« November 2007 |
Main
| January 2008 »
The Archbishop of Canterbury is to put his New Year message on YouTube for the first time with a go-green-for-God challenge. Jeremy Clarkson is none too pleased about the Archbishop asking us to go green - perhaps because Rowan Williams drives a Honda Civic - an electric/petrol hybrid and one of the greenest cars on the market.
The Pope has also used his New Year message to urge the faithful to protect the environment and to promote the family.
Continue reading "Archbishop's YouTube message for New Year" »
 This is Fr. Wall, a Leeds diocese Catholic priest who supports the New York Yankees. He is on a calendar with 11 other local priests showing off their outside interests (footie, celebrity magazines, etc) to demonstrate to teenagers that you needn't be a Neddy no-mates just because you're a priest. There is a shortage of vocations.
Where this leaves the teenagers who rather hope to escape the peer pressure of celebrity and football, I am not sure. But let us be grateful that the good Fathers kept their clothes on.
The religious leaders
 "You know that identities are destroyed. As an Anglican, this is what I wear to identify myself that I am a clergyman. Do you know what Mugabe has done? He has taken people's identity and literally - if you don't mind - cut it to pieces." Archbishop John Sentamu while cutting up his Dog collar on national television.
 “It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India, for example. It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together — Iraq, for example.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, told Emel, a Muslim Lifestyle Magazine.
 “Yes, a referendum [on the next Dalai Lama] is possible. When my physical [condition] becomes weak and serious preparation for death [has started], then that should happen. According to my regular medical check-up it seems another few decades, I think, are there, so no hurry.” The Dalai Lama told The Times in November.
“The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions. The Dalai Lama’s statement is in blatant violation of religious practice and historical procedure.” Chinese Foreign Ministry.
 It is “difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly be attributed to them [Orthodox and Protestant churches]” – Vatican document backed by the Pope.
“Canon law says the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving Communion, which is receiving the body of Christ . . . It expresses our belief that human individuality, the human personality, is present from the first moment of life.” The Pope during his first visit to Brazil, the world’s most populous Roman Catholic country.
“Multiculturalism has run its course” said Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his new book this year.
 “We are killing - in our country - the equivalent of a classroom of kids every single day, can you imagine that? Two Dunblane massacres a day going on and on”. Cardinal Keith O’Brien leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland.
 “I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.” Mother Teresa in letters published this year.
"The Monks, while respecting the Appeal Court’s decision, have assured me that they will pray for the bull’s soul as they will for the Welsh Assembly’s." Anil Bhanot, the General Secretary of the Hindu Council UK, after the slaughter of Shambo the sacred bull.
“As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them — so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes.” Muslim letter of Peace signed by 138 Muslim scholars in October.
The Presidents
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at Columbia University in New York.
"But if in our view, "government" would be a responsibility before God for establishing justice and a duty to ensure the rights of common people, serving the servants of God and helping the oppressed- then the most important issue will be the people's concerns. If this is the case, governors would not view themselves as better than other people and they wouldn't put themselves in any other position except serving the people." President Ahmadinejad's blog
 "We believe in an Almighty, we believe in the freedom for people to worship that Almighty. They don't." President George Bush, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Continue reading "Religious quotes of the year" »
The death of Benazir Bhutto today is a "body blow for freedom and democracy in Pakistan" said the Bishop of Rochester the former Bishop of Raiwind Lahore.
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali told Times Online that the Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister had been his "personal friend for many years".
"Her murder by extremists is a body blow for freedom and democracy in Pakistan. It raises serious questions about the government’s ability to provide security for its citizens when even one as eminent as she can be killed in this way," he said.
"I do hope the general elections can still be held and that the cause of democracy can survive this catastrophe",the Bishop added.
"My prayers are for her husband, children and family that they will be comforted at this time of grief. She will always be remembered for her commitment to Pakistan and her courage in public life.”
Here is the former Prime Minister in her own words and here is a history of the Bhutto family.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!  (THIS ONE IS AUSTRIAN, PAINTED BEHIND GLASS). we hope you have enjoyed the Faith Central Advent Calendar. Next year the exhibition will move on to another venue, watch this space
The results are in. You have voted 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' as your favourite carol with 18.3 per cent of the vote.
However closely behind was the 'None of the Above' category with 17.6 per cent. This may be because 'O Holy Night' (just chosen as Britain's favourite carol by a Classic FM poll) was not included.
Here are the full results. Thanks for voting.
1. Hark The Herald won with 18.3 per cent of the vote
2. None of the Above 17.6 per cent
3. Silent Night 17.3 per cent
4. O Come all ye faithful 15.9 per cent
5. In the Bleak Midwinter 12.8 per cent
6. Once in Royal David's City 6.4 per cent
7. O Little Town of Bethlehem 4.9 per cent
8. Mary's Boy Child 2.7 per cent
9. Away in a Manger 2.4 per cent
10. See Amid the Winter's snow 1.6 per cent
Frieda Hughes writes about my favourite, 'In the Bleak Midwinter', in Times 2 today.
Joanna Sugden
Following the unexpected brouhaha of arguments, opinion-columns , Today interviews, Jeremy Vine debates and enraged bloggers which I accidentally started with a light article about Professor Dawkins' penchant for singing carols, a clarification. Yea, let the following facts be disseminated across the land at this season of goodwill:-
1) I never said that militant atheists shouldn't be "allowed" to sing carols. Anyone can sing whatever they like, wherever they like (except in English pubs without prodnose government licences, since the repressive new laws, boo hiss)
2) I just enjoyed the idea of Prof. Dawkins singing "O come let us adore Him" about the character he calls a “misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”. It is as if Germaine Greer joined in the chorus of "I'm a Barbie Girl in a Barbie World". It is funny.
3) I am perfectly aware that not all carol-singers are believers. I said so. In words. But if you don't see anything amusing in the spectacle of an academic singing explicit songs of rejoicing after excoriating the "“time-consuming, wealth-consuming, hostility-provoking rituals and anti-factual counter-productive fantasies of religion"....well...
4) There are certain timeless and honourable customs surrounding Christmas. One of them is teasing Professor Dawkins.
5) Merry Christmas. I now blog off for a few computer-free days. The picture below is the Christmas special from the Pastafarian followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster cult. 
 The Provencal 'santons' or "Little saints" are one of the most beloved and followed schools of Nativity-making. These were made by Michelle Andree, the noted santonniere who lived in Britain but learned the craft 90 years ago at her grandfather's knee. The point of santons is that every trade and way of life in the 19c village comes to the crib - the baker brings bread, the Mayor brings a speech, the poulterer brings chickens...and there is always this little character,  Le Ravi - the village simpleton. He brings nothing, but throws up his hands in wonder and is placed close to the manger. Madame Andree used to insist that they should never be fired, but left 'fragile comme la chair humaine" - as fragile as human flesh -and re-painted and mended each year, with love.
 For those who remember the old USSR hostility to anything religious, and the religiosity inherent in US commercial culture, here's a turn-up. Prosecutors in Russia are investigating complaints that Coca-Cola's characteristically sophistico-crass adverts are blaspheming against the sacred sites and images of Orthodox Christianity. The ads use churches and even crosses, mingled with Coke bottles. The company says it is just "promoting Russia's culture". But it is always a mistake to dismiss as "culture" what for some people is a serious and heartfelt belief. Nice to see Coke executives on the back foot, though...
 Why both together? Because - as visitors to the exhibition in Newcastle (final day today) will notice, the Suffolk Crib (shown in a barn of its own) has figures made in precisely the same way as the traditional Slovakian figures below. The dolls are classic corn-husk dolls, made from the outer husk of a corncob which is cut green, dried in the sun slowly, and modelled with thread and string and scissors and ingenuity. 
The craft actually springs up all over the world, apparently quite independently: for wherever maize grows, there are children who get bored during the harvest and take over the husks (and the ‘silk’, for hair) to make figures with more or less skill. American folk-memory has it that the Native Americans taught the children to make such maize dolls at the first Thanksgiving supper. Similar dolls appear as far apart as Mexico and Russia.
 This fantastic image from the space-race, Cold War era is one of a collection of old Soviet Christmas cards . Enjoy.
A Bible has been printed complete at the size of a pin head. No, I don't know why. No, there isn't a picture. Oh, all right, here it is: . Fooled you. Or not.
You can't wonder if US politicians "do God" more stridently than any UK candidates would dare. A survey by the Pew Center on Religion & Public Life found that "most Americans continue to say that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs." Hillary Clinton speaks of it less than most, but has now talked about her Methodist faith (which refreshingly puts a heavy emphasis on "good works" rather than boasting of private spiritual experience) though the other day she said that over-tough asylum policy would "criminalize the Good Samaritan, or even Jesus himself". Preacher Huckabee is nicely profiled here by CBS; and the Mormon faith, which seems to be doing little good to Mitt Romney, hits back against misconceptions with a comprehensive Q & A on everything from the Incarnation to "Mormon Underwear" (the garments, it says repressively, "are considered sacred by Church members and are not regarded as a topic for casual conversation."
 When my globetrotting brother first brought me this crib from Chile, made by Temuco Mapuche Indians, I was a bit sniffy at first glance - it is very sentimental and Mabel Lucie Atwell...but then I looked closer and saw that the child has been swaddled in Mapuche style (it's cold on those highlands), and they have lit a fire to keep him warm. It is thus a genuine culturally-coloured Nativity, and well worth its place in the exhibition. It is a poor region; here are some real Mapuche babies swaddled up similarly..
It's silly season. Faith Central offers you a round-up of the strangest Christmas stories around this year.
1. Starting with this six meter high, Christmas tree made out of 60kg of Chocolate.
2. Then onto the news that K-Mart in the US has renamed its Christmas trees 'Holiday Trees' in a seasonal politically correct move.
3. Nativity plays were the next to fall foul of the PC police, with only one in five primary schools putting on the traditional Biblical story.
4. The baby Jesus was stolen by thieves from a Nativity scene in the US, raising fears that Christ really had been taken out of Christmas.
5. Christina Odone was banned from talking about religion at the Royal Commonwealth Society's carol service for fear of causing offence to non-believers.
6. The old cry of 'they've cancelled Christmas' was recycled when Warrington council replaced their Christmas lights with an illumined message promoting recycling.
7. And finally, these Christmas lights are perhaps the greenest and craziest of all, powered as they are by an Electric Eel.
Joanna Sugden
 There are two Bangladeshi cribs in the exhibition now running in Newcastle - one is a dignified clay one with a fine water-buffalo, the other is this one made of sisal. I am particularly fond of the sheep. And of the fact that everyone is fixed to the base, so it takes less time to set up than the other 150-odd cribs in the collection...
 Is there a Disney world view? A new course will study the religion of Disney.
There's already a Gospel According to Disney "Good is always rewarded; evil is always punished. Faith is an essential element-faith in yourself and, even more, faith in something greater than yourself, some higher power. Optimism and hard work complete the basic canon."
Walt Disney himself was a devout congregationalist and there are plenty of people out there who've seen religious and moral parallels in everything from Pocahontas to the Lion King. So which religious themes in Disney films can you spot?
Joanna Sugden
 Every culture which attempts a Nativity sets its own stamp on it: here, in a gipsy camp built by the Romany-born Vernon Rose, the mother and her attendants obey Romany purity laws by having the baby in a “bender”, a temporary tent which can be burnt afterwards.
The welcome to a Romany child is intense; in some tribes it is wrapped in swaddling, on which a few drops of the father’s blood are let to fall, in earnest of its paternity; sometimes a piece of his clothing is placed on the baby. He is often prohibited from leaving the camp between sunset and sunrise, so that he is a protector from diabolical spirits; no other man may protect his wife. The child has three names: the first one a secret, whispered by the mother at birth and told to nobody. The second is a Roma name, for use in the tribe. The last, baptismal name is according to the religion of the country where the child is living, and is the least important.
For this Nativity, now on view in the Newcastle Exhibition, the artist wrote a poem beginning:
Romani Jesu, born on the straw,
Following only his Father’s law...
In New York yesterday Hassan Askari, a slightly built accountancy student, will have got a medal from Mayor Bloomberg. Alone among onlookers he weighed in to help three Jewish strangers, one a rabbi, who were being attacked on the subway by louts shouting anti-Semitic slogans. His bravery left him with a damaged nose, a stitched lip, bruises and two black eyes.
"I believe we are all members of one family, and my religion teaches me always to come to the aid of my fellow man in distress." says Mr Askari. The interesting reflection is that despite the Palestinian conflict, ten years ago this could have been just another have-a-go hero story, and nobody would have been that interested in their respective religions. Today, it's iconic.
Mr Barwell offers me this nice little video of Prof. Dawkins discussing Christmas etc with some kindred spirits, and the rather beguiling line regarding College Grace in Latin - "I won't utter falsehoods but I don't mind uttering meaningless statements". I still think he might have trouble with O come let us Adore Him. It's in English. You have to sing it three times...
Comment from new LibDem supremo Nick Clegg, the latest political leader to be faced with the dilemma of whether to Do God. He leaves it to his wife and children, it seems, but rather endearingly refuses to have "a closed heart or a closed mind". So he'll be OK with the carols, then. Good luck to him.
Unfortunately some of Faith Central's readers have experienced difficulty when commenting on posts. The error message received by some people when they post comments means the comment has fallen foul of the typepad Spam filter which detects banned key words (even when embedded in another word).
We apologise for this. Please keep commenting and if you receive an error message - don't worry - we have got your comment and will publish it in accordance with the usual guidelines as soon as possible.
Joanna Sugden
President Ahmadinejad has become the first Iranian leader to take part in the haj. He accepted an invitation from King Abdullah of Saudi and will today take part in the stoning of the pillars at the Grand Mosque, to ward off the devil. Relations between Sunni governed Saudi Arabia and Shia dominated Iran have been tense at the pilgrimage since 1987 when an Iranian protest at the haj was broken up by Saudi security forces. More than 400 died, including over 200 Iranians. Diplomatic relations between the two countries ended and Iranians stayed away from Mecca for four years.
Islam requires every Muslim to make the journey once in their lifetime if they are physically able and can afford to do so. This woman sold all she had to be there this year.
There are some good reports from the haj this year, one from a secular reporter quite overwhelmed by the experience, and one from The Guardian's Muslim religion reporter.
Here's a list of five facts about the haj and a more detailed history of the pilgrimage is here. One blogger recounts his trip to Mecca last year with some great photos.
Sadly with more than two million people in the city for the week, safety cannot always be guaranteed. Last year nearly four hundred were killed in a stampede at the bridge on the way to the stoning of the pillars. Saudi officials say the bridge can now cope with 200,000 pilgrims crossing it every hour. But this year tragedy has already struck with the loss of five in a bus crash on the way to Mecca. The threat of bird-flu at the gathering is discussed here, and here the official Saudi haj site tells how modern technology is used at the site.
 This second African crib (on show in the exhibiton now open in Newcastle) is from Rwanda; I found it on sale in France for a charity, in the year after the genocide. As in all the African cribs, the feeling that the artist has for the material - ivory, ebony, soapstone or wood - contributes to the power of the piece. This is jacaranda wood.
 American Muslims, says a nationwide survey of more 60,000 Muslims conducted by Pew Research , concluded that 72% of American Muslims consider their
community a good place to live and nearly eight in 10 are happy with
their lives. Gordon Brown has expressed his admiration for their integration, which measures better than ours. At the same time, for a taste of right-wing US paranoia about Islam this American Thinker article by Janet Levy takes some beating. It says "An ideology that endeavors
to supplant our laws, culture and religious beliefs poses a dangerous
threat and is not a candidate for coexistence. We had better face the
reality of true, Islamic doctrine and forcefully fight its encroachment
into our society."
It paints a picture of the poor old UK as utterly under the thumb of Moslems and bending over backwards to accomodate their every whim. It smells of extreme panic; those contented patriotic US Muslims will have their work cut out to counter this kind of view.
You've made the costume, shed the tears, and felt the pride, but the magic isn't over just yet. Send us pictures of your little angels in their nativity plays to faithcentral@timesonline.co.uk and we'll publish them on Times Online. Send the biggest file your computer can handle.
Click here to find out why Dawkins is a carol lover and more about his belief in cultural Christianity in a comment piece from The Times by Libby Purves.
And if you're reading this Professor - don't forget to vote for your favourite carol here.
Here are the top ten comments on Libby Purves' article so far.
1. "Luckily, there are many pre-Christian and non-Christian carols and traditions, Deck the Hall, Wassail, etc. Do not forget the Church planted Christmas on an existing holiday." Smith, Beirut,
2. "Whatever is said about Dawkins his arguments are consistent and stand up to scrutiny. This is unlike the vast majority that the atheist community fields against the religions.
If we all stuck absolutely true to our principles then I think most people would find it impossible to operate in our society. As a practising Christian I don't mind the fellow; it's those with arguments where you could drive a truck through the gaps that I find objectionable." i.e., Norwich, The ancient kingdom of East Anglia
3."Why shouldn't an atheist (like I am) be moved by the beauty of music, whatever its inspiration may be? Some of the world's best music (and paintings and sculptures) are inspired by religion: wouldn't it be extremely silly to negate a thing of beauty if it is inspired by a thought you don't share? Cannot Christians be moved by the Taj Mahal?" Erik De Koster, Brussels, Belgium
4. "A decent article Libby, but I have to pick you up on one point. I do honestly believe that you have read the God Delusion, unlike the vast majority of its critics, but when you say "But if you loudly and repeatedly make a career of denying any possibility at all of the reality of God..." you are surely forgetting that he does not deny any possibility of god, just that he/she/it is extremely unlikely. Indeed there is a whole chapter called "Why there is almost certainly no god" Mark Allen, Nottingham
5. "This debate is very interesting but honestly the most interesting bit of it was the new words for the carols - much as I hate to say this, but keep up the good work Libby!" Robert, Bracknell Forest,
6. "Well done Ms Purves. I can now see a whole new industry growing up to supply new non-religious words to the nation's favourite carols." Stewart Ware, London, UK
7. "I think Dawkins simply makes the point that one does not have to be a Christian to wish for peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men - at this time or any time of year. It could be argued that it is in our genes....." Alan Boyd, Beijing, China
8. "By your arguments, it would be hypocritical for an atheist to attend a funeral or a wedding, if it was held in a church." Andy, Newcastle
9. "Most interesting. So do you have to be a communist to sing John Lennon's 'Imagine.' Does a young girl doing a karaoke version of Madonna's 'Material Girl' have to be just that. Can only loner invdividualists do Chesney Hawks 'I Am The One And Only.?'
I could go on and on, or may I suggest however, that singing is performance, like acting, and one can enjoy the music of a particular song, acting the part while singing it for the duration of the song, then return to the reality. This is all Dawkins is doing." Kevin, Nottingham
10. "Let's face it - christmas carols generally have good tunes... I am as much an atheist as Richard Dawkins, and overtly christian songs usually make me intensely uncomfortable, but sometimes I think why not sing along to a familiar tune, especially when everyone is already well aware of where you stand. Still, that said, I once went to a church wedding in which I refused to participate in anything other than a booming redention of Jerusalem, which I made it audibly clear I was only singing because it's associated with rugby!
And as to 'How insulting to those who mean every word of it?', here's some honesty: I couldn't care less - in the words of Bill Hicks, "well, then forgive me"." Macelington, Nottingham
Joanna Sugden
 King Abdullah of Saudi has used the start of the haj to spare the teenage victim of gang rape from 200 lashes and six months in jail. The haj is a traditional time for granting reprieves.
"Despite her harrowing ordeal, the girl was punished because she had been alone in a car with a man who was not her relative"
It seems pressure and justified outrage from all quarters, including internally, have made the King see sense. But as the Times article today makes clear a reliance on pardons isn't enough.
"Fawziya al-Oyouni, a woman’s rights activist, welcomed the Qatif Girl’s pardon, but said more was needed. 'We don’t want to rely simply on pardons. We need harsher sentences for the guilty parties and we want to feel safe,' she said, citing another rape case this month."
Joanna Sugden
 African spirituality is strong and earthy: the spirit world is part of daily life. There is magic, there are miracles, there are holy places , people and things. When this feeling of African sacredness invests itself into a set of Christian statuary, it is extraordinarily powerful, all the more moving to Westerners for its differentness: such figures are a powerful tool for meditation. Nothing is more universal than the birth of a baby, the coming of a miraculous new life; and since in the African spiritual universe spirits are thought to reside in trees, water, animals and rocks, the very materials of the sculpture have a numinous quality. This - from the exhibition which opens today in Newcastle - is from Tanzania, made of ebony. Tomorrow, more African cribs.
 The BBC reports that Israel has - as a 'goodwill gesture' - allowed some 500 Palestinians to leave by the Rafah crossing in order to make the Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which all able-bodied Muslims are enjoined to make once in their life.
Fascinating piece in the Economist about how new, how very new, a phenomenon is religious tolerance..
 In Barcelona, the strong Catalan crib tradition always includes, in the corner of the family crib, a little man squatting down in the corner who is - face it - defecating. The "caganer" dates back to the 16th century, some sy, though the Catalan goverment has now banned him from official displays; he represents the earthier aspect of Incarnation, and perhaps also fertility. Tends to startle people, though. A small one may or may not be in the exhibition of cribs in Newcastle which opens tomorrow. .
Continue reading "Advent Calendar day 17 - shocking" »
Sadly, in Basra the archbishop has asked for non-observance of the feast after the martyrdom of two Christians, as a gesture of sorrow. Meanwhile in the US, in a gesture rather of Puritanical contrariness, some Protestant churches maintain a Cromwellian attitude and refuse to have anything to do with it. It was in the 17c, Pepys recalls, that the English parliament attempted to ban Christmas, an event chronicled by Macaulay thus:
"The Long Parliament gave orders that the twenty-fifth of December should be strictly observed as a fast, and that all men should pass it in humbly bemoaning the great national sin which they and their fathers had so often committed on that day by romping under the mistletoe, eating boar’s head, and drinking ale flavored with roasted apples. No public act of that time seems to have irritated the common people more. On the next anniversary of the festival formidable riots broke out in many places. The constables were resisted, the magistrates insulted, the houses of noted zealots attacked, and the prescribed service of the day openly read in the churches.”
 If you go down the Via S.Gregoria Armeno in Naples all year round you find more cribs - presepi - and figures than you could ever imagine; and moreover, you also notice that the visitors to the crib include such contemporary figures as Mother Teresa and Diana, George Bush and Elvis Presley. And, almost always, a Harlequin figure like the one in our Newcastle exhibition , with a custard pie ready to fling. It is, I suppose, his one talent. I like the way the Neapolitans find it natural to set the crib scene in a pub...
The Plagues of Egypt can all be explained. Prof. Wooton draws on biology and geology to identify the “rivers of blood” as sediment-rich water flowing into the Nile from red soil (actually, I've seen this happpen in Turkey - a whole red harbour). The fish also would have died of that. The plague of frogs could have been migrating , the plague of lice a sudden hatching after rain on dry land; swarms of flies we all know about, and the flies then bit the cattle and gave te population boils; fiery hail and dark skies are no problem either, in a volatile climate. Only the deaths of the firstborn remain puzzling...
The Vatican has strongly reasserted the right of Christians to try and convert others. It is a discussion worth having, since in some Islamic countries it is illegal to attempt proselytizing; in Eastern Europe the Russian Orthodox Church has accused Catholics of improperly seeking converts in traditionally Orthodox areas — a claim the Vatican has rejected; and Catholics have also been accused in India of aggressive attempts to convert Hindus.
In some sects - Zoroastrianism, Druze - converts are not accepted. The wikipedia entry on proselytism is particularly full, well linked, and fascinating. This US website tackles the question head-on. Some religions do not attempt conversion - notably Hinduism and Buddhism, saying there are many ways to Truth - and Orthodox Judaism discourages conversion, though persistent and sincere requests are accepted.
The Vatican has rather refreshingly decided not to have a manger-ox-ass Nativity scene this year but a tableau of a rather older Jesus, giving Joseph a hand in the carpentry shop. Daresay Gordon Brown will follow suit: you can't go setting up broke single mothers in unhygienic stables as role models, can you? Much better to see the lad taking on an apprenticeship and acquiring Skills useful to the economy....
The picture, by the way, is an early American evangelical posed photo.
 This was made in the Romanian countryside around the time of the fall of Ceaucescu. It is a rough piece but interesting as it is the only crib I have which addresses the problem of what the cattle will eat out of while the baby is in the manger. Look closely, and you see that the manger is subdivided - child Jesus closest to you, hay beyond. On show in Newcastle with the other 150 as from the 18th Dec....
In Illinois, a pastor says that a parishioner once confided in him that her husband had told her he klled his previous wife. Neil Schori told Fox News the story, not in a confessional but in a coffee-shop, but it has stirred up argument as to how closely a priest or pastor should protect confidences. The question is often raised in cases of child abuse; this is a theologically thoughtful piece, and here is a discussion board with some strong views. The Catholic Church obviously has the most formal 'seal of confessional secrecy'; the official line is here. And it is startlingly strongly phrased.
 The Peruvian “retablo” crib is based on portable “St Mark’s altars”, with doors that can be closed on the scene within. Sometimes, despite the bright colours, the layout is very formal and traditional. More often it is riotously Latino, with the Child held up like the World Cup at the heart of a drunken, joyful scrum and a lot of bottles and gourds being waved. The best ones have been made for nearly a century by the family of Joaquim Lopez (our big one is theirs). However, as you can see, there is hardly any object or plant that someone will not attempt to put a retablo nativity into - eggshell, seed -pod, you name it. Half a dozen are in the Newcastle exhibition.
|
