Not all Moslems are the same

The use of the term “Moslem” is an inaccurate and unhelpful description in this ongoing multicultural debate. There are Moslems on all continents and they are any number of different nationalities.
I happen to be an Anglican, and that is perhaps a more accurate cultural descriptor than the word Moslem. Particularly since even American Anglicans (Episcopalians) seem to be a bit "Englishy". And although it is difficult to describe us as one cultural group we all seem to have a certain reserve, perhaps a certain tolerance for difference, and perhaps we are quiet people ....but things are not like they were 20 years ago

But no one would dream of primarily defining my cultural heritage by my religious affiliation. There are, incidentally, in the quite small Anglican community in South Australia people from all continents and any number of different nationalities. Just like the Moslems!

Culture v. cringe

In today's Advertiser Natasha Stott-Despoja is right to draw our attention to the curiosity of Michael Parkinson being the first non-Australian to give the Australia Day address, I think she is wrong to attribute this to the return of cultural cringe.
I would suggest that we are now at a point in our history where having freed ourselves from our colonial past we do not have to be frightened that every British commentator can drag us back there. That indeed would be cultural cringe. Parkinson, as a world-citizen, would be more aware than most of the complex issues of our history and can offer perceptive commentary on our place in the modern world. It is not a sign of regression but a sign of our increasing maturity that we can receive this..

Great wedding

I went to to E & B's rather lovely wedding yesterday. I have known E's family for many years and in fact married her two brothers as well.

She is a very fine professional woman, statuesque and lovely personality. Her fiance is actually an Iranian refugee. Great young man, and a true example of the system working well (if not a little slowly).

It was great to see him stand amidst his brothers and with much of his family who now llive in Australia.

You can imagine that this provides much food for thought, reflection and prayer so I won't try to tell you everything, dear reader. But here are some thoughts.

First, the speeches were all great. Which is not always the case.

But we were all impressed, not in a patronising way with speeches crafted by the best man and the groom.

The great care they took was wondrous.

At many weddings there is too little care, but given that neither was speaking in their first language, I was touched by the careful word choice and the absolute sincerity.

A good dose of humour was present, which is not always easy to get in another language.

Their desire to assert the establishment of this new family and to embrace this lovely woman into their fold was just amazing.

I was moved to watch B stand with his father and mother and their sons and daughter, and have their photos taken...while we all have such photos at weddings...this did have about it the great sense of victory.

Second, perhaps the best thing about the wedding ceremony (though the bride looked stunning) was the ululation. ... you know that high pitched African trilling ... as E walked into the garden this spontaneously erupted. I hadn't quite expected it, but it was so thrilling and happened several times , well often, during the night.

As the excitement and joy just boiled over it would be picked up and thrill us all!

Now this is Australia, there is always something like this at weddings because we come from such diverse cultural backgrounds. I guess we will find something like this when S marries D (of Hungarian extraction) next year.

Third, as I prayed for those who weren't there. Particularly thinking of Claire, E's grandmother who died not so long ago, I suddenly realised that who knew what else this refugee family had had to bear, and who was not there for them today and who this prayer might refer to.

And then, lastly, there was just the dancing. It looked a lot like young men showing off, but it was great!!!

The Bells! The Bells!

I once thought that I would like to purloin the unused bell from St Barnabas' College and have it here at Blackwood.

However a number of things dissuaded me.One, the thought of being woken on Saturday nights by hoodlinks who just wouldn't be able to resist it. Two, my near neighbour, who finds our presence difficult enough.

So it was interesting to hear as ABC began their countdown of the top 100 symphonies that Rachmaninov 's Opus 35 The Bells Symphony-brought out a spontaneous lament from all over the country about the fact that bells have gone.

It is of course one of those things that gives some poetic coherence to community, links with the past; ordering of the day etc. etc....but we are so fearful about Christianity impinging on popular culture. Not so much the signs of the other religions, but another point at which Christianity as the 'religion'of the dominant culture is both patronised and compromised

Loss of faith

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently lamented the loss of Christian culture (here) and laid the blame at the feet of 'pluralistic' education.

I have some sympathy with this. In promoting everything, we promote nothing. At a local school recently year 6 and 7 children were told to look at SE Asia and pick a dominant religion to investigate. They were specifically told not to look at Christianity. The teacher wasn't being (she thought) anti-Christian she was rather making the assumption that most kids in that school would know about Christianity. I think this assumption makes more assumptions than it asserts.

I well remember when I was a teacher in the 70s, our principal challenging the school over the Easter weekend to find out what Easter was all about.

In those days most of the kids had some idea it was about Jesus and his crucifixion. Not so sure that is true. I certainly can no longer assume 30 years aftyer I was ordained that a random group of Aussies can more or less sustain the Lord's Prayer with a little help from their friends. This is not, I think, because of an embarrassment about praying publicly. It is because by and large we have no clue.

Strangely the army did quite a lot to sustain religious culture. So, service men and women of WWII and to a lesser extent Vietnam, probably were made to recite the Lord's Prayer on parade. Now that there are less of them they don't permeate a funeral in the same way so you can't always be assured even the 'traditional' words will be picked up.

Does it matter? The loss of common heritage. I think it does. I always go back to the way the Bible stories permeate English literature.

How on earth do you (for example) understand Wilfred Owen's devastating poem. The Parable of the Young Man and the Old...if you don't understand what the sacrifice of Isaac is all about, or that it comes from the bible, or what sacrifice is about?

I think Rowan Williams is right, not just or only from the religious point of view. But from the cultural point fo view also.

On being young and free

At least most people seem to be getting this year that to sing (as you do) our national anthem and rejoice that we are 'young and free' is yet another example of simply ignoring any idea that we have an indigenous culture. A culture which, depending on your reckoning, is 40 probably 60 and maybe even 100 thousand years old.
I am not entirely happy with the description that it is the longest continuing culture in the world, (though the case can be made and I am open to being convinced). That, I think, begs the question about whether Australian aboriginal culture has the consistency for such a period that would mean there is anything more than the tenuous link that we live on an island and so it must be 'continuing' in that sense.
But that there has been art, music, story, familial structure, aetiological mythology,is abundantly clear.
Mabo and Wik articulated from a legal point of view that as far as this country is concerned it was not an uninhabited wasteland just wasting for the young and free to some and rape it.

On this Australia Day remember we are both young and free and also old and deep