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Showing posts from 2015

Good Hearted

At the end of every year I attend the St. Hilda's prizegiving service and the leavers' service and see a string of young women cross the stage. All of them are big fishes in this particular small pond of the school where they have spent the last five or seven years of their lives. They are making the journey we must all repeat a hundred times, that of becoming a small fish in the next pond, whatever it may be. And at every service the school hymn is sung: Blest Are The Pure In Heart . Whoever, back in the day, chose that hymn to be the one that defines the school and its relationship to the almighty had a particular idea of the what a girls' school should aspire to be, and what a girl should aspire to be. I'm guessing, of course, but I think that vision would have to do with all the characteristics we attribute to the heart: feelings, loyalty, relationship, emotion. With that vision in mind, the aspiration is one of pure and chaste behaviour springing from undefil

Ain Karem

When we were in Spain we heard a group called Ain Karem . They are popular in Spain but little known outside of the Iberian Peninsula. The group is named for the village where, according to tradition, The Virgin Mary conversed with her cousin Elizabeth while both women were pregnant. The group contains a priest, but is otherwise a womens' group, originating in the Carmelite order but now containing lay women as well as nuns. Their music is usually about issues of justice and the above clip is an example. What I really like is the juxtaposition of the cheerful 60's folksy Singing Nun ambience of the music and the radical, revolutionary lyrics. Sort of a 21st Century Spanish incarnation of the Magnificat We have a CD of theirs playing as Advent draws to a close. If you're looking for "the real meaning of Christmas", here it is. The women and the children do not count, Those who wander on the margins do not count, The poor and the sick do not count, Nor do

Violence and difference.

During the troubles in Northern Ireland all those many years ago, those of us on the sidelines looked on with incredulity at what was happening between Protestants and Catholics. The news was dominated by images of bombings and fires and assassinations, and, from this distance, no one was quite sure which side was doing these terrible things or why; radical Catholic and Protestant groups seemed to be pretty much indistinguishable from each other in their barbarity, their strategies and their modus operandi. And so it is with all conflict. Rene Girard describes conflict as " a subtle destroyer of the differential meaning it seems to inflate ", and when I first read that sentence a week or two ago I had to go for a bit of a walk and think about it for a bit. Girard is right, as he is about so much, and what I think he means is this: We learn pretty much everything, says Girard, by copying from other people. This applies to skills and behaviours but also to attitudes an

Back Again

Since synod my life has been.... busy and what with the pressing demands on my time and with my head being filled with things I couldn't talk about, I have just had to keep away from here for a while. But I'm back. This last week I've even taken a few photos And read a few books. I intend to start blogging regularly, I hope twice a week. I'll be posting also to a Facebook page called, surprisingly enough, Available Light. Keep in touch. I will if you will.

Bishop's Charge to Synod 2015

Opening Prayer E te Atua to matou Kai-hanga Ka tiaho te maramatanga me te ora, I au kupu korero, Ka timata au mahi, ka mau te tika me te aroha; Meatia kia u tonu ki a matou Tou aroha I roto I tenei huihunga. Whakakii a matou whakaaro a matou mahi katoa, E tou Wairua Tapu Amine. Introduction and Thanks Welcome, welcome thrice welcome as we gather here in St Matthews to celebrate our common life and plan together for our future. As we gather in this place, I am mindful of all who have carried the torch of faith before us, and who pass it to us today. In particular, we remember those of our number who have died in the past year, particularly Jim Brooks and Stan Mawhinney. It has been my privilege to journey amongst you for yet another year, and I am grateful for the strong team amongst whom I work at Peter Mann House. Alec Clark , has continued his work as ministry educator while accepting the additional duties of being Vicar General. I know from experience

10 Rules For The Camino Santiago

1. Travel light. 2. Travel lighter still. You think you need that? Really? Give it to another pilgrim. Post it home. Throw it away. You can get rid of another kg yet. 3. Never pass an open church without going into it. 4. Never pass a Fuente without drinking from it and giving thanks: for whoever put it there; for your baptism; for the Living Water. 5. Blisters are the surfacing of minor irregularities in your body. Drain them quickly or they'll spread. Cover them when walking, but, whenever possible, expose them to light and air. When irregularies of your mind or your spirit surface, as they inevitably will, treat the resulting problems in the same way. 6. Walk within yourself.  7. Your body is wise. Listen to it. 8. The path is wise. Listen to it. 9. Learn enough Spanish to be able to order a meal or some groceries and manage the payment afterwards. 10. You're making your own Camino for your own reasons and in your own way.  So is everyone else, eve

Auschwitz

I was unprepared for the vastness of it; for the endless acres of barracks. I was expecting but still shocked by the things I knew well: the mounds of shoes and the mountain of human hair (bought, knowingly, by fabric companies for half a mark per kilogram with the deaths of 20 women needed to make one kilogram. ) There were the gallows. The courtyard where political prisoners, alone and naked, were  shot in the back of the head. There was the cell where Father Maximilian Kolbe died. There were the remains of the long rooms where people were gassed and burned. I saw the famous gate at Auschwitz with its cynical slogan, and the place in Birkenau where the people were sorted for death and a kind of living death. I stood in the place where people, clumped together, we're gassed. I touched the bunks where men slept packed so tight they could not turn, with diarrhoea dripping from above and rats feasting on the corpses in the mud below them. But what moved me; what gave focus

The Camino in Snatches From 40 Conversations

Buen Camino. Good walking !Nueva Zealanda! The Antipodes! So far! No Hablo Espanole. I do not speak Spanish Is this your first camino? It's my second. Or third, depending on how you count them. Last year I walked from Irun to San Salvadore. This year I am walking to Oviedo. I will complete my camino in about 5 years time. I started in Irun. You? Le Puys. Wow! How long have you been walking? Since the middle of April. Are you taking the hospitales route? It looks a bit foggy don't you think? Perdon senor/senora. Donde es el Camino Santiago? (or el albergue de peregrinos; or el supermercado; or el bano) Excuse me sir/ madam. Where is the Camino Santiago? (or the pilgrims hostel; or the supermarket; or the toilet) We have made pasta. There's plenty. would you like some? I got my arrow in the albergue in San Sebastian. The hospitalera makes them and gives them to pilgrims. Spain is so beautiful. We love it. Yes. But how are you finding the Basque

The Camino in 40 pictures.

This was a journey of 40 days. So here, corresponding approximately but not exactly to those days are 40 pictures. I took a small waterproof Panasonic camera with me and both Clemency and I took pictures with our phones. The gear, in other words was pretty basic though I am pretty impressed with the wee Panasonic. These pictures are not in order as resources for blog writing are limited but I hope they give a sense of the journey. Stop for a snack, sunrise on day 3, on the way out of Zarautz Winding up in the Camino Primitivo The top of the Hospitales Route, Camino Primitivo Bay of Biscao on the Camino del Norte The last day. Four routes: the Norte, the Primitivo, La Plata and the Frances have now joined and there is a teeming crowd of pilgrims. Walking through a forest in the early morning, we felt like the elves leaving Middle Earth Windmills infest all the high places. they're pretty impressive: huge and noisy, but it's hard to capture that i