Many thanks to all those who made Palm Sunday so special at St Mary’s. (I’ve been ill for a fortnight, so it wasn’t down to me!)
Thanks to Stewart Macfarlane for capturing this pic. A reminder that Holy Week starts with joy.
4 responses to “Politics of Pilgrimage”
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Living in Ireland – at one time not too far from Knock – it always astonished me when driving through the village how those who had just visited the shrine seemed to think that it had made them invincible! They’d wander into the middle of the road and totally ignore the traffic streaming around them!
A bottle of Knock holy water in the shape of Our Lady sits behind me as I type – next to a similar one from Lourdes and a knitted Orangeman bedecked with a collarette proclaiming him a member of LOL 1, Portadown! The juxtaposition is deliberate! (I wonder if + David has one on his shelves from the "support Drumcree" shop?!)
Which leads to the question "How do holy water taps work?" – theologically, that is! What is blessed to make it holy? Is it the reservoir (but that is constantly replenished and so eventually, after being diluted for a long time, the water becomes "unholy". Is it the tap itself and the water is sanctified by passing through it?
Discuss!
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Holy Water Taps
Perhaps the water becomes holy when it is applied by the believer to the cat. -
Holy water and questions about pilgrimage
Hmmm, yes I can see the dilemma…I guess the female ordaindees (not a word really, apologies for my attack on the English language) are excluded – though would it be possible to construct a small al fresco altar and hold a ceremony of your own? Pilgrimage places become so because people believe something, not just the ecclesiastical hierarchy, I think? If we don’t go then it is like saying ‘ok, you have that site of devotion then’. (Yikes I sound so serious, which I am, but I really do mean my statements to come out as questions…not commands.)
As to the cat, holy water, and the believer – maybe all the water is holy and we just think we play a role in making it so? Alternatively, maybe the cat is the believer and the water is transformed through a great mysterious purr.
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The Cat in Question
As for the cat in question, she is not a believer as such. Rather, she thinks that she is the only proper object of veneration.
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In the Press
From the Herald today. “Rev Holdsworth said: “The congregation is delighted to be able to welcome him. It is an uncontroversial invitation from the congregation. Bishop Gene Robinson is one of the best preachers in the world and we are looking forward to hearing him. “The good news of the gospel is that everyone is…
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Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
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Information and Communication
This time last week, I was with the Vestry on an Awayday. Well, it was a Stayathomeday really as we did not go far, but it was a day together discussing things that matter most. On of the topics that we gave quite a lot of time to is the subject of Communications. We discovered…
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