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On the eve of Pentecost, the 10th of June 2000AD, over 10,000 worshippers attended the London Arena to celebrate and affirm the traditional christian faith. Like secular, political and economic organisations, our church is no stranger to strife and has had to deal with many challenges, heresies and schisms over the last two thousand years. Some adherents will press for change and reckon that they alone can divine the spirit of the times, whilst others will hold to doctrines enduring over millennia and require overwhelming testimony and philosophical justification for any variation. Assuredly, the debates must be pursued with rigour and energetically, always reckoning that, as Hegel pointed out, when extreme positions are held, the opposite will tend to emerge and challenge it. In the resultant conflict of opposites a new synthesis will emerge. This was a gathering of those plebs sancta Dei (God's holy common people), with their clergy, who were beautified and hallowed by the celebration of a Mass of the universal christian church, in the manner - as the saying goes 'what had been believed always, everywhere and by all'. They came from all parts of the British Isles and from wherever else the Anglican Communion has touched. They came in confidence and with deep conviction of their steadfast catholic (in the sense of 'universal') belief, without criticism of those of other opinions but in a community of faith shared and mutually sustained. A small group of parishioners from the church of St George the Martyr, Waterlooville, with a rather larger group from other parishes in the Portsmouth area, led by their clergy, were driven in coaches to the London Arena. Considerable traffic problems were encountered and the passengers had to complete the last mile on foot in order to ensure that they were present at the start. Similar difficulties arose on leaving, thousands of people being stranded, albeit good-humouredly, in the hot sun waiting many hours to be transported back. The event was exquisitely organised and managed, with never a hitch (evidence of considerable planning over almost a year) and theatrical in format. The lighting was discreet and effective, the acoustics superb and the participants well identified with a couple of large viewing screens. People love displays and spectacle. They can marvel and become emotionally involved, perhaps in so doing by temporary suspension of the critical faculty. So among the deeply moving visual and aural witnesses were the following: - the image from Walsingham of the Blessed Virgin Mary was carried reverently into the arena a piety of priests, numbering many hundreds, took their places at an end section, after processing into the arena a beatitude of bishops, approximately 34 in number, entered in procession, made supplication at the altar and took their places at the side of the Archbishop's Throne the Principal Celebrant was the Archbishop of York. The Preacher was the Bishop of London. Music tends to uplift the spirit and to reinforce unity in a congregation. Led by a wonderful orchestra and singers, the Eucharist was sung. Among the well-loved, indeed venerated pieces were: Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum, Ita desiderat anima ad te, Deus. G.P.da Palestrina. (as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God). Ave Verum Corpus. W.A.Mozart K618. Let all mortal flesh keep silence. G.Holst. Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour... St Thomas Aquinas. Trans. James Woodford. ... and many others, including some contemporary liturgy and specially composed music of the mass. The Bishop of London provided a vigorous homily, profoundly affirming Christ our Future and to go forward, being united in faith. He referred to the fact that, without faith we are 'sleepwalking in the wasteland' and noted the tendency for 'makeovers' as the image and presentation being seen to be more important than substance. A further issue, immediately topical, is the confusion of ends and means. This is a reference to one of the celebrated Platonic triads - the balance of ends, ways and means. The Bishop inveigled against treating means as if they were ends in themselves. There were also moments of levity, as when a request was made for representatives of any coaches going to Southampton after the event. It was then revealed that a Bishop urgently needed a lift there, presumably to catch a boat! A reference was also made obliquely to the desire to give generously for the collection - as the buckets were frail (and by implication should not be weighed down with coin of the realm!) Two of the congregation were so enthusiastically videoing all the activities that the spectacles of one of them disintegrated, and one necessary lens went missing. The other was grubbing around the floor for fully ten minutes to find it. Memento cards, showing a modern form of an Eastern Orthodox Icon, were distributed after the event. Altogether, the acclaim of all those who attended was that the whole celebration of 'Christ our Future' was a wonderful occasion, not to be missed and for much study and contemplation afterwards. Rod Dawson |
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page last updated 1 JULY 2000 |
