6 May: the Coronation of King Charles III

All manner of trivial stories have been aired regarding today’s Coronation of King Charles III. Who has not been invited, who has declined their invitation? How were the representatives of the British public in the Abbey chosen? Why is the procession route shorter than last time? (It poured with rain and the Queen of Tonga was not the only one who got drenched.) Do duchesses have to wear tiaras? How much will that souvenir be worth at King Charles’s Silver Jubilee? (Not a lot.) 

This Coronation will be watched live by untold millions of people; in 1953 it was recorded on film and flown to the Dominions with all possible speed. Few people in Britain had television but we watched on a big screen in the Co-op hall, the first TV programme I remember. It was an event that brought people together across the world but laboriously compared to today’s instant global transmission. 

What is this event all about? We had Queen Elizabeth’s funeral last year, with the funeral march from Beethoven’s 3rd symphony still earworming in my head. Not everything can be expressed in words. The music for the coronation will be different; King Charles has commissioned 12 works from British and Commonwealth composers to go with Handel who gave us, ‘Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king: and all the people rejoiced.’ With such music we are invited, almost compelled to rejoice, 3,000 years after Solomon, when Charles is anointed king.

We rejoice because, by the crazy workings of the hereditary system, we have a king who is one like us, imperfect, a sinner, but – by the grace of God – leader, representative, voice of the people. 

When he visits a school, factory, ship, railway or bus station, theatre, clinic, hospital, theatre or bridge, he is in loco populi, standing in for the people. A friend who accompanied a spouse to an investiture at Buckingham Palace remembers the event as ‘a moment of national affirmation’. The King represents the best of us, that in us that rejoices to see human flourishing. He also represents God’s goodness, blessing the work he is visiting, blessing the teams doing the work, those who benefit from the work.

The people of Israel wanted a king, to be like other nations. Now we have one because a written part of our unwritten Constitution says so. We can wish him well and pray: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,

bless Charles our King,

whose Coronation we now celebrate.

Help him to fulfil his responsibilities,

that by his influence

he may maintain unity, goodwill and peace

among his peoples

and that persevering in good works to the end,

he may, by your mercy, come to your everlasting kingdom;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

A Prayer for Coronation Day

Eternal God, 

You order and govern our world and all that is therein, 

bless, we pray, Charles and Camilla today 

as they are crowned and anointed, 

that amid the pomp and ritual, 

they may feel your loving presence, 

that they may fulfil the roles prescribed for them, 

and that we may, in this kingdom, be better governed, 

and always reminded of your eternal Kingdom which is to come.  Amen. 

Prayers from the Church in Wales and United Reformed Church.

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13 October, Going viral CIX: Sacramental faith during the pandemic.

FMSL

Fr Noel O’Neill is a Columban Missionary working in South Korea. He has written about his ‘Emmaus’ ministry with disabled people in Far East Magazine, September-October 2022, pp10-11. Here he tells about the sacramental faith of a group of women residents during challenging times.

‘My Jesus, Come spiritually into my soul’!

Throughout the pandemic we insisted that our people living in group homes refrain from going to the parish church because they were so vulnerable. They watched the Sunday Mass on TV.

There are four very fervent middle-aged women with Down’s Syndrome living in one of Emmaus’ group homes. I am sure that Jesus smiled when He saw them go up to the front of the TV and put out their hands to receive the host as the priest was giving out Holy Communion. Perhaps it was the same kind of smile he gave the two Emmaus disciples who recognised him in the breaking of bread.

Going Viral LXXVI: an international congregation.

Saint Dunstan’s, Canterbury.

A message from Revd Jo Richards on an unusual aspect of parish life.

Live streaming at St Dunstan’s: Thank you to the PCC, and in particular Martin Ward for getting the ball rolling in installing our wifi, camera and getting us up and running with Church Services TV; this has been very much appreciated by us all but especially folk whose funerals we are taking – last Monday we had a funeral with 126 attendees from around the world, 21 countries, on all continents, including Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste; all these folk coming to the funeral virtually – it is so very much appreciated. Thank you.

19 July: Should I go to Mass?

Oscar Murillo’s Turner Prize people.

This is an extract from an interesting and challenging article by Brendan Gottschall, S.J. in America Magazine. Read it here.

St. Ignatius warns against thinking of grace as our right, rather than as a freely given gift. We shouldn’t insist on attending Mass simply because it is our right to do so. We shouldn’t go to Mass because of some attachment to routine or a sense of normality. Those motivations are self-centered, and not God-centered. Rather, we should seek to have a genuine desire to draw closer to God.

If we think that the desire to go to Mass is our own and not itself a gift, we might take this temporary distance from the Eucharist as a lesson to grow in gratitude for God’s many gifts.

Conversely, if you have grown attached to watching a streaming Mass, selecting your favorite priest, enjoying the comforts of your own home, or (God forbid!) multitasking, you should probably “act against” the preference for streaming Mass and go to receive the Eucharist in person.

8 July: Reels from home

There’s a lot of it about; nostalgia that is, but we also want to go deeper than that; what has shaped us, or our parents, in the past, how will it work out for our children. What seemed like normal life back then is a source of fascination and indeed joy today, and not just the frocks and hairstyles!

The London Irish Centre has partnered with the Irish Film Institute to bring film heritage to Irish communities in London and across the UK. Under the headings ‘Ireland of Yesterday’, ‘Watch Irish History Unfold’, and ‘Rediscover Television Adverts’, the Reels from Home collection includes materials which date as far back as the early 1900s. It includes both professional and amateur films documenting all aspects of Irish life including tourism, industry, sport, entertainment, and much more.

The films have been selected to engage with the London Irish Centre’s objectives to promote and advance education in Irish art, language, culture and heritage.

Reels From Home contains materials from IFI Player collections including The Bord Fáilte Film Collection, The Irish Adverts Project, The Father Delaney Collection, The Loopline Collection Vol. 1, and The Irish Independence Film Collection.

Speaking about the collection’s release, Gary Dunne, Director of Culture at the London Irish Centre, said: ‘”The London Irish Centre is delighted to partner with the Irish Film Institute on the Reels From Home initiative. For over 65 years, the Centre has been a cultural bridge between London and Ireland, and strategic and programming partnerships like these play a key part in connecting our audiences with high quality Irish culture. The Reels From Home collection is bespoke, dynamic and engaging, and we look forward to sharing it with audiences in the UK through a series of co-watching screenings.”

At a time when many people are spending much of their time indoors due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Reels From Home brings a new channel of content to the Irish community that is free, entertaining, informative, and easy to access and navigate. The project follows in the footsteps of the 2018 Reel Memories initiative, presented by the IFI in partnership with Nursing Homes Ireland, which brought a selection of curated IFI Player material to nursing home residents across the country.

Commenting on the project, Kasandra O’Connell, Head of the IFI Irish Film Archive, added: “We are delighted to be able to bring the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive to a new audience in the UK , particularly at a time where people may be feeling more isolated than usual. As someone who was born in London to Irish parents, the UK’s Irish community is one that I have been eager for the archive to work with, and partnering with the London Irish Centre gives us a wonderful opportunity to do so.”

Highlights of the collection include Alive Alive O: A Requiem for Dublin, which captures the colourful street traders of Dublin and their fight to maintain their merchant tradition in the face of aggressive economic development;

Ireland in Spring presents a celebration of all things Irish and a delightful window on 1950s Ireland;

and a 1970s advert for Bass ale featuring the legendary band The Dubliners performing in the iconic Dublin bar O’Donoghue’s.

Reels from Home is now available free-to-view on the IFI Player and via the IFI Player suite of apps developed by Irish tech company Axonista. More details will be on the London Irish Centre.

London Irish Centre

Pam Dodds RIP

Pamela in 1981 at Faith House by Cathy Davis

Zoom calls have quickly become a part of the ‘new normal’, and I’ve even now participated in my first zoom remembrance service.

Pam Dodds was born in Canterbury in 1958 and she came, in 1981, to live at Faith House, the newly-opened L’Arche house in Canterbury. I moved into Faith House at the start of 1989 and in May of that year, there came L’Arche UK’s first ever Korean assistant and the woman who was to become my wife, Yim Soon.

Pam sadly died alone flat on March 22^nd, and there were 37 of her friends gathered for the service, some from L’Arche, some from St Thomas’, the Catholic church in Canterbury where Pam was a well-known and well-loved member. Indeed there were about 40 people present as some of the zoom windows had two people in them. How Pam would have been touched by so many people coming together to sing, to pray and to share memories of her. It was lovely to see old faces, all of us brought together by Pam.

When it got to my turn I explained how my bedroom at Faith House had been directly underneath Pam’s and mentioned, rather diplomatically, that I knew well what Pam’s favourite records were. The reality was that Pam would play the same 3 records very loudly: and not just the same 3 records but the same bits of the same 3 records: very loudly! I liked Pam, and I wasn’t really bothered by her ‘feistiness’, and I suppose I must have found a way to cope with the noise coming from above (human beings are very adaptable, which we are finding at the current time of coronavirus).

Pam didn’t find it easy to live with others and in the early 90s she announced that she wanted to leave L’Arche and was supported to move into her own flat. She retreated somewhat into her own (rather troubled) world in the ensuing years and I was delighted when in recent years L’Arche was approached by social services to see if Pam could be given a bit of support again. It was decided that Pam would spend a couple of hours each week with Yim Soon, so Pam came to our house on Tuesday afternoons and she and Yim Soon would drink tea and eat cake and chat and watch a few episodes of  ‘Last of the Summer Wine’. And Ian, one of those at the service, told of how excited Pam was when she visited him in Yorkshire and he took her to Holmfirth where the show was filmed and how they had tea in ‘Sid’s café’.

Occasionally I would be working from home on a Tuesday and it was special to connect again with Pam and she always asked how my mum was and she always gave me the latest news from her old friends Janet and Maurice. And I would enjoy hearing the raucous chuckles coming from the living-room as Pam watched her favourite sit-com.

Pam counted many Catholic priests amongst her circle of acquaintances, and was in regular correspondence with several bishops. I was once chatting with her outside Canterbury Cathedral following a big ecumenical service and she spotted Derek Warlock, then Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool. Pam grabbed me and pulled me over to introduce me to her old friend Derek! And she was so happy when another old friend Nick Hudson, who had been an assistant priest in Canterbury in the late 80s, was made a bishop.

I ended my sharing about Pam with a favourite memory, also on a clerical theme. My friend Richard arrived at L’Arche as an 18-year-old in April 1989 and was living at Little Ewell, another of the houses of L’Arche Kent. His House Leader Maria sent him over to Faith House one day for a visit. Richard was in the middle of his Goth phase, and so this young guy turned up wearing black jeans, a black shirt, large black winkle-picker boots, hair standing up, and around his neck a huge cross. Pam didn’t always take kindly to new people but she was all over Richard: the reason, it turned out later; she thought he was a priest!

Thank you Pam. Your life was a gift. May God bless you.

Eddie Gilmore

After all the shouting

 

A man recently took his life after appearing on a British ‘reality’ tv show where a lie detector allegedly ‘proved’ that he was unfaithful to his partner.

Thank God for the Samaritans, including my friend L, who listen in ways beyond the capabilities of such shows. They know, far better than the distressed caller ever can, how much their death will affect others. Here’s another reminder of how to contact them, a poster that greets the traveller at Canterbury West station in Kent.

Talk to us if things are getting to you, 116123.

And if someone desperate talks to you, take courage, and listen.

WT

20/12 This Little Light of Mine – I

When he was adapting the novel ‘Wolf Hall’ for BBC Television, Peter Kominsky used the latest camera lenses to be able to film by candlelight alone. We who have electricity at the touch of a switch all too easily forget the power of one candle to disperse the darkness. We risk knowing truly neither dark nor light.

Yet in chapter three of the Book of Exodus it was the light from the Burning Bush that first led Moses to listen to the Lord God, the God who spoke out of the light, the God who charged Moses to set his people free, the God who called himself ‘I AM’.

At the very beginning ‘I AM’ created light to sustain the Universe he was fashioning. What is more, he left his fingerprints even upon light, so that scientists today can study ancient light from far-flung galaxies to learn how and when that first creation took place. Somehow, we are: we are because ‘I AM’ created light more light years ago than ever we could imagine.

MMB.