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Hagia Sophia

27/7/2020

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On Friday, 24th July, Islamic prayers were said in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul for the first time in 85 years, something that has sent shock waves around the Christian world, especially within the Orthodox Churches.  The present Hagia Sophia, the third building to have been built on the site, was built by the Emperor Justinian in 537 CE  in what was then Constantinople, the centre of the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Christianity.  The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 led its conversion into a Mosque with the establishment of the Ottoman Empire.   And so it remained until 1934 when, for political reasons, it became a museum. It’s said that its age, size, magnificence, architecture and mystical atmosphere make it a unique place in the world and as a Unesco World Heritage site it’s a very popular visitor attraction.  Now it’s been converted back into a Mosque by the President of Turkey who claims that 350,000 attended the first prayer in what is now the Grand Hagia Sophia Mosque.  
 
Commentators claim that this move by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is motivated by political ambition as he tries to raise Islam’s profile in Turkey to counteract secularism and make Turkey a leader nation in the Islamic world. It will, no doubt, please those in his country who have Islamist and right wing tendencies and have been working for this for a long time. They will understand the political implications of the move. But other Muslims might just be glad to be able to pray in such a historical and precious building. I could imagine it would be a very moving experience as it would be for Christians to have the Eucharist celebrated there.  
 
But for Christians this conversion is a backward step which ignores Istanbul’s multi-faith heritage and Hagia Sophia as a symbol of Christian and Muslim unity. The World Council of Churches has expressed grief and dismay at the change, Pope Francis pain and distress and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Istanbul has warned that what was once a building for the whole of humanity and a symbol of the unity of east and west will sow discord between Christians and Muslims. As the US Catholic Bishops have said “For many years now, this beautiful and cherished site has served as a museum where people of all faiths can come to experience the sublime presence of God. It has also stood as a sign of goodwill and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims and an expression of humanity’s longings for unity and love”.
 
What will happen now to this beautiful Church/Mosque with its magnificent and priceless mosaics and frescoes when used by a faith that prohibits representational imagery and particularly prayer in the presence of such images? Turkish authorities have promised to maintain these priceless artworks which have been plastered over in the past and only restored since the building became a museum. Will they honour that commitment?  This I think is the fear of many.
 
Images are often a point of contention within religions. Some religions like Islam and Judaism see images as idolatrous while Hinduism rejoices in them. Similarly some Christian denominations such as the Orthodox and Catholic tradition are resplendent with images and their use of bells and incense gives a sense of the transcendent. The reformed tradition such as Presbyterianism on the other hand abhors the smells and bells and sees images as bordering on the idolatrous. To a Catholic this tradition seems rather austere and a bit dull. Zen Buddhism is also rather austere and colourless  compared to Tibetan Buddhism that is very colourful with it flags, thankas, images and noisy prayer services. One of the many challenges in interfaith relations is to try to understand traditions that are quite different from one’s own, not to judge them and to even feel at ease in them even if not completely at home in them. But that’s not always an easy journey and the beginning of interfaith involvement can mean quite a bit of discomfort as we’re challenged by the unfamiliar. Learning to respect differences that challenge our normal and often unconscious way of doing this is one of the gifts of interfaith encounter.
 
Whether of course people who are politically motivated care about this is another matter. I do hope that some way of hiding the mosaics during prayer times can be found so that Muslims can happily pray there without the building being defaced. I also hope that this move will not result in estrangement between Christians and Muslims or have negative effects in other parts of the world.  The Higher Committee for Human Fraternity set up by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar as a result of the joint statement on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together has responded to the changed status of Hagia Sophia by calling on “everyone to avoid any step that could undermine interfaith dialogue and  cross- cultural communication and that could create tensions and hatred among the followers of different religions, confirming humanity’s need to prioritise the values of coexistence”.  May Hagia Sophia continue to be a sign of this coexistence and in this way rise above the politics and politicians that are using it for their own ends.  

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Solitude

12/7/2020

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​This week I went to an online interfaith meeting on solitude, something that has been a reality for some people during the self- isolation of this coronavirus period.  For everyone it’s been a difficult time. For some it’s been the separation from friends and family that’s been hard while for others it’s the juggling of working from home with home schooling and entertaining children that’s been stressful and exhausting. For others it’s been keeping alive their businesses and organisations. That has been true of the interfaith world. There have been so many possibilities to join in interfaith dialogues, not just at home but all over the world.  Sometimes it has felt that there have been just too many invitations and I’ve resisted a lot of them because I’ve appreciated the space and time for solitude away from diaries and meetings. I’ve resisted filling up my time with too much busyness. Of course there have been zoom and skype contacts so that I’ve not been at all lonely.

Solitude has a place in the Christian tradition. The celibate life of nuns and priests is seen as a legitimate calling which frees a person from the responsibilities of family to devote themselves to prayer and contemplation as well as service to the community. Being without a lifelong partner means there is a certain solitude about religious life, an aloneness even when living in community though that doesn’t necessarily mean loneliness. We have probably all experienced a feeling of loneliness in the middle of a crowd and a feeling of connectedness when alone by ourselves. But not all faiths value solitude.

Judaism is a religion that focuses very strongly on the family and community. Private, individual prayer is not as important as community prayer or living according to a tradition that re-members the past and reinforces membership of a people in a particular relationship with God. The text chosen for our recent scriptural reasoning event on solitude was the story from the book of Exodus of Moses spending 40 days and nights on Mt Sinai in conversation with God and in preparation for the gift of the Torah. The interpreter on the passage asked: was Moses truly alone if he were in the presence of God and since this time of solitude was a preparation for the giving of Torah then it was directed towards community which is at the heart of Judaism.

The Muslim presenter talked about three kinds of solitude in Islam which connects well with the Jewish view: preparatory solitude, whispering solitude and forbidden solitude. All the prophets including Mohammed, Moses, Jesus spent some time in solitude, in prayer and fasting, as a preparation for revelation. For Moses this revelation was the giving of the Torah, for Mohammed it was the revelation of the Qur’an and for Jesus it was the revelation of his mission to preach the presence of the Kingdom of God amongst us.  Prophets are spokespersons, mirrors that reflect the greatness of God. To be effective they need to be purified, emptied of self and totally open to God’s voice and for this, a time of intense prayer and solitude is necessary. Whispering solitude occurs at moments when we can withdraw and disconnect from all around us to enter into the inner silence of our hearts to pray, listen to God, to remember that God is closer to us than our jugular vein. Forbidden solitude is the kind of solitude that leads us to withdraw totally from family, community or society responsibilities. It’s the kind of solitude that stops us engaging with the reality of the world around us, rather than preparing us to enter into it and serve it.

The Christian presenter was from the reformed tradition which, he pointed out, didn’t, until recently, value solitude in the way that the Catholic and Orthodox traditions did. The text he commented on was the Gospel of Mark’s account of Jesus’ time in the desert after his baptism in the River Jordan.  We are told in Mark that is was the Holy Spirit, the One who is said to have descended on Jesus at his baptism who drove him into the desert where he remained for 40 days and 40 nights without eating, living among the wild beasts and ministered to by angels. In the other gospels there is an account of how Jesus was tempted during that time as to his identity and mission. This side of solitude shows the reality of having to face ourselves, our fears, compromises, our masks, our desire for ease and approval. Solitude is not just about communing with God or discerning His will. It is also about facing the wild beasts within all of us – wild beasts that we happily ignore or suppress in the busyness of life. But wild beasts that we need to face and even befriend if we are to be free and loving human beings.
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 For people of faith solitude is important but it has to be understood correctly. We’re never alone because we are in the presence of God and interconnected to all of creation; it’s good for us to face up to and be honest with ourselves; it’s important that our solitude does not lead us to disregard the world in which we live but becomes a preparation for honest and loving service, even if that be mainly through prayer. It’s an opportunity to see things afresh. Coronavirus has offered us that opportunity. I hope we haven’t squandered it.  

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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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