From daft fiction to weird fact

More bad weather warnings issued for today, but they don't seem to have applied to South Wales, except that overnight there was heavy rain. The wind blew away early showers, so we had sunshine for much of the day. This was a relief, as I had a funeral at Pidgeon's Chapel followed by burial at Western Cemetery at the end of the morning. When I got back I cooked lunch in time for Clare's return from study group and then walked for an hour. The Taff at Blackweir was running higher than yesterday, but the water was not yet covering the top of the fish ladder, as it does several times each winter.

On my return, I drafted next Sunday's Harvest sermon, full of sombre thoughts in the light of the crisis in agriculture, with crops rotting in the fields, animals culled and destroyed instead of slaughtered for meat, all due to lack of pickers, slaughterers and butchers, and drivers to transport food to market. It's symptomatic of the UK government's inability to envisage the whole picture or plan adequately for the future. The lack of coherent action to address these crisis needs is pushing food prices up and is likely to lead to food shortages. Those who will suffer most are those who are poor and just about managing. I see a real possibility of social unrest as a consequence.

This evening on Sky Arts there was a two hour long documentary about the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican., mischievously entitled 'The Michaelangelo Code' parodying Dan Brown's ridiculous pulp fiction thrillers. It investigated the significance of the frescoes which are Michaelangelo's masterpiece and how they can be interpreted in the light of the Franciscan era in Renaissance history. Pope Sixtus and his nephew successor Pope Julius were both Friars. Sixtus built the chapel, modelled on the biblical proportions of the second Temple in Jerusalem. Julius commissioned Michaelangelo for the fresco painting, imposing an esoteric understanding of prophetic scripture upon a work. designed to reveal the end time of creation before Judgement Day. 

It was esoteric in the sense that some of the symbolism and the depiction of certain prophets, underpinned their belief that they personally were destined to prepare the way for the Second Coming. A good enough justification for they way they exercised Papal power. Julius believed he was to build the new Jerusalem on earth, but this time in Rome. He had the thousand year old basilica of St Peter demolished and commissioned the construction of the present basilica. The dome was of Michaelangelo's design, though the building took another 200 years to complete. That's quite a vanity project!

It was a long and complex story vividly told by art historian Waldemar Januszczak, filmed on location in Rome, Jerusalem and Portugal. It was introduced and closed by sections on the Waco massacre in 1993 of members of the Branch Davidian sect, which bases its belief in the imminence of the end of the world on much the same texts used underpin the power of the two Franciscan Popes. Given our crisis ridden times, it's worth reflecting on how people with a sense of their own self importance and unique destiny can abuse power and authority for their own ends, and employ scripture as their justification. 

On-line Advent

We've seen a heartening increase in the number of parents with children at St Catherine's recently but this morning there were fewer, as there's a Christingle service at St John's this afternoon, booked to the full capacity allowed of eighty people. Now that's encouraging to know in these tough times! Mother Frances is on leave for the rest of this week, and has been busy attending to necessary details to cover in her absence - tiring in itself. She sent me a briefing email on safety protocols for church based funeral services, as I have my first one in St John's twelve days hence. 

Funerals directors must provide a list of mourners and contact numbers in their family groups who'll be attending, so that the verger can check them in on their arrival. I don't know if the same applies at crem funerals governed as they are by public health regulations. A list may need to be provided, but I've never seen a attendant checking mourners into the crem chapel. Some enter beforehand, others follow behind the coffin. 

Life is more complex when it comes to church services, as the dioceses are eager to impose strict safety conditions to minimise  contagion spread.  It's true that there are instances of funerals, weddings and other church services being 'superspreader' events before contagion dynamics were properly understood, and since then by groups wilfully, if not piously putting God to the test by denying the problem and ignoring the dangers, but these are the exception rather than the norm. 

Anglican traditional culture has long emphasised the importance of everything being done 'decently and in good order', despite the risk of seeming conventional and dull. Being a safe and stable foundation for communities of faith, innovating and adapting carefully, perhaps too slowly for the impulsive natured believer, has seen us weather centuries of harsh and hostile times of expansion and decline.

I'm surprised it's taken so long for church leaders to complain publicly about the government closure of churches during lock-down. It's in the interests of justice to demand evidence that stricter church service management regimes add to local contagion statistics, especially when churches actively support Track and Trace mechanisms properly with a steward signing worshippers into services. A one size fits all closure approach does nothing to help identify and sanction churches that don't comply. It is of course impossible to do anything to control the behaviour of worshippers once they have left church grounds where they are free to obey or break the rules and risk infection any way they want to, but it is vital that Parish congregations continue to act in an exemplary manner, for the common good.

Talking of church regulations, when I walked to the Cathedral straight after lunch today, I saw a notice displayed on the board outside about a petition for a Faculty (the church recognised equivalent to civil planning permission) to install cameras at four points in the Cathedral whose purpose will be to record or live stream worship services. Bravo, at last! This would have been beneficial earlier in the century, but video technology is so much more sophisticated, affordable and acceptable now that the pandemic forced so many more people throughout the world to rely on new technologies to communicate, socially, domestically, scientifically and economically. 

I remember meeting Fr Mark in the Cathedral one Sunday afternoon, and him talking about learning to record a Sunday Eucharist for on-line consumption during lock-down. What this revealed was the enthusiastic reception for the Cathedral's offering by a range of people, duty bound or housebound and unable to attend, plus extending the ability of ministry to reach out to a new audience ordinarily out of range. I hope we'll see this kind of initiative taken up at Parish level, the more affordable it becomes.

I got back from my walk early enough to listen to Evensong on Radio 3, except that it was an Advent procession of Carols  live from St John's College Cambridge, beautifully sung. In fact, as I was a couple of minutes late, I found the programme on BBC iPlayer on my Blackberry, rolled it back to the start, and listened with the phone plugged in to the dining room hi-fi. A lovely treat.

After supper, I accidentally came across a surprise music programme on Sky Arts, all about a London concert in 1985 by Rockabilly legend Carl Perkins and his band. He wrote and performed several songs which were huge hits for Elvis Presley, including 'Blue Suede Shoes'. The event seems to have been set up by South Walian rocker and music entrepreneur Dave Edmunds, brother of Ricky Dee who deejayed the parish discos at St Andrew's Penyrheol in the late sixties early seventies. Dave was there performing on stage as a guest star along with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. An amazing hour of music which took me back to my early teens and got me on my feet trying to sing along to lyrics half remembered, to fantastic live versions of songs unlike those on the '78 or '45 recordings of my youth. 

An unusual way to begin Advent indeed!