What is in Kelvin's Head?

For Baghdad, for Beiruit, for Paris

14/11/2015

On the day of the 9/11 attacks, I was in Paris. At just about the time of the 9/11 attacks I was in the Louvre, looking at this icon. I had specifically flown there to see it on a very short overnight stay in the first madness of cheap Ryanair flights when you could just decide you were going to Paris to see an icon.

The icon iteself is fairly well known. They use it in Taize and it is often called “The icon of friendship”, the narrative being that Jesus has his arm around a fellow traveller who walks the road beside him. It is in fact St Mina whom Jesus has his arm around and I like to remember him by name as he is a patron of those who travel. The icon comes from the middle east (from Egypt) and in modern times is one of those things which unites Eastern and Western eyes.

Remembering standing in front of it in Paris and later learning of the 9/11 attacks, it seems an appropriate thing to post today after a day of terror in Beirut, Baghdad and Paris.

I’ve seen several grumpy posts on twitter going on about the wave of “meaningless” religious posts that we will see online. People angry at what they see as empty gestures.

The desire to hold a place or a people or a person or a situation in one’s heart seems to me to be a more human thing than a religious thing – it is in fact what unites us rather than something that divides us.

And yes, on one level the posts may seem banal to some. But holding someone’s hand or putting an arm around a shoulder could be seen as banal and meaningless too. Yet it is all we can do sometimes and what we need to do.

Today I’m thinking of that icon in that city and the other cities which suffered yesterday which are not at the forefront of our minds because somewhere inside we believe sudden violence is more normal there. I’m thinking of the hands held, the shoulders embraced. The weeping, the grieving and the dying.

The people of Paris have the right to peace. So do the people of Beirut and Baghdad. But that is perhaps for another day. Today the arm around the shoulder; the affirmation that we walk this world together.

Politics later.

Eternal God
For Paris, for Beirut, for Baghdad.
For the grieving, for the dead and for the wounded.
For a world united.
Amen.

5 responses to “Evensong for Advent Three”

annie t

14/12/2009

Couldn’t agree with you more about ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’. It was sung, at his own request, at the great Michael Mayne’s Funeral in Salisbury Cathedral and the preacher on that occasion said the following: ‘And perhaps most of all, those strands of simplicity and humility that are the harbingers of gratitude and grace caught in three musical choices with which we celebrate Michael’s life today. Elizabeth Postern’s ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’ – if she never wrote another piece (and I know nothing else by her), this wonderful essay in simplicity would earn her reputation.’ I’d like it sung at my own.

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emma

14/12/2009

Evensong is wonderful. Compline is almost as good…. “Brethren, be sober, be vigilant……”.

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fr dougal

14/12/2009

I remember the then Provost of St Andrew’s Cathedral Aberdeen Donald Howard describing Evensong as being “like a relaxing soak in a hot bath after a busy Sunday”. He had a point.

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Martin Ritchie

15/12/2009

When I lived in Glasgow I travelled from the darkest southside to St Mary’s for evensong most weeks. Now, I’ve been to many stunning evensongs in grand cathedrals and college chapels over the years but St Mary’s Glasgow is hard to beat for the intimacy of the experience and the absence of pretension – as well as the high musical standards! Keep up the good work.

With you on Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. Great text. I’ve recently used a setting in the Oxford Book of Flexible Anthems which uses a traditional folk melody to stunning effect – even simpler than the Poston, but just as effective!

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Harry Monroe

18/12/2009

Our little choir, Angelus Singers, was formed, and still exists, to sing Evensong in churches where no choir exists.

In my write-up about the value of Evensong, I said that..’You cannot go away angry, after Evensong’, and I still believe that.

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