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What's in a Name?

28/7/2015

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These holidays I visited Enniskillen in Norther Ireland. It's where my father's parents came from so there was a sense of going back to my roots. I know very little about my family history  but I was glad to see the town from which they came. It's a picturesque town nestling on an island on the River Erne. I didn't really get much sense of my forebears apart from the fact that Smyth is the most popular name in the area so it was very evident on shops and businesses. I understand that there were even 8 Smyths in the local football team at one time so finding my family origins is not going to be easy.  What was interesting though that in Northern Ireland Smith is spelled with a 'y' and there is a story behind that, or so I've been told.  

The Gaelic for Smith is Gown or McGowan and originally that would have been my family name but at a particual time in history the Irish were forced, advised to anglify their name and so while agreeing to do so showed a little bit of rebellion by spelling it with a 'y'. It got me thinking about names and what changing people's names means.  Religions are very good at this. Often when peope convert to a religion as an adult they are given a different name - a Buddhist name. an Islamic name or whatever. Christian missionaries did this to indigenous people thinking that they should accept a Christian name at baptism. When I entered religious life and became a novice we were given a different name.  This was to show that we had left our old life behind, dying to self so to speak, and now living in a new order. This was changed after the Second Vatican Council when it was recognised that our initial and basic commitment stemmed from our baptism and why not use and appreciate the name given at that event. Living in a convent was not really living in a new order but living out that commitment in a partical way. I'm glad I went back to my own name as I like it and I like it's meaning which is  ' God is my satisfaction' or 'beautiful Isis'. 

Changing someone's name could be seen as an attempt to show they belong to the community they have just joined - an act of inclusion.  But at the same time it separates the person from their former community and can show a lack of respect for their former way of life.  The anglicisation of Irish names has been seen as an example of English domination though it's also possible in a society  where one feels marginalised and disadvantaged that anglicising one's name might have brought about some economic advantage and not marked one out as different.

Years ago CS Song, a Taiwanese theologian wrote a book called ' Tell Us Our Names' which I've never forgotten though it's long out of print. He talked about how Christian missionaries changed names of indigenous people - names that had significance and sacred meaning to names of Christian saints that were meaningless and unrelated to their context and culture. He suggested that rather than use their name-giving power missionaries should have exercised a name-knowing power. He underlined the importance of knowing people's names, pronouncing them correctly and understanding their deep meaning. There's a lesson here not just for missionaries but also for interfaith practitioners. To understand another's name is to respect their tradition, to be aware of their history, to refuse to suggest that your names, culture, way of life is more important or superior to theirs. It is to show that life is not about domination but about relationship - a meeting of minds and hearts. It's important and essential to allow others to name themselves, their beliefs and their culture. It's important to take the trouble to understand and appreciate these on their terms and not ours. Then we might come to know them so well that we realise that their name is in fact  my name and my name is theirs. 

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A Legacy for our children.

13/7/2015

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Today I was at an event in the local Gurdwara to welcome and pray for a new member of the community - now only two months old. I knew his grandparents well and was privileged to be at the ceremony. Everyone loves a baby and we queued up to cuddle and hold him. Babies bring out the best in us, I think. They give us hope for the future and inspire us to want all that is best for them. What will life be like when this little fellow grows up?  It will certainly be different if the pace of change in our world continues at the rate it's going. But I hope it will also be safe, not just in the face of violence but also in the face of sustainable development.  

These past two weeks there has been a lot said about the environment, certainly in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis recently published an encyclical which is a papal letter on the environment. It's long for a letter and comprehensive in its survey of how we are destroying the environment because of consumerism, greed, lack of reverence for life and an understanding of nature being there for our satisfaction and use. It recognises the great inequality between people with some living in luxury at the expense of the poor and exploiting the earh's resources for their own end. It can be overwhelming to consider what we as human beings are doing to our world and and the future looks bleak if we don't do something about it.  Somehow our generation is caught up in the present moment with no thought of future generations even though each one of us would want the best for our children and would want them to live in a healthy and safe environment. The Pope gives practical ideas for caring for our environment but at heart what he asks for is a change of heart which will change our thinking and approach to the created world. He calls us not just to remember how all of creation is interconnected but to feel this in our very bones so that we feel "the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement". He calls us to reverence the sacredness of the earth and to use its resources well realising that they are on loan to us and that we have a duty to care for the earth for the sake of future  generations. 


All religions teach this care for the earth. Most of them teach that human beings are creatures and gifted with life and even Buddhism that doesn't believe in a Creator God stresses the interconnectedness of all things and treating the earth with reverence and respect. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, to walk on the earth is a miracle and we should do it mindfully.I recently came across John Moriarty and was struck by his desire that we should come home to the eath, seek to walk beatifully on it and reject a sense of them and us to move towards a 'we' feeling with trees, animals. oceans and all living things. It's not just humanity that's in it together but the whole world and the whole universe and each part of it is to be respected. "To see anything as less than it is is to sin against it" - something Pope Francis would agree with.

While the major religions call their followers to care for the earth and give reflective moments to remind us that we are finite and vulnerable creatures, it's indigenous people that keep alive this connectedness with the earth. Sometimes they're called pagan and considered inferior to the more developed religions, even in some situations being forcibly converted and their culture destroyed or in more recent times here in Scotland not being welcome at the table of interfaith dialogue.  But their sense of the sacredness of the earth and their understanding of it as a living body teaches us that to damage any part of this body is to damage the whole body. They have a wisdom that we ignore to our peril and the peril of our children.

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Roman holiday?

6/7/2015

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This week's journey has been to Rome though it was no Roman holiday. I was attending the annual  conference of  the International Council of Christians and Jews. This year it was rather special as it was celebrating  a document that came from the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago and changed the Catholic Church's relationship with other faiths but particularly the Jews. Rome seemed the appropriate venue and part of the conference was an audience with Pope Francis.

 It had been  some time since I had been to Rome and had almost forgotten how impressive and overpowering Churches like St Peter's are and how wonderful the art is.  It was the same with Assisi where I spent a day though this hill town is much more attractive than the boiling heat, dust and busyness of Rome. But at the heart of it is a certain simplicity. In Assisi it's the inspiration and challenge of St Francis whose life of simplicity and love of nature has much to teach us at this time when we are endangering and abusing our planet rather than caring for it. Similarly Pope Francis comes across as someone who is unimpressed by his surroundings as his focus is on people. We had been given instructions before the audience to keep the first three rows of chairs in the audience hall free for those who were to be presented to the Pope but once he arrived it was announced that he would greet everyone - 250 of us. This is quite a feat for someone who is 79 years old but he greeted everyone with a strong handshake, looked into our eyes and gave us a warm smile. This was a moment of real connection. He reminded me of the Dalai Lama whom I was once privileged to meet. He brushed aside all ceremony and greeted everyone present very warmly. It's this human touch that makes these two men so popular and inspiring and for me, anyway, shows what holiness and true religion is about.   


The conference was also interesting.  Many people commented on how the relationship between the Jewish community and the Catholic Church had been transformed over the past 50 years. Rabbi David Rosen was very insistent in suggesting that if this relationship could be transformed, any relationship could be transformed and that the document ' Nostra Aetate' was a sign of hope for the world.  


So what has been transformed?  For years the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations thought that God had rejected the Jews because they had refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah so that the Christian Church was now the true People of God. Jews were accused of deicide in that they were responsible for the death of Jesus, believed to be the Son of God. For centuries Christians had been suspicious of Jews, marking them out and making them live in ghettoes. Now the Church acknowledges that God is true to his promises, that God has not rejected the Jews, that God is still in a covenantal relationship with them and that they are indeed God's People. Any accusation of deicide is wrong and anti-semitism a sin. It's important to remember that Jesus, the apostles and followers of Jesus were all Jews. Perhaps the change can be best illustrated by comparing  Pope Pius IX's remark that Jews were "no longer children, but dogs wandering through the streets" with Pope John Paul II who called the Jews his elder brothers. Sometimes familial conflicts can be more violent and exclusive than other conflicts. Thank goodness Christians and Jews are now recognising their familial relationship and  working to establish peaceful and supportive relations with one another. 

However the last word rests with Pope Francis " we are strangers no more, but friends, and brothers and sisters.  We confess one God, Creator of the universe and Lord of History. And He, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, always blesses our commitment to dialogue". 

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    Author

    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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