Holocaust Sunday

It was good to be driving up the A470 again with the rising sun behind me to celebrate the Eucharist at Abercanaid first thing this morning. In Radio Four's Sunday worship slot, Morning Prayer was being broadcasted from Cardiff. Immediately I recognised the voice of Canon Peter Collins the Administrator of the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, and later Archbishop George Stack whom I heard preaching at Llandaff Cathedral Evensong last Sunday. I was especially grateful because I'd got up too late to say Matins before I left. 

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and this was the theme appropriately running through the service. Beautiful use was made of 'the Met' choir, singing Psalms and Canticles with Anglican as well as Gregorian content. The Archbishop spoke with simplicity and clarity, quoting Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the late Dean of Westminster Abbey Michael Mayne and Dietrich Boenhoffer in a brief address. Christian testimony these days is both ecumenical and interfaith in its scope, no matter what denomination the preacher is.

Abercanaid was snow free when I got there and the congregation pleased to be back to normal, out and about again. The sun shone as I drove home. I picked up Clare from St Catherine's after the Eucharist there and we went to Riverside Market, where a chilly wind blew uncomfortably, so we didn't hang around for long. After lunch we takled with Claudine in Burma, Rachel in Arizona, Amanda in Bristol. Yesterday we heard from a delighted Kath that she'd got the funding to take on tour performances from the parent and children dance project she's been working on for the past six months.

Owain came around for tea. He told us how his techno tracks are gradually being taken up for internet broadcast and gaining appreciation. He's put spare time to good use this past year, and it compensates somewhat for being stuck in a dead end job unable to make it back into his career employment option. After dark, thunder and hail in copious quantities surprised us. Owain sensibly took a taxi home, leaving us to get ready for the week ahead.

 

Encouraging city centre news

I've been to the CBS office today, and been into College twice. I meant to do some work this morning, but ended up chatting with a couple of students who were revising two thousand years worth of church history for an up-coming exam, and then joining in the revision Q&A. It was great fun. Once could make a nice College parlour game out of it. Ecclesiastical Trivial Pursuits?

In discussing yesterday's Cathedral visit and sermon by Archbishop George Stack with Peter the Principal, I learned something historical that cast yesterday's event into an altogether different light. It seems that the last Bishop of Llandaff before the Reformation break with Rome was the Confessor and Spiritual Director of Queen Catherine of Aragon, whose divorce from Henry VIII was the issue around which the King nationalised the British church. To know this is to understand that Archbishop George preaching in this particular Cathedral pulpit is a pilgrim for reconciliation, not just a high officer of the church engaging in ecumenical diplomacy.

I also learned today that the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral has actually purchased Ebeneser Congregational church opposite in Charles Street, as part of its long term development plans. I'd heard gossip about this before last summer but assumed it was speculation. Apparently the initiative was encouraged by Archbishop George, as is use of the old church Sunday School building by Council and Local Health Board for an emergency medical triage centre to deal with casualties of night economy over indulgence on weekends. 

The church undercroft hall and kitchens are to be used by the street care teams for a feeding station, again with the active support of the new Archbishop. This is amazing good news for city centre voluntary workers, and very much to the credit of the local Catholic community - not to mention an answer to the prayers of many over several years past.

 

Ecumenism in contention

As it's the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, it was no surprise that one of Wales' leading ecumenical ambassadors of the past forty years, Revd Noel Davies, was preaching at the Cathedral Eucharist yesterday morning. Former General Secretary of CYTUN, now in retirement, he's  pastor of Ebenezer Newydd Welsh Congregational Church in Swansea. He was in good form, although I must admit, I've heard him preach that sermon before. But then, it's not really surprising. There's only so much you can say about mission and ecumenism that hasn't already been said.

In the Cathedral notice sheet there was reminder that Mgr George Stack, Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff was preaching at Evensong, so I proposed to make an effort to return to the Cathedral, but I dozed off after lunch and lost ten minutes, so I arrived during the singing of the Psalm, slipped into the nave feeling a little guilty, and sat next to another retired cleric, more punctual than me. I'm glad I made it. He preached a thoughtful sermon about the value of ecumenism and witness, touching upon the contentious and thorny issue of presumed consent in relation to organ donation for transplants, under debate in Wales at the moment. 

He takes the same line as Archbishop Barry about the risk presumed consent poses to a Christian understanding of human dignity and responsibility. He was emphatic about the need for freedom and generosity in the charitable exercise of consent. This is different from compulsion in response to need. It won't be properly understood, that's certain. Both Archbishops will continue to come in for negative criticism from transplant advocates, although they share concern with them for health and quality of life for all who suffer.

There's a profound problem in failing to understand that church leaders are guided by perceptions of the entire world in all its complexity. Their position is far less immediate in perspective than the urgency felt by campaigners giving their utmost to respond to the crises of  life threatening illness sufferers the best way they can.

It's possible for those addressing 'big picture' issues to ignore what's in their faces. But, it's equally possible for those responding the crisis before them to fail to see or fail to be concerned about unforeseen consequences of their actions affecting the wider world. We see this all the time in politics and economics. In this special issue of medical ethics, both politics and economics, not to mention global interdependency and social justice come into play. We need more open dialogue than we're getting on what life is all about.

Quality and value mean different things to different kinds of people it seems, and depend on whether you're one of the haves or a have-not, wherever you live.