eChurch Blog

Putting this one on for no other good reason than I found it uplifting and it bought a smile to my face – apart from the reference to the tiny extreme-right group of course.

Associated Press:

A Muslim stonemason who spent nearly four decades helping to restore an Roman Catholic cathedral in France has been immortalized as a winged gargoyle peering out from its facade — albeit with the inscription “God is great” at his clawed feet.

This sign of inter-religious friendship is rooted in the Medieval tradition and reflects the city of Lyon’s links to its large Muslim population. But a widely publicized outcry from a tiny extreme-right group has forced the Archdiocese of Lyon into damage control.

“This has nothing to do with religion. It’s a sculptor who wants to pay homage to a construction site chief,” said the Rev. Michel Cacaud, rector of the cathedral. “That’s all.”

In France, where Islam is the country’s second religion, the government has worked to get Muslims to integrate into French culture, while at the same time confronting cases of Islamophobia, from the desecration of Muslim graves to attacks on mosques.

Ahmed Benzizine, a practicing Muslim born in Algeria, a former French colony, sees the gargoyle in his image as “a message of peace and tolerance.”

“When I started to work in churches … exactly 37 years ago, it was considered a sin that a Muslim enter a place of worship other than a mosque,” he said.

He has worked off and on since 1973 at Saint Jean Cathedral, which dominates the old city of Lyon and has been honored as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Benzizine, who arrived in France in 1970, is tickled to see his likeness on the facade of the cathedral, which dates to the 12th to 14th centuries and combines both Gothic and Roman architecture.

“It looks like me except for the ears,” said the 59-year-old Benzizine. “They’re pointed like the devil. But the sculptor told me that angels have pointed ears, too.”

But he takes his celebrity with humility.

Continue

I watched The Genius of Charles Darwin presented by Richard Dawkins last night, episodes of which can be seen on Channel 4OD.

As a scientific program I thought it excellent and as an evolutionary biologist and ethologist Dawkins has great ability to communicate complex science to the general populace in an engaging and understandable manner.

Given this, why oh why does he have to pepper everything with unnecessary references to God?

It suddenly struck me that Dawkins has done more damage to the cause of science within religious circles than any other person. I can only assume that his references to God are to please his troops, however this severely attenuates the man and the message.

Frankly religion is not his forte and his continual references to God and religion are unnecessary and undermine his self-proclaimed goal of communicating science to the religious.

Watching Dawkins make sweeping statements about religious belief and the existence of God also undermines his impartiality and objective neutrality.

Stick to science Dawkins, there’s no need to keep harping on about God, especially given that you consider him redundant.

Just a quickie to let you know that Catholic Voices now have a blog up and running countering anti-Catholic bias within the media prior to and during the Pope’s visit:

Catholic Voices Media Monitor Blog

I think this will be worth keeping an eye on.

I have blogged about Catholic Voices before, but for the benefit of those that have forgotten they are:

A crack team of Catholic communicators who have been trained and prepared for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in September. (My words)

or

A bureau of Catholic speakers able to articulate with conviction the Church’s positions on major contentious issues in the media. (Their words)

I still think my description is punchier.

Fr. Stephen Smuts alerts us to the fact that at six minutes and seven seconds past five this morning it was 05:06:07 08/09/10 and that won’t happen again for another thousand years.

Also at sundown today begins the Jewish new year called Rosh Hashanah or the Biblical Feast of Trumpets (I’ve only linked to that page cos the shofar sounded so cool) heralding the year 5771.

So there you go, quite a day and happy new year to our Jewish readers.

Shana Tova!

The upcoming Pope’s visit to the UK has caused a stir as it is an official State visit rather than a pastoral visit. Pope John’s visit back in 1982 was a pastoral affair.

Some question the legitimacy of the tiny Vatican as a Sovereign State and consequently claim the Pope isn’t a “proper” Head of State.

This argument knocks on to the issue of State funding for the visit and the fact that Gordon Brown originally invited the Pope in a ‘State’ context is conveniently forgotten.

Here’s a snippet from the Sunday Times back in Feb 09:

Gordon Brown assured Pope Benedict XVI of a “warm welcome” when he invited him to Britain today.

After an audience with the Pope lasting more than 35 minutes – far longer than scheduled – Mr Brown said he had told the pontiff “that many millions of people would not only welcome his visit but it would be a great moment for our whole country”.

So all of those folk opposed to state funding of the Pope’s visit have Gordon Brown to thank.

Anyway, I got a little side-tracked as I wanted to highlight the fact that the Vatican is not the only tiny Christian Sovereign State, there is another, namely, Mount Athos:

The following is taken from Diarmaid MacCulloch: A History of Christianity – The First Three Thousand Years – Page: 467-468

Most recent previous post on ‘A History of Christianity’ can be found here.

The assertion of uniform values within the Orthodox Church and the new wealth in the tenth and eleventh centuries also led to the great investment in the institutions which had defended (or invented) the tradition so successfully in the years of conflict: the monasteries. Naturally much of this investment went into ancient well-established foundations, much of which were in the capital or in great-cities, but as a result, the restlessness of the monastic spirit led to the inspirational holy men moving out to find new wilderness. This was a great age of colonisation of ‘holy mountains’, the chief active survivor of which is the monastic republic of Mount Athos, a peninsula thrusting into the Aegean sea in Great Macedonia. Although a few hermits had been attracted to the Athonite peninsula’s wild grandeur and isolation in earlier centuries, the great Lavra, the most important among its monastic communities had multiplied, other language groups from Eastern Churches also founded monasteries here.

Subsequent historical shifts of fortune have propelled the Holy Mountain into one of the most important resources of Orthodoxy worldwide, now enjoying autonomy within the Republic of Greece. It is the only state in the world with an entirely male population, including any animal or bird with human control.

Fascinating….well I think so anyway….

Vatican Radio:

I am very much looking forward to my visit to the United Kingdom in a week’s time and I send heartfelt greetings to all the people of Great Britain. I am aware that a vast amount of work has gone into the preparations for the visit, not only by the Catholic community but by the Government, the local authorities in Scotland, London and Birmingham, the communications media and the security services, and I want to say how much I appreciate the efforts that have been made to ensure that the various events planned will be truly joyful celebrations. Above all I thank the countless people who have been praying for the success of the visit and for a great outpouring of God’s grace upon the Church and the people of your nation.

It will be a particular joy for me to beatify the Venerable John Henry Newman in Birmingham on Sunday 19 September. This truly great Englishman lived an exemplary priestly life and through his extensive writings made a lasting contribution to Church and society both in his native land and in many other parts of the world. It is my hope and prayer that more and more people will benefit from his gentle wisdom and be inspired by his example of integrity and holiness of life.

I look forward to meeting representatives of the many different religious and cultural traditions that make up the British population, as well as civil and political leaders. I am most grateful to Her Majesty the Queen and to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury for receiving me, and I look forward to meeting them. While I regret that there are many places and people I shall not have the opportunity to visit, I want you to know that you are all remembered in my prayers. God bless the people of the United Kingdom!

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

Lou Holtz

I know it’s only a small thing but I’m really chuffed with the results of this Guardian poll which I blogged about here.

Question:

Is physicist Stephen Hawking right that physics, not God, created the universe?

The final results are:

37.5% Yes. I believe in gravity, not divinity

62.5% No. God: Hawking ‘not necessary’

Although the results are not down to me, I must admit that I did vigorously promote the poll amongst the online Christian community.

Considering the “leanings” of the Guardian and the fact that P Z Myers blogged it for his troops to pharyngulate, we did rather well.

Well done and thanks to everybody who voted.

The Spitoon have just posted a piece relating to the National Secular Society, the British “comedian” Pat Condell, the “Ground Zero Mosque” and Islam.

Basically, Pat Condell is vehemently opposed to the Ground Zero Mosque and his “rantings” have been applauded by the anti-Muslim, far-right brigade in the US.

The problem is that Pat Condell is not only a member of the National Secular Society, but was nominated for their 2010 “Secularist of the Year“.

The Spitton conclude with:

You may be resolutely pro-secularism, as we are, but supporting the NSS becomes problematic if it turns out to be little more than an institution which advocates bigotry and prejudice in the guise of secularism.

I’ve oft noted that in the pursuit of secularism and the fight against extremist, hate-filled and bigoted religion, it’s all too easy to become extremist, hate-filled and bigoted.

Following the extraordinary media coverage of Professor Stephen Hawking’s “God did not create Universe” sentiments, which is in fact a non-story, Clayboy muses the possible reasons driving this media frenzy.

I particularly want to draw attention to Clayboy’s final thought, which he freely admits is an intuitive generalisation:

…..it seems to me that in the not too distant past people generally used to feel vaguely comforted that some discovery, or eminent person, made belief in God seem reasonable, acceptable, or even proved. By contrast, I think that currently many people are generally vaguely relieved when some discovery or eminent person reinforces the view that there is no God, that not believing in God testifies to our modern grown-up rationality and we can get on with our lives pretty much how we choose. Whether then or now, we like stories that reinforce our cultural disposition.

Last week a Gallup poll surveying religiosity rates across the world revealed the following relating to Britain:

The United Kingdom came 109th in the league table, with 27% of its citizens saying religion was important in their lives and 73% not.

In view of this and my own “gut feeling” and observations, I think Clayboy nailed it.

What do you think?

Don’t forget to vote!