Here’s a wee video of the Palm Sunday Procession at St Mary’s this year.
I promised people something extra this year. For some reason, people thought I had booked a donkey.
Well, anyone can book a donkey.
Here’s what happened. Many thanks to the guys from the wonderful Clanadonia for making this year’s procession so memorable.
As one who grew up(?) in churches leaning toward the view “it’s a tough story for a tough world, how else would God be just?” in varying degrees, I agree the face-value-narrative understanding of the story is repellant.
One thing stood out for the first time during Sunday’s reading: the plurality in Abraham’s line – “…and we will return to you”. I’ve been idly wondering about that since.
It doesn’t make the story wholly acceptable as Abraham still ploughs on ever closer.
But if one’s goal is to find a “by faith, Abraham” in there, better to say it’s the prior confidence that things will somehow work out well (which I thought was how Hebrews was trying to define it), than to locate the commendable quality in violence (which, by rabbiting on about resurrection, Hebrews does).
In the absence of other clear & wholly mitigating contexts in which to place the story, certainly it’s simplest, easiest and probably best to file it under “that’s how they saw God back then” and move swiftly on.
Oofft.
We were singing quite a lot of music either written or influenced by Vaughan Williams yesterday, and so we sang Bunyan’s hymn with some gusto. Indeed, one was belting it out from the altar table thus: Hobgoblin nor foul fiend Can daunt her spirit, She knows she at the end Shall life inherit. Then fancies…
The Mystery Worshipper from the Ship of Fools has been. Read it all. I think it is a fair reflection of what we hope to be. What do you think?
A new and interesting development locally is a monthly inter-faith coffee morning. A few of us from different faith traditions go and have coffee together in a local cafe. No agenda. Very relaxed. It is a meeting which includes RC, Presbyterian and Episcopal Christians, the local Immam and someone from a Tibetan Buddhist centre. We…
To the RSAMD tonight for the decapitation of nuns. An odd way to spend the evening, but it was clear that they all had it coming to them in the end. It is a great piece and was extremely well staged. Amongst other good singing, Soeur Constance stood out from the crowd. The first third…
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