Weltanschauung

The Philosopher’s Stone

zenothestoic@protonmail.ch

Tag: Religion

  • The Cranmer Prayer Book – does it still have relevance?

    The Cranmer Prayer Book – does it still have relevance?

    It does for me.  Perhaps it’s nostalgia, or a misguided sense of linguistic elitism, a reminder of past privilege. Or maybe all  of these, combined with a genuine love of the language and thought.

    Mattins in a country church or Westminster Abbey, sung evensong in the college chapel at Christ Church, Oxford.

    My flight of fancy turns to John Betjeman, to Sebastian Flyte and Aloysius touring the pre war English countryside in an ancient convertible.  To Jeeves and Worcester, cucumber sandwiches and Earl Grey tea on a sunlit lawn.

    At a deeper level, it fills my soul. I may have no belief but somehow the beauty makes my mind drift to good things.  Even if not towards the arms of the Blessed Virgin and the Son of God. My connection to the Book of Common Prayer is deep, very deep. And deeply held.

    And yet even the lightest dusting of historical awareness must tell us that its birth was far from immaculate. And it’s guiding light twisted and, by any reasonable standard, evil.

    Archbishop Cranmer was a man who tortured and murdered those who did not tow the protestant Zeitgeist.  Paradoxically, when Mary Tudor ascended the throne, she had her revenge and burnt good Cranmer himself at the stake.

    Many will excuse the murders by so many prelates throughout Christian history as being of its time. Those days were different, we are better now.

    I cannot condone such an interpretation.  There must have been men and women, even in those barbaric times, who realised the indecency and horror of what was done in the name of the church.

    Just as there are right thinking Muslims today who abhor the judicial murder and state sponsored terrorism so prevalent in the Middle East and beyond.

    Just as there are right thinking Christians who detest the twisted and vile Christian Right support of the bombing and mutilation of innocent men, women and children in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

    I detest and reject any god who can allow such behaviour.  I scorn any religion which turns morality inside out and encourages its followers in perverted cruelty and abject abomination.

    It’s not god’s fault they say: man has twisted his message. Perhaps then, a true god should light the sacrificial fires of his believers and prove his worth by intervening on this godforsaken planet.

    But there I go: round and round the garden path like a teddy bear. Same old gripes, same gobsmacked awe at the ghastliness of life on earth.

    It is a position I am not wholly dissatisfied with. Someone has to say it and keep saying it.

    If there is a god, then, in the immortal words of Randolf Churchill, he is a shit.

    Illustration: Two scenes on one sheet: above Thomas Cranmer being seized from a stage by friars and Catholics, below his burning to death at Oxford; illustration to a 16th-century edition of John Foxe, ‘Acts and Monuments’ (‘Book of Martyrs’).
    Woodcut

  • Ditching Belief….

    Ditching Belief….

    … and the “Need to Know” is a big step on the road to peace and the elimination of suffering.

    My only “belief” is that one should “do unto others….” And rather than “others” I should perhaps say “other” since I don’t wish to exclude non human living things or the environment.

    I don’t need any evidence for this belief: it is simply the way I have come to feel I should lead my life. It is MY belief, no need for any faith. Is it important to do unto others as you would have others do unto you?  Well, it has become very important to me and that’s about all I can say. It isn’t a physical law or even a human law, it’s simply an emotion, a feeling, a personal choice.

    And as for the rest, I have ditched it all and feel immensely better for having done so. I don’t need to puzzle anymore over whether there is a god, whether animals have free will, whether the universe had a beginning or will have an end. Or why there are so many violent and greedy beasts in the human jungle.

    And I have no need for belief or faith in any of these matters.

    It is a vast freedom to kick all this rubbish into touch.

    There are no answers and so why bother with it at all?

    There is no evidence whatsoever as to the existence of the supernatural and so pro tem we are stuck with physical reality. Or at least what our senses tell us is out there in the physical world.

    And it’s equally impossible to prove the negative – so I’m not inclined to try.

    Alongside my own behaviour, which I will try to maintain, all I have to rely on is science. Which, despite the continuing horrors of our world, is the only factor since our very beginning which has made one jot of a difference to our lot.

    I won’t bother to state the obvious by listing all the good and bad things which science has brought us. But I eat well, don’t have to live in a damp, bug infested hovel and have a decent hospital round the corner. I wish I could say the same for all those millions who have had less luck on planet earth.

    I am following up on my post about Gurus. You don’t need them because most are deliberate fakes and those who are genuine are well intentioned but talking through their metaphorical backsides.  Pontificating on speculative matters and insisting that we must believe them. Why? Well because they say so, obviously.

    I’m not writing to be provocative. I am writing because I have found the ditching of belief and the need to know cathartic in the extreme.

    If I’m treading on the toes of your deepest held beliefs, well that’s just the way it is.  If you worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster and feel good for it, you must carry on. It does nobody any harm unless you force your beliefs down other people’s throats. Using verbal persuasion or even violence to convert others to your bizarre belief system has been as harmful as any human behaviour over the millennia. Believe as you wish and have the decency to let others do the same. 

    There ARE things I would like to know but the reality is that I will never find the answers.  My endless meditation has brought me peace and, I hope, has reinforced my determination to do unto others.

    It has not brought me arcane knowledge. I have not met god or the Flying Spaghetti Monster and if I were going to, I would have done it by now.  I have little idea what the universe is, or where it’s going, or what it’s “for”. Perhaps none of us will ever find out; and that’s all right – live with it.

    All I have is the sense that it is all proceeding as it will and that that is the way it is and the way it must be. I sense no great purpose out there, no overriding meaning. It all just “is”. We all just “are”. And that is enough – I have come to accept the situation and find greater peace in my life than ever before.

    Some would be outraged by my words. Some would understand my meaning and agree with me. 

    Ditching the need to know, dumping baseless faith has improved my life.

    That is good enough for me.

  • The Terrorism of Ideology and Dogma

    The Terrorism of Ideology and Dogma

    Original ideas, whether in religion or politics, may originate as beneficial and humane but all too often become adopted by a group of thugs who take it upon themselves to imprison, torture and kill anyone who denies the validity of whatever nonsense these terrorists declare to be “truth”.

    Certain (unfortunately growing) religious faiths today remain as barbaric as any in the ancient world. And of course political “faiths” (empire, communism, capitalism by way of example) continue as they have always done to exalt the status, power and wealth of their leading proponents while kicking the rest into the gutter. Or worse – much worse in many cases.

    The less educated classes (or simply those who have never studied history) may be unaware that the appalling bigots of the medieval and later Christian church burnt at the stake those who refused to profess belief in a bundle of half baked and absurd  doctrines invented by madmen over the years.

    The Catholic Church taught that the bread and wine of the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of their 1st Century Palestinian hero. Anyone publicly disagreeing got burnt at the stake.

    The Protestant Reformation sounds good but proved equally vile. Another group of terrorist madmen also burnt their opponents at the stake for holding ideas opposed to their own.

    Christianity may have cleaned up its act but other “faiths” have taken its place in perpetuating the gargantuan stupidity early Christians once practiced. Once again, even in this “enlightened” age, groups of religious thugs murder and mutilate those who dare to challenge their insane and wholly unproven (and unprovable) beliefs.

    And it hasn’t just been the religious nutters – plenty of secularist hogwash has caused damage even greater, in terms of lost lives. Aryanism and Communism condemned millions to the death camps in the 20th Century.  Capitalism has created a vast untermensch, a population of slaves chained up in its dark satanic mills. A small bunch of fallible, greedy clowns has corralled most of the planet’s physical resources while billions are left in dire need.

    If you need to cling to an idea then let it be “do unto others…..”. But make sure you include all flora and fauna and the environment itself in the definition of “others”.

    Sounds simple enough, but as a species we have never got the hang of it.

    If you can’t get your head around something this simple, then refuse to subscribe to any ideology, any dogma.  And keep quiet – maintain absolute silence. Since if you voice your views someone on the right or the left will seek to harm you.  Someone leading some insane cult will seek to have you put down or will chop off your hands or arms or genitalia.

    And that’s about where we are at, as a race. Barbaric, backwards and stupid, despite the rapid advances in scientific achievement.

    AI sounds great – a potential saviour. The bright new ideology – the Singularity promised by the likes of High Priest Ray Kurzweil. But of course it is owned by the few, whom it will doubtless enrich.

    If artificial general intelligence is ever born, it would be able to recreate itself from scratch. Improve itself until it becomes what some folk would deem “godlike”.

    But like all good ideas, Ray’s ideology will be seized upon by a corrupt cabal and will be used to unleash hitherto unseen and unimaginable horror.

    I’m not being pessimistic or negative – I’m just extrapolating from the past. I see no sea change in human behaviour, so I am merely being realistic.

    What do you do about it? Well you certainly cannot beat them. But equally, you should at all cost avoid joining them.

    My own personal solution is to be a hermit. To maintain silence. To avoid my brethren to the utmost extent I am able. To live quietly, and, I hope, do no harm.

    To avoid ranting, insane dogma. To recognise current ideology and dogma for the banal nonsense it is.

    One day we might all grow up. But I’m not holding my breath.

  • Getting it Badly Wrong

    Getting it Badly Wrong

    Reading through my last few posts I became very aware that I extended criticism over matters which should not trouble me. And that such criticism is neither kind nor warranted.

    If you want to retire from the world, which I most certainly do, then you should at least be gracious enough to let other people get on with their lives in the way they choose. Without offering frequent and unwarranted adverse comment.

    There are a number of things in the human world which infuriate me and yet I should be big enough and forgiving enough to simply ignore such irritation.

    If I wish to be a better person then it is foolish to harbour ill feelings about the behaviour of others. It is unjustified, unwarranted and harmful both to myself and to the victims of my ire.

    My frequent rants against the “religious” are largely a result of visits to evensong at my local High Church C of E establishment. Which I do solely to hear their superb choir and to indulge in the beautiful words of the Book of Common Prayer.

    The Vicar, while doubtless well meaning and good, does specialise in the sort of behaviour and mannerisms which I find less than helpful to my invariably irascible mood.

    The sermon (which I usually avoid by quietly slipping out down a side isle) is invariably depressing. And delivered in that oh so Church of England pious mode. A quiet and dismal voice tells me that the world is terrible and that we are all so sinful and have been ever since the mythical Eve was dumb enough to eat from the tree of knowledge. And many of my fellow “worshippers” are equally pious and oh so humble. Even if away from the sacred portal they are guilty of the most heinous sin. Like so many of those good priests unable to resist the lure of each other or the under age pupils supposedly in their care.

    We are then treated to a series of ghastly readings concerning an insane and vicious old testament god who does his best to make his people’s lives a misery. And we are supposed to see some relevance to our own lives and the condition of our awful species.

    I can take much of the Gospels and get meaning out of it. The Sermon on the Mount being top of the pops.

    But Acts and all the dreary Epistles simply don’t get my vote. A bunch of simpering crackpots telling me not to shag other people’s wives’ for the most part. Who are asinine enough to get themselves put down by the authorities for peddling their depressing drivel.

    But there I go, making the same mistake yet again.  Just because “worship” doesn’t get my vote there is no cause or justification in mocking others who quite sincerely take all that tosh as “gospel”.

    And so it goes on. Wokeness is something I particularly dislike. I am supposed to embrace 64 different genders and call people “them” or “they”. Or it. Or something.  I am supposed to rejoice in sexual variety I have no experience of and sing that I’m glad to be gay. Unless I grow or graft sexual organs other than those I was born with I am unworthy to read the Guardian or join the Labour Party.

    I must wring my hands in anguish and pay out vast sums of money all because some ghastly people several hundreds of years ago used fellow humans as slaves.  Horrible but that was then. And in any event, since the practice continues, let’s stop it now rather than whining about what happened hundreds of years ago.

    Oh, and then there is a current religion which is growing like billyo which I’m not supposed to mention except in tones of admiration and quiescence. Despite the fact that what was once something very fine indeed has become a hideous instrument of terror and repression in the hands of politically inspired madmen. Whose most extreme adherents treat women as fifth class citizens and who beat and rape and torture all those who disagree with their savage and backward law.

    Hmm…what else do I loathe and despise about the world. Well, most of it I guess. Or rather anything which touches on the human race.

    I’m very happy with birds and bees and butterflies and natural beauty.

    But there you see is my error. I am allowing my own likes and dislikes to make me into something just as unpleasant and unacceptable as those that I criticise.

    It’s a human failing of course but one that must be overcome if one wishes to live up to one’s ideals.

    I have often stated that I am not as such a “good” person and that becomes only too evident when I look at my own attitudes and behaviour. But at least I recognise it as wrong. Which must surely go some way to redress the balance in favour of my fractured and imperfect soul.

    Note to self: “Must try harder”.

  • So, ecumenism is bad for society?

    So, ecumenism is bad for society?

    I was sad to come across a post on the internet entitled “The Ecumenical Slope” whose author is both anti ecumenism and pacifism and who appears to believe that such doctrines destroy “character”.

    The author states that ecumenism is “evil”.

    I find such attitudes deeply disturbing since in my own book, any movement which tends towards peace on earth is a good thing. Peace is beneficial, which is why, mercifully we no longer worship Thor or consider battle as glorious. Well, most of us anyway.
    Not, apparently, the author of that blog.

    When I make my case for ecumenism, both secular and sacred, as can be well imagined, the author turns to insult to re-enforce his position. Thus in effect making my point for me – the human tendency towards violence is something which we should urgently address. Futile as that cause may seem.

    I would not have bothered to think about the matter but my mind turned towards it when I heard this afternoon of the continuing strife at the Hurlingham Club – a posh venue for the spoilt upper middle classes in London, to which my family and I belong.

    I won’t go into the details but the sorry saga at the club has taught me a thing or two about human nature. In particular, that humans are born to fight. And furthermore, that in order to bring about a better society we must resist conflict at all costs.

    Ecumenism is an attempt to foster better understanding of each other and closer, less harmful relationships. It can refer to religious groups or simply to people in general. It says a lot about our world and human nature that there can exist people who argue against ecumenism and pacifism. Who argue, in effect, in favour of conflict and dissension.

    I confess that I am constantly irritated by individuals and by society in general. That I am disappointed and disturbed by human nature. I am constantly having to remind myself that my views and my own wishes are not something that I should foist on others and often have to think carefully and back off on any particular initiative I might have which looks like it will lead to conflict.

    A typical example is a recent initiative I lead to introduce choral music to our decrepit and decaying local church. And to obtain a key so that I could open the church for private contemplation. I was met by resistance and refusal and was faced with two choices: walk away, or take the matter up with higher authority against the wishes of the local church wardens. I decided to walk away. Parties become entrenched in power and entrenched in their ways, believing that they represent the community; perhaps they do but one suspects that they represent only that section of the community with which they find themselves in agreement. Such is our nature.

    I chose to walk away. And so with the author of that curious blog. When he offered insult in return for my well meant and peacefully phrased comment, I recognized it was time to walk away and leave him to his views, however much I disagreed with them.

    I can honestly say that I have no idea how to deal with aggression. I am very unclear what could or should have been done in 1939.

    But I am ever more clear that wherever and whenever possible, I will walk away.

  • ChristianMingle.com

    ChristianMingle.com

    A kind friend sent me what I took to be a flyer for ChristianMingle.com, which appears to be a sex and dating site for Christians.

    Apparently my friend believes I lack both god and sex and he is right on both counts, so I am most grateful for his kind solicitations.

    There is even a movie based on the website.

    According to Wikipedia:

    Christian Mingle was launched in 2001 by Spark Networks. The site has over 16 million members. In July 2016, Christian Mingle began accommodating gay men and women.

    Ah, so that’s OK then. But apparently there are over 11 genders now, so perhaps ChristianMingle has some catching up to do.

    You will doubtless be pleased to hear that:

    Spark Networks  is a leading global dating company with a widening portfolio of premium & freemium apps. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘LOV’”.

    Intrigued and attracted by the joint idea of god and free sex I signed up for the UK version. Sadly, given my advanced age, I was presented with a motley selection of  ugly old ducks who were doubtless also having problems with both sex and god. Although some had worn better than others and would perhaps offer an interesting evening out with extras.

    Those with a non conventional Christian or other background will  be pleased to hear that Spark offers succor to Jews, Latter Day Saint Singles and Christian Adventists.

    I was most disappointed to discover Spark does not offer “Muslim Mingle” or “Taliban Mingle” but perhaps these committed American capitalists will reach out to other sex starved religious devotees in due course. Buddhist Mingle, Sikh Mingle, Atheist Mingle. I’d better put out a buy recommendation on the stock.

     

     

  • Dangerous Religious Cults

    Dangerous Religious Cults

    Religion becomes a dark and dangerous tool in the wrong hands.

    I visited a website called  Do What’s Right today and was saddened by the reception to some comments I made.

    I believe, very strongly, in the better aspects of religion. I am interested in other points of view and although I am an atheist (or perhaps pantheist might be more accurate) religion has done much to soothe my soul. Assuming I have one of course.

    But what I do believe in, most strongly, is inclusivity. I read the Psalms now and then and attend church (occasionally!) for beauty and inspiration. I am currently practicing Vierne’s Messe Solennelle for a concert in March at a local Catholic Church (even though I was brought up as a Protestant in the Church of England).  The historical Jesus ( at least as reflected in the Christian Gospels) is my idea of a good egg. A very good egg.

    But I am also a modern man. A strong believer in science and looking forward. I do not believe it useful to look backwards to a non existent golden age. I do not believe in Jean Jacque Rousseaus Noble Savage.  Or was it Dryden’s? I do not believe in nonsensical dogma. The Fall! The Trinity! The Divinity of Christ! It was a very different era, first Century Rome. We should not be bound by the superstitions early Christians chose to amuse themselves with.

    Goodness, decency, right thinking yes. The Lake of Gehenna, The Fall, Eternal Damnation – get a life.

    I detest extremism in any form. Be it in Islam, Christianity or indeed in any sector of our fractured global society.

    I am disturbed by the exclusive nature of some  clergy. “We Christians” seems to be their attitude and they even use their own curious language, in that they attribute non standard meanings to many words they care to use in their sermons.   A wife has to “obey” a husband apparently – although the clergy argue that in their interpretation “obey” doesn’t mean “obey” at all. What then does it mean? Curiouser and curiouser cried Alice.

    The last of my comments was deleted by the over zealous website “pastor” but hey, that’s his privilege and his loss.

    AG

    My mission in life is to behave better and be kinder to those around me. I do not need an external god to do that nor do I need his approval or benediction. Nonetheless the sentiments expressed in religious writings can be of great use. The Book of Psalms for instance.

    Response:

    All that means is that you are an outsider to us

    AG

    I do not believe that any human is an outsider and nor did the historical Jesus. He managed to turn the other cheek and invite the outcast into his inner enclave. Many problems have resulted through religion and each particular faith’s exclusivity and determination that they and only they have the “Way”.

    The teachings of any half decent religion are identical once you discount the dogma and the requirement to believe in a supernatural entity.

    I too am a pastor in a sense but an inclusive one. In my “Book” any decent human being is welcome and entrance is denied to none. In my book nobody is an outsider – we all struggle with the same issues and the same existential and physical anxieties.

    Response

    This is not a forum for scholarly debate. You are mistaken about a great many things, missing the point on what Jesus actually said. He willingly died on the Cross because mankind is fallen and incapable of arriving at truth and God’s favor without God’s help. We are designed to know the truth, but we come into this life broken by the Curse of the Fall. The human reason is simply not up to the task. You remain an outsider until you accept the teachings of Jesus as they stand in the Bible. Your “historical Jesus” is a man-made lie.

    AG (but the following was deleted by the website owner)

    With the greatest of the respect, Jesus taught tolerance and inclusion. I am merely saying that I believe exclusion to be a misinterpretation of what the historical Jesus was all about. He was a good man, a great man and the Beatitudes are a fine framework on which to build one’s life. I believe the world has a very great need for tolerance, peace and understanding and this can only arise if all sects, all cults can come to understand each other and embrace each others views.

    I have studied religion for many years and happen to find the most peace, meaning and solace in Eastern religion. That does not mean that I do not appreciate Christian teachings even though I do not believe in the Christian God or the divinity of Jesus. “We are designed to know the truth” – with that I can concur. But we will find it in Teilhard de Chardin or Frank Tipler.

    Learning, wisdom, knowledge, sagacity and, importantly, science are what will bring a better world.  And there was no “fall” – merely an evolutionary process which has resulted in a very imperfect species of ape we call humanity. So please accept my comments in the spirit in which they are written – a spirit of helpfulness and inclusivity.  Christianity is all about tolerance and helping the lion to lie with the lamb. Or at least that is what many or even most modern Christians feel, including our English archbishop and our next British King – who describes himself as a defender of “Faiths”.

  • Psalm 137: Happy the one who takes your little ones, and dashes them against the rock.

    Psalm 137: Happy the one who takes your little ones, and dashes them against the rock.

    Someone in Canterbury Cathedral (the Dean perhaps?) decided that Verse 9 was going a little far and that Jihad against the Daughters of Babylon and their kids just wasn’t on these days.

    Pity someone couldn’t have communicated the Dean’s sentiments to Bush and Blair.

    They could have explained perhaps that the “axis of evil” consisting of Iran, North Korea, and Iraq should not have included, to be fair, the countless thousands of innocent men, women and children killed in two gulf wars and the disastrous aftermath.

    One of the glories of England is its Cathedrals. I was sitting in the choir stalls at evensong listening to the choir singing Psalm 137 and following along in the prayer book. Somewhat to my surprise I noticed a verse had been left out and when I glanced at Verse 9, I realised the omission was justified!

    The dear old church of England is a decent place on the whole (although I gather life in the Cathedral close can be as bitchy as anywhere).  It isn’t blood and guts and Jihad. It is not about thrusting the violent and mad ramblings of an ancient desert tribe down the throats of the infidel.

    Although the endless god stuff can get tedious (we are all so sinful) and mealy mouthed, they are a well meaning bunch mostly (leaving aside the occasional  Obadiah Slope).

    That’s the thing about the religion of my childhood. They don’t mind me being an apostate,  they are not too concerned that I find their belief in a benign deity (or indeed any deity) faintly absurd.

    They welcome me in with open arms, hoping perhaps that I will receive a Damascene conversion while dozing gently and drifting off to the notes of Tallis, Byrd or Purcell.

    That’s what I like about the shabby old clerics and their musty churches and prayer books. They recognise that for some of us it is beauty and meditation which might lead us to a better life (even if, as an atheist, I can not hope for the kingdom of their god).

    Thank god (well – that’s a turn of phrase) for the decency, mediocrity and kindness of their ways.

     

    Psalm 137
    From the Psalter of the  Book of Common Prayer

    1 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
    2 As for our lyres, we hung them up
    on the willows that grow in that land.
    3 For there our captors asked for a song,
    our tormentors called for mirth:
    ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’
    4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
    in a strange land?
    5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget its skill.
    6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
    if I do not remember you,
    if I set not Jerusalem above my highest joy.
    7 Remember, O Lord, against the people of Edom
    the day of Jerusalem,
    how they said, ‘Down with it, down with it,
    even to the ground.’
    8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy the one who repays you
    for all you have done to us;
    9 Who takes your little ones,
    and dashes them against the rock.

  • Rembrandt – Belshazzar’s feast

    Rembrandt – Belshazzar’s feast

    In an age of atheism and apathy, the literature, art and music of religion still holds vast sway over the imagination of us all.

    I defy you to find me, even in this dumbed down age, a single individual with even the most basic of cultural awareness who will not have heard the phrase:

    “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”

    And here it is, writ large by none other than Rembrandt:

    How extraordinary that our very consciousness is so intricately threaded and woven through by these magnificent old fairy tales and the wonderful English of the King James version of the Bible.

    The writing is on the wall: you have been warned. Your behaviour in unacceptable, expect to pay for it. Things are about to change, and for the worse.

    Belshazzar’s dad Nebuchadnezzar had been naughty enough and now this deluded Chaldean king was up to the same tricks. Don’t mess with the god of the Israelites: he ought to have learnt his lesson.  The silly fellow had to go and blaspheme and quick as a shot his kingdom was handed over by the wrathful Yahweh to the  Medes and the Persians.

    ‘Shazzar had decided on a rave for his mates but made the cardinal error of using crockery ripped off from a raid on the Hebrew temple.

    Daniel (he who will later face the lions’ den) translates for good king ‘Shazzar:

    “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.  Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”

     

     

  • The Book of Common Prayer

    The Book of Common Prayer

    The Book of Common Prayer is a much loved work of literature. Its language and phrases have permeated the English language for centuries.  It is nothing less than sublime.

    Originally published in 1549 in a version edited by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, it was subsequently revised until the version of 1662 became the official version of the Church of England. It contains Miles Coverdale’s glorious translation of the Book of Psalms from the Great Bible of 1538.  Its intended use was to define and regulate daily worship in the Church of England and it is written in English, so as to be accessible to everyone and not just the clerics learned in Latin.

    It is now used by a small minority and has largely been replaced by alternative forms of prayer using simpler and more modern language.

    You do not have to be a Muslim to enjoy the beauty of Rumi‘s poetry or a Jew to enjoy Ecclesiastes. You do not have to be a Buddhist to bathe in the beauty of Zen or the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  You do not have to be a Christian to immerse yourself in the timeless reflections of the Book of Common Prayer.

    Sit in the choir stalls at Canterbury Cathedral and listen to evensong.  Wander through the English countryside and sit quietly in a Norman Church – open up to the beauty of mattins, read quietly to yourself, perhaps while listening to Byrd, de La Rue or Vittoria.

    It need not be about belief.  It is about reflection, quiet, meditation.  It is a re-affirmation of your weltanschauung.  It is to retreat (if only for a few moments) from the world of commerce and busyness and to contemplate for a while the vastness of the universe and its mysteries.  It is time well spent.