ON CHRISTMAS DAY

In the pain-filled places

of Sudan and Syria:

beneath the penthouses of  Manhattan:

by the paddy fields of South India:

through down-town San Paulo,

and on our streets

there are lights of hope

often dimmed,

yet still burning.

They are

the lights of Christmas

in a world

both linked and disconnected,

inviting us home

to that place

where Love shines bright

and where, amazingly,

our broken lives

are again made whole.

                      Peter Millar, Edinburgh, Scotland, Christmas Day 2013.
 
                                 (please feel free to share this  reflection)

THE BELLS OF CHRISTMAS

Even for the faithful

the Christmas bells are

sometimes hard to hear

for we move faster

than the Shepherds

and quickly overtake

the Wise Men

as they seek the Light.

Married to our shopping

and mobiles,

it’s hard to pause

and hear these gentle bells

announcing Love

within our hearts

and not on Twitter.

Yet still they ring,

and when we pause

they tell us something

beautiful and true -

that we are made for God

and connected

to what is always REAL.

Peter Millar, Edinburgh, Scotland  -  December 2013.

(Please feel free to share this reflection.)

EXPECTANT HEARTS: A POEM FOR ADVENT

The shopper’s Christmas

with its myriad deals,

and easy payments,

arrives with early autumn.

Santa in September – a symbol of our age,

robbing us of waiting,

of surprise, even of joy.



Yet with Advent

a different truth arrives

amidst our tinselled lives:

the gift of expectancy –

that silent longing of the soul

which is deep within us all.



It’s not the shopper’s rush,

for on this path we face within ourselves

the baggage of the years,

the memories that haunt the mind,

the fear that lurks behind the mask:

but let us travel on,

expectant, and with hope,

for there is a guiding star

tenderly leading us to outstretched hands of Love.

Peter Millar, Edinburgh, Advent 2013

NOVEMBER: THE MONTH FOR REMEMBERING

We remember,

and not just at the going down of the sun

do we see again these mangled bodies

and hear the screams of broken minds

or the tears of weeping hearts,

all easily labelled “the victims of war.”

 

Not one war,

but global conflicts

constantly scarring our frail securities

and taking us to places

we would rather avoid.

 

And yet we journey, year by year

into this remembrance

for it is  our story, and good folk

have given their lives for it.

 

The poppies may be red or white;

the grief personal or wider arched,

but let us pause -

for in our depths we know so well

that the tears in November

are not just for someone else.

                                   Peter Millar, Edinburgh, 1^st November 2013.

                          REFLECTION FOR OCTOBER 2013   PETER MILLAR

                                     petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

A LOSS FOR OUR WORLD

At a time when so much around us is bland and empty of real meaning. I would like in this month’s Reflection to honour a human being who has brought depth to the lives of millions. Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche who did so much to bring the riches of Tibetan Buddhism to the western world after he fled from his native country was recently murdered in China. He was 73. His tragic and sudden death at the hands of robbers is a loss to our world for this was a man who had come through countless sorrows and tribulations to understand in a remarkable way the depths and capacities of the human spirit. When I heard of his passing, I knew that our often divided human family had lost a soul whose goodness transcended many of these divisions. A man of truth among whose many accomplishments was the founding of the Kagyu Samye Ling monastery in rural Dumfriesshire in south west Scotland – a place of inner healing, of vision and of challenge for thousands of people. He will be remembered for many things and not least for the great range of charitable and philanthropic projects in many countries which have come into being through his wisdom, humility and prayer.

I much appreciated what the British journalist Madeline Bunting wrote following Akong Rinpoche’s death. This is in part what she wrote and it touches upon many issues concerning faith in our secular societies. “ Buddhism’s popularity over the past half century in the west has surprised and dismayed in equal measure. Alongside the fad for Buddhist statues, there has been a much more serious engagement with hundreds of centres opening, many of the most dynamic founded by Tibetan Buddhists. Given that Tibet had limited contact with modernity until the 20^th century, it’s been an extraordinary story of cultural export and rare religious success in a deepening secularism. Central to this was the remarkable life of Akong Rinpoche. Anyone visiting Samye Ling in Scotland or the London centre cannot fail to be impressed by the sheer scale of the ambition. This kind of institution  building by a refugee community is hard to match. Akong Rinpoche was a traditionalist and one of his driving motivations was the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism in the face of a concerted Chinese effort to obliterate Tibetan culture. In recent years he and a team gathered thousands of single-copy manuscripts and took them out of Tibet to be copied. What was at stake was an entire cultural tradition. And it was work done amidst huge struggle, difficulty and danger.”

Some have said that western followers of Buddhism romanticise it and only take from it what suits them. Samye Ling and other Buddhist centres remind us of the discipline within religious faith and invite us to take seriously the profound meaning of “mindfulness” in the modern world. The search for that inner awareness and “mindfulness of the present”  is no easy task - which may be one of the reasons why  much of Christianity has largely abandoned it. It is just too hard. But a Christianity devoid of a deep inner silence is not always able to contribute to real reconciliation in the world or to the healing of many secular people who carry within them a range of wounds. It is for that reason that contemporary Christianity must look again at its own narrative and re-discover the great tradition of inner silence which was, for example, so central in the early Celtic church.

The same combination of practicality, compassion and commitment to revivifying what he had known in Tibet led Akong Rinpoche to initiate many projects. He placed these in three categories.

First were spiritual activities focused on Samye Ling and a network of more than thirty Kagyu Samye Dzong Buddhist centres world-wide.  Second there was humanitarian work, mainly channelled through the charity ROKPA, which funds education, health and environmental projects in Tibetan areas of China. Third he was interested in healing and Tibetan medicine, writing books on the subject and initiating arrange of psychotherapy projects. Much of this was achieved through his ability to inspire others and the fundraising was never about soliciting big donations but about dozens of dogged initiatives, many of which lasted decades without losing a clear vision of the ultimate goal. As we look back at such a remarkable life, our immediate response must be one of gratitude. May women and men like him continue to give us new insights and courage for our own journeys.

TWO GREAT BOOKS

I would like to recommend:

THE OLD WAYS: A JOURNEY ON FOOT by Robert Macfarlane published by Penguin Books 2013

(ISBN:  978 – 0 - 141- 03058 – 6)

AMMONITES AND LEAPING FISH: A LIFE IN TIME by Penelope Lively published by Fig Tree 2013

(also an e-book.)

THE WIND OF THE SPIRIT

Jesus said, “The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.  It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John3:8

God of the wild Spirit help me - may be for just once in my life - to take a risk for You, even if it is a small one and hedged around with safety nets, so that I can at least start to understand the words you spoke to those who wanted security rather than LIFE.

WORDS ON A POSTER

                                                 This is God’s day so make the most of it.

AND FROM POPE JOHN PAUL II

In different cultures, the fundamental questions which pervade human life arise: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil and suffering? What is there after this life? These questions are found in the sacred writings of Israel, and also in the Veda and Avesta: in the writings of Confucius and Lse-Tse; in the preachings of Tirthankara and the Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer and in the tragedies of Europedes and Sophocles; in the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle. And today’s church is no stranger to this journey of discovery and has a duty to be a partner in humanity’s shared struggle to arrive at truth.

                                         From Pope John Paul’s encyclical , Fides et Ratio.

REMEMEMBERING…..in the coming weeks we remember all those who have suffered through wars.

REFLECTION FOR SEPTEMBER 2013 – PETER MILLAR

                                      petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

The Pope, his phone calls and atheists:

One of the social markers in modern societies is that many aspects of daily life can become impersonal. Personal lives can be very private, and although commentators may disagree about the details, millions of people may see very few other human beings in the course of a week or month or year. This is in contrast to the strong community bonds still found in poor countries and in places of suffering and violence. Yet in many ways it’s not always possible to generalise for there are still communities within affluent countries where positive human connecting is a fundamental and daily reality.

Enter our new Pope, Francis who as we all now know has chosen not to live in the papal apartments inside the Vatican but in small house close by. He also drives around Vatican City in a rather battered Fiat with 200,000 miles on the clock, given to him recently by an Italian priest who was finished with it. It has also become public knowledge that Pope Francis after his day’s work is over returns to his small home and sometimes telephones people all over the world. Not for him in these calls presidents and prime ministers, or the good and the great, but people who have sent him a letter. Like Anna who addressed her note, The Pope, Vatican, Rome. Much to her astonishment after receiving her note he rang her mobile. Of course she thought it was a wind up. In her note Anna had told the Pope that she was a single pregnant person who felt that the local church might not be willing to baptise her anticipated baby. Francis told her not to worry, and that if she could not get a local priest to baptise the child he himself would do it.  Wonderful. He has also said clearly that the church should be far more willing to accept the diversity within human sexuality, and that seeking meaningful peace in our world is a thousand times better than sending missiles. Now in the sixth month as pontiff, Francis has made this conciliatory style and pragmatic openness to dialogue with groups on the margins of the church’s traditional life one of his trademarks.

In a world of impersonal life-styles, millions are attracted by his approach in which human beings with their strengths and vulnerabilities actually matter. They matter to him and more importantly they matter to God. It’s a simple message, but incredibly affirming at a time when more or less all of us are at some point treated just as a number or a statistic or as a shape on a video camera. It was the approach Jesus had to those he met, whatever their situation. Time and again he saw in people their real self, their true self – a self which was deeply precious to God. Centuries ago, the Celtic church understood that truth profoundly – a fact which came home to me when I lived on the island of Iona which has been a place of Christian witness since the 6th century. Whether or not the churches understand it or can creatively respond to it, there is a huge search now going on for ways of living which are not so depersonalised and which interact, in a face to face way, with others.

There is another area in the global ministry of Pope Francis which is fascinating many of us, whether Christian or not. The Pope has called for a sincere and rigorous dialogue with atheists. With those who feel sincerely that there is no God. Francis said recently: “Given – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits, if He is approached with a sincere heart, the question for those who do not believe in God is to abide by their own conscience. There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one’s conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one’s own mind about what is good and evil.” So here, despite the Pope’s theological conservatism in some areas, we have a meaningful openness to those on a different path. What we all share is not doctrinal certainty but our basic humanity whatever our faith tradition. If Christians cannot come to understand this, the world is truly impoverished. The task, which some find impossible, is to remain true to our faith journey while listening to the journeys of others. For religious fundamentalists in all faiths this is, tragically, a “no-go” area.  Why is it so hard for many people in our connected world to accept human difference - especially at a time in history when we have never more needed to understand those who walk on a parallel but to us, unfamiliar, road? Thankfully, the narrow view is not the only one in our world community.

A Native American prayer:

Talking God, with your feet I walk: I walk with your limbs, I carry forth your body.

For me your mind thinks, your voice speaks for me.

 Beauty is before me, and beauty is behind me,

above and below me hovers the beautiful;

I am surrounded by it, I am immersed in it,

in my youth I am aware of it,

and in my old age I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail.

And from Pippa a homemaker:

I long for compassion to be the hallmark of society – I long to see men honouring women and women honouring men – I long to see gentleness, tenderness and integrity in relationships between sexes, and between races and people of all ages.

And the coming revolution:

God invites us today to re-define prophesy: that voice of truth which often comes from surprising places. The world’s next revolution will be a religious one, but not in a sectarian way. It is a revolution just waiting to be touched and tapped.

     ( Adapted from some words of Vincent Donovan, priest and companion of the poor.)

REFLECTION FOR AUGUST 2013       PETER MILLAR

                                      petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

God and the Edinburgh International Festival

As I write this the annual Edinburgh International Festival of arts, music and drama is coming to a close. The festival started in 1947 and was planned to be a sign of reconciliation in a Europe so recently torn by war. It is now one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the world. There is the official Festival and for the last 33 years there has been the Fringe Festival which this year had over 2,500 separate shows. Alongside these festivals there is also the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Just Festival which used to be called the “festival of peace and spirituality.” Vast numbers of people from all over the world come to Edinburgh  during August, and it’s true that the city’s old streets are “alive to the sound of music.” And looking down upon it all is Edinburgh Castle home to the famous military tattoo and one of Historic Scotland’s most visited buildings.

These great events in Scotland’s capital bring to the fore the range and depth of human creativity. Through the centuries many writers and people of faith have reminded us of the basic truth that everything is shot through with the glory of God. The divine energy at the heart of matter: at every moment empowering the depth and range of human imagination. The Edinburgh Festival invites hundreds of thousands of people of different traditions and faiths to encounter in a great variety of ways the human condition both in its agony and ecstasy. It mirrors much of the goodness and bleakness of modern societies. It reminds us that we are part of a greater whole, intellectually, spiritually and in terms of our global inter-connectedness. The 2013 Festival has also had much to say about the future of the planet, global justice and the place of the arts in uncertain times.

Such a torrent of creativity all in one place can be overpowering. From the young jugglers on Edinburgh’s ancient High Street to the great orchestras of the world performing in many locations, all are engulfed in an almost indescribable outpouring of culture. One afternoon during the Festival I sat with some visiting friends in the beauty and calm of St Giles’ Cathedral right in the heart of the city. St Giles’ - the national church of the Scottish people - has been intimately linked to Scotland’s history for centuries and its stout walls reflect that story. The Cathedral (to which entrance is free!) was filled with visitors, many of whom were seated and listening to an amazingly gifted pianist from China. (Much of the Festival music in St Giles’ can also be heard freely – a wonderful part of the year-round out-reaching ministry of the congregation.) And as I sat within these ancient walls, I thought of how much the living Spirit of God is embedded within this great annual Festival. This moving, surprising Spirit, richly at work in an event like the Edinburgh Festival is sadly not recognised by some Christians. They see the whole thing as rather pagan and if not pagan as purely secular – meaning it’s godless. In my book, nothing could be further from the truth. More and more I feel that we have imprisoned God (however we understand that word) in structures of our own making. An example of this is that unless an event uses traditional religious language, symbols or beliefs, it is somehow not of Christ. What inspires me so much about many of the events within the Edinburgh Festival is that they take this world and our human condition seriously. They recognise that we are all people of depth, of awareness and also of contradiction. This is truly something to celebrate in our age of many doubts and questions, and it is perhaps why events like the Edinburgh Festival have never been more popular.  Or more needed.  Or more enjoyable.                                                

A Vision Statement for our times

Recently I have been sharing this Vision Statement with various church groups. It is based on some words of the late and well-known writer/monk Thomas Merton although I have adapted it. It is a “vision statement” for any congregation regardless of denomination. It can form the basis of a challenging and encouraging discussion/reflection for any group of people seeking God’s guidance. It is a “vision statement” attentive to the times in which we live and recognises that our worship and our daily living are intimately connected.
* We believe that the role of any congregation is to simply seek God.

* We believe that God’s people are called to be faithful in prayer, even in difficult times.

* We believe all of us are in need of forgiveness and healing.

* We believe that no one has a monopoly on truth: this belongs to God alone.

* We believe that God understands our doubts and our uncertainties.

* We seek to be open to those of other faiths and traditions.

* We seek a closer connection with the good earth which often cries in pain.

* We seek to work for peace and for justice, locally and in the wider world.

* We believe that God is speaking to us in a special way through the poor and those on the margins.

* We know the value of both being active and of sitting quietly.

* We seek to encourage people of all ages to be true to themselves and discover their inner gifts.

* We wish our leaders to be servants more than rulers.

* We pray that love will guide all our actions, and that our personal lives may know peace.

* We celebrate the beauty and wonder and mystery of each new day. 

A Time to Mend

Several of you have sent e-mails asking where you can obtain my latest book “A Time to Mend: Reflections in uncertain times”  published by Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow.  Please contact Wild Goose Publications at www.ionabooks.com or send an e-mail to admin@ionabooks.com. The UK telephone number for Wild Goose Publications in Glasgow  is  0141 332 6343.

A Blessing for the day      (from: A Time to Mend)

Go gently, my friends:

feel the good earth beneath your feet, celebrate the rising of the sun,

listen to the birds at dawn, walk tenderly under the silent stars, knowing you are on holy ground.

REFLECTION FOR JULY 2013    PETER MILLAR

                                        petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

Two octogenarian prophets of our time – Amartya Sen and Richard Rogers.

Amartya Sen of India and Richard Rogers of Britain are both 80 this year. In their different, and complementary ways they are prophets of our time. Sen is one of the great thinkers of the modern world and Rogers, often controversial, is one of its most distinguished architects. Both have influenced huge numbers of others on this small, shared planet, and their work will be analysed, valued and criticised far into the future trajectory of human history. In my view, they are secular and inspiring prophets: visionaries whose contribution  to our shared story is great by any standards.

Prof Sen  has just brought out a new book with his colleague Jean Dreze. It is called – An Uncertain Glory, India and its Contradictions - and it deals with the enormous disparity in wealth between those in the “new India” and the hundreds of millions who remain in abject poverty within a country which is now a global player. The book is a powerful critique on India’s boom. It still remains a basic fact that modern India is a disaster area in which  millions of lives are wrecked by hunger and a pitiable investment in health and education services. His statistics about present-day poverty in India are grim reading. Truly grim.

Yet despite his critique Sen argues on the side of hope and with a deep faith in human reason. He believes that the consciences of the Indian middle classes can be stirred, and that political change will come, even if not quickly. I think I am less certain of that.

Amartya Sen has been a towering thinker in many fields - science, economics, public health, philosophy and law, yet his work is rooted in the search for true justice among the world’s people. For Sen, the great Indian poet Tagore has been a life-long influence. Like Tagore, he  continues to keep the poorest people on  earth central in his thinking. We salute him at 80.

The controversial and distinguished British architect Lord Richard Rogers 80^th birthday is presently being celebrated by a major retrospective exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy in London. Rogers has designed  a huge number of world-famous buildings, including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyds Building in London and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. His work is acclaimed by many and disliked by others, including his best-known persistent  critic the Prince of Wales.

I like his modern, functional work, not least because his great public buildings provide wonderful spaces for human beings to meet and interact. The Pompidou Centre revolutionised museums by transforming what had once been monuments for the elite into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city. Rogers once said: “The street is where society comes into itself. Watching TV on your own is not very inspiring.” His public spaces are places of life, of celebration, of community, of hope.

Some people expect the prophets to be religious people in a traditional sense. That cannot be said of either Sen or Rogers, but a prophet is essentially a person who challenges us to see well beyond our own often limited vision of life, of God, of other people, of the future, of the fate of the planet. Without prophets whether they be within the church or outside it, we are inwardly impoverished. Our way of “seeing” becomes static and we become content with the often bland options which engulf and frame modern societies.

Father Richard Rohr whose writings so many of us all around the world appreciate, puts it this way:

“Up to now, the hegemony on Christian teaching and theology was held by an exclusive group – males, educated, the Northern hemisphere, those with a vested interest in organised religion, those who never went beyond their own denominational boundaries.

At long last the neglected perspectives are having their say – the feminine lens, the lens of those on the bottom instead of just those on the top, the lens of Blacks, Latinos and Asians, the lens of sexual minorities and all minorities, the lens of the incarcerated and even the lens of sincere secular seekers.

Truth like beauty is in the eye of the beholder – and we have a lot of new beholders”.

            (This is taken from a webcast under the title: What is the Emerging Church?)

As I look at the state of the world in which there is so much injustice and misery it is easy to wonder where it will end up. Many commentators believe that within a few generations there will be those on the top in terms of wealth and power and the vast majority of the human race struggling to live, with few in between. Is it not like that already?

Each day, often in a very fragile way, I try to walk alongside those who are committed to hope, to compassion, to awareness - whether they have a faith in God or whether they don’t. Many of you who read these reflections are on a similar path. That is something to celebrate, even when we sometimes feel the path is lonely. I see in people like Amartya Sen and Richard Rogers two individuals, who even if controversial and often misunderstood,  stand on the side of hope and justice and risk. There are thousands like them in every nation, but sometimes they are silenced by governments and embedded power structures.

In my latest  book A Time To Mend: Reflections in Uncertain Times (Wild Goose Publications) I included these words which are part of a longer meditation:

For LIGHT still shines, and illumining our days we walk together in it.

And in the walking we remember and celebrate the miracle and wonder of life –

but also something more: the unfolding and surprising purposes of God

forever at work in ourselves and the world.   

REFLECTION FOR APRIL/MAY 2013    

PETER MILLAR

petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

The visionary work of Richard Rohr…..

Richard Rohr who was born in 1943 is a Franciscan friar, ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He is Founding Director of the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is an internationally known writer and retreat giver.  For me, Richard’s work is visionary, and each day on the web I read his short and helpful Daily Meditation which is easy to find. (Details below).  He writes on many issues some of which are: the integrating of action and contemplation; Scripture as a liberating force in the world: peace and justice issues: community building: prayer: eco-spirituality and incarnational mysticism.  For many years he has been a regular contributor to the Sojourners magazine published in Washington DC. (See Sojourners website).  Two of his latest books available through Amazon are:  “Immortal Diamond: The Search for our True Self” and “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.”  In one of his recent daily reflections, Richard talked of “spiritual globalisation” a subject which I have thought about much since our years living in South India. Here are his words which I hope you will find helpful for your inner journey.

…… “ Everything had been moving apart into greater individuation for over 2,000 years now (for good and for ill) until this round globe we live on started filling up, and we started meeting one another on the other side – other religions, cultures, ethnicities and worldviews.  This globalisation made us aware that God loves not only Catholics from Kansas (like me), but Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists as well.  We are finding we all have one thing in common. What’s literally grounding all of this is that all of us are standing on the same ground and earth!  She feeds us all.

The one thing we have in common apart from our religions and our cultures is that we are all breathing the same air, relying upon the same Brother Sun and walking on this same Mother Earth. That is the common collective.  That gives us the power to read reality with foundational truth, beyond any ideology.  We are first and foremost and universally members of the One Earth community and St Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus (chapter 4 verses 4 – 6) surely intuited this. But we are able to do this now, like no other period in history.  It’s forced upon us now because we know that if we keep following this artificial separation and over-individuation, my rights over the common good, the whole thing is over in a century or so.”

Please read Richard’s words a couple of times and then take a few minutes to think over them quietly and by yourself within our inter-connected world.   You might not find them easy words at first, but just think how we are all connected on this small planet and that fighting over our differences is such a waste of time and energy and of our limited resources.  And after you pause, think what you can do to support at least one other human being on our planet.  And if you want ideas, just e-mail me! Or Richard Rohr.

Remembering Stephen Lawrence…..

The murder of Stephen Lawrence, a young black man of 18 hoping to go to university, at a London bus stop shocked Britain 20 years ago. His parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence, have fought tirelessly, against all the odds to bring the perpetrators of this racial crime to justice.  They are now imprisoned, but sadly not thanks to the co-operation of the police who were on duty at that time. Robert Beckford who teaches theology in Canterbury and who is himself black, recently wrote words which I have slightly adapted:

“The image of Doreen and Neville Lawrence is profoundly important for black people everywhere.  In mainstream public life we tend to see images of black people only when it is to do with sports or entertainment, and images of black families only when it is around questions of immigration.  But in Stephen’s parents, in their grief, we saw a black couple trying to redeem a nation; a dignified, hard-working couple whose son has aspirations to become an architect and  was as close as you can get to the British dream.  It pricked  a nation’s moral conscience.  But what has changed?  The reality for many blacks and Asians in the UK and in many other countries is that the employment regime is weighted against them.  They have names and ethnicities that are always the last to be hired and first to be fired.  The myth about Stephen Lawrence is that he would have got a place on an architectural course, got the training, and got a job.   The chances are that he would have been struggling in contemporary Britain.   Despite his amazing parents, he was black.”

A prayer for our times

    Known, yet unknown, without a name - yet holding every name,

    in the mystery of love you come to us whatever our colour or creed,

    and always in tenderness – aware of our limited understanding -

    you reveal the meaning of our lives and the hope of our hearts.

    And you do that today.      (Peter)                        

 

NOTES:  To subscribe to Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations just Google: Centre for Action and Contemplation and you will see a space to subscribe. All free.

If others who you know want to read  these Reflections please direct them to my blog site which is easy to find. Just Google: petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

My latest book “A Time To Mend – Reflections in uncertain times” is available at:

www. ionabooks.com.                              ( Please feel free to share these reflections. )

REFLECTION FOR FEBRUARY 2013    PETER MILLAR

                              petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk

SCOTLAND’S CARDINAL

 On the eve of his departure for Rome to take part in the election of the new Pope, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic has been propelled by Pope Benedict to an abrupt resignation. This sudden fall from grace for the cardinal, who is shortly to be 75, was because a few days ago a UK newspaper revealed that three serving priests and one former priest in the diocese had made public accusations about his “inappropriate behaviour” toward them in the 1980’s. Keith O’Brien has denied the allegations but in his parting statement he ambiguously apologised for any failures in his ministry and to those he had “offended”. He will not now take part in the election of the new Pope.

Professor John Haldane of St Andrew’s University who is a leading Scottish Catholic and an adviser to the Vatican, called the resignation “shocking and sad”, and many people in Scotland have spoken warmly of the Cardinal’s ministry and his place in public life over several decades. I did not agree with many of Keith O’Brien’s pronouncements, but I feel sad that his ministry has ended in such an abrupt way. It would be an impoverished spirit who could not feel some sympathy for him. Our thoughts also go out to the priests who have made the accusations. They too are hurting. His resignation has also created a further crisis for the Roman Catholic  church. That too is sad for all of us who are concerned about the work and witness of the whole church in our time.

This speedy resignation shows clearly how sensitive the Roman Catholic church has become towards sexual scandal. As one writer said, “The long years of circling the wagons are over, at least in the developed world. Cardinals now get the same treatment as priests. There was a time when complaining about your bishop or cardinal to Rome was a one-way ticket to a posting on Craggy Island. There are probably still a great many crimes or misdemeanours that a priest with a sense of self-preservation would hesitate to denounce his superiors for – but it seems that sexual abuse is no longer one of them. This is progress, though slow and belated.”

Here in Edinburgh in May at its General Assembly, the Church of Scotland to which I belong, will once again be discussing the situation  in relation to gay women and men in the Christian ministry. This is a debate within all the churches which has gone on ceaselessly for years - as if human sexuality in its multiple dimensions was the thing that mattered most to God. It is a debate which has brought in its wake, among much else, deep hurt, alienation, anger, separation, judgment, hypocrisy and divided families and churches.  What God must make of it all is beyond our limited human imagining. I am sure the One who holds us all weeps over things other  than sex.

In my own understanding,  I believe that Christians are called to live what has been called over the centuries  “a holy life”. There is within that quest a sub-text which we can describe as a “vision of perfection” which in our deeper selves we know to be unrealistic. Unobtainable. There are some forms of perfection that are damaging even to try for. The demand on Catholic priests (except the married ones who not so long ago fled to Rome, from the Church of England because they refused to accept women clergy!) to live through each day as if sex was something that happened to other people is absolutely unrealistic. I think such an understanding is actually opposed to the liberating news of the Gospel. Many priests and nuns think that too.

Priests are sexual men – just ask them!  Often highly sexual individuals which is why in some cultures (such as the Philippines) they are allowed to have unofficial  hetrosexual  families. Yet outwardly – and this is true also of the present debate on gay ministers in the Church of Scotland – the churches refuse to creatively engage with the reality which is human sexuality. It’s all too messy: too complicated. ( I remember Dorothy and I being told by some of our clergy colleagues in the Church of South India that they could not accept female priests in case they gave birth while serving Communion!  Honestly, that is true.) Thankfully their view was not a majority one, and  today there are some great women priests within that church. For my own part, I always thought God’s heart would celebrate and joyfully accept such a birth taking place in the sacredness of a church building and in the midst of a praying people. Others thought differently!

The sad fall from grace of the Scottish cardinal once again shows that making certain human beings accept moral standards which by and large are unrealistic often takes us down a road not of a more profound, engaged, compassionate and joy-filled spirituality but one marked by hypocrisy and human torment. That is not to say that if an individual chooses celibacy we should not honour such a decision. Of course we should, but that remains a different issue.

Over the years in some of my books  I have written about the need for us  to be more tender with one another when it comes to the area of human sexuality. At various levels we are all vulnerable and carry moral frailty, and it is a gift from God if we have enough self-awareness to face these fragmented parts in ourselves. To be able to accept personal vulnerability and inner contradiction opens  us to a more genuine empathy with others. And in that fact is real hope.  God’s hope.

Fred Kaan’s well-known and prophetic hymn says it so well:

                                         Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us,
                                         teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.
                                         Be present,  Lord among us and bring us to believe
                                         we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.
==================================================================================                        For details of my new book book just Google   -    www.ionabooks.com
It is called:      “A TIME TO MEND : Reflections In Uncertain Times”   and is published by Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow, UK.  The ISBN number is:   978 – 1 – 84952 -247 – 2.

Thank you again for your many e-mails from many parts of the world. So many of us are engaged in seeking  greater justice and truth within our wider human family. It’s inspiring to think of that when  much around us is uncertain. I find Richard Rohr’s  short daily meditations which you can get through your e-mail very helpful. They  come freely . All you need to do is to Google -  “Richard Rohr” and the details will come up. He like many of us, is committed to an engaged Christianity.

To ponder:                   GOD MATTERS.  THE WORLD MATTERS.  WE ALL MATTER TO GOD.