Today is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice takes place at 5.11 pm today.
Please have your gongs, whistles and drums at the ready for the moment.
Photo credit – Andreas Krappweis
7 responses to “The Antisemitism Notice”
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Helpful, thank you
What is the concern with the reproaches? I’m not familiar with them
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They can be interpreted as being directed at us the listeners. But they can also be interpreted as speaking to Jewish people as all the imagery is from the Hebrew Scriptures and doesn’t reference the experience of those who actually were around Jesus during his life on earth.
For example:
“I led you out of Egypt, having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea:
and you have delivered me to the chief priests.”Who is being addressed here?
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That’s interesting, because whenever I have sung the Reproaches I have always felt them as being expressions of personal repentance rather than accusations thrown at the listener.
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I must admit I had always read the Reproaches as directed to the listener. That the Egypt from which we are delivered is the Egypt of the modern world, the slavery of ghastly jobs (I’ve had a few, in fact a lot) and the oppression of terrible political systems. But I come from a totally different thought world to that of most people today, and I absolutely see they wouldn’t commonly be read that way.
But I think it would benefit everyone to find a way of expressing BOTH what faith can offer in terms of freedom AND the mess we do make of the world, and sitting with that tension.
And I think the church as a whole urgently needs to find a compelling and deep reaching way of doing both.-
You might be interested that we’re looking at Isaiah 59 as a helpful text for this year, given the current ways of the world.
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I’m of much the same mind. (A mind that is still blown away when I hear them sung)
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Thank you
Previous Posts
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Last night
Last night’s service was very enjoyable. Almost twice as many people turning out as I was expecting. Quite a few saying that it was the plainsong which tempted them out. It being the Transfiguration, I did think that a rousing chorus of Shine, Jesus Shine might have helped at the end, but I managed to…
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Transfiguration – Top Ten Reasons
It is the Feast of the Transfiguration today. The top 10 reasons for coming to the Transfiguration service tonight at 7.30 pm in St Mary’s are: It is the festival of change – an auspicious day to come to church to pray about something you would like to change in your life. We are singing…
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A question of sin
The trouble with sin, is that it creeps up on you unexpectedly. There I was doing the ironing, a virtuous task sure as anything. Then I ran out of water in the steam iron and the following sinful thought passed through my mind. “Hmm, having lost the little plastic water bottle that came with the…
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What have I been reading?
Oh, thank you for asking. I’ve recently finished Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan. It is a dark read, but a worthwhile one. Fr David arrives in an Ayrshire Roman Catholic parish, with unresolved issues from his past which unravel with a sadness, a poignancy and an apparent inevitability. It is the inevitability which is…
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