Christian construct, found in over-scrupulous and legalistic branches of Christianity that need the liberation that Paul proclaimed. Christians projected this legalism on to Judaism, but there are many varieties of Christianity that affirm, with the Psalmist, that 'your law is a lantern for my feet and a light upon my path'. Even Paul did not preach 'freedom from the law', if 'law' is understood like this, as a joyful vocation rather than as a set of forbidding demands.'
 
Understanding Pentecost from the perspective of Shavuot allows Christians to appreciate the significance of Law for their Jewish brothers and sisters. It can also help them deepen their understanding of the gift of the Holy Spirit  and rejoice in the presence of God in both Law and Spirit, something that surely unites  rather than divides us. 
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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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