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New Beginnings

31/12/2015

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A new year and a new beginning.  It's not possible of course to have an old beginning. All beginnings are the start of something new and a new year give us the opportunity to start over. I suppose that's what new year resolutions are all about - a determination to be better, to do better, to reform in some kind of way. For most people resolutions don't last very long and a lot of us fall into our old  ways. I'm not sure if I think resolutions are even a good idea. They can present us with an ideal which for some personalities, like mine, can become a burden with an inner voice telling me what I ought to do and how I am failing. Someone I knew once talked about the 'hardening of the oughteries' and if religion and beginnings are about anything they should be about freedom and not about an idealism that's difficult to reach. 

New Year's Day is not a religious festival and the celebrations leading up to it might even be pagan.  All religions have their own new year festivals, often preceded by a period of fasting and/or a confession of past sins. Some are associated with Spring like the Baha'i Naw Ruz, others with historical events such as Muharram for the Muslim community commemorating the flight of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina. Others take place later in the year as in the Jewish community when Rosh Hannah is celebrated in the 7th month of the Jewish calendar. it celebrates the creation of the world and humanity's dependence on God and begins ten days of repentance culminating in the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.  These "New Year" holidays remind us of the  common threads to be found in  many of the world's religions. They may be observed differently and celebrated at different times of the year but they  all express an appreciation for the past, a regret for past sins, a desire for a new beginning and hope for blessings and prosperity in the coming year - all things associated  with the secular celebration of welcoming in the New Year.

Of course there's no need to wait for a new year festival to begin again. I was brought up on the dictum  'from beginnings, to beginnings, through beginnings for beginnings have no end'.  Each day is a new beginning and offers us immense possibilities.  With all beginnings we stand on the threshold of a new world and don't know what might come our way - good and bad. One thing I have learned is that much of what comes our way cannot be controlled. I suppose resolutions and the determination to act differently gives the impression that we are in control of our lives.  There are many self-help books that would also give that impression - you make your own happiness, you too can be successful etc. etc. But illness, death, separation, tragedy, war, flooding, exile and all the ills we are well aware of at this time are all realities that we would not choose. They have come to us and we are judged by how we respond to them. Experience teaches us that life is not easy. But life also teaches us that it is these events that plumb in us the depth of our  humanity, that all things pass. But patience, courage and hope are needed for some sufferings and agonies do not pass quickly or easily. All we can do is acknowlege them, live with them and work through them, drawing on our own inner strength and the help of God. Sometime religions give us a practice to help us cope, other times the belief that things can change and that new life can come out of suffering and death - which is of course the central belief in Christianity - all of which offer us hope.

In all of this I'm reminded of a poem by the Muslim poet Jalaluddin Rumi 


              This being human is a guest house.        
              Every morning a new arrival, 
 A joy, a depression, a meanness,
              some momentary awareness comes  as an unexpected visitor.

              Welcome and entertain them all!
              Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,   who violently sweep your house   empty of its furniture,
              still, treat each guest honorably.
              He may be clearing you out   for some new delight.

              The dark thought, the shame, the malice.    meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
              Be grateful for whatever comes.  because each has been sent  as a guide from beyond.

Not easy to live I find and sometimes hard to believe but a wisdom that cannot be denied. And new year with its new beginnings and its offer of possibilities gives us hope that, in the words of  a christian hymn,  our tears will be turned into dancing. 

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Lighten our Darkness

23/12/2015

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Yesterday was  the shortest day of the year - or maybe it was the day before. There's some doubt about it because the Gregorian calendar of  365 days a year - with an extra day every four years - doesn't correspond exactly to the solar year of 365.2422 days.  So while  a lot of people saw the 21st as the shortest day  those who gathered at Stonehenge did so on the 22nd.  The date didn't matter. Druids and pagans of other denominations  were there to celebrate sunrise and the hope and renewal that the lengthening days will bring to the heart of winter. It's no coincidence that Christians will be celebrating Christmas this week though Eastern Christianity will not actually celebrate it until 6th January which shows that the date of Christmas is not the important thing about the feast.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
There's a possibility that some Christians think December 25th is the actual birthday of Jesus.  When I once suggested this was not the case to a class of students training to be teachers there was a gasp from one of them - what did I mean?  How could this be the case? Well we don't know the date of Jesus' birth but we do celebrate the reality of that birth and we  do it on 25th December - a legitimate thing to do.  Some suggest that the date is borrowed from pagan mid winter celebrations such as the Roman festival of Saturnalia or Sol Invictus which celebrated the birth of the Unconquered Sun on 25th December. Some Christian communities are so convinced of this that they don't celebrate Christmas and reject all the trappings of lights, cards, Christmas trees etc as pagan.

But it's not unusual for religions to absorb into themselves indigenous and pagan elements. A Sri Lankan theologian, Aloysius Pieris, divides religions into what he calls cosmic religions and the more developed meta-cosmic religions. His theory is that the more developed religions only succeed in countries where they connect with the indigenous faith and practice.  All religions have places of pilgrimage, holy sites, holy trees, holy wells and places associated with the sacred and often that sense of the sacred has predated the religion. It's as though the religion has recognised the sacredness already present, honoured it and endowed it with new meaning. So it's not at all unusual  that Christians should christianise a pagan mid-winter festival showing that for them Jesus is the Unconquered Son, the Light, the One  who can dispel the darkness and bring renewed hope and promise to the world. This is a moment for what Tich Nhat Hanh calls looking deeply - not being distracted from the meaning of the feast by analysing its origins or even what might have happened at Jesus'er birth. It's a moment to look behind the glitter and the stories of shepherds and wise men to see what meaning Jesus has in the life of Christians and how significant this child, whose birth we are celebrating, has been for humanity and its history. For Christians it's a moment to realise that religion, spirituality, faith is embedded in our humanity which we know to be sacred and a place where God is present. Jesus shows us that ordinariness and humaness can manifest God and make God present in our everyday lives. 

Celebrating the birth of religious founders is common, most religions do it. Some do it quietly and others with pomp and ceremony. The birthday of Krishna, for example, is a great event within Hinduism and celebrated at the festival of Janmashtami. For some people part of the celebration is waiting up until midnight - the hour when it's thought Krishna was born - for the unveiling of a baby Krishna in a cradle which devotees will take turns to rock. Hindus would  feel quite at home with Nativity scenes in Catholic Churches and homes. Gift-giving, dramatisation of the Krishna story, story-telling are all part of the festivities. Popular Hinduism is a religion of story and myth and people seem to enjoy the stories without angsting about whether they're historically true or not. They understand that there is a hidden meaning behind the stories and allow them to speak for themselves - something some Christian preachers are not able to do, afraid as they are  of literal misunderstandings and a lack of theology.

Muslims on the other hand don't make much of the birthday of Mohammed. It so happens that 26th December is the date of his birthday.  This is an unusual coincidence which happens only every 11 or 12 years. When I first heard of it I thought we might be able to arrange a common celebration of some sort until I realised that not many Muslims, in Scotland at any rate, celebrate the birthday of the Prophet.  In fact the Imam at a nearby Mosque told me he had never celebrated his own birthday though he did know the date and his age!  Some Muslims do remember the Prophet on that day but whether it should be celebrated and how is much disputed. For me, however, there's something auspicious about the two birthdays being around the same time. It's good to remember two great men who made such a significant contribution to humanity and changed the world forever even if their followers have not lived up to their example and let them down by the way they live. But they do show us the possibility of a new way of life which if we were faithful to it could help transform the world in which we live. The celebrations of their birth and life could be a moment of new beginning for us all.  

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Belief in Dialogue

15/12/2015

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Last week a report was published by the Woolf Commission in Cambridge. It so happens I was part of a group giving evidence to the Commission. It was an enjoyable convesation and I had been looking forward to the  publication of the report. The focus of the commission was the role of religion and belief in British society today. For people of my generation the changes in society are very obvious. I remember the first time I saw a Sikh man walk down our street and how taken aback I was. For the most part I lived in a very monolithic community, kowing that there were Presbyterians but nothing of any other faith. Not only do we now have different religions and different places of worship obvious in our skyline but we now recognise many people have no religious faith, some of them dedicated to beliefs such as humanism or secularism, others just not interested in religion. We've moved from being a sacral society where social life was lived within and organised around a particular religious community to being a diverse society even though many of our civic institutions still reflect our Christian roots. The report also recognises diversity within religious and belief communities - some people belong because of a conscious affiliation, some committed to the beliefs and teachings of the faith, some in a liberal way and  some in a more literalist way. But there are some for whom belonging is about community and family tradition and not about belief at all. A few years ago the Sikh community in Scotland had a campaign to allow all 'baptised' Sikhs to carry something like a membership card which would allow them to wear a kirpan when going through security at airports and such like. Those running the campaign were amazed at how few of their community had gone through the 'amrit ceremony' which expresses a conscious  commitment to the faith.

The big question then is how do we live together and organise society to reflect the kind of society we now live in. 

In 2011 The Scottish Government produced a document on the same topic. Called Belief in Dialogue it accepted that Scotland was a  multifaith, diverse, secular society, but one in which all voices were respected and religoius freedom upheld. It was a Good Practice Guide on how people of religious and non- religous people could live together.  It will be no surprise that the conclusion was dialogue - seen as the building blocks of a cohesive and tolerant society and there were plenty of examples of how this might unfold. In fact for the last few years there has been an annual dialogue between religious and belief groups which has grown from an initial insecurity and uncertainty to a meeting of friends, respectful of eachother's differences but aware of our mutual commitment to the common good.

The Scottish document didn't look at the structures of society in the way that the Cambridge one has done. That report covered the areas of 
education, the media, law, dialogue and social action, hoping it might influence future policy making to ensure an ' an environment in which differences enrich society rather than cause anxiety, and in which they contribute to its common good'. Many of the recommendations are already in place in Scotland. for example the recommendation s for a national conversation, launched by leaders of faith communitues, and what they call ethical traditions, about values underlying public life. Ths is important but we have had a head start here in Scotland. On the Scottish Mace, which is on display at every session of Parliament, are the words compassion, integrity, justice and compassion - the values which Donald Dewar, our first First Minister, declared were the ones on which  the new Scotland is built. We've talked a lot about them and they are even incorporated into our education curriculum.  Perhaps now's  the time to think how to make these practical in public life.

I agree with most of the recommendations, none of which are surprising and are ones that have been talked about in dialogue sessions for years. However one of the more controversial recommendations is about faith schools which the Commission thinks are divisive. The criticism leveled against this recommendation is that the commissioners seem  ignorant of the reality, certainly in Catholic schools, many of which reflect the multifaith nature of society. In  Scotland we have state funded denominational and non-denominational schools and the mix of pupils in non-denominational schools hasn't done away with racist incidents. Many Catholic schools have pupils of different faiths and no faith and are the multifaith society in miniature. One of the things that makes a school religious, is the ethos and this expresses the values of the school which for the most part are inclusive and caring for all. A new development which will come to fruition in the next few years is a shared campus for a new Catholic and Jewish primary school. While each school will have its own ethos there will be plenty of opportunity for interaction and dialogue. Maybe this is what it's all about - recognising, respecting and deepening difference while getting to know and respect one another through dialogue. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

One of the recommendations reflects something I suggested at the evidence gathering and I'm glad  to see it included. That was to consider ways to celebrate the secular, multifaith, multibelief nature of society and to reflect this in a meaningful way in national and civic events. At present many of these are Christian and when they are multi-faith  there is a tendency for every religion and belief group to give a reading, prayer or refletion so that it's like a holy concert, sometimes but not often inspirational. I would like to see this change but it needs some creativity and perhaps a common expression of those values that we need to talk about. So an interesting report, pinpointing lots still to be done in the world of interfaith relations.   

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Dark Days

8/12/2015

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We are living in dark days. Not only are we getting to the darkest time of the year but the news does not inspire much hope or optimism.  Flooding and bad weather which scientists tell us is a symptom of climate change, refugees who are not able to find a generous welcome in Europe, terrrorist activities which lead to people be fearful and suspicious of one another, increased islamophobia as innocent muslims are targetted by people not just fearful but also angry, Donald Trump  calling for the USA to  refuse Muslims entry into the country, a desireo scapegoat someone or some group for the evil people see around them.  In the world of interfaith it's important to recognise this danger and not let what happens elsewhere affect good relations at home.
  
In spite of all this darkness there is light around, Christmas trees and christmas decorations lift my heart and while many Christians abhor the materialism of Christmas I find christmas shopping strangely moving as people search for gifts that they hope will please their loved ones. This is also a season of religious festivals that focus on lights. Hannukah is a Jewish festival of light. It commemorates a miracle when the Maccabees purified the Temple and the oil miraculously lasted for eight days  until more could be brought to replenish the empty vessels.  Each day of the eight day festival a new candle is lit and these candles put in a public place.  If anyone has no means of acquiring candles  they are asked to borrow money or candles to display on the candlestick or hannukiah. At the heart of this festival is religious freedom and the candles witness to the importance of and reality of religious freedom, especially in the face of religious oppression.  It's a sign of hope that even in the darkest times hope need not be extinguished and that light can triumph.  

For Christians Christmas has the same message. One of Jesus' titles is the Light of the World which means that Christians see him as the one who is like a lamp shining in  a dark place, who shows a way out of darkness, a way of being and living that is a counter narrative to the prevalent one which seems to be at work in society today. And  John's Gospel tells us that  the darkness will not overcome the light or, as I recently read, repress it. But the darkness doesn't disappear. As Thich Nhat Hanh has said light and darkness are interrelated; there would be no darkness without light and no light without darkness. Light is only seen in darkness. This offers hope and meaning for all people of good will, whether they be religious  or not, who feel helpless and puzzled in the face of atrocities committed in the name of religion and the dark forces that so often seem to be at work in our world. If we could  live by our highest ideals,  try to put the golden rule that is at the heart of all religions into practice we could perhaps offer light and hope to the world.

Pope Francis has offered light and hope this week. On 8th December he initiated a Holy Year, something that has been happening every 25 years in the Catholic Church. It relates back to the notion of Jubilee in the Jewish scriptures. This occurred every fifty years and proclaimed liberty  to the land, debtors, slaves and prisoners. It was a year of mercy. It's no longer celebrated in Judaism  but it was adopted by the Catholic Church in the Middle ages. In Judaism it was announced by the blowing of a ram's horn, in Catholicism by the solemn opening of the Holy Door, usually in Rome but this year in a number of Cathedrals throughout the world. The Pope wants to show the Catholic Church as merciful and forgiving rather than judgemental. He suggested that 
"to enter through the Holy Door means to rediscover the deepness of the mercy of the Father who welcomes all and goes out to meet everyone personally. How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we affirm that sins are punished by his judgment before putting first that they are forgiven by his mercy! We have to put mercy before judgment, and in every case God’s judgment will always be in the light of his mercy."

This year is to offer mercy and forgiveness to believers but it's also about believers showing mercy to others. The mass on Tuesday which began the Holy Year ended with the words,  "
Be merciful as your Father is merciful."  This is the call to all Catholics and indeed all Christians and a benchmark for how faithfully they are living out their faith. Mercy is also central to Islam among other faiths. Each chapter of the Qur'an, apart from one, begins, "In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate"  Islam speaks of the 99 beautiful names of God but the Qur'an shows that mercy and compassion are central to the reality of God and that the Qur'an is to be understood through the lens of mercy and compassion. We could say that mercy and compassion are also the benchmark for judging an authentic Islamic faith as it is for judging an  authentic Christian faith. Perhaps in this Holy Year we Christians and Muslims could come together to work out how we show a mercy that is just and honest, not just to one another whom we see as our brothers and sisters, but also those who by their action show up our religions by their hatred rather than their mercy - a good agenda for 2016.

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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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